Real Weddings, Rustic

03.01.2012

Are you ready for the first wedding of the year?! I sure am :-)

Mel and Tom were married back in June on Tom’s parents farm, following a ceremony in Mel’s home country of the US. Mel looks incredible in her bespoke floral dress, made from a vintage pattern and i love her floral halo.

There are so many beautiful flowers and touches, i love the flags and the mismatched ribbons. Plus i have to mention the 9 fabulous bridesmaids in their mismatching nude toned dresses.

Thanks so much to the amazing Pearl Pictures for sharing her beautiful work with us today, here is what she had to say about the day;

“Earlier this year I photographed Mel and Tom’s wedding in Denton, Oxfordshire. They actually live in San Francisco (lucky things!) – Mel is American and Tom is English – but really wanted to have a traditional English country-style wedding. So they employed the great planning skills of Isobel at Isobel Weddings to arrange their dream wedding at Tom’s parents’ farm, which is nestled in the Oxfordshire countryside.

The most unusual aspect of this wedding were the 9 bridesmaids! That’s a first for me. The wedding day was a great celebration of bringing two families together from two different continents, and boy do the Americans know how to party! As soon as the music started the dancefloor came alive.

It was an absolute pleasure working with Isobel, her organisational skills are superb and the styling of the wedding was beautiful, exactly what the bride had envisaged from over the pond in San Francisco.”

Names…. Mel and Tom

Wedding Date…. June 25, 2011

The Proposal…. Not a traditional proposal– we moved to Cali together from England( I am American and Tom is English) and we just decided that we wanted to start a life together in America and step one was committing to be together for life! A long happy adventurous life that is :)

The Vision for the day…. We wanted a low key day where the main focus was family and friends coming together to have an amazing time and enjoy eachother’s company. The venue was so naturally beautiful (Tom’s Parents Farm in Oxford) that just wanted to focus on what makes people happy at a party– food, booze and room to dance!

The Planning process…. I have never been to a wedding. So I had absolutely NO idea what to do or where to start. I was also attempting to plan from across the world. It could have ended up a disaster if I hadn’t listened to some friendly advice to hire a wedding planner. Which I did and she was absolutely amazing. Isobel from Isobel Weddings. She made the planning so easy and fun. I simply told her what I wanted, email her photos and she took care of the rest.

Budget….  We had 60,000$ to work with– but converting it into pounds? about 40,000. We thought it was a lot, but renting a tent and ordering nice food left us with very little to work with!

The Venue…  Maggie and Roger Buswell’s Farm in Denton. The most magical place on earth. Quintessential English country side– cows included. Also where we met…

The Dress + Accessories….. I had a vision of letting the love between family and friends be the main focus of the day. I wanted simple country romantic with DIY touches. Many of the important elements in our celebration were hand made with love. That included my dress. The ladies from Eel and Ermine tailor made it. They own a shop in San Francisco making clothes from vintage inspired patterns and are the sweetest most talented girls I have ever met. I knew from the beginning I would never wear a fussy, poofy, lacey gown. The dress they made is simply a sweetheart bodice with a vintage lily pattern and a long cotton skirt. I love the siplicity and the natural fabrics– with the drama and romance of the sweetheart cut. I also think the flower pattern adds sweetness and country charm.

Finding the dress…. A random encounter after having brunch and mimosas. Don’t things look pretty when you’ve had a few mimosas? We wandered into this store and I saw the dress and I just new. I found it 8 months before the big day– so I kept waiting for buyers regret to kick in, but it never did

Groom’s attire… Tom and I are not serious people, we love to laugh and play. So we wanted our attire to reflect that. No Black suit with tails and ties. Instead a navy linen suit from J Crew, with a gorgeous hand made shirt from Al’s Attire in SF, and handmade floral bow ties to match my dress from Eel and Ermine. I loved the natural fabric ( country feel) with the hint of feminine to match me. Looking at the photos there was a slight wrinkle problem, but hey–

The Readings + Music…. We had a small ceremony in the States where my mom read a poem called “who gave me this love” and Tom’s dad read “us two” by AA Milne. They were so fitting and perfect (romantic, sentimental with a bit of silly) That we wanted them to read it again for everyone to hear. This is where I almost lost it in the church. Good thing I had toilet roll stuffed in my bodice! The music in the church was traditional Hymns that Tom’s mom chose. We wanted her to pick her favorites. For the reception we wanted great music, and lots of it. Music is a love of Tom and mine, and we know it makes or breaks a party so– we had a acoustic guitarist, Mike Lee,  outside who was amazing. In the tent we had the best band ever. I am not so into cheesy cover bands, so I was skeptical, but E2 literally rocked our socks off. By the end of the night everyone was barefoot and boogieing even my grandma! Then we had our friend come DJ for the end of the night–

Beautiful bridesmaids….. I had 9, yes 9 bridesmaids and 1 best girl. It really was a more the merrier and although some of the pics may have needed a wide angle lense to fit in all the bridal party– it was worth it. Most people were coming all the way from America so I didn’t want to make them spend on a flight and a dress. I also like everyone’s personal style to shine, so I just requested that all the bridesmaids wear a short(ish) white(ish) dress and I provided a beautiful fabric flower, made again by Eel and Ermine for each of their hair.

The Flowers… I didn’t know exactly what I wanted for flowers– but I did know what I DIDN’T want. And that was stuffy, overdone, over the top flowers. I wanted a sweet, just picked from the fields look. Johanna Carter was my florist and she knew exactly what I was talking about. She created the most amazing floral designs with an understated gorgeous feel.

The Cake… one of Tom and my best friends mom was in charge of the cake. She had a beautiful tri-tiered cake made– white with daisies. It complimented our theme perfectly. And was very tasty too!

Your Photographer…. Jemma from Pearl Pictures was our photographer. We wanted reportage style photos and she knew exactly what we meant. We wanted less formal and to capture more of the fun and personality of the day. She did an amazing job capturing all the important moments– and we barely noticed she was there! We love how all the images turned out. Everyone looks stunning. We flip through them almost daily!

The Details + Décor…. Simple, DIY, country quirk. We spent our time and money on food, booze and music– so the décor was mainly down to the gardening, and handmade touches– such as the napkin ties, signs, bunting, guestbook etc. Which the whole family helped with

The Honeymoon…. Not yet! Next year…

Memorable moments… Many– sitting back and watching all my loved ones smiling– at the same time! And the most hilariously amazing best man speech ever made..

Advice for other couples… ENJOY– It is a celebration, so remember that and RELISH in it. Look around you and soak in all the love from family and friends. We were overwhelmed with the amount of love and support we received. It reminded us what weddings were all about– bringing two families together– double the amount of love!

Thanks so much to Mel and Tom for sharing their drop dead gorgeous day with us today :-) Do give them some love below.… xoxo

9 Comments
Tags: Real Weddings, White

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT...

Name

Email

Website

Message

about

weddings by color