Ellie & Chris

Ellie and Chris' big day is just brimming with gorgeous details - think pastel blooms, bud vases, a semi naked cake and giant confetti filled balloons. The couple also created a wedding newspaper as their order of service which is such a fun idea, they've done an excellent job of making it look really smart too. The couple chose one of our favourite venues, Millbridge Court, to host their wedding day. It's a stunning venue and it's always lovely to share weddings from there. The space is so light and airy, a photographers dream. Also a dream, are their caterers Kalm Kitchen - look out for the chocolate and salted caramel pavlova, it's literally making me want to lick the screen...

The Venue

Ellie the Bride: Millbridge Court was the only venue we visited and as soon as we walked in we both knew it was the one. I’d never considered getting married outside but as soon as we saw the Arbor out the back I was sold and praying for sun. The team at Millbridge were so helpful throughout the entire planning process. The wedding day itself was overcast during the morning, however, just before the ceremony started the sun came out and shone for the rest of the day.

The Bride

I wasn’t really sure what kind of dress I wanted so when I started looking I tried on every style. I visited a handful of bridal shops but nothing blew me away. My sister Megan suggested A-Bride-2-Bee as that’s where she found hers a couple of years before. Megan actually pulled the dress out, at first I wasn’t sure because of the amount of detail on it. However, as soon as I put it on I fell in love with it, the detail was exquisite and I loved the high neck line and light gold colouring. My shoes were from Sophia Webster and I actually bought them before my dress! I’d seen them online before we got engaged and so after saying ‘yes’ checked them out. They only had two sizes left and one was mine, so I thought it was fate and brought them there and then. As the dress had a lot of detail, I wanted to keep it simple with accessories. I always thought I wanted a short veil, however, when I started trying them on there was no comparison with the cathedral length veils. After having initially bought an ivory coloured veil, I was having doubts that the colour didn’t go with my light gold dress. I stumbled across Gillian Million online and made an appointment two weeks before the wedding day. Gillian’s silk tulle veils are absolutely stunning and the cream shade went perfectly with my dress; luckily Gillian managed to get the veil in in time for our wedding! Amanda White did my hair and make-up, I wanted to keep my hair simple with loose curls with a glam but natural look for my makeup. Amanda also did a brilliant job on my bridesmaids hair who had a relaxed side bun and all looked totally gorgeous.

The Wedding Party

I was lucky that my bridesmaids are all quite similar in size so suited the same style. I saw the top at a wedding show and loved the skirt and top combination. The grooms party suits were from Windsor Formal Hire. Chris wanted a navy blue suit and we liked the lower fit waistcoat teamed with patent black shoes. To stand out from the groomsmen Chris wore a polka dot bow tie.

The Decor & Styling

From the beginning we wanted the day to be fun and relaxed with plenty of personal touches and for everyone to have as much fun as possible. Bex at Blush Floral provided the flowers for the venue, we clicked straight away and she knew what we were after. We choose pastel colours, our bouquets were absolutely beautiful and featured a variety of flowers including roses, sweet peas and peonies. The venue flowers included low table arrangements in glass jars and two larger arrangements at the front of the ceremony which were just stunning. Everyone commented about how beautiful the flowers were. We got engaged in Edinburgh so on every table we put a miniature Edinburgh Gin liqueur bottle to which Bex added a single stem too. In the dining barn Bubblegum Balloons provided giant balloons suspended from the ceiling, which added colour and created such a fun feel. As a personal touch we sourced photos of each guest, which went down really well and created a great talking point at the tables. We continued the polaroid theme around the venue with polaroid photos of us by the cake, bar and guest book. We also hired a polaroid camera and film for the guest book. We added some homemade touches as my mum spent the weeks before making Jammy dodgers for the favours and Chris made a photo booth that we hung outside using the hashtag #HappilyEverMartin.

The Ceremony

Instead of a traditional order of service, we created a wedding newspaper, which was given to the guests as they made their way into the ceremony. One of Chris’ colleagues designed it for us and we got it printed through the newspaper club. It featured the order of the day, menu, pictures of the bridal party and a timeline of our relationship.

The Food

The food was created by Kalm Kitchen and it was utterly delicious. The team was fantastic from the beginning and so attentive on the day. I’ve got a few food intolerances and Kalm Kitchen was so accommodating in helping us find or alter food to suit my dietary requirements. For the reception we offered a variety of canapes including roasted lamb skewers, roasted butternut and fresh pea curry in sesame baskets, salt and pepper squid, peking duck rolls, balsamic braised beef shin in savoury cones and crispy pork belly with spiced pineapple chutney. Kalm Kitchen also created a Bubble bar with fresh fruit and fruit purees to go with the prosecco. For our wedding breakfast we went with a sharing anti pasti dish followed by marinated chicken breast with butter roasted sweet potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli with a lemon and basil burnt butter sauce. Our favourite part of the wedding breakfast was the slice at the table banoffee pavlova. We got the guests involved by nominating one guest per table and gave them a personalised apron so they looked the part while serving the dessert. I’ve always liked the look of semi-naked cakes and found Andi Freeman online. Her style of cake was exactly what we wanted and she suggested some amazing flavour combinations. We decided on a five tier cake with tiers of ginger and vanilla buttercream, lemon and lavender, and orange and almond with coconut buttercream that was wheat and diary free.

The Photography

I couldn’t recommend Kirsty more highly! We found Kirsty on Instagram and absolutely loved her style of photos. Kirsty and our second photographer, Alissa, were brilliant on the day and made us feel at ease. We knew we didn’t want lots of group photos but for them to capture the atmosphere and fun of the day. And Kirsty really did! The photos are amazing, Kirsty created the most incredible memories for us.

The Videography

We made the decision on the videographer quite late in the day and it was one of the best decisions we made. Martin from The Camera Chap Weddings was fantastic, we didn’t even know he was filming a lot of the time. It was so lovely to watch the day back, which brought back so many memories. It was also nice having the uncut versions of the ceremony and speeches so we could really re-live the whole day.

The Entertainment

Chris and I are both massive fans of live music so we knew from the start that we wanted a band. We found Blue Juice, a four piece band from Brighton, online and loved their funky style of music. They had everyone dancing the night away to everything from Justin Timberlake to the classics! Our first dance was to Tom Odell’s Grow Old with me, which Blue Juice learnt, this was followed by the Jungle Book that got everyone on the dancefloor.