It's such a pleasure to share this sweet and stylish wedding with you all today.
The bride, Sara, is the editor of Wedding Sparrow (a gorgeous blog to add to your collection) and the lady behind the lens is Debs Ivelja Photography – whose romantic photos I've been admiring ever since I was a bride myself.
Sara and Andy opted for a soft, delicate colour palette of ivory, blush pink and grey teamed with fresh green, spiky succulents and mecury glass. While rustic details such as twine wrapped place settings, chalkboard signs and locally sourced food added to the relaxed, organic vibe of the day.
I was almost as excited as their adorable little flower girl when I saw Sara's elegant, fitted, lace wedding dress for the first time. (See the seventh photo down). That fishtail is a show stopper!
From The Bride…
Our day was all about us and we were pretty strict about that. We didn’t want anything ‘just because it was tradition’. We wanted the day to be an extension of ourselves so if that meant we didn’t have a formal receiving line or the boys wearing ‘tails’ then so be it. I even had my mum walk me down the aisle as my mum is the person who raised me and who I’m closest to so we did away with tradition and she gave me away.
The Wedding Dress
I knew I wanted a fitted dress and wanted it to be quite plain. A challenge in itself when I was presented with some fairly blingtastic designs whilst dress shopping! Luckily I found the perfect lace dress from Boda Bridal in Chester (250 miles away!) by Enzoani. Classic looking and not trendy in any way, I hope it stands the test of time! I wanted the bridesmaids in something they felt comfortable in and could wear again. We went shopping together and came home with gorgeous fitted cream dresses from Coast.
The Flowers
I had been going Pinterest crazy before the wedding with floral ideas and managed to refine it literally days before the wedding. The flowers tied in with the colours of the day which were ivories, greys, greens and blush pinks. We picked peonies, ranunculus, silver brunia, astilbe and succulents to really make them different to your usual centrepieces.
The Music
I walked up the aisle to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow, signed the register to Katie Herzig’s ‘Jack and Jill’ and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros ‘Home’, and we walked back down the aisle together to The Temper Trap’s ‘Sweet Disposition’. Our first dance was to Iron and Wine’s ‘American Mouth’.
The Photography
We were really picky about our photographer as we really wanted someone who didn’t just do it as a ‘day job’. When I came across Debs via Twitter, we were super impressed that she just really loved photography in general. It didn’t have to be wedding related, it was clear that photography was her passion in general. When we met up we got on so well that we chatted for about 3 hours! We’re blessed to now count Debs as a friend and we couldn’t recommend her enough! In fact, even our guests did as some of them enquired about having her at their upcoming weddings!
Decor & Details
We tried to limit the amount of DIY we had at the wedding purely because I didn’t want to spend the run up to the wedding stressing over the little things when they didn’t go right! So we called upon Hannah who runs Sweet Dream Events who supplied us with ready-made paper pom poms that just needed ‘fluffing’ on the day! Et voila! I also made the straw flags for reception hour as something a little fun for the guests and Andy created the stationery suite himself so that was about the extent of our attempt at DIY!
The Refreshments
The Green House, where we had our reception, is the UK’s greenest hotel and the restaurant is really fine dining at its best. We had local produce (even the wine was made in Dorset!) and created our own ‘signature’ cocktails at the drinks reception (Blushing Bride and El-Mojo!).
Advice For Other Couples
I was obsessed with wedding blogs (so much so I started my own!) and social media apps such as Pinterest before the big day! They made me realise there is so much more to the wedding industry than I initially thought and I was able to access far more suppliers than I would usually at the local wedding fairs. Don’t limit yourself to your location. Any vendor will travel to you if you want them. Our photographer, make up artist and florist all travelled from afar.
My biggest piece of advice? Keep the day all about you. It’s easy to get carried away when there’s a million decisions to be made but keep it an extension of yourselves, that way your wedding shouldn’t ‘date’ when you look back on it.
Congratulations Sara and Andy!
Thanks so much for sharing your special day with us and thanks also to Debs Ivelja Photography for these beautiful photos.
