WWW readers Jon and Jade tied the knot back in the summer, with a vision of a natural personal day they chose to marry at Hestercombe Gardens, Somerset.

With a love of the outdoors they focused on the flowers, which they arranged themselves, with beautiful gypsophila throughout and pretty flower crowns. They also used wooden elements, with a log guest book, cake stand and finger print tree.

Jade looked super gorgeous in a dress from Coast with wedge shoes and natural make up she applied herself, white Jon went for a dashing grey three piece suit. Thanks so much to Meg Jenkins for sharing her lovely photographs with us today.

 

The Proposal… Jon had wanted to take me to a place he had loved and held fond memories of as a child- Westonbirt arboretum, near his childhood home in Bath. Despite waking up on a very wet and blustery autumnal morning in our home in Wales (and me suggesting we go swimming instead), Jon was insistent that we should go for a day out to Westonbirt as it was renowned for its autumnal colour and would absolutely, most definitely brighten up so Jon packed us a picnic and away we went. Towards the end of a gloriously sunny day we stumbled across a really quiet avenue of trees, then this clearing emerged with the most beautiful bright silver giant eucalyptus. Some of the bark had shed so I got very excited about stuffing some in our rucksack to take home and make something with it. When I turned around and Jon was on his knee I didn’t really think anything of it, I thought he was collecting bark, until he presented me with the most extraordinary ring I had ever seen. The same time the following year we went back to Westonbirt and to the same tree for our engagement shoot. The bark we collected was used to frame a photo from our shoot.

The Vision for the Day… You have probably gathered from the proposal that we love the outdoors and all things natural. We are also a no fuss, private couple and for these reasons I had wanted to elope or have a tiny wedding with just our immediate family. I didn’t want the stress of trying to plan a wedding to please so many people that ultimately would distract from what the day was actually about, us marrying each other. Jon on the other hand thought it was important to have a wedding and share it with our families and friends. So, after a couple of months we came to the compromise of a small wedding of just our closest family and friends, and most importantly wanted to have a wedding that reflected everything about us as individuals and a couple. A very relaxed, natural, personal and home made wedding celebrating the talents of ourselves and our families became our vision. We were only willing to pay someone else to do something we absolutely could not. We didn’t want a colour theme as wanted to be free with our choices and didn’t think it would suit our natural vision. A midsummer night’s dream was a lovely inspiration.

The Planning Process… We know our strengths so we stuck to what we do best. Jon was in charge of all things fundamental to our bookings and the techy bits. He had the most head ache inducing spread sheet I have ever seen but it clearly worked, because if it was down to me nothing would have been paid on time, if at all. Jon used his skills as a digital designer to create our invites and accompanying fridge magnets and generally enjoyed making lots of lists. What excited me most was finding the venue, which took the best part of 6 months. We knew we wanted something outdoorsy and a bit different and once I knew where to look, some of the most quirky and pretty places were popping up. However, our biggest stumbling block was that legally in England and Wales, you can only get married outdoors if under a licensed structure, which meant all the places we liked were unsuitable. A humanist wedding was on the cards until I found Hestercombe gardens. I also love flowers, baking and all things crafty so that was my focus.

The Venue… Hestercombe gardens, Somerset. I knew just from the website it was what we had been searching for and the fact that I gasped when we stood overlooking the formal gardens cemented it. It’s a gardeners dream and then there’s the quaint orangery where we chose to marry, miles of trails to explore, lakes, a hilltop temple and the most serenely set waterfall amongst huge ferns and trickling streams. We wanted to use as much of Hestercombe as possible and as luck would have it the weather was scorching so we had all the doors open in the orangery, played games, snacked and drank on the lawn, ate (our Asian inspired menu) in the very rustic woodland barn before heading to the outdoor courtyard and vaulted Bampfylde hall for dancing the night away to the very unique The Blue Notes acoustic band.

The Dress + Accessories… I knew I didn’t want a big fussy dress, strapless, low cut as it’s just not me. My sister had gotten married 6 months earlier so I had pretty much seen every sort of wedding dress from a bridal boutique going… and saw nothing for me. She had a very 1920’s inspired lace dress so I knew I didn’t want lace and being inspired more by the 60’s/70’s hippy bohemian era I realised I wanted a simple, floaty dress. I always wanted to wear flowers in my hair and wedges (by John Rocha). The flower crown was a mix of gypsophila, small cream roses and two large peach roses. My parents bought me a lovely pair of Clogau gold butterfly studs and Jon surprised me with a similar bracelet from Clogau. I wore a turquoise ring Jon had bought me one Christmas and the garter worn by both my mother and my sister. I wasn’t fussed about everything matching and was certain I wanted to do my own make up. I don’t wear much make up and just wanted to look like a better version of my normal self. The best bit of advice I was given about make up surprisingly came from my dad. ‘Make up is there only to enhance your natural beauty, not hide it’.

Finding the Dress… I bought my first dress whilst I was visiting Jon when he was living in Reading, I saw it in a shop and thought ooh that’s nice I’ll have that. The dress wasn’t too dissimilar to my wedding dress but it was much more fitted and had more sparkly bits. Once we had booked the venue I knew it just wouldn’t do. It seemed too formal somehow for such a relaxed and natural setting. So, knowing I wanted a floaty, unstructured dress I set about looking at high street wedding retailers. On my first shopping trip with my mother and sister I tried on a few similar dresses, all with a bateau neckline which I tend to wear generally then my mother found all my favourite aspects from each of the dresses in a dress from Coast. I knew it was the right dress when I tried it on because I felt like me.

Groom’s Attire… We didn’t want matching suits or groomsmen so thought it would be easy to find Jon a suit…was I wrong. He spent months trying matching suits, mix and match, mismatch then found a suit that he had been imagining. A lightweight (good job considering the heat) woven, taupe 3 piece suit by Taylor and Wright, with a club collared shirt and navy skinny tie from Topman, paisley pocket square and tan brogues by Bertie.

The Readings + Music… Captain Corelli’s Mondolin by Louis de Bernieres was read by our friend Laura. Laura was the reason Jon and I ever met. She set us up on a blind date while I was living in Cardiff and Jon in Reading so thought it was fitting she played a part in our ceremony. The reading was very fitting as linked in with a running theme of trees, starting with when we got engaged. The registrar incorporated the ‘Blessing of the Hands’ into the ceremony, after we exchanged rings. We held hands during the blessing as it is a ritual that symbolically brings two hearts together by the hands, which are considered to be a connection to the heart. The most meaningful part for me was ‘these are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch’.

Beautiful Bridesmaids… My sister Gemma and her daughter Emelia (2). I was really keen on not trying to find a specific dress style and told her she could wear anything as long as it was a neutral colour. We have very similar tastes in clothes so knew we were on the same wavelength when I described the venue to her. We found a cream crochet dress with a pale peach underlay. She made a peach belt with hanging roses, which she wore for part of the day. Emelia wore a cream/ gold sparkle dress by Monsoon. Both wore flower crowns, Gemma’s the same as my own minus the large peach roses and Emelia’s was a gypsophila circle.

The Flowers… We wanted lots and lots and lots of flowers. The thought of designing and creating all the flowers gave me the greatest feeling of excitement I could never describe. It was my release when the planning got stressful and although I know everyone thought I was crazy wanting to do it all myself, I really would not have changed a thing. What I love most is how much Jon now knows about flower (he actually knows what a lisianthus is and this was the man who when asked to prune the plants, chopped most things back to ground level!). My Mother in law Helen has years of experience creating flower displays for weddings so Jon and I went with her to Brunel flower market in Bristol to choose the flowers. We knew we wanted summer flowers, all white and lots of bright green foliage. We wanted the flowers to look like they fit the surroundings, so nothing too formal and structured. I have a secret love affair with moss and wanted the centrepieces to look like they were emerging from a mound rather than just dotted around the table. The beams in the woodland barn were crying out for hanging wreaths which Helen made and we wanted every aisle chair to have a bunch of gypsophila and September (mini daisies) so it looked like there was plants growing up from the floor. For my bouquet I wanted a hand tied display with a mix of white gypsophila, stocks, cream roses and a hint of colour from roses in peach. It was tied with twine and had a variety of peachy coloured ribbon hanging from it. My sister’s bouquet was gypsophila and cream roses. I collected loads of vases from charity shops and on the Friday before the wedding we had a conveyer belt going in our garage. With the help of my mother, sister and Jon we created 4 different flower filled vases for each table, my bouquet and my sister’s, 20 buttonholes (for males in both families), the register table displays, 20 aisle bouquets and a partridge in a pear tree! The venue were fabulous in moving our flowers from their day setting to evening setting, this meant our flowers got seen wherever we moved to. The only thing I couldn’t do was the flower crowns, which my local florist made. As the weather was 30+ degrees they needed to be done as late as possible to survive the journey down to Taunton on the Saturday and then until the Sunday. We used loads of different flowers but these are some of them: stocks, antirrhinums, gypsophila, lisianthus, freesias, roses, phlox, and carnations (for the buttonholes as for the last 3 generations of both our families the grooms have worn a white carnation), September, alstromeria, alchimilla mollis, ruscus, eucalyptus.

The Cake… I knew I wanted to make the cake myself and we wanted to avoid a traditional tiered cake and chocolate as that was for dessert. I crave fruit (strange I know) so discussed some ideas with Jon and decided to go with my favourite Victoria sponge recipe courtesy of Mary Berry. The cake was filled with chunky strawberry conserve and vanilla buttercream oozing out (this allowed me to make it a few days ahead rather than fresh cream). I bought an assortment of berries and added green strawberries from our garden. I also crystallised lots of pansies from the garden and bought tiny red and white toadstools. We didn’t want a tall cake as the height and focus would come from a carved wooden mushroom we’d had made. Jon’s mum Helen is a wonderful cook so she made some delicious brownies, carrot cake and lemon drizzle cake for the evening. It was all polished off the next day.

Your Photographer… Meg Jenkins photography. She just got us. We loved how informal her photography was but captured the loveliest shots without us and people knowing. The engagement shoot really allowed us to get to know Meg and she made us feel comfortable in front of the camera. No shot was ever posed, she would just take it off guard and I’m amazed how great they look.

The Details + Decor… My brother Daniel is an outstanding artist so we knew we wanted some of his work to be part of the day. We decided on a tree of life, which we asked everyone to leave their fingerprint on. We also wanted to have our grandparents who have died and so desperately wanted to be there to be represented in some way, so Daniel drew a butterfly for each of them. We also had a table of photographs of our parents and grandparents wedding days, a reminder of without who neither Jon nor I would be here.  Jon is a huge fan of wood so together we designed the cake stand, plant pot holders for the centrepieces which held trailing ivy, tea light holders, and table plan. We took our ideas to a local timber yard, ground works Caerphilly, and they were more than happy to help us bring our ideas to reality. We didn’t want traditional favours so made little wooden key ring like place names, we loved how well they went down, our friends were wearing them as necklaces and bracelets and not one got left behind. We burnt the names into the table plan, place names and table numbers.

The Honeymoon… straight after we went to Jon’s parents’ place in Spain for a week for a break and we are currently planning a west coast of America road trip for the spring. We want to visit Yosemite Park, The Big Sur, Lake Tahoe. In the meantime, I surprised Jon with a trip to the Maldives for his 30th so we will be going there the end of September.

Memorable Moments… Jade- starting my walk down the aisle at the top of the steps. Looking down over the lawn, into the orangery and seeing Jon’s beaming face I have never felt so serene. I’m an old romantic and the ceremony was beyond anything I could ever have imagined. I felt like it was just us two.

Jon- standing at the end of the aisle, waiting nervously for Jade to appear, that moment she turned the corner and I saw her for the first time in that beautiful dress, and her famous smile, all nerves went out the window, and excitement took over.  I loved every second of the ceremony, it was so much more special than I thought it could be.  Saying our own vows was a special moment, as the meaning of the day really shone through.

Advice for Other Couples… you do what you want to do and remember the most important part of the day is the two of you getting married. It will all be worth it in the end.

Credit Where Credit is Due…

photography by Meg Jenkins https://en-gb.facebook.com/MegJenkinsPhotography

artwork by Daniel Des Eynon https://www.facebook.com/ddeynon

woodwork by groundworks http://www.wales.groundwork.org.uk/caerphilly.aspx

chair hire from b&b marquees http://www.bandbmarquees.co.uk/

car hire from vintage wheels http://www.vintage-wheels.co.uk/

 

Such a meaningful, personal day. Thanks so much to Jon and Jade for sharing their gorgeous wedding with us today XOXO Lou