Katrine & Steven’s Rustic Spring Wedding. By Jo Hastings.

An intimate gathering of loved ones from both England and Norway celebrated with our bride and groom for today’s wedding. Katrine and Steven opted for a traditional ceremony in a beautiful local church followed by a family knees up at the nearby country pub. Our friend Jo Hastings was on hand to take the photographs and capture a simply beautiful, relaxed wedding with all the joys of spring. My personal favourite bits include the very dapper groom and his accents of burgundy, the bride’s natural make-up and soft ‘up do’ and the stunning Charlie Brear gown and Helen Martin veil combination.

‘It was the perfect day as planned by both of us, it was informal and relaxed, a traditional ceremony in a beautiful church followed by drinks and food in a country pub nearby. The sun shone and the day was made extra special by the presence of our friends and family some whom had flown in from Norway to be part of the celebration’

Katrine and Steven were married on 12th of April at St. Patrick’s Church in Earlswood, Solihull. After the ceremony they had a short walk down the lane to the beautiful country pub ‘The Bull’s Head’ where they shared their reception with just 40 of their closest friends and family. “It’s where Steve’s family is from; it was also a great opportunity to get all my Norwegian family and friends to come over to visit. We started planning the wedding end of December. I work as a Creative Production Manager so I’m used to planning and organizing on a daily basis. We knew exactly what we wanted so three months was more than enough when pulling it all together.”

How they met
I moved from Norway to England to study photography 12 years ago, we both lived on the student campus and met on the first week. Steve asked me if I wanted to see his guitar and we’ve been together ever since!

The proposal
Steve popped the question when we were away on holiday in NYC last October during a lovely dinner in Soho, Manhattan

How did you choose your photographer?
We researched all photographers around Birmingham, we chose Jo Hastings because we both loved her photography style. We couldn’t have been happier with the pictures, she did an absolutely amazing job, we can highly recommend her!

The dress and accessories
My dress was the beautiful ‘1930.2 Tatham Lace’ dress by Charlie Brear, I wore the ‘Catherine lace’ veil by Helen Martin and ‘Mimi’ shoes by Rachel Simpson

The suit and bridesmaids
Steve wore a suit by Reiss and my Maid of Honor wore a plait/lace dress from ASOS

The theme
I always wanted a spring wedding, it’s something magical about that time of the year, I remember the first time my parents came to England to visit and they were absolutely amazed when seeing the daffodils growing wild as it was still a meter of snow back in Norway, for this reason we decided to have daffodils on our tables.
We wanted the wedding to have a rustic look and feel; The tables at the Bull’s Head were made of beautiful dark wood so we didn’t use any table cloths and they had lovely jar vases we used for our flowers.

The flowers
I wanted my flowers to resemble a bouquet of hand-picked and tied wild flowers, it included forget-me-nots, rosemary and lavender as well as some wild grasses

The food and wedding cake
We had the most amazing food at our wedding! We had a selection of meat, seafood and vegetarian sharing platters for starters all made from local produce. For main course our guests got to choose on the day between four dishes: lamb shank cooked in ale specifically brewed for us, sea bass with fennel salad, ham hock pie or gnocchi. They also had the choice between three desserts; Chocolate brownie, Rhubarb cheese cake and lemon polenta cake
I didn’t want a traditional wedding cake. When looking for a cake supplier I met this amazing lady Marie (Marie couture cakes) I ended up having a three-hour long tasting session and instead of ordering one cake I came away ordering three! We had a lemon cake, a victoria sponge with fresh fruit and a salted caramel cake

The entertainment
The style of wedding we wanted wasn’t a sort that needed entertainment, it was of an informal nature where family and friends could catch up over good food and good wine (and a few shots of tequila)

Buy or DIY your Stationery?
With help from family and friends we made all wedding stationary and decorations ourselves, this included invitations, order of service booklets and favour boxes all made from recycled brown manilla paper. In the favour boxes we had personalised scratch cards where our guests could win a drink in the bar, we made envelopes with seeded flower paper and a bag of sweets. Instead of having a guest book we had a message box, our guests wrote a message and took a picture with a Polaroid camera then added it to their message card. We will open the box on our first anniversary. Steve’s parents made a lovely personalised flower box with daffodils for the patio and my mum made beautiful bunting to decorate the cake table and ceiling, we also had our own beer tap label called The Viking and Bull in the bar.

Special moments
The whole day was incredible but seeing all our family and friends from both England and Norway together, some for the first time was definitely one of our highlights of the day

Advice to other couples
There will be a lot of people telling you what they think you should do for your wedding, my advice for other couples would be to not listen and just plan and do whatever you want, after all it’s your wedding not theirs. Advice for the day, don’t stress just enjoy yourself, it’s over before you know it, smile, smile, smile!

Supplier Shout Outs:

• Wedding Dress by Charlie Brear bought from ‘The White Closet‘
• Veil from Helen Martin
• Shoes from Rachel Simpson Shoes
• Photography by Jo Hastings 
• Flowers from Vi Stevens
• Cakes from Marie’s Couture Cakes 
• Reception at the Bull’s Head 

For more information on Jo’s work please go to:

www.johastingsphotography.co.uk
FACEBOOK
@johastingsphoto