Danielle & Ed
Photography by Grace And Blush
Our Story
We were in the same halls of residence at University and were introduced by our Best Man Andrew – we have been together 13 years!Our Wedding
I grew up in Berkshire, not too far away from the venue. The venue had everything on the estate - church, garden room for reception, a castle barn for the wedding breakfast and cottages and dovecotes for the wedding party to stay the night. I also stayed in the farmhouse, Home Farm the night before the wedding with my bridesmaids which is also on the estate. I also loved the style – the church was more a chapel – super tiny and very old – I think it’s Benedictine. The rest of the estate was a beautiful backdrop. For me our day was all about the finishing touches and making sure our personalities and style rang through from the flowers, to the table settings, food, decor and music. We also wanted it to be incredibly fun for our guests and hopefully be as different and as modern as we could be from any other wedding. Most of all we wanted the day to be the most wonderful and memorable day with the people we loved.The Bride
I wanted a more fashion-forward dress, no lace and wanted my dress to be memorable. I didn’t want to be traditional; I guess this stems from working in Fashion and for Net-A-Porter. I also wanted to be able to move around and dance with ease (we did a little dance routine to Stevie Wonder for our first dance that incorporated a lift so I needed to move!) and have sleeves after all a English wedding in April may very well be a little colder. My body shape is athletic, I’m not particularly curvy so I want something that would suit my frame and elongate me. I also love a little sparkle and embellishment and looked for a dress that either had no back, super low one or a very interesting one. Trying to find my dress was the hardest part for me, it’s was so outside my comfort zone. I originally was going to go for a 30s style dress and have a more Gatsby esquse champagne silk dress made for me but I suddenly realised that I did want to wear white and feel more bridal. I was blown away by the service at Temperley (it was the last place I visited after nine appointments with other bridal designers), the attention to detail, the after service, the staff were incredible in particular my dedicated bridal stylist - Charlotte Catt and it made my experience incredibly special. I left my dress to try on last – I had noticed how it was shimmering in the light and knew as I put it on it was would be right. I did however lower the neckline to soften around my collar bones, changed the belt slightly (added more embellishment) and took the sleeves up to ¾ length (so much more flattering on the wrist).The Wedding Party
I wanted something classic, full length with arms that would suit each body shape - we found their dresses in Mango. We then went to Soho Silks/Broadwick silks fabric stores in Soho London so they could chose different types of brocaid each so the seamstress could make each Bridesmaids a different belt to go with their dress - it gave them each a point of difference.The Flowers
I’ve always been a huge fan of Scarlet & Violet, my favourite florist in London with the most exquisite wild flowers that are more bohemian in style than formal and the perfect match for my English country wedding. I met up with Vic (Owner of S&V) over the course of a year to plan and work out what would suit the venue. We decided on a vintage muted pastel colour palette which had muted parchment blush pinks, whites and greens all soft and relaxed. Garden roses, ranunculus sweet pea, blush lilac, cherry blossom (it’s an April wedding after all!) magnolia and gypsophila. We had three areas to decorate with flowers – the church, garden room for the reception and the barn. I carried a loose and meadow bouquet with touches of cherry blossom, garden roses, lilac, ranunculus, very soft parchments to pinks, with soft creams tied with grey grosgrain ribbon. My bridesmaids on the morning of the wedding gave me an Astley Clark gold and diamond wishbone pin to place on the ribbon on my bouquet. The Bridesmaids were wearing dove grey/champagne colour palette so their bouquets were similar to mine but with a slightly different colour focus for each to suit their personalities. Buttonholes & corsages were white ranunculus rosebuds with textural detail bound with the same grey ribbon – we didn’t want them too big! What with all the excitement and nerves on the day I forgot to put a buttonhole on my Father (and throw my bouquet!) We’ve since send off my bouquet to be put in glass for paper weights. Scarlet & Violet provided us with loose hair flowers a mix of large single flowers and smaller buds and lots of gypsophila so we could use as we wanted gathered, dotted or one single in the hair. The bridesmaids all had a mixture of roses and gypsophila in their hair whilst I just stuck to gypsophila placed around my braid as I didn’t want to take the focus too much away from my veil. In the church: We decided on two giant pickle jars either side of the church alter with wild flowers tumbling out (these would be use later at the backdrop to the top table). Vic and her team then place frothy bunches of gypsophila tied with hessian on the pews and then placed cut class vases of different sizes filled with flowers and petals to compliment the Jo Malone Orange Blossom and Jo Malone Incense and Amber candles (the scent was picked specially for the church and wedding breakfast tables) that stood in all the windows sills. At the reception: Scarlet & Violet created a big centrepiece pickle jar for the bar in the reception room that was full of tumbling wild vintage pastel flowers. Cut class vases, more Jo Malone candles were places on the little occasion tables and I created a 'Lost But Not Forgotten' table of pictures and flowers and candles of family members that had passed away. There were also hurricane lamps leading to the garden room. Wedding Breakfast – The Castle Barn: The Scarlet & Violet team filled each table at different height with various beautiful cut glass and pressed glass vases filled with a wild mix of creams, pale pinks and blushes with mini hurricane lamps and tea lights – I think in total we used about 200 + tea lights to fill the arrow alcoves in the barn and on the tables. Each table had our chosen Jo Malone Candle wedding scent and was lit half an hour by staff before guests entered the room to allow for wafting. I wanted as much candle light as possible – to create ambiance, beautiful flattering light on the skin (you would think I was a beauty editor!) and for everything to look super pretty. There were also hurricane lamps leading up to the entrance.The Cake
We had a Naked Wedding Cake – made by my extremely talented bridesmaid Krystle Brady. We had a chocolate brownie layers with Nutella frosting (my favourite) and a coconut sponge with coconut frosting layers (Edward’s favourite). The cake was decorated by Scarlet & Violet with more loose flowers from our colour palette and the topper was a bespoke wire copper topper with our initials that I got made through Etsy.
The Food
Entree Chicken and duck liver pate with an apricot, thyme, grape and port chutney Spears of warm asparagus, soft poached egg and Hollandaise sauce (v) Main Course Roast rump of English lamb, confit shallots, garlic and rosemary jus Grilled vine plum tomato and buffalo mozzarella with fresh pasta and green olive tapenade (v) Seasonal Vegetables Dessert Trio of Desserts: Passion fruit parfait, triple chocolate brownie, and a seasonal creme brûlée Tea and coffee with chocolate petit fours Evening Food We had stone baked pizza in the evening from a pizza oven outside. Guests could create their own pizza toppings and then the chefs would cook it for them in the pizza oven.
The Styling
Tables were decorated with pressed cut glass with muted pastel flowers tumbling out. Lots of tea lights, hessian and Jo Malone candles on each table. For each place setting was a Polaroid of that person with either myself or Edward with them through the ages. Each table also had a selfie stick with a luggage label on with our hashtag #DanieandEdGetWed. The menu’s were placed in wooden mini logs on each table. The tables were named after poignant places for us and each table had a wooden heart chalk sign. I had a bespoke wreath stamp made for the wedding with our initials in and stamped all the sweet bags and luggage labels dotted around everywhere. I used a local prop company Lulabee who helped with all the bespoke signage around the venue. Laura completely got my style and was so accommodating even when I asked to borrow her beautiful easels to prop up my table plan and a large image of Ed and Myself in a frame so people could sign the picture all very last minute. Laura even helped me set up the day before. I also had signs made “For Your Happy Tears” with a tray of beautiful patterned tissues and another sign by the church saying “Pick A Seat Not A Side, We’re All Family Once The Knot Is Tied” which Laura made for me. We had flip flops for sore dancing feet, ‘the power of love’ charging station, baby polaroid’s of myself and Ed in the bathrooms. I also made linen Survivor Kits with accompanying letters for all guests and rooms on the estate and all the rooms in the gastro pub in the village the Hinds Head Aldermaston (where we had hired our all the rooms) for the remaining wedding party. It was so important for me to personalise everything and add little notes for everyone. Each kit had a bespoke luggage tag, printed calico bag with our bespoke wreath on and chocolate, Fox’s mint (a nod to my maiden name) and aspirin. We had a candy bar for everyone to dip in and out. Alongside the sweets I had lots of small beauty products in jars i.e. nail polishes, lip balms and mascaras as a nod to me being a Beauty Editor.
Family Help
My mother kindly designed and printed the menu’s. My sister made up bespoke children's menu’s for each child with their name on - this was accompanied by colouring books and books on a character or toy that the child was interested in i.e Liverpool football club for my nephew and Frozen for my niece. My Bridesmaids helped me with all the arts and crafty bits such as the table plan (Tabitha my bridesmaid even learnt how to do calligraphy for the wedding!). My fiancé – was my sounding board and was the calming force for when I got a little panicked.
Advice
I was given a piece of advice - to always keep your mother in the loop. So I did with emails and constant updates as she lives quite far away. If you’re thinking of forgoing videographer - don’t. Watching my video numerous times has stopped me from getting the Bridal Blues - also this is when you’re in your prime - so capture that special moment (and a younger you!) on film. Three month countdown - print out A3 copies of each month - pin up on a wall and write exactly what you need to do each week/day (even apts like beauty ones- tan etc), then cross off - it’s keep your mind sane and you don’t panic/stress. If fireworks are not allowed at the venue – opt for sparklers, they make an incredible moment when captured on film.
