Kristina and Adam's Rustic Wild Flower Wedding in Essex by Sally Rawlins

Yay for Friday! I hope you have all had a good week? If you have children, how are your summer holidays going? are you surviving? It’s my day off with Dexter today, we are meeting up with some friends and trying to hide form the terrible weather! Tomorrow we are off to the cinema, and Sunday I am hoping the rain will hold off as we all go off for a day out in York. What about you? If you are getting married be sure to send me some pictures, I am loving seeing some of your gorgeous weddings in the Boho Brides and Grooms Facebook group. On with today’s wedding and we are off to Essex for the lovely wedding of Kristina and Adam. They held their ceremony and reception at the The Compasses at Pattiswick and filled it with beautiful flowers, hessian, and some cute rustic detailing. I just love Kristina’s bouuet and her customized leather jacket. Big thanks to Sally Rawlins for the lovely images.

The perfect balance of fun, family and laughter. Such a relaxed day that we’ll always remember.

Kristina and Adam were married on 24th May 2019 at The Compasses at Pattiswick in Essex. ‘The Compasses used to be a pub and it’s set in the countryside so it’s lovely and relaxed. Adam really wanted our venue to be big enough for our friends and family but not have too many rooms where guests get split up. The Compasses has an amazing bridal preparation room which was really important to me. We saw other venues but they didn’t have everything we wanted and they didn’t seem as relaxed as the one we chose. We also loved how friendly the staff were and they remained that way throughout. We had 80 day guests and 100 evening guests. It took about a year to plan, we took it easy and didn’t want to stress as we just bought a house and a dog (Smeagol the golden retriever).’

How they met
We met on a night out, in a bar in Colchester called V bar. I saw a table with some free seats and ended up sitting next to Adam. I bought him a drink and the rest is history.

The proposal
We were on a family holiday in Polzeath, Cornwall. We took the family dog Indi on a walk to my favourite place; a walk to a cliff top called Pentire Point. It’s beautiful there and overlooks beaches and Polzeath. Adam told me to look out to the sea so he could get some pictures of me and Indi. He called my name, I spun around and he was on one knee with the ring out. I cried and obviously said yes. It was perfect.

How did you allocate your budget?
We didn’t really have one. We didn’t go mad but equally we didn’t want to regret not having the suppliers we wanted because of a budget.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
I love flowers and knew that was an area we would spend more on. Photos and rings are the things left after the wedding day so we splurged on those too. Stationary, including our invitations is where we saved a bit. We bought invitations that we had to fill in. I made the information cards and tied them together with string. Saving money was great but after tying the 100th invitation I was happy when they were finished!

How did you choose your photographer?
Sally Rawlins was recommended by our venue. She really impressed with her relaxed style and portfolio. She knows how to get great shots without taking us and guests away from the party for too long. We had a pre-wedding shoot with her so knew the shots would be great but we were blown away with the results from the wedding.

The dress
My dress is from a shop in Colchester called Grace and Lace, the dress is called Zalia and the designer is Maggie Sottero. I adore my dress and the fact I got to wear it all day felt really special. My shoes are by Kurt Geiger. My flower crown was made by my amazing florist, Emma Spowage. My something new, blue, old and borrowed–My earrings (new) are Noa by Carat London. My veil was borrowed from my sister in law who was also a bridesmaid. My blue was a clutch bag from Katie Loxton. My old was an All Saints leather jacket which I had customised for the wedding by Bespoke Chalk and Print.

The suit and bridesmaids
The Grooms suit was a made to measure suit from Abigails Collection-the Grooms Room in Colchester. The groomsmen suits were from Next and the bridesmaids dresses are from ASOS. Accessories we used a Katie Loxton coupon for the bags

Theme or colour scheme
I knew I wanted wild meadow flowers and greenery but not really a theme. The bridesmaids were in dusky pink dresses. Pink is definitely not a colour I thought I would have in my wedding but the colour was perfect with our flowers and suits.

Flowers
I knew I wanted peonies and daisies as well as wild flowers. Our florist Emma Spowage not only grows her own flowers but is amazing at advising what works well together. I feel so lucky to have had our flowers done by her, they were so beautiful and smelt amazing. She also made my flower crown which I love so much.

Decoration
The venue is really pretty and rustic anyway so doesn’t need a lot of decorating. Apart from our flowers we had some bunting and candles. The ceremony room which turns into the dining room has a beamed ceiling wrapped with vines and fairy lights, and it’s one of the reasons we fell in love with the venue.

Food
We love food so knew we wanted a lot of it! We used Edward James Events who work with the venue. We had canapés after the ceremony with our reception drinks: mini fish and chip cones, corn bread with pulled pork, mascapone and pea tarts and cheese beignets.
We had a 3 course wedding breakfast: pressed tomato cake with mozzarella mousse and baby herb pesto salad. Smoked bacon and chicken wellington with roast potatoes and green beans with a white wine sauce. White chocolate bread and butter pudding and custard.
Our evening food was pizza from a converted horse box. All of the food was amazing and exactly what we wanted.

Wedding cake
Our cake was made by Daisy’s Cakes and was a 3 tiered naked cake: chocolate, white chocolate and raspberry and lemon drizzle. We also had vanilla cupcakes with berries and cream. Our cake topper was a model of our dog Smeagol so she could be part of our day. The topper was made by Maris’ cake toppers and the flowers were provided by our florist.

Entertainment
After the ceremony we had Nick Crown the Magician perform for our guests. I never thought I’d want a magician at our wedding but we saw him perform at an open day at our venue and were so impressed. He does card tricks, mind reading and pickpocketing. Our guests loved him and it was great fun. In the evening we had a band called Hello Hurricane who were brilliant. They got everyone dancing and singing along. I always knew I wanted live music and I wasn’t disappointed.

Who supplied the stationery?
Our invitations are from a site called Dotty about paper. The table plan is by StationeryConcierge by Zazzle. For the guests names we actually got photos of everyone and had polaroids printed from an app called PixPax.

Personal touches
The guest names/Polaroids were held up with painted dinosaur toys. We ordered them from etsy and they made a great addition to our tables. They also doubled as our favours. We had a welcome pallet and an order of the day pallet which was done by me and my dad, using stencils and paint. They turned out great and it’s a lovely thing to keep.

Special moments
Getting ready with my bridesmaids, Katrina, Charlotte and Kayleigh was lovely. My mum and dad seeing me all dressed up for the first time was really special and of course my dad walking me down the aisle is something I’ll always treasure. Obviously seeing my groom for the first time was amazing as well as seeing all our friends and family under one roof. The best part for Adam was the first dance as we could spend a few minutes spending time together. We danced to George Ezra’s Hold My Girl and it gave us time to be close, to laugh and have fun. Everything turned out amazing and it’s a day we’ll always remember and be proud of.

Advice for other couples
It’s an oldie but a goodie, don’t stress about the little things. I’m lucky to be quite relaxed but it’s such a stressful time planning and hoping that all the suppliers will turn up. The day will turn out exactly how it should so worrying isn’t going to change that. I also really urge couples to plan the day they want rather than let other people’s opinions influence the day. We had the perfect day for us.

Biggest surprise
We definitely didn’t realise how intense the first hour after the ceremony would be; trying to say hello to all our guests while grabbing a drink and trying to spend time together. Another surprise was how fast the day goes, it flew by. We’re definitely glad that we had a Videographer so we can watch the day back.