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9
Jun
2015
Happy Tuesday everyone! I have a gorgeous spring wedding for you today, courtesy of Amy Taylor Imaging Photography. It’s a totally DIY wedding that takes place in the couples local village hall close to where they walk their dog, which makes it super personal and special to them. It is filled with lots of handcrafted details bringing together a woodland theme that is so pretty. With felt hanging decorations, plenty of spring daffodils, slabs of wood, fairy lights and paper lanterns, this wedding is not only relaxed and informal but totally gorgeous.
Rebecca and Will were married on 11th April 2015 at St Mary’s Church, Abberley, Worcestershire with the reception at Rock Village Hall, Rock in Worcestershire. ‘It is our very picturesque local church in a beautiful setting next to the village green where we walk our dog. We had 60 adults and 19 children as guests in the day and extra people to our evening reception. The wedding took 10 months to plan.
How they met
We met at the village Christmas party and we have been together for 8 years
The Proposal
Will took me to a lovely hotel near Bath for my birthday, which is Valentines day. He proposed when we were getting ready to go out for dinner
How did you allocate your budget
As we have been to so many weddings ourselves we spent a lot of time thinking about what it had been like from a guest’s point of view. We wanted a family inclusive day and to make it as convenient and un-costly for our family and friends as possible. As we were able to spend less money on venue hire, our main costs were for the catering and to supply everyone with free drink! We did the hall decoration ourselves and made a lot of the decorations and finishing touches
How did you choose your photographer
Amy had taken some portraits of my Sister’s family and we loved the creative and relaxed style. We did not want a photographer with a very formal style. We went to meet Amy and loved her work so it was a no-brainer for us! It was nice that she took the time to get to know us before the wedding day and we think her photographs have managed to capture everyone’s personalities really well
The Dress
My dress was by Lou Lou from Georgina Scott Bridal in Stourbridge, West Midlands. I loved the 1950s style. My lace jacket was by Nicki Flynn off another wedding dress in the shop. I begged them to let me buy the shop sample to go with my dress – they kindly obliged! My shoes were by Rainbow and I chose them because they were so comfy and not too high! I had my silver leaf bracelet handmade by jillyflowerjewellery to go with our woodland theme. My necklace was borrowed from my Mum and my earrings were my first Christmas present from Will! Annabell at Duce and Romao Hairdressing, Bewdley did my hair, exactly the way I wanted it
The Suit and Bridesmaids
Will bought his Armani suit from House of Fraser. He didn’t want a traditional morning suit, just a well fitting suit with a nice waistcoat! I had eight bridesmaids all wearing different dresses because I wanted them to feel comfortable. My sister’s dress was also from Lou Lou and was a similar style to my 1950s style dress. My best friend Hollie’s dress was from Monsoon and they both wore t bar shoes from Clarks which we thought gave a quirky edge! My four eldest nieces’ dresses were from Monsoon and had beautiful detailing of flowers and birds on them. My two youngest nieces’ dresses were from BHS Flower Girl. They all wore different shoes
Theme or Colour Scheme
Our theme was spring/woodland
Flowers
Our florist (Sally from Cooks Florists in Stourport-on-Severn) was amazing – all I told her was that we wanted spring flowers and she got it exactly right! She did us spring bouquets with bright colours – daffodils/hyacinths/irises/pussy willow, all hand tied. The bride and bridesmaids had spring flowers in their hair. The groomsmen all had spring button holes. They looked beautiful! We had daffodils all round the church which smelt fantastic and added a splash of colour at a very reasonable cost and we then took these to the reception venue. We provided our own foliage to the florist who made us a garland for the village hall entrance.
Decoration
We decorated the hall ourselves and wanted a spring woodland theme. We ordered paper lanterns from the internet and put these up which looked really effective with lights in. All the details of the personal touches are set out below
Food
Our food was delicious from the Hop Pole Inn, Bewdley. We had a hot buffet with Chef’s salad to start, main dishes of Beef Bourguignon, Chicken in White Wine Sauce, and vegetable layered lasagne. Deserts were to die for – sticky toffee pudding (the best we’ve ever tasted), and vanilla panacotta. We had macaroons and tea and coffee afterwards. For the Evening reception we had a pig roast again served by the Hop Pole Inn and individual crème brulees on shortbread for desert. Will’s Mum provided the wedding drinks which we selected from Majestic Wines after lots of tasting!
Wedding Cake
Will’s Mum, Hilary made the wedding cake. It was delicious and enormous! We decorated it with spring flowers from the florist.
Entertainment
We had a live band – “A Dog Named Steve” Everyone really enjoyed them!
Buy or DIY your Stationery
A bit of both. We did our Save the Dates ourselves using stamps from Noolibird, we bought the woodland themed invites from Hollyhocklane.co.uk. We did the table names and planner ourselves. My brother Tom is a graphic designer and kindly did our lovely Orders of Service!
Personal or Handmade Touches
We planted enamel buckets with spring flowers for the table centre pieces and my Mum and I sewed felt birds to go in them. Will cut logs to put the centre pieces on and we also put these outside on the balcony. We also sprayed silver birch braches and I sewed lots of felt leaves, toadstalls and rabbits to hang from these with fairy lights. We couldn’t have real candles because the village hall is made from lots of wood, so we ordered battery operated ones and painted jam jars tied with ribbon to put them in.
Mum ordered felted acorns from Etsy for the name placings and we made the table name plates ourselves using woodland stamps. The tables were all named after our favourite woodland walks. Mum made the table planner and used a woodland felt garland from Etsy to hang this off. She also put together woodland gift bags for the children which they really loved. We borrowed vintage tea sets kindly lent to us by my bridesmaid Hollies’ Aunty Linda (thanks Linda!) to serve the tea and coffee in. This went really well with the wedding cake and macaroons.
Special Moments
My Dad driving me to the Church in our beloved camper van (although we were quite late because we got stuck behind two tractors on the way). Definitely the wedding ceremony, the fantastic wedding breakfast and having all our wonderful family and friends there to celebrate with us! Also our lovely nieces made us a beautiful wedding plate which was a great surprise.
Advice to other couples
Keep it real and don’t get too carried away with the spending. You’ll be amazed at what you can do yourselves and it’s quite good fun too!
Biggest surprise
How much everyone said they enjoyed the day after all the hard planning. We just had the best day ever and it didn’t rain!
Sources for decorations:
www.amytaylorimagingphotography.com
www.amytaylorimagingphotography.com/blog
FACEBOOK
T: @amytiphoto
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Loving the green accents round the cake :)