Alix and Tom's Pretty Pastel Garden Party Wedding in Dorset by Christine Wehrmeier

Yay it’s Friday! How are you all? I hope you have had a good week so far and you have lots of lovely things planned for the weekend. I am in the office today and then this evening we are having some friends round for a BBQ! Typically we have chosen to have it the day it decides to rain but hay ho, the weather has been so good recently we can’t complain. Today I have the lovely wedding of Alix and Tom to share with you courtesy of Christine Wehrmeier who is becoming quite the regular on the blog. Alix and Tom held their wedding in Alix’s home county of Dorset and went for a garden party feel, keeping it all very relaxed with pretty pastel colours and lots of seasonal flowers and an abundance of food and drink. The whole day is super chilled and full of fun.

Everything we wanted it to be! Friends, family, great food & drinks – sunshine!

Alix and Tom were married on 2^nd September 2017, the ceremony was held at St Mary’s Church, Iwerne Minster and the reception at Spring Head, Fontmell Magna, Dorset. It’s where I (Alix) am from, my parents have lived in the village since I was born. We had 140 guests and it took 9 months to plan.

How they met
We met at university, and have been together for 10 years.

The proposal
It was totally unexpected on my part. Tom & I were away on holiday in Bali with some friends, and he proposed on the beach. All of our friends were ‘hiding’ nearby & were able to capture our reactions at the exact moment he proposed – so special.

How did you allocate your budget?
We knew that we wanted to invite quite a lot of people, so needed to manage our budget carefully. We were really lucky to be able to work with some of the lovely suppliers I use as part of my job, who were able to bring everything we wanted to do to life, with consideration for our budget.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We splurged on the food & drinks – we wanted everything to be plentiful throughout the whole day. We saved on my dress actually – not completely on purpose, I just fell in love with something and it didn’t have a huge price tag.

How did you choose your photographer?
Christine Wehrmeier was my first choice & was truly fantastic – she captured everything that we wanted, and more that we hadn’t even thought of.

The dress
My dress came from Net – a – Porter & it was one of the first ones I saw. I also had an evening outfit, which had a gold cape & a crown.

The suit and bridesmaids
One of my closest friends made the bridesmaids dresses – she’s made things for me in the past, and is just brilliant at translating what different people want. I had four bridesmaids & they all had something totally different – we were still making adjustments the night before, but it was worth it to see them loving their dresses on the day.
Tom’s suit came from Moss Bross – he wanted something light & summery, so navy was the perfect choice.

Theme or colour scheme
It had a garden party feel to it, but we weren’t too worried about this being a theme for everything that we did.

Flowers
We had seasonal British flowers in pastel colours.

Food
We had lots of canapes with drinks when everyone arrived at the reception – we even had an oyster shucker too, which was brilliant & a great piece of theatre that the guests really got into.
We then sat down, all on long tables, to some starters to share – dips, gorgeous breads & crudites too. For the main course, big bowls of salads in the middle of the tables + then different cuts of steak from the BBQ outside.

Wedding cake
Stunning & made by a friend at Waltzing Matilda Cakes.

Entertainment
A wonderful band called The Supertones who got EVERYONE onto the dancefloor – so much fun!

Who supplied the stationery?
All created using hand – drawn illustrations from Millustrated

Personal touches
We did quite a bit of the decoration ourselves, to make sure that we did have lots of those personal touches – we obviously also had full input into the food & drinks for the day too.

Special moments
It’s really hard to pick one – but I think walking into the church with my Dad to see all of our family & friends – and Tom of course, was one of the most special.

Advice for other couples
It’s easier for me to say this as I work in events, but I think it’s really important to remember that you can keep things simple on your wedding day – the detail is important, but mostly your friends & family are there to enjoy the day with you, not to judge on the kind of favours you have.

Biggest surprise
The steel band that was there to greet all of our guests at the reception!