Terri & Paul

The wedding of Bride Terri a.k.a Summer Lily Studio to her beau Paul is simply stunning. When you view the tablescape you'll be forgiven for thinking it's a shoot it's that perfect. Pan out to to whole marquee reception and you can see a whole lot-a-love, style and planning was put in to make it so special. Cue help from industry friends Claire Clarke Weddings, White Emporium, and not forgetting Terri's mum who by the sounds of it was an absolute legend and quite a dab hand with a can of spray paint, and you will understand even more why everything is so beautiful, and ran so smoothly. Terri looks absolutely stunning in both her bridal gowns. I love the tulle and lace on the Pronovias gown and the backless feature on the Katie May gown is absolutely breathtaking. I think if I had the chance to wear both I would have definitely jumped at it too. As for her best girls, I don't think she could have found a more apt. peach, sequin gown from ASOS, perfectly mirroring the colour scheme and cooper and rose gold decor and details at the wedding. An absolutely gorgeous display of rustic romance and dreamy fine art photography captured beautifully by Terri's friend Lauren from Sung Blue Photography.

{The Film}

Location

Terri the Bride: The location for this wedding was my parents house in Ickwell where I have grown up for most of my life and, couldn't imagine getting married anywhere else but home. In the UK it is not legal to get married at home so 2 days prior we did the legal part so the ceremony at home was a blessing. The original ceremony set up was to be on the lawn but on the day the rain came early and it let up till 5pm, the ceremony was 2pm so was put under the marquee roof. Although it was raining heavy I was so chilled out, I think being at home gave me an inner calm even if I was walking around in wellies before hair and make up! Karen – a good friend of the family and lives in the village is a registrar and conducted the most wonderful blessing for us. She conducted my sisters wedding when she had her civil ceremony so was really important for us that she do ours. We went to the registry office she works from so she could do our legal ceremony also. The ceremony arch was built by dad from silver birch wood and dressed by the florist. The rain eventually gave way around 5pm to a stunning sunset which enabled the us and bridesmaids to go out for more photos

Flowers/Florist

The flowers used were a lot of greenery with soft peach tones and a 'freshly picked' feel to them. The idea was to have an organic feel to the styling that went with the environment of the wedding being at home. I went for silk table runners an ribbons for the bouquets as I love that fine art feel it gives.

Colour Scheme & Decor

My favourite colours are peach, rose gold and copper so it was only natural that our decoration was in those colours. I found it hard to source much copper, even though it is becoming much more popular now. So I spent many an afternoon in the garden with my mum spraying away with my copper spray paint. My mum was literally a godsend throughout the whole process, she really does have the patience of a saint. She filled all the confetti bags, tied ribbons on all the Prosecco and Jager bottles, wrapped all the gifts and table self sticks. Plus so much more but she definitely took the edge off the stress of getting things done for me when I was in peek wedding season being a photographer myself.

Cake

The cake was made by Pauls mum, victoria sponge is my all time fave, it’s a classic I know but she did us proud….especially with me wanting it 3 per tier and 3 tiers high. She’s never stacked cakes before but you would never know from the photos! She was a bit nervous making it when she knew my friend Candice – winner of GBBO 2016 was going to be there. Although at the time no one knew she had won as it had only just started!

The Wedding Party Fashion

Bridesmaid dress were purchased around Christmas time as I knew it had to be sequins to get a little sparkle in there and at Christmas there are so many more options! They were from ASOS and did 3 different styles which I ordered for everyone as I was happy to have a mix and match but in the end they all loved the same dress so that made life easy! The flower girls word pale peach tutus, white ballerina leotards with berry flower crowns. There are my god daughters and call Paul uncle Pauly so were a really special part of our day! I literally had no say in the guys outfits, Paul was adamant that he knew what he wanted. The blazers were from Zara and the trousers from Topman. One thing that I didn’t realise till half way through the day and just had to laugh was that they had all pinned the button holes on upside down! But they rocked it anyway!

Entertainment

In the day we wanted a really relaxed feel and had Gregg who is an acoustic singer, he was more than happy to learn our two ceremony songs . I walked down the aisle to Ed Sheran Tenerife sea and then we walked back down the aisle as husband and wife to James Bays version of Lifting me higher. For our evening entertainment I already knew who it would be and just had to make sure Paul liked them also, which after watching their video he totally did. I saw Salut at 2 weddings I had been working and just loved the leads voice and the vibe of the whole bad while performing. The sang our first dance acoustic which watch Sam Smith Latch. The upbeat version with Discloure is actually ‘our song’ so the slowned down version was perfect for our first dance. Simon front Event UK was the DJ, I’ve seen him DJ twice before and loved how he got the dance floor packed both times. We pretty much let Simon do his own thing and just said the genres which we liked. We kept it more mainstream with the band songs and DJ till 11pm and then for the last 2 hours had hip hop, garage, rnb…….afte that I think mum parents went inside the house for a cuppa tea and left us youngsters to it!

Food

Paul’s two stipulations for the wedding planning were that there was enough food and enough drink on the day! We had canapés straight after the ceremony and it was a good job we did as our 130 guest had gone through 100 beers and 20 bottles of Prosecco before the ceremony even began! Having the wedding at home we opted for a professional BBQ but there was much food everyone was going up for seconds. A good family friend Claire made us different flavoured cake jars for desert that went perfectly well with the ice cream van that we also had. Being at home gave us wonderful flexibility and we were able to put on a free bar until 10pm at night, when the money finally ran out and full prices resumed!

Photographer

In the lead up to the wedding I got asked this question often, and still do now by my own clients. I feel really bless that I have an amazing friend in Lauren who runs SungBlue Photography. We met around 4 years and when it comes to the world of photography we’ve become pretty inseparable. She even shot my sisters wedding with me and knows my family really well. Lauren gifted us our wedding photography and I can’t wait to do the return for her this July when she gets married. Hopefully I can live us to the standard and her wedding will be featured on Rock My Wedding also!

Videographer

Tegan from Roost is just insanely talented. I felt her style of videography matched perfectly with the style of my day. She just knew what she was doing I trusted her completely. I would say for anyone not having a video to seriously reconsider, it captures the emotion in a totally different way to images. If you can juggle your budget you won’t be disappointed!

Engagement

When we got engaged Paul knew it wouldn’t be a long engagement, as you can imagine with myself being a wedding photographer I was well connected to source quickly what we needed for the vision of our day.

Beauty

My best friend Leah (bridesmaid and mum to the two flower girls) did everyone hair and make up. I literally have never felt as amazing as I did thank to her on my wedding day. I never wear my hair up but she convinced me to do two looks and it worked perfectly!

Planning

Whilst having an ‘at home’ wedding provided lots of flexibility it also meant there was a lot of set up on the day and dealing with suppliers. Claire Clarke Weddings ran the on the day co ordination from start to finish! From helping with last minute decorations when she arrived, to handing out umbrellas as guests arrived (yes it rained on our day) , ensuing all suppliers had power and set up in the right places. To things that were down to other suppliers like pouring the champagne toast to ensure our day didn't over run and tidying tables keeping everything looking beautiful as evening guests arrived.

Styling

Gemma from the White Emporium did all the styling and then re styling, she set up a chillout area at night for us and generally kept everywhere looking tidy. I honestly can't thank Claire & Gemma enough it's down to them that I got to really enjoy and soak up the atmosphere of my day than having to worry about all of those bits myself on the day!