A stylish wedding to bring a smile to your face this morning, courtesy of WWW readers Lucy and Rhys, who tied the knot on the 4th June 2016 at Monmouth Stonemill in Wales. They envisioned their celebration as whimsical with fun and relaxed vibes. Sounds pretty epic right? Well it certainly was. There were so many lovely touches, from a resplendent naked cake with lashings of jam and cream, to hanging lilac lanterns and stunning dried florals throughout. They kept the décor in the marquee simple, yet it was so fresh and pretty too.
Their attire was just perfect. With Lucy choosing to wear D1962 by Essense of Australia with a floaty veil and gypsophila in her hair. Rhys chose a bow tie and braces combo for himself and his fave boys, while the bridesmaids rocked their long purple frocks. How gorgeous did they all look folks?
Thanks so much to Eleanor Jane Photography for sharing these wonderful photographs today.
THE PROPOSAL | We were on holiday in Sicily, and it was towards the end of our trip. I was completely taken by surprise – I always thought I would guess if Rhys was planning to propose on holiday, thinking he would be nervous going through airport security with the ring, and would be trying to keep me away from his bag. Neither was true. On one of our final evenings, he suggested we set an early alarm to go and watch the sunrise at the local beach, and that is when he did it! It turned out that I had been carrying the ring the whole week, as he had put it in his Ray-Ban case and into my handbag, which explained why he wasn’t concerned going through airport security!
THE VISION | We wanted a day that was fun and relaxed, with amazing food! When researching different ideas on Pinterest, the term that most popped up alongside the images I was pinning was ‘whimsical’, so I guess that was the vision from the very start.
THE PLANNING PROCESS | I loved the entire planning process, which included multiple Pinterest boards, lists and spreadsheets! We had eleven months from our engagement to wedding day, and I think that really focused our thinking as we had no time to second guess our decisions. We already had our hearts set on Monmouth Stonemill as our reception venue after staying at the onsite cottages a couple of times, but had no idea if they had dates available, or even if it would be within our budget. We were thrilled to book this beautiful venue, and it fitted perfectly with the theme we had in mind.
BUDGET | £17,000. We had a good idea early on of how much we would be able to spend, and we really stuck by our original budget, cutting costs on certain things in order to make sure we didn’t overspend.
THE VENUE | Monmouth Stonemill, in Monmouthshire.
THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress style was D1962 by Essense of Australia. The veil was purchased through Etsy from loveyoubridedesign. My diamond necklace was a wedding gift from Rhys, and I also wore diamond earrings, which were a wedding gift from my parents. My shoes were from Jenny Packham, and I chose silver ones so that I could wear them again.
FINDING THE DRESS | I only visited two stores, and purchased my dress on the first visit to Laura May Bridal in Cardiff. I went shopping with my mum, aunty and mother-in-law and knew which dress to buy as it was the only one to have all three of them in tears!
GROOM’S ATTIRE | We purchased the suits from Next – it was going to be a similar cost to hire, so this felt like the obvious option as it meant everyone could keep their suit to wear again. We knew the laid back braces and bow tie look would fit more with the theme of the wedding than traditional tailcoats would, and were so pleased with the overall look when everything was put together.
THE READINGS & MUSIC | We had a string quartet playing in the church, and had Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major as the processional music, and Howard Shore’s Concerning Hobbits as the recessional music.
THE FLOWERS | One of the ways we cut costs was going down the dried flower route. The bouquets, buttonholes, flower girl wand and cake topper were all ordered from the Artisan Dried Flower Company, and then we just ordered lots of dried lavender to decorate the venue. The only fresh flowers used were two large bunches of gypsophila (which cost £20 in total), which we used as part of the table centrepieces and also in my hair. The flowers were the thing I was most nervous about, as everyone I told about the dried flowers looked a little puzzled, but have since said they really loved the look.
THE CAKE | As soon as we got engaged, we knew immediately that we wanted to use Jess at Baked On Green Street for our wedding cake. A local artisan baker, literally everything she makes looks and tastes amazing! We loved the idea of a naked wedding cake, and she was so helpful in chatting through all the options with us, even provided the log for the cake to sit on.
YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Eleanor Jane Photography. We loved everything about Eleanor’s style of photography, and are absolutely thrilled with all the photos we have of the day. We love the way she captured the details of the day so beautifully, and the amazing package of goodies we received a couple of months later with our wedding album.
Special mention also goes to our videographer Craig from Tudor Films, who produced the most beautiful wedding video for us. We have had endless messages since it was shared on social media from other brides-to-be asking who we used. A wedding video wasn’t high on our list of wedding priorities, but a few people said we’d regret not having it filmed, and we’re so glad that we did now!
THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | All of our wedding stationery – from the invitations, order of service, and table plan – was brilliantly designed by Katie Jones Design, who even created a wedding logo for us, and pantone colour matched the font colour to a swatch of the bridesmaid dresses… she is brilliant! Our decoration of the marquee was quite simple, with lots of paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling, bunches of dried lavender, and lots of candles, lanterns and logs.
THE HONEYMOON | We had done an East Coast USA road trip in 2011, and had always said we’d love to do a West Coast trip, so our honeymoon seemed the perfect opportunity to make the trip. We travelled from San Diego to San Francisco, taking in LA, Monterey and Yosemite en route.
MEMORABLE MOMENTS | In the lead up to the wedding, we had a fantastic day at Rose Wood jewellery’s studio in West Wales making our own wedding rings – this was such a great experience, and we’d definitely recommend.
ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Just try to relax and enjoy the whole process.
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |
Photography | Eleanor Jane Photography
Venue | Monmouth Stonemill
Dress | Laura May Bridal
Flowers | Artisan Dried Flower Company
Cake | Baked On Green Street @bakedongreenstreet (Facebook/Instagram)
Film | Tudor Films
Stationery | Katie Jones Design ([email protected])
Rings | Rose Wood Jewellery
Ahhh just gorgeous, such a happy pair and what a honeymoon they had too.
Many thanks to Lucy and Rhys for sharing their wonderful story with us today xo Lou
love your wedding style.