With a cool laid back style, this wedding oozes love and happiness throughout. In that end of winter, beginning of spring time, the couple tied the knot on a beautiful bright day.
WWW readers Amy and Luke were hitched on the 17th February 2017 at Sopley Mill in Dorset. The vision was to create a relaxed celebration that wasn’t tied to traditions that didn’t mean anything to them. They also added in personal touches, with references to New York where the proposal took place and Lego additions to the décor. They used a wide range of on trend hues used throughout too, which worked wonderfully. The florals were their main decoration and they were simply outstanding. Lush seasonal greenery meets ivory and burgundy blooms… wow.
Amy’s ASOS gown was a real show-stopper, I love the delicate illusion details and her dreamy tulle veil complimented it perfectly. She also wore flowers in her hair to complete the look. Luke was suited and booted in an ASOS suit in a blue tone with deep red accessories. This really is a splendid wedding and I think you’ll thoroughly enjoy these images and accompanying story.
Big Bouquet, thank you so much for sending over these incredible shots.
THE PROPOSAL | We got engaged back in May 2015 in Central Park on my first trip to New York. It was somewhere I’d always wanted to go, so that made it extra special.
THE VISION | We wanted a day that was relaxed, where we didn’t follow traditions for the sake of it unless it was something we actually wanted to do. We wanted to add some personal touches, which we did with things such as Luke’s stormtrooper cufflinks and lightsaber tie pin, the Lego bride and groom cake topper, New York Lego buildings on the top table, and the New York table names.
We wanted a fairly traditional three-course sit-down meal as we both like going out to restaurants and wanted to keep that formality. We also had canapés after the ceremony to keep people going.
THE PLANNING PROCESS | We started planning back in September 2015, and for me having 17 months to go was too much time when I’m fairly organised and wanted to get the ball rolling on everything. I did book the big things back then, such as the venue. As I’m sure always happens, it still got hectic in the last few weeks regardless of how well everything was planned in advance!
THE VENUE | Sopley Mill, near Christchurch, Dorset.
THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress and shoes were bought online from ASOS, and my veil was from CarrollBridal on Etsy.
Me and my sisters are reminded of my Grandma when it comes to feathers, so I had a silver feather bracelet given to me from my dad and stepmum from Thomas Sabo, and feather earrings given to me by my mother-in-law from Pandora. I also wore a gold charm bracelet from my mum, that once belonged to her mum, and I wore my great-nan’s engagement ring on my right hand.
My perfume was Chanel No. 5 from a bottle that my Grandma had bought me for a birthday, and that I tend to save for special occasions.
FINDING THE DRESS | I knew I’d be happy with a dress that wasn’t massively expensive, so when I heard last year that ASOS were starting a bridal range, I thought I’d give it a try. I ordered about 6 dresses and I was lucky enough to find it on there.
GROOM’S ATTIRE | Luke also found his navy suit, burgundy tie and pocket square on ASOS. He wore a white shirt from Debenhams, brown shoes from New Look, and had silver stormtrooper cufflinks and a lightsaber tie pin that my dad had bought him the previous year.
THE READINGS & MUSIC | My sister read Love is a Temporary Madness from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin as we liked the words and what they meant.
I walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of Now We Are Free from Gladiator as Luke and I both really like Hans Zimmer music. The rest of our ceremony music was also instrumental songs that we liked, from Jose Gonzalez, Coldplay, and Ed Sheeran.
BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My two sisters wore black and silver dresses from Coast, with shoes and jewellery from New Look, and a black jacket from Quiz.
My nieces wore navy and silver dresses from Monsoon and BHS, with silver shoes, and my little cousin wore a navy dress from H&M.
THE FLOWERS | Joey from The Wild Fox did all of our amazing flowers, which were seasonal whites, greenery and a touch of burgundy. She put together my hairpiece and bouquet; buttonholes and corsages for the mums and dads; wrist corsages for the bridesmaids, and a flower and wicker hoop for my little cousin.
For the ceremony, she decorated the pew ends with foliage and grey ribbon from Lancaster and Cornish, and put down black lanterns alongside the chairs. She also arranged the table flowers into gold urns, alongside candles in gold votives, and put flowers around the cake and the table plan.
THE CAKE | As a keen baker, I decided to make the cake myself, which did worry me a little bit towards the end. I made a two-tiered semi-naked carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and it seemed to go down well! It was decorated with flowers, and we put the Lego bride and groom on the top. I bought the cake stand from Oliver Bonas.
YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Our wonderful photos were the work of Emma and Ian at Big Bouquet Photography. We had fun with them on the day and in our pre-wedding photo shoot, which really helped us to get used to the camera.
THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | The vision for the look was modern, elegant, minimal and seasonal – reflecting winter/spring, but relaxed. I liked the Australian-style wedding that kept popping up online. I didn’t want to get too carried away with details when I knew that the venue was beautiful enough on its own, and wanted the flowers to be the primary decoration.
The colour palette we went for was black, navy, gold, silver, white, green and burgundy, but we basically just picked things that we liked.
When we were in Orlando last year, we managed to pick up the gold Mr & Mrs balloons and the evening guestbook props from Walmart.
I designed both the invitations and menus in a black and gold style and got these printed on Printed.com. I also did the table plan but had this printed in a local printing shop as it was so close to the day by the time the guests were finalised. I wrote the table names with a bronze Sharpie on black card and put them in simple black frames.
I also spent a year practising modern calligraphy at home, and used this for the name cards. I wrote them in gold ink, on navy card. Doing these bits myself did create a bit of work in the weeks before the wedding, but I enjoyed it and think they turned out all right in the end.
THE HONEYMOON | We went to Dubai for four days, and then Bali for ten days, which was a great cultural experience.
MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Given that it was February, I couldn’t believe how lucky we were with the sunny and fairly warm weather.
The day before the wedding will also stick in my mind with the buzz of everyone arriving, my sister and her boyfriend helping me set up a few bits, and having dinner with lots of excited family members.
I was also pretty nervous during the ceremony and it was very surreal, but memorable.
After the day, we both felt very lucky, grateful and blown away by all the help, love and warmth that we received.
ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Don’t feel like you need to have at least a year to plan, if you think you can manage it and you don’t want to.
We had some small things that didn’t work out on the day, but it all ended up being trivial so don’t stress about the fine details.
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |
Photographers | Big Bouquet
Florist | The Wild Fox
Catering | Vanilla
Hair and Make up | Amazing Face
DJ | We Perform
Bar | Tom’s Bespoke Bartending Co
Oh my, so very lovely!
Huge thanks to Amy and Luke for sharing their super gorgeous nuptials with us, what a delight! xo Lou