James and Meghan's Outdoor Woodland Ceremony in Surrey by Jessica Grace Photography

Happy Tuesday everyone, I hope you are all having a great week so far? Today I am taking you off to a gorgeous outdoor wedding in Surrey. Meghan and James wanted to hold an outdoor woodland ceremony but with the benefit of an indoor barn reception. They found everything they needed at Gate Street Barn. They filled their ceremony area with the most delightful flowers and their barn venue with gorgeous table decorations and a marble effect wedding cake. I just love Meghan’s Grace Loves Lace gown, she looks totally stunning. The whole day is gorgeous. Big thanks to Jessica Grace Photography for the wonderful photos.

Our wedding was beautiful and natural. We also had some traditional elements.

Meghan and James were married on 5th August 2021 at Gate Street Barn in Guildford, Surrey. ‘We wanted an outdoor wedding because we love being outdoors, the woods were beautiful and also offered shade. We had 80 guests.’

How they met
We met at our mutual friends Christmas work party on Christmas Eve in a pub.

The proposal
We went on our first holiday with our daughter Callie when she was 4 months old. We stayed in England due to Covid and stayed in Frinton On Sea where Meghans family have lived for a few generations and she spent a lot of time there as a child with her family. Jimmy asked Meghan’s dad for his blessing whilst they were in the sea together! We went on an evening out to ‘Walton on the Naze’ and Jimmy waited until sunset and then used a drone to pretend to take a photo, as the drone went up he proposed. We then spent so long there we got locked in the car park!

How did you allocate your budget?
We knew how much we had to spend and budgeted as we went along. We then used the money we had left over for the bar tab.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We splurged on the food, dress suit and flowers. We saved on wine, menus and decorations.

How did you choose your photographer?
We looked on the internet for the best Surrey photographers and really liked Jesse’s photographs on her Instagram.

The dress
Dress was Grace Loves Lace and shoes were Kurt Geiger.

The suit and bridesmaids?
Suit was from Dixon Anderson Tayloring and bridesmaids were ASOS

Theme or colour scheme
Colour scheme was pink, green and gold.

Flowers
Roses, dahlias and wildflowers.

Decoration
We had mostly flowers as decoration, but used our own printed photographs and wood slices for the tables.

Food:
Canapés – Little beef wellingtons, Smokes Salmon beeline’s, Carrot and chickpea hummus bruschetta, Grilled courgette and halloumi.
Starters – Meat – king prawn and scallop tart, Vegetarian – mini camembert, Vegan- tomato and crushed avocado bruschetta
Mains – Meat – chicken stuffed with chorizo and mozzarella, Vegetarian – potato gnocchi, Vegan – chickpea cake
Dessert – Chocolate brownies

Wedding cake
Our wedding cake was made by a family friend, it was chocolate! Pink gold and white marble icing with flowers.

Entertainment
We just had a band called Waywood band.

Who supplied the stationery?
We asked someone to paint a picture of us for out wedding invitation, and made out menus and labels ourselves.