Katie and Barry were married back in August of last year at the beautiful Charleston Manor, West Dean, East Sussex. They wanted their day to combine their religious backgrounds whist having a pretty and rustic English feel.

One of the stand out aspects of their stunning wedding has to be the flowers, rustic blooms hanging from the ceiling of the barn, hydrangeas dotted on the tables and a beautiful bouquet….wow. They had place settings with books and bottles, a vintage typewriter guest book and bunting scattered around the venue. It looks oh so pretty.

Not forgetting to mention how gorgeous and totally happy these two look.

Thanks so much to the brilliant David Clarke Photography for sharing his images with us today.

Names… Katie and Barry

Wedding Date… 28th August 2011

The Proposal… Barry and I met in 2006 when working at St Thomas’ Hospital. It was the stereotypical Nurse meets Doctor scenario, which lead to some interesting ‘Carry on style’ ward rounds, as no one at work new we were dating. Prior to meeting Barry I had planned the trip of a life time to India for several months. We had 6 amazing weeks together and I left for my trip. We stayed in touch and on my return took off where we left and never looked back! Barry proposed in 2010 on a surprise trip to Slovenia, among the amazing vineyards.

The Vision for the Day… I was overwhelmed by the choice to start with and found it difficult to describe the style and look I was going for. But by pulling together photos I liked and using key words such as ‘rustic English’, ‘vintage’ and ‘magical’ helped conjure up the final look. The old Dutch roses inspired the colours of the day which were dusky pink/ purple and dove greys. Barry and I are both of different religious backgrounds which we tried to amalgamate in a mixed faith blessing after the civil ceremony. It was really important for Barry and I to respect our families’ cultures and religious beliefs and to acknowledge that in our partnership. The Reverend and Rabbi jointly weaved their blessing though the service and explained some of the religious traditions as they went. It was a unique and really special way for us to end the wedding service.

The Venue… Charleston Manor, West Dean, East Sussex. I had always loved the idea of getting married as Charleston Manor, as I had heard how beautiful it was from friends and family. It is not too far from my childhood home in Eastbourne and it’s near to the pretty village of Alfriston, nestled in the South Downs. Charleston Manor is a privately owned estate that hires out the gardens and Tithe Barn in the summer months. As soon as we saw it we knew it was the place for us to get married. It’s just stunning! You literally hire the shell of the barn and use of the gardens, we loved the challenge of having a DIY wedding and sourcing everything ourselves.

The Dress + Accessories… My dress was ‘Erin’ by Benjamin Roberts in the Enzoani collection. My lovely shoes were by Unisa @ John Lewis. Being only 5’ I needed height but wanted the shoes to be comfortable, not to ‘bride’ looking and of course stylish! These were perfect; I loved the colour and also the platform which made them tres comfy. The Essie vintage bridal headband I wore was from www.vintagestyler.co.uk. They had loads of choice but this one stood out to me. When Barry proposed he used a Haribo ring and then he produced a beautiful necklace with a simple diamond pendant. I wore this on the wedding day along with some drop pearl earrings of my Mums. I also attached an old vintage broach of my Grandma’s to the lace on my wedding bouquet. Hair: Andrea Korpics of Ministry of Hair, Eastbourne. Make-up: Eleise Lucraft.

The Bridesmaids…. HOT STUFF PASTEL MULTI Shoes from OFFICE, Phase Eight ‘Mesh Goddess’ dress in Dove Grey. Flower corsage clips in purple and dove grey from Claire’s accessories and Topshop. Jenni from Twinkle berry Jewellery custom made iridescent peacock and cream pearl earrings to complement the dress colour. Bracelets were from Rosie Fox.

Your Photographer… David Clarke and his wife Nina were the perfect photography team for us, and us soon as they saw the venue I could see they loved it as much as we did and we really wanted that to come through in the photo’s.

Groom’s Attire… Hired from Moss: Grey morning coat worn with matching trousers, hawkstone waistcoat and cravat, to complement the bridesmaid dresses. Barry had two Best Men, his twin brother Paul Langton-Rose and his best friend Andy Johnston, who Barry had travelled from London to Cape Town in a London Bus with in 2004!

The Flowers… Pats Flowers, Amberstone, East Sussex (01323 848217). I was introduced to Pat through Charleston Manor. She did the owners daughters wedding flowers and the photo’s looked fab. The flowers were one of the first details I decided on, which went on to influence a lot of the wedding style and colours. I love vintage looking roses such as Old Dutch and Amnesia, which we tried to compliment the wedding invites and bridesmaid’s dresses too. To compliment the vintage English country flowers I chose green/pink faded hydrangea heads with gypsophila and cream lisianthus as fillers. The same flowers were used in the bouquets and the 3 stunning flower spheres hanging from the barn ceiling. For the tables flowers Pat sourced us more of the same flowers and with the help of Jennifer Oliver, and friends and family, we filled vintage cut glass vases and tea cups with the beautiful flowers. All the time spent at boot fairs sourcing the vases and cups was worth it, the tables looked stunning!

The Cake… Our caterers ‘Food Glorious Food’ were brilliant. We decided we didn’t want a traditional cake so Julia (Chef/Owner) sourced big wheels of local cheese which they stacked up and decorated with grapes and Ivy. We cut the cake and then the cheese was served up as part of the evening buffet along with venison sausages, fresh bread and homemade chutneys.

The Music… I have always loved Pachebel: Canon in D, I walked down the aisle to this, it was very emotional but I managed to hold it together.

We danced our first dance to ‘Valentine Moon’ by Sam Brown and Jools Holland. We started of with a slow ‘sway’ and ½ way through burst into a waltz. Neither of us are natural dancers but we wanted to try something different so learnt the dance from
you tube the week before the wedding.

We found ‘The Redfords’ by chance through an internet search. We listened to their CD, loved the music and booked them. They have everyone up dancing, young and old and played something for everyone!

The Details + Decor… Instead of wedding favours we donated some money to my (Katie’s) place of work, St Joseph’s Hospice in East London. We used ‘mini moo cards’ to print a few of our favourite holiday snaps on and the details of the charity on the other side. These were placed in each person’s glass as a small souvenir of or wedding day.

We had the help of the wonderful Jennifer Oliver of Jennifer Sue Weddings. She helped us to visually create the style we were after for the wedding venue and helped us to make our vision a reality. Our lovely friends and family helped us to decorate the barn using fairy lights draped along the length of the barn and hanging flower spheres to decorate the ceiling. Twisted willow was used to hang table plans from and for people to leave us messages on luggage
tags. Guests name tags with table details were also hung from ribbons in the trees in the walled garden. Our menu’s were printed onto Martha Stewart ‘lace’ templates and used to cover old small vintage books. We also used covered old vintage books to give height our mismatched flower arrangements in tea cups and cut glass. We used an old suitcase as a wedding post box and an old type writer with a note threaded through asking people to leave us a message on the message tree. Tea lights in cut glass were placed throughout the venue and bunting was used to decorate the bar area ceiling and toilets. Chalk boards were used with little messages on.

My sister works in fashion and graphics so designed all of our wedding stationary for us. It was great having something designed and made uniquely for us which reflected the feel of our wedding, without costing a fortune. She recently set up the ‘Jolly Postcard Company’ and can be contacted on jolongton@hotmail.com.

Advice for other couples… Follow your heart and remember it is all worth the effort to make your day everything you have ever wanted…and more. Be organised so you don’t have any last minute stresses, delegate tasks, accept help and make sure you have time to chill the evening before and the morning of your wedding.

Thanks so much to Katie and Barry for sharing their gorgeous wedding with us today XOXO Lou

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