Magdalena and Frank's 'Rustic Bohemian' Outdoor Wedding in the Netherlands

Hello Monday! How are you all doing today? How was your weekend? Did you have a good Valentines Day? Nik and I celebrated on Saturday night with a delicious meal form one of our favourite restaurants. Then as a family with presents and a lovely breakfast on Sunday. Nik and I managed to get each other the same gift, we have obviously been together for way too long now (16 years in October) I am looking forward to the time (hopefully soon) when we can go out and celebrate in style……in a bar or restaurant or the cinema, or theatre…… or anywhere really, just not my own dining room table! Anyway on with today’s wedding and we are heading over to the Netherlands for this delightful wedding of Magdalena and Frank. This gorgeous couple ended up planning their wedding three times but due to pandemic ended up changing their original Tuscany wedding of 130 guests to a more local wedding in the Netherlands with less than half the original guest count. Never the less they still had 60 of their closest friends and family at their wedding, and they filled it with love, smiles, rustic style decor and a laid back feel. A simply charming wedding full of bohemian style.

The most beautiful and emotional day of our lives filled with love and happiness. It was perfect!

Magdalena and Frank were married on 19^th September 2020, the ceremony was in a garden of the Vitus Church in Blaricum in the Netherlands and the reception was held in private farm of a friend from the village. Our story is a typical Coronavirus wedding story. We had very different original plans for our wedding. We were supposed to get married in Tuscany this year. We were planning a big 3 day wedding for 130 people in a beautiful old vineyard with a huge garden and outdoor swimming pool to chill at after the weeding party. But due to Corona we had to cancel (postpone) Italy plans to next year but we still decided to get married this year in our local village (Blaricum) in the Netherlands. I really wanted an outdoor ceremony and even though our wedding wasn’t a religious one, the Vitus Church allowed us to use their beautiful and very big garden to set up the ceremony and aperitif there. We then have moved to the farm for dinner and a very small dance till 12pm. So we will party hard next year in Italy where we still have the original location booked and we will celebrate our 1^st year Paper Anniversary, the styling of the wedding was done by me. We had 60 guests at our wedding with Corona rules in place. In total it took us 1 year and 6 months to plan but in this time we have planned 3 weddings due to the changes we had to make. The final plan was put together in 3 months.

How they met
We have met the very old fashion way… In the bar. I was single for a month and my husband was on a night out with his ex-girlfriend of 7 years celebrating very civilized break up. He saw me on the dance floor and our eyes locked. I thought he was a total asshole as he was flirting with me when being in the bar with another girl but at the end of the night I have learned it was his Ex. So I took his phone and put my number in it and I said to him: “when you get over her” pointing at the Ex standing at the Bar, “give me a call”… and he did… the same night… 6 months later we went to New York together to spend Christmas there and I though he will propose there but we have brought another incredible present for life from NYC. Our son Olivier was made in NYC.

The proposal
We went on our last babymoon holidays to Tuscany when I was 7 months pregnant and we found the vineyard by just exploring Tuscany and we said yes to the location even before we were engaged (I know a bit strange but we knew already back then we will get married). So Frank asked me to marry him on the night of New Year of 2019 when we celebrated welcoming new exciting year into our lives. He was very nervous and hardly had anything to drink during the party so I though he was not feeling well but he just didn’t want to spoil the moment by having too much to drink.

How did you allocate your budget?
I spent the most on decoration and Frank concentrated on delicious food suppliers. I also had two wedding dresses. One for ceremony and reception and one for the first dance and the party. We took dancing classes for 6 months and had beautiful first dance with three songs blending into each other. We still dance every Monday together as we loved the preparation so much that now we want to take our dancing skills to the next level.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We have managed to save on locations as we were lucky that these were local people and friends. So we have splashed the money everywhere else.

How did you choose your photographer?
10 years ago my good friend got married. She had beautiful wedding shoot done by a polish photographer. The pictures were full of emotions, fun and capturing really the true love and passion of the couple. I wrote down his name and 10 years later he was a photographer at our wedding. He did an amazing job again and I’m so happy we have flown him all the way from Poland just to photograph our special day.

The dress
I found my dress over a year before the wedding. I went window shopping in Warsaw when visiting my parents in Poland and I walked into this bridal salon, tried this one (two dresses) and never looked back. This was the love from the first sight. I know my ceremony dress is pretty daring but this reflects my character and also the dream of my husband of having very sexy bride. The first look told me that I have achieved the dream. He couldn’t stop crying…
My shoes had to be Louboutin. This was always my dream to own a pair and our wedding was the perfect moment to spend that much money on a pair of shoes. But they are not a typical wedding (white) shoes. I can still wear them now with a nice summer dress in Italy or a date dinner with my husband.

The suit and bridesmaids
My husband’s tuxedo comes from famous polish menswear designer Vistula. One of my bridesmaids was my best friend, a gay man and his suit also came from Vistula.

Theme or colour scheme
Yes, Bohemian theme with rustic touch. Loads of greenery, natural wood and pampas grass

Flowers
“Messy” bohemian looking bouquet

Decoration
I also used a lot of fresh Eucalyptus to decorate all the locations, tables, chairs and welcome boards

Food
As our wedding in Italy was cancelled, we still wanted to keep the Italian theme, so our locally based Chef put a beautiful menu together for us with Beef Carpaccio, Ravioli with Truffles and Bistecca

Wedding cake
Our wedding cake come from our favourite local bakery where we buy our daily bread every day but the popeties for decorating the cake came with us from Italy and were the representation of the family with a little boy holding a pillow ring

Entertainment
We had barista coffee station in a small Italian car, local Ice cream shop delivering gelato ice cream at midnight (the most famous ice cream in the country) and DJs

Who supplied the stationery?
I did the stationary myself. Designed every menu, name tag, welcome board and translation of the speeches

Where are you going on your honeymoon?
Due to Corona we are still waiting to go on our honeymoon but the plan is to go to Aruba.

Personal touches
Hahaha, I did everything myself. We had a pillow ring that was hand painted from our picture, we had personalised hangers with date and names, we had personalised fans for keeping cool during ceremony, we had photo booth with guest book and cocktail bar with our signature drinks

Special moments
My favourite 3 moments of the day were: when my father walked me down the aisle and my future husband saw me for the first time that day, our 2 year old son being part of the ceremony, holding the pillow with the rings and running away with it into the bushes (with fake rings) and our first dance.

Advice for other couples
Enjoy every second of your day as preparation takes very long time and the day itself flies by and it is over quicker than you know. Also have fun together planning your wedding as this is where the build up to the big day is taking place. Let the man be involved in the planning too. It is his big day too, not only yours (bride)

Biggest surprise
How nervous I became just before leaving for the ceremony. I’m used to presenting in front of big groups and being the centre of the attention but there I couldn’t control the adrenaline pumping through my veins. It was insane but magical.