Alice & Dan

Oxford is renowned for it's boating on the river, so what better way to go from your traditional church ceremony to your contemporary Ashmolean museum reception than on a Salters Steamers boat. Including a live jazz band and passing a live boat race on route. What a treat. And bringing a roaring twenties vintage vibe to the day is stunning bride Alice in a beaded Vicky Rowe ' Primrose' gown. Wait until you hear the story of Alice's bracelet gifted to her by her Dad too, not only it it incredibly beautiful, but it'll tug on your heart strings.

Bride

Alice the Bride: I had seen a few deco inspired dresses and liked the style but it wasn’t until I saw Vicky Rowe Primrose dress that I knew I had the perfect dress for me. I loved that it combined a simple shape with stunningly intricate beadwork - the dress completely reflected our approach to the whole wedding: nothing too over the top but lots of lovely details. Vicky’s dresses also feel amazing to wear (the weight of the beads makes putting the dress on feel like getting a gentle hug) and I loved meeting Vicky and talking to here about her designs. I also had the luxury of a stunning evening dress by Osman to change into for the dancing in the evening. Tori Harris did my hair and make up and made me look like myself, but on a good day - perfect! My jewellery was particularly special. My wedding ring combines gold from each of my parent’s wedding rings with that from a wedding ring belonging to a member of Dan’s family. It was made by Stuzanne who have made rings for many friends’ weddings. My father surprised me with a bracelet that he’d designed himself, which incorporates a sapphire that he’d given to my mum, and in turn I’d had Lawsons Goldsmiths of Henley make him a pair of cufflinks in the shape of Albert and the Lion - a favourite childhood story.

Grooms Attire

Dan was always going to wear a morning suit and liked the traditional look of Oliver Brown’s suits. I gave him a Salvatore Ferragamo tie and his waistcoat came from Ede and Ravenscroft.

Ceremony

We got married in St Mary’s, Iffley. One of Dan’s godfathers acted as my chauffeur and the other gave the sermon - possibly the only sermon to be both extremely touching and include a joke about Lord Denning for the (many) lawyers in the congregation. We were also very lucky to have Dan’s cousin play the organ for us.

Venue & Catering

We met studying classics and ancient history so getting married in a museum was an obvious choice. The Ashmolean is a beautiful backdrop and the team are fantastic at hosting events. We’d heard from friends who had been to weddings at the museum previously that the food was amazing and Clerkenwell Green created an absolutely delicious menu for us.

Transport

With the ceremony just outside Oxford, the museum in the centre of town and a river in between, we couldn’t resist the prospect of travelling by boat in between the two. Salters Steamers provided a river boat big enough to take all our guests and the Callum Au Big Band down the river. Salters were unbelievably helpful and accommodating!

Decoration

Both the church and the Ashmolean are stunning venues on their own and needed very little in terms of decoration. We had fun coming up with small additional touches, including the Penguin Little Black Classics with library cards for name places and paper boats made out of pages of an out of date Oxford Classical Dictionary. I went a bit mad a month or so before the wedding and decided to make the table runner for the two long tables myself - I think I sewed about 160m of hems over a weekend. As we couldn’t have real candles at the Ashmolean, we covered fake tea lights with clear marbles inside a variety of small glass jars - it was surprisingly effective!

Flowers

Stemtation Flowers in Henley have provided flowers for dozens of family occasions and we knew that Katherine and Eric would create the perfect flowers for the day. The main challenge we set them was making the long dinner tables look like they had an English garden growing along their length. This they miraculously achieved and the effect was magical.

Photography

Neither of us react well in front of a camera and we wanted a photographer who would capture the day as it happened, rather than co-ordinating posed photographs. Razia captured some stunning, very special photographs of us without our noticing and her photos really tell the story of the day.