Jennifer and Tom’s Cocktail Filled DIY Somerset Wedding By Raw Silk Photography

Hello you lovely lot and welcome along to Friday! Yay for the beginning of the weekend! We have shared some smashing weddings with you this week and we are ending with a real summer beauty! A beautiful Somerset wedding that took place at Widcombe Grange, a beautiful venue that allowed Jennifer and Tom to have the wedding weekend that they wanted. With lots of DIY projects to keep costs down, this wedding is brimming with amazing details. From the delicious cocktails, to the beautiful stationery, the cigar bar to cake table and not forgetting the confetti cannon. Thanks to Stefan from Raw Silk Photography for the images. Have a good Friday everyone.

‘Everyone says this, but it really is the best day of your lives! Everyone you love in one place is so lovely and a little overwhelming – soak it in’

Jennifer and Tom were married on 15th August 2015 at Widcombe Grange, Somerset. ‘We actually booked the trend with this and went with the right venue rather than the perfect location. We wanted somewhere we could stay for the weekend, had lots of different areas and features as well as being able to party on until we wanted to! So many weddings feel like a multiple choice process and we wanted to make it our own.
We searched for ages for a venue we loved and always came back to the same one but it wasn’t close to where we lived or where we are both from. Eventually someone told me that it doesn’t matter where you are, your friends and family will go wherever you decide – and this was the best advice we got as everything was much easier once we let that go! We had a total of 100 guests– big enough for a party, small enough that you can talk to everyone! We actually got engaged when we lived in Australia and moved home a few months after. It wasn’t until we settled in that we really got going!’

How they met
We met working in Revolution Bar in Fallowfield when we were both at University – in fact, that’s where we met all of our close friends as well. We bonded over vodka.
We had been together 6 years when we got married.

The Proposal
We were living in Australia but knew we would be moving home soon. To make the most of it, we had taken to going to the beach after work and having a few beers to talk about our day. On one particularly lovely and very informal evening – he popped the question! It was wonderful.

How did you choose your photographer
Stefan was actually recommended by a friend and as soon as we saw his website, we knew we were on the right track. We met up beforehand and he made us feel totally at ease and confident we would get what we wanted. It was a no brainer.
On the day he was fantastic – even coping with managing a group of people not very focused on getting photographs done!

How did you allocate your budget
We used downloadable budget planners that you can find easily online – but you have to remember to put all of your extras in! These are great as they remind you of all the admin spends you might forget like the wedding certificate, stamps etc.
Allocating budget was one of the hardest parts of planning a wedding. Prioritising your budget and not getting sucked in to too many extras! Pick what’s most important for you and minimise the rest.

Where did you splurge and where did you save
We spent most of our money on making sure it would be a really fun party for all of our guests. Getting the venue right, the band, booze and food!
We saved money by trying to add as many personal touches as we could. Our friends and family made cakes for dessert (which we were amazing!), we made signs and props ourselves, went to wholesale florist warehouses to by decorations and had a lot of help from our friends on the day. Which all made it much more special.

The Dress
Rime Arodaky – a French designer. I knew I wanted something a bit different to regular wedding dresses and it is hard to sift through and find something unique. I probably ended up picking one of her more traditional pieces – but her dresses are beautiful and really different. I highly recommend looking her up, but she only sells through The Mews Bridal in the UK.

The Suit and Bridesmaids
The boys went for Blue suits and bowties as we wanted them a little less formal. Moss Bross now do Ted Baker for wedding hire and so we went for them.
The bridesmaids took aaaages to find. As I had 6 bridesmaids who are different shapes and heights as well as one pregnant lady – we needed to find something that would work for everyone. I was keen for them to be ivory and short – so we tried on lots and lots and eventually landed on these from Coast. I loved them and think they worked really well!

Theme or Colour Scheme
We just knew we wanted lots of colour and the stationary was what ended up dictating most of the colours we used. The florist did an amazing job matching it all up.

Flowers
We wanted lots of beautiful wildflowers and I was quite clear on what I wanted for our bouquets (Pinterest was pivotal in this!). I really wanted Peonies in the bouquet and unfortunately August is not a great month for the, but luckily my florist dug a couple out for my bouquet so I was made up.

Decoration
LOTS! I wanted to make sure we had lots of lovely touches but they were also really personal. We made some, bought some on ebay, found some from the florist wholesale and borrowed some from the venue. Lots of hessian, candles, jars and flowers!
We were also extremely lucky to have an amazing friend who made a giant J&T for us. We couldn’t find them to hire for the day and so he built them himself which was incredible and much more meaningful than just hiring them. They made the marquee look brilliant and we have kept them for our house.

Food
Tiger prawn, mango and mange tout salad with a fresh chilli and lime dressing. Slow cooked duck legs with thyme and lyonnaise potatoes. Veggies: Poached pear with a local goats cheese and watercress salad with walnuts, Potato & cheese polpettes.
Dessert was from the beautiful dessert table made by very talented friends and family.

Wedding Cake
We didn’t strictly have a wedding cake but one of the cakes from our cake table was made by my Stepfather and it was a three tiered masterpiece! We were all very impressed and it looks amazing.

Entertainment
We created playlists ourselves on Spotify and had them playing at various points in the day but also hired an AMAZING band called Fraudio. They were incredible and kept the dancefloor filled all night. They were also very welcoming to the regular friends who crept up on stage to steal some limelight!

The Stationery
Swoon at the Moon did the stationary and they are a lovely couple who run a fab website and were really helpful all the way along. I found the print on pinterest and fell in love with it.

Personal or Handmade Touches
The whole thing felt really personal in the end and that was really important to us. We put up pictures of our time together, had Revolution Vodka flavours as our table names and had a bottle of that flavour on each table (which was mostly drunk in the first 5 minutes!), espresso martinis (our fave), decoration and cakes from friends and family, the signs we made ourselves and the whiskey and cigar bar!
All the boys were the ones setting up on the day whilst the girls got ready and I know it was a lot of hard work. Tom wanted it to be perfect and I was blown away when I saw it all put together

Special Moments
Asides from the overwhelming support and help from our friends and family, I think the best moment was our first dance. We chose Wonderwall by Oasis which not only is the sound of growing up for both of us but Oasis is a big fave for all of our friends. We were really nervous about dancing in front of everyone but everyone sang along from the beginning and it was unreal. Amazingly special – finished off with the confetti canon at the end. Perfect.

Advice to other couples
Make it as personal as you can and don’t get too bogged down in the detail. It is easy to spend hours pouring over magazines and Pinterest and get distracted. Definitely use them for inspiration but put them away once you have an idea of what you want.
Make sure there is lots of your favourite drinks and hire a confetti canon – that topped everything off and the guests loved it!

Biggest surprise
My maid of honor is my best friend and she was going to get up and do a speech with the best men (we had 3). As a surprise all the bridesmaids got up and sang a song that she had adapted to fit us. It was a massive surprise and super special. I will never forget that!

Supplier Shout Outs

• Venue – www.thebighouseco.com/our-big-houses/widcombe-grange
• Photographer – www.rawsilkphotography.com
• Band – www.fraudioband.co.uk
• Florist – www.earthgalleryflowers.com
• Stationary – www.swoonatthemoon.co.uk
• Wedding Dress – www.themewsnottinghill.co.uk

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

www.rawsilkphotography.com / FACEBOOK / [email protected] / 07949 757457

My name is Stefan Lacandler, the founder and one man band that is RawSilk Photography. I grew up in rural Sweden but now live in East London with my wife Camilla and my two girls, Betty and Agnes.
I shoot almost exclusively with natural light and I do all my own editing and retouching. I don’t airbrush or play around with filters or other gimmicks. I want my pictures to be a reflection of how it actually looked and how the couple remember it. There will always be trends and fads in photography but I continue to approach my work with integrity and creativity and think my clients value this candid approach.