Georgina and Simon’s Woodland Themed Wedding By Kevin Belson Photography

Happy Wednesday everyone and how are you all? What a day yesterday was! The blog launched successfully and I received so much fantastic and really positive feedback from so many lovely people. I really do appreciate your kind words. So today we are pushing on with another fab wedding that has been beautiful photographed by Kevin Belson Photography. Not only some super pretty detailed shots but a wedding day full of emotion that has been carefully captured and documented. A woodland themed wedding in a gorgeous barn, that sees the outside being brought in. Great decoration, great styling and a wedding dress made by the bride herself.

‘Our Beautiful Woodland Wedding’

Georgina and Simon were married on 23d May 2015.  Their ceremony was held St Mary’s Catholic Church in Cricklade and the reception was held at Wick Bottom Barn Rockley.  ‘The church is our local Catholic Church and a lovely old Catholic church which is rare. We knew we wanted a barn and we saw photos of Wick Bottom Barn online and fell in love with its rustic character instantly. I searched for 3 days for contact details of the barn but couldn’t find any. In a desperate last attempt I phoned a farm next to the barn and luckily they took all the bookings for the barn. They just didn’t advertise it, it was spread by word of mouth’

How they met
We met in 2008 in a local bar. Simon spotted me out with some friends dancing. Many drinks later me and my friends were swinging each other round the dance floor to ‘Cotton Eyed Joe’ and I fell over in my heels and Simon picked me up from the floor. We chatted and danced for the rest of the night. The next day we both realised that we didn’t have a number, address or even last name of each other but we had vaguely said we were both going to the same gym the next day. I was feeling pretty rough but dragged myself down to the gym. Simon had been there for a few hours waiting to see if I showed up. We swapped number this time though!

The Proposal
Long story short I knew Simon was going to propose soon and I knew when he had brought the ring. He was so determined everything had to be perfect for a romantic proposal that he had asked lots of obvious questions to find out what I wanted both in a proposal and ring style. Every romantic weekend away suggestion or day trip was met with my expectant look of glee and he knew that he was expecting it. One evening after I had come back from a girly camping weekend he took me to Uffington Hill at sunset with a picnic and champagne. It was a regular summer walking spot for us and I thought this is it! The sun set, we drank champagne and …. Nothing. I was not impressed. We discussed it later and Simon could feel that I was expecting it and thought it wouldn’t be a surprise. I jokingly replied that I knew too much now so the only way to surprise would be when if just woke up! So he proposed one evening at home, I was napping on the sofa after a busy day at work in my pyjamas, with my hair in a mess from being asleep. I woke up to Simon on one knee with the ring and a bottle of champagne. It wasn’t fancy or extravagant but it’s a memory that will stay with me forever.

How did you allocate your budget
We spent on the venue as we loved it, the photographer as these will last a lifetime and really capture moments of the day and the band for setting the evening atmosphere.

How did you choose your photographer
We saw Kevin’s previous work online and loved the dramatic and yet soft look to his photos. He also captured great non posed shots which we loved.

The Dress
I made my wedding dress myself. After searching in four bridal shops for a dress that only exhausted made up in my head I decided to make it a reality. It was a lot of work, but I loved the final dress and it’s completely unique. I also made my veil, hair accessories for me and the bridesmaids, I brought my shoes from a bridal shop online and embellished them with the same lace as my dress.

The Suit and Bridesmaids
Simon wanted to wear tweed to tie in with the country rustic feel. They were by Racing Green for him and the best Man and Ben Sherman for the grooms.
The bridesmaids wore olive green multiway wear dresses by the Daintyard. The green tied in the colour and theme of woodland and looked fab with the country back drop

Theme or Colour Scheme
Woodland, because of our love for the outdoors.

Flowers
Our flowers were by Little Gems Flowers, I had seen an arrangement in a magazine which I loved. Colourful rich tons of purple, blue and pink to add colour but with ivy and ferns to tie in with the woodland theme. Gemma did an amazing job and they were much better than the original photo.

Decoration
We would have loved to have got married in the woods as we love the outdoors but with the English weather this was a bit risky. So we wanted rustic characterful barn and then filled it with woodland features such as our wedding cake, seating plan, invitations, table names and wood items.

Food
We used Cotswolds Cooks who are a local company who we knew through George’s work. We had canapés, porchetta with rustic salads, chocolate torte and cheese and pate for evening food. They were fab and everyone loved the food.

Wedding Cake
Our cake was one our favourite things from the day. It was such a stand out piece and although we expected it to be amazing it truly blew us away on the day
We chose a lady called Maz who goes by the name of Sugarmeicing, she is based in Westbury and was lovely to deal with and very easy-going.

Entertainment
‘Get Carter’ a local Swindon band which we have seen many times, they were playing at our engagement party gathering of friends down our local pub. Simon had organised it as a surprise for me with all our close friends. We knew then that we wanted them to play at our wedding.

Stationery
We did it ourselves!

Personal or Handmade Touches
We made : Invitations and order of service, Seating plan, Wedding dress, Veil, Hair accessories, Place names, Finger print guest book (Simons dad made this), Decorated 50 jam jars with lace and hessian, Sewed 80 hessian cutlery pockets, Made the moss G and S on the barn doors from paper mâché and moss, Simon and his dad made the log cases for the table centre piece flowers, Hanging flower ring arrangement/fireplace flowers, Lighting and Ribbons on both the White wedding cars.
We hired an antique bike from unique wedding hire as we both love cycling and decorated it with ivy and used the basket for cards and gifts on the day.
My boss’s wife made our personalised chocolates as favours for us Ibby’s Chocolate Kitchen.
We also had a sign a heart drop too guest book which we brought online.

Special Moments
There were so many amazing highlights it’s hard to pick them but we chose these: Getting ready with my bridesmaids, lots of giggles and I loved the wedding day survival box they made me. The relaxed atmosphere. The band being such a great hit, we love them but it was great to see everyone else getting involved

Advice to other couples
Plan as much in advance as you can, there are so many little things that pop up closer to the day that you don’t even think about that need organising.
Pick areas which are important to you and spend/splurge some of your budget there.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Catering – www.cotswoldcooks.co.uk
• Cake – www.sugarmeicing.co.uk
• Chair, table, cutlery and glass hire – www.fizzhire.co.uk
• Bar – www.riffsbar.com
• Lighting – www.hdlighting.co.uk
• Flowers Swindon – www.littlegemsflowers.co.uk
• Kevin Belson Photography – www.kevinbelson.com

For more information on Kevin Belson Photography go to:

www.kevinbelson.com / [email protected] /  FACEBOOK/ T: @kevinbelson / PINTEREST

Kevin Belson Photography is a fine art/photojournalist team based in Wiltshire, shooting weddings across the UK and abroad. We go with the flow of the day and direct where necessary to create natural and inspirational images.