Carli and Ben are gracing these blog pages this morning with their beautiful winter wonderland wedding held at Mythe Barn, Atherstone. Their vision was for a cosy wintry wedding, and i must say it looked so very lovely indeed.
Carli chose a stunning Jenny Packham dress teamed with some swoon worthy Jimmy Choos, while Ben went for traditional tails by Peter Posh, worn by the groomsmen also. They looked just wonderful. I so love the bridesmaids donning elegant black dresses with their fur shurgs and pretty gypsophilia bouquets.
There are so many lovely touches to their day, with an abundance of music entertainment for their guests, sweet monochrome decor and a touch of glamour.
Thanks so much to the fabulous Daffodil Waves Photography for sharing her images with us today.
The Proposal…. At the beautiful, The Manor House, Castle Combe in the Cotswolds. Ben had taken me away for a surprise birthday treat, I had no idea where we were going and we turned up at this stunning hotel set in beautiful grounds in a little a village, it really was in a world of its own. We were then escorted to a beautiful cottage style room, I say escorted because Ben was recovering from a serious football injury and had only been out of plaster for a few weeks so was still on crutches. We ate in the Michelin fine dining restaurant followed by a cosy night cap by the open log fire, a welcome place on 4 November 2012. We then retired to our room and Ben did his best to get on one knee, despite his injury. Needless to say I was absolutely over the moon and couldn’t sleep a wink as I was far too excited! Ben & I met in 2004 whilst we were both at University.
The Vision for the day…. A wintery cosy wedding.
The Planning process…. The planning was great fun we started out by looking around venues, we saw Mythe Barn the morning after our engagement party. We had heavy heads to say the least and when we arrived we were kitted out with a hard hat and high vis jacket! It really was a building site, neither building had a roof or flooring, it wasn’t even a shell at the time but after seeing the attention to detail in the farm house, the artist impressions we just knew it was everything that we wanted rustic yet modern and when the launch day arrived in May, it couldn’t have been better, the finish on the venue really is excellent and the staff were very friendly and welcoming.
We then debated on dates and came to the conclusion that we wanted a winter wedding, a cosy winter wonderland and we really did just run with that theme, from floral pieces to table decorations and even the tables names were name names after the reindeers with the top table of course being Mr & Mrs Claus :)
Budget…. We did try and budget it but its fair to say we totally blew it!
The Venue… Gorgeous Mythe Barn, Pinwall Lane, Atherstone.
The Dress + Accessories….. Jenny Packham Dalia, Jimmy Choos for that extra sparkle, Head dress was vintage in style from the bridal shop Go Bridal Birmingham.
Finding the dress…. I found my dress purely by chance. I had emailed Go Bridal in Birmingham as over the Christmas period I had driven past the shop and spotted a beautiful dress in their window. I just wanted to find out who the designer was, they got in touch to let me know it was a Suzanne Neville dress but to make an appointment as they do stock lots of her dresses for me to have a look at. I then had an email to say there has been a cancellation later Saturday pm if I wanted to pop in, it was lovely timing as I spent the day in Birmingham at a spa with my Mom and sister so we popped in on the way home. Fiona greeted us and she really was fantastic, she gave me 4 tags and asked me to look around and place a tag on 3 dresses I like the look of to try and then my 4th tag on my wild card dress that I would not really think suited me but that I really liked.
I tried on my wild card dress first, Jenny Packham Dalia and it took my breath away, I thought it was just because it was the first wedding dress I had ever tried on but I had the same reaction from my Mom and sister, they loved it. I tried the other 3 on and nothing even compared, I tried it on again and just knew I had to have it. I was very lucky that my Mom had saved up to buy my dress and then later my amazing shoes, I loved both. Closer to the time when I went for my fittings I met the seamstress who I talked to about having a coat with it being December and she managed to source me some perfect colour match material, I described what I wanted and she created my coat from scratch which really did not only come in useful but went brilliantly with my dress.
Groom’s attire… Ben picked his own outfit, he wanted it in keeping with the theme and down the traditional tails route. They were all hired from Peter Posh at Minworth Birmingham.
The Readings + Music… We had a beautiful Harpist for the ceremony called Alison Eve, I walked down the aisle with my Dad and the girls to pachelbel canon in d, during the service my cousin Lydia beautifully sang Adele make you feel my love and we walked out to Jason Mraz I’m yours. During the service we had one reading by our friend Emma Winslow called On your wedding day by Anon.
We had a string quartet during the drinks reception that everybody raved about http://www.
And then to really get the party started we had the wedding crashes, the dance floor was never empty Jo & Jayme are absolute great and know how to get the party started!
Beautiful bridesmaids….. My beautiful bridesmaids which were made up of Ben 2 sisters Hannah and Kate, my sister Charlene and my best friend Natalie, they looked stunning. They wore shilo black maxi dresses from coast with shrugs ordered from lightinthebox. Shoes were from Debenhams Debut. They really were brilliant on the day and during the build up and organised an amazing hen doo for me in Belfast which really was unforgettable. We all had a brilliant morning getting ready and having our hair done at Sirimi the red salon in Birmingham.
The Flowers… The flowers were done by Passion for flowers, Karen Morgan really is your ideas lady, so creative and the room truly met the brief of a cosy winter wonderland.
The Cake… Again we had a brief meeting with Becky and told her what were were thinking and she worked her magic, it really was different and tasted out of this world, the top was lemon sponge, the middle Chocolate sponge and the bottom was Victoria sponge, we are not fruit cake fans but again the guests loves it. Chittys cake company.
Your Photographer…. Our photographer was Nicola from Daffodil waves and she was super!!!!!! Can’t recommend her enough, she was at the end of an email though tout the whole build up and really good fun to be around, she was a real calming person on the day, you would not even have know she was there! I’m sure you have her details as she is just brill!
The Details + Decor…. The detail and decor if it wasn’t down to Karen the florist and her daughters company called wedding of my dreams http://www.
The favours were jam jars embossed with a heart, filled with snow bites and Bon bons with black and white spotty material over the top with a thank you tag.
Our stationery was done by Becky Sappor https://www.facebook.com/
The Honeymoon…. We booked our honeymoon ourselves, we went to Singapore, Maldives and Dubai. The Maldives really is paradise in the middle of the Ocean, we stayed here http://www.kuramathi.com/
Memorable moments… All of it! The ceremony was really special the registrars were great and really put us at ease, it felt intimate and when we were at the front saying our vows, it felt like it was just the 2 of us. We also stood back in the evening and just watched all our family and friends enjoying themselves and that really made us smile.
Advice for other couples… Enjoy every single second, it is such a special day so take it all in and enjoy the party with all your friends and family.
Credit where credit us due…
Photographer: Daffodil Waves Photography
Venue: Mythe Barn
Dress: Go Bridal
Suits: Peter Posh
Harpist: Alison Eve
String Quartet: The Nero String Quartet
Hair: Sirimi
Flowers: Passion for flowers
Cake: Chittys cake company
Details: Wedding of my Dreams and Dot Com Gift Shop
Stationery: Beautiful Bird Creations
So beautiful. Thanks so much to Carli and Ben for sharing their wedding with us today XOXO Lou