It’s F-F-F-Fridayyyyy :-)

I have a beauty for the final wedding of the week, couples planning a blue do take note. Katharine and Jon were married in May at Hillfields farm, Lower Basildon, Berkshire. They wanted their day to be local, relaxed and a big party.

They homemade their wedding, creating an abundance of rustic details, from the seed favours and origami place names to the homemade chutney.

I am so excited to be featuring a peony bouquet :-) peonies are my absolute favourite, i love Katharine’s fluffy bouquet, i bet they smelt divine. There is a lovely blue theme running though the day which works beautifully, i just have to mention those fabulous blue swede shoes too :-)

Thanks so much to the lovely Holly Deacon Design for sharing her imagery with us today.

Names…. Katharine and Jon

Wedding Date…. 12^th May 2012

The Proposal….We were on holiday in Santorini in September last year,  We’d had a lovely day exploring the island in our hire car, watched the sunset from a cocktail bar in Fira then gone for dinner at a family run taverna in the south of the island.  When we got back to our apartment, Jon got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!

The Vision for the day…. We wanted to keep it local, relaxed and a chance to throw a big party.  We got married round the corner from where we live in a little church in Wallingford, Oxfordshire next to the River Thames and we hired a big barn in Lower Basildon in the Chilterns.  The theme was a cross between an English country garden tea party and rustic chic with beautiful locally grown flowers, vintage china and cake stands, homemade wicker hearts, and a  seating plan, packets of seeds tied in blue ribbon for favours, origami place names and homemade chutney to go with our wedding cake – a tower of cheese!  I love bright colours and wanted the boy’s  ties to match the bridesmaid dresses and flowers so the Royal Blue worked really well and tied everything together including the invitations, Order of Service sheets and menus.

The Planning process…. I’d really wanted a spring wedding and hoped May would be slightly warmer and give us enough time to plan.  We started by booking all the big things like the church, venue, photographer, flowers and caterer.  Where possible we used recommendations to book suppliers for example our photographer was a family friend, my mum had used the caterer and cheese company before.  I wanted to make as many things as possible so got stuck into making all the invitations, I used wedding magazines and inspiration I’d taken from friend’s weddings to decide the details from flowers, to food to hair styles. Towards the day itself I relied on making countless lists of things to do, my mum and sister helped massively too – my mum took care of the caterers, wine, champagne and soft drinks and the wedding cake; my sister made all of the place names and Jon took care of the beer and music.

Budget…. We had hoped to keep the budget to around £10,000 or under but the venue, food, drink, hire company and waitresses pushed the price up to around £15,000.

The Venue… Hillfields farm, Lower Basildon, Berkshire.  It’s a working stables with a large barn in the middle.  One half was set up for dinner, the other half was the party barn with a dance floor, bar and sunken seating area.  There was a lovely garden with a duck pond and weeping willow in front of the barn for photos and a great view of the Chiltern hills in the background.

The Dress + Accessories….. Augusta Jones bought in a sample sale at Ellie Sanderson in Jericho, Oxford.  I got the dress altered locally by Elaine Matthews in Wallingford – she changed the neck line to a sweetheart shape, added buttons down the back of the dress added bead work to the neck line and took it in for me.  I loved the pearl detailing on the train and neckline and the simplicity of the dress.  I had my pearl earrings and necklace made for me by Brooker and Breeze in Wallingford, i borrowed my bracelet and veil from my bridesmaid.  I found my hair accessory online at Olivier Laudus, my blue suede shoes were from Nine West.

Finding the dress…. I found it in the second shop I ever visited.  I’d already tried different shapes and sizes on at a different shop and had looked in magazines and thought about the shape i was after.  Then when a friend told me about a sample sale in Oxford I went along expecting just to try some designer dresses on.  I was with another friend and when I tried it on I instantly saw the potential – i knew i wanted to change the neckline but i thought it was too much of a bargain to let it go

Groom’s attire… Jon wore his own suit, a blue silk tie we bought online, a tailored shirt from Marks and Spenser and shoes he’d bought at TKMax – needless to say the budget mostly went on my outfit not his!

The Readings + Music…. Corinthians and On Marriage from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran.  Entrance of the bride was Clarke Trumpet Voluntary and we left the church to The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba

Beautiful bridesmaids….. My sister Ellie and my best friend from university Laura were my bridesmaids and wore dresses from Coast with accessories from House of Fraser, our flower girl and page boy were 5 year old twins Nell and Dylan, her dress was from House of Fraser and his suit was his own.

The Flowers… Grown by Green and Gorgeous in Little Stoke, Oxfordshire.  The bouquets were ivory peonies and blue delphiniums, we arranged our own table centres using bright and bold flowers the florist had provided displayed in vintage teapots, cups and jugs.

The Cake… six layers of cheese from the Cheese Shed in Devon, assembled and decorated by a friend of the family.

Your Photographer…. We chose Holly Deacon Design to be our wedding photographer because she’s a family friend and I was really impressed with the pictures she’d taken at my sister-in-law’s wedding a couple of years earlier.  I particularly liked the more natural reportage style photography in her portfolio and the colour treatment she uses in post production to give some of her pictures a slightly vintage look.  I thought that style would work well with our rustic, informal wedding and wanted a combination of traditional group shots but also the more natural shots.  Holly works on her own rather than with a second assistant so has to work twice as hard!  On the day of the wedding she came to my house first to capture all the behind the scenes, getting ready pictures with my bridesmaids and my mum.  She got straight to work on all the details like the dress, shoes, jewellery, hair being done etc before taking several pictures in the garden.  Holly’s relaxed approach helped keep every one calm before we set off for the church which I think comes through in the photos.   She particularly worked well with our 5 year old flower girl and page boy and and managed to capture their personalities. At the venue, Holly was very organised getting through the group shots we’d discussed, taking pictures of the details of the flowers and decorations, and our guests.  I really enjoyed the photos Jon and I had taken on our own with the lovely back drop of the Chilterns and the gardens around the venue.  It was so nice coming home from our honeymoon to look back on all our lovely photos which really captured the whole day from start to finish – because it went so quickly – it was great to see what everyone was up to and reminisce about some of our favourite bits of the day.

The Honeymoon…. We spent a week and a half in South Africa travelling through Cape Town, the wine region, garden route and did a three night safari at Kariega Game Reserve near Port Elizabeth.  Then we spent a week in Mauritus at Paradise Cove resort outside Grand Baie.

Memorable moments… After leaving the church we took a detour and had a glass of champagne overlooking a beautiful view in the Oxfordshire countryside – it gave us a few moments to ourselves before the whirl wind of the reception!

Advice for other couples… Delegate tasks and ask for help from friends and family setting up your venue if you’re doing it yourself there’s always much more to do than you realise.  And negotiate with suppliers and vendors to see if they can do you a deal or throw in extras.

Credit where credit is due…

PHOTOGRAPHER www.hollydeacondesign.com

FLOWERS    http://www.greenandgorgeous.co.uk/

HAIR  http://www.facebook.com/bmobile.hairdressing

DRESS  http://www.elliesanderson.co.uk/

I love that Katharine delegated on her wedding day, are you delegating many tasks on your wedding to loved ones?

Thanks so much to Katharine and Jon for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today XOXO Lou

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