A DIY Garden Wedding in England…

This gorgeous bride used to be my classmate, back in the day when I was 13 years old wearing long black socks and girly Dr Martins to school. {Yes, back then It was thought to be cool… I now have my doubts} When we reached the grand old age of 18 we moved away, went off to University and sort of drifted apart, and somewhere along the line we re-connected by Facebook. Thank goodness for technology!
Polly’s always been one of those girls with natural beauty, there is no effort required, she has that pretty girl next door look that would only be ruined by heavy makeup and a perfectly groomed mane of hair. She is my perfect bride.
Polly and Wesley got married at her Grandmothers house in Somerset, on 12th July 2014 with 120 guests. A team effort by all the family made this wedding personal, intimate and that little bit more special.  The bride even woke up at 3am to go to the flower market!!! Talk about a DIY bride…. amazing huh!!! The details are so pretty, from the rustic wood slices to the handmade wedding favors, this wedding is jam packed with loveliness.

The Planning process…
Winging it! I wasn’t one of those brides who knew exactly what she wanted from day one. I just knew I wanted it to feel like ‘us’, be personal and most importantly – relaxed. Once we were decided we were going to do it in my gran’s garden everything followed. It helps that for a profession I’m a project manager so planning a wedding came ‘sort of’ naturally to me…

The wedding dress &  accessories…
I found it in one day! Fell in love with it and got the job done. I bought a flower crown from Etsy which was handmade in Greece.

Groom’s threads…
Wes found his suit from a suit that fits. Can’t recommend them enough for a tailored fitted suit. Wes wanted to wear tails but wanted to look like a modern groom – not easy to do off the shelf! Worth every penny!

The readings & music…
Wes’s cousin Mike Sysum did an acoustic set of our favourite songs, including our first dance. Other than that it was all big old speaker and a spotify playlist! Went down a storm.

My lovely bridesmaids…
Daniella and Nic were Maid of Honours. Kay, Emma and Amal bridesmaids. The bestest friends I could ask for.

My flowers…
We did the venue flowers ourselves and despite having to get up at 3am to go to the flower market it was totally worth it! I wanted it to feel quite natural and not too ‘put together’ so we used a lot of hessian, milk bottles, jam jars to give it more of a rustic feel. The girls and I had a lot of fun chopping lavender and pretending to be florists for the morning.

Our wedding cake…
AMAZING. My mother in law made it and it was not only stunning and so fitting of our wedding, it was also probably one of the most delicious cakes I’ve ever tasted.

The details & décor…
Trawling Pinterest and blogs (including My Lovely Wedding) we started to piece things together and get a bit of a vision for what we wanted. I gave myself a small budget every month in the lead up to buy bits a long the way – this meant a lot of pieces had a story behind them as they were from different places we had visited. My amazing bridesmaid Emma also helped by loaning some pieces from her company Braylou Wedding Accessories.

We turned the gardens into different areas which made it feel lovely and social; the marquee area (bit of a chill out zone and where we did speeches) the dance area (a few gazebos with a dance floor!), a games area, the BBQ and bar area. I wanted the day to feel quite magical so candles and lights were everywhere. We used a lot of rustic wood too – straight from the local wood chopper to my Gran’s garden. My favourite ‘area’ had to be the bar which was my Gran’s old garage. My Dad and his mate created it from scratch and it became quite a popular area throughout the day – can’t think why!

The honeymoon…
We went to Borneo and Hong Kong – incredible.

Our best moments…

1. The days before the wedding spending precious time with Wes and my family putting it all together.
2. First dance. Mike on the guitar and all of our guests with sparklers in their hands. Candles and fairylights lighting up the dancefloor. Couldn’t have felt more magical for us.
3. Boarding our plane to go to Borneo – snuggling up and falling asleep!

Advice for other couples…
Enjoy every single moment and never ever loose sight of what the day is about.

Credit for suppliers & friends…
Braylou Wedding Accessories: http://www.braylouweddings.co.uk/
Raccoon Event Photography: http://raccooneventphotography.com/
Sausage and Pear catering: http://sausageandpear.co.uk/