Our wedding day: spilling the details

Last week, I walked through the timeline of our wedding; today I’ll be going into the finer details of each aspect of the big day, and how we found every one of our suppliers that contributed to bring together the entire event.

Dress

For all brides, finding the wedding dress is probably one of the most pressured aspects of getting married. Almost all bridal shops recommend looking for your dress 8-9 months in advance of the wedding date (the entire process requires several fittings during the lead up to the big day), so in November of last year, I began the search for my dress, accompanied by my mother and sister.

My sister was super helpful in this regard: she asked around amongst her friends and colleagues for recommendations, and also did a fair amount of research to locate bridal shops in London that stocked a multitude of designers which she thought I would like. There are so many options that you can go for in terms of wedding dress design, but I’d always said from the start that I would prefer something minimal, sleek, and elegant. Being a very decisive person, I knew from the start that I wouldn’t want anything fussy, frilly or flouncy…

I’d recommend booking 2-3 appointments in close succession at various bridal shops - they all follow the same protocol, which is that you take a look through the dresses and choose around 5-6 which you like the look of. Most appointments cost a fee of around £30-50, and feel very private as you usually have your own dressing room area where your friends/family accompanying you can sit.

I visited three different shops: Pronovias (a Spanish bridal brand that stocks its own designs), Angelica Bridal, and The Mews Bridal (both of which stock a variety of designers). After visiting Pronovias and Angelica Bridal, I had already found a couple of dresses that I liked and probably would have been happy to get married in…but didn’t make me feel over the moon with excitement. And hey, you only get married once, right? I’d been told that when I tried on the right dress, I would just know, and I didn’t have that feeling just yet.

After visiting The Mews Bridal, I was feeling a bit forlorn, as I still hadn’t found the one: also, trying on multiple dresses in a row gets a bit tiring after a while. However, I had booked a second appointment at Angelica Bridal a couple of weeks later, as one of the designers I had liked when I was at my first appointment was due to bring over some designs from her new collection.

My mother was actually in New York on this weekend, so I went with my sister. In the end, I found a dress that was by a completely different designer, and had been on display in the shop all along: I had just completely missed it the first time round! As soon as I put on the dress, I knew that it was the one. The design was by South African designer Elbeth Gillis and had the minimal and snug-fitting skirt that I was looking for, but was still comfortable to move around in. I surprised myself by falling in love with the delicate lace bodice (I’d said beforehand that I didn’t want any lace on my wedding dress), and the silhouette was elegant and sleek. The dress was backless, with delicate buttons running down its back; I’ve never fallen in love with an item of clothing as much as I have with my wedding dress, and I’m still sad that I will never really have another occasion to wear it. For this reason, I decided not to have a change of outfit during the wedding, given that I’d be wearing the dress for such a limited time anyway; luckily, the dress had a button where I could loop up the train whilst dancing.

The rest of the outfit

The rest of my wedding outfit really came together in the last few weeks leading up to the wedding. I searched high and low for a pair of wedding shoes, but couldn’t find anything either high-street or designer that was both easy to wear for an extended time, and also stylish. In the end I opted for my trusty Castaner wedges, which are super comfortable to walk in, and were an elegant addition to the dress. I’d worn them a couple of times before, but this wasn’t really noticeable.

I also wanted a small handbag that I could carry around with me to keep my phone and makeup for quick retouches. I’d fallen in love with the popular Shrimps Antonia bag, and was planning on buying it for the wedding, but soon spotted this alternative on Matches Fashion: the rounded shape is less common than the Antonia, and the bag also features a handy drawstring pouch that would keep my belongings safe.

For jewellery, I wore earrings from my grandma, and a bracelet from my aunt. All in all, once I had these accessories, I managed to get my ‘something borrowed, something blue, something old, something new...’

Makeup

Our evening venue had a very helpful wedding directory that recommended a number of makeup artists in the Cotswolds area. I found Christine Cara after she was recommended by one of the makeup artists I had reached out to through this directory, who wasn’t available herself.

Christine came round to my apartment several months’ prior to the wedding date for a makeup trial. I barely had to give her any direction before she was able to work her magic on me: I wanted an elevated version of my everyday look, featuring glowing skin with a natural lip, and an emphasis on my eyes. We went for a subtle smokey eye, and to achieve glowing skin, I had a Sarah Chapman Skinesis facial a couple of days before the wedding, as well as a skin consultation by Lion/ne (and consequent updated skincare regime) to help me get there - see my blog post here to read more about them both.

Hair

I knew that I always wanted my hair loose and wavy to suit the ‘woodland fairytale’ look that I was going for, rather than looking too ‘done’. For this reason, I was on the fence as to whether I wanted a hair stylist at all: the majority of recommendations I was given were either very expensive, or boasted a portfolio of very styled, overly-curled bridal hair. In the end my mum stumbled across Matthew Curtis Hair in Chipping Norton, and after speaking to Hannah, one of the stylists there, booked me in for a hair trial only a couple of months before the wedding.

We tried a variety of different styles, but soon realised that I really didn’t want much done to my hair at all: on the day, Hannah emphasised the waves in my hair and helped me fix my flower crown to my head, which was provided by the florist. I chose a very simple Alice band of fresh gypsophila flowers to frame my face.

Bridesmaids

I hadn’t been to loads of weddings before my own, but I knew that I didn’t want my bridesmaids all wearing the same outfit, and I definitely didn’t want them wearing any bright colours (a running theme throughout the aesthetic of the wedding was that Oliver and I preferred muted tones). I asked around a lot on Instagram for dress recommendations, and after weighing up high-street retailers, and retailers that specialised in bridesmaid dresses, I found Maids To Measure: a brand that designs a selection of whimsical and elegant bridesmaid dresses in a range of muted colours. I wanted my six bridesmaids to all wear dove grey, but asked them to each choose whichever style they liked, as I wanted them all to feel confident and comfortable in their dresses.

One of my bridesmaids’ mother is actually a dress designer herself, and she kindly offered to do all of the alterations - in terms of shoes, hair, and makeup, I left everyone to their own devices.

The Groom and Ushers

Oliver’s suit was made by Beggars Run, an east London tailor that offers made-to-measure suits, which he’d been recommended by multiple sources. The time it took for his suit to get made was significantly less than for my wedding dress; however, he still managed to nearly give me a heart attack by leaving it until three months before the wedding…whilst his ushers wore suits rented from Moss Bros.

Photographer

Oliver and I were both extremely particular when it came to the overall aesthetic of the wedding; probably no surprise as I spend half of my life on Instagram, and Oliver is a digital designer. In order to capture memories of the day that we would be happy to look at for the rest of our lives, we knew we’d need a photographer who shared that same vision, and who had a clean and minimal aesthetic. Before we’d even gotten engaged, we always knew that we’d want Jessica Williams to photograph the wedding; besides being a fantastic photographer, she also happens to be Oliver’s friend from university, and to have photographed some really beautiful weddings.

On the day, Jess was a calming presence who had the vision to expertly direct the shots she wanted; she was also able to chat to, and put guests (and us) at ease, and ended up capturing some really special moments.

We decided not to have a videographer, as neither of us felt particularly strongly about having one, and we also didn’t want anyone to get in Jess’ way on the day.

Drinks and Canapé Catering

For the drinks and canapé reception immediately following the wedding ceremony, we had a local caterer called Mrs Bumbles, who my mother-in-law found. We had two meetings in the lead up to the wedding, including one tasting, and settled on 8 different savoury canapés, allowing for each guest to have around 10 canapés each, including smoked salmon blinis, Parmesan lollipops, gruyere cheese puffs, and horseradish beef crostini - they were truly delicious. Mrs Bumbles also sourced and provided all of the drinks at this reception.

We also had lemon and raspberry mini cupcakes as dessert canapés, provided by the Vanilla Pod Bakery, who baked our wedding cake.

Venue

As mentioned in my previous blog post, our evening venue was the stunning Cripps Barn, which we knew we wanted to get married in as soon as we visited. The venue is a beautiful barn conversion that fit our wedding aesthetic brilliantly, thanks to its rustic wooden beams, dark foliage, and surrounding woodland.

Cripps Barn functions solely as a wedding venue, so we knew that we were in capable hands: from the outset, we encountered nothing but professional, efficient, and helpful service from the staff here. We were in constant email conversation in the months leading up to the wedding, and also factored in a planning meeting about six months ahead of the wedding date. We also attended one of the barn’s ‘feast nights’, where we could sample the food, which was hearty and delicious.

A couple of weeks ahead of the big day, we were assigned Lucy as our front-of-house manager for the wedding date, and a few days before the big day, I had an in-depth phone conversation with her, where we ran through the schedule of the day, and all of the finer details.

The venue was beautifully set up, and all of the guests commented on how atmospheric and magical it looked; the only blip that occurred on the night was that the sound system abruptly crashed twice whilst everyone was on the dance floor.

Cake

Our cake maker, Pia from the Vanilla Pod Bakery, was a recommendation from Cripps Barn; we chose Pia as she specialises in stunning naked and semi-naked wedding cakes, and we knew that this would fit in very well with our wedding theme. We met for a tasting about six months ahead of the wedding, where we were able to sample four different cake flavours, and walk through our thoughts.

We settled for a three-tier wedding cake (with an extra ‘kitchen cake’), of alternating tiers of Victoria Sponge and salted caramel - both crowd-pleasers, and melt-in-the-mouth delicious. The cake was decorated with an abundance of fresh berries and flowers.

Florist

Our florist was Beth from Go Wild Flowers, recommended by Cripps Barn as the only florist allowed to decorate the chandelier ring that hangs above the barn’s dance floor. With a portfolio featuring multiple floral arrangements of the ‘undone’, wilder variety, we knew that Beth’s style would fit our aesthetic perfectly. In line with the muted colour palette throughout our wedding day, we opted for a strictly white floral theme, with lots of dark green foliage.

We had two large pedestal arrangements in the church for the wedding ceremony, and jam jars of simple white flowers to sit on the poser tables during the drinks and canapé reception. For the evening, the barn thankfully already had lots of dark green foliage that gave the space a lot of character: we also had a large floral display for the chandelier ring, lots of mismatched glass jars with flowers on each table, and a simple sprig laid on each guest’s table place.

In line with our minimal theme, I had a relatively small bouquet, and the bridesmaids and ushers each had gypsophila bouquets and buttonholes.

Signage

All of the signage throughout the wedding was designed by Oliver, including menus, place cards, seating plan, and orders of service. He did almost give me a heart attack by leaving it all very last minute, but the end result was deeply personal, and had exactly the contemporary aesthetic that we wanted.

Music

All of the songs chosen during the wedding ceremony were extremely personal to Oliver and me, so we naturally wanted close friends to lead the worship for this part of the day. Many of Oliver’s friends are musicians, and they kindly played the music for us.

During the drinks reception and evening meal, we simply had a Spotify playlist in the background; later in the evening, we had a DJ lead the music on the dance floor. Finding someone to DJ who came highly recommended proved a challenge at first, but I finally found Bertie (stage name: Khonsu the Child) as he plays at most of the events hosted by my work; I gave him a playlist of classics to work from, and he curated a playlist from there, with his sole instruction being that I didn’t want guests leaving the dance floor at any point during the evening!

Final words

My parting advice for any brides-to-be, is to start your preparations early to reduce any stress on the big day itself. Being a huge planner, I started everything months in advance; the part of the entire process that was the most stressful was making sure that Oliver got the responsibilities assigned to him done on time!

Lastly, planning a wedding can (and should!) be fun. From multiple tastings, to finding your perfect wedding dress, you’ll never get another opportunity to have full creative control over a special day simply dedicated to celebrating you and your other half. You’ll only get to enjoy it all once (and it will pass by so quickly!), that on the day itself, there is no point getting caught up in things that may go awry, but to just relax and enjoy being present in every respect.