Danni & Rob

Well this wedding is just a bohemian, rustic dream isn't it?! Dewsall Court is a spectacular venue in the rural county of Herefordshire, which just happens to be where I grew up - so I absolutely love sharing weddings from there. Sitting between Wales and England, and miles away from anywhere, but with stunning rolling farmland that goes on as far as the eye can see - it's an idyllic place for a wedding. Dewsall Court can be hired out exclusively so you can have the whole place to yourselves for the weekend, which is what Danni & Rob did. It's such a great idea as it allows more time for guests to relax, get to know one another and takes pressure off the 'big day.' Plus you get even more celebration time and time to soak in all the love. And this is definitely a weekend that was full of love, and fabulous decor of course, rustic bohemian tent receptions are my favourite and the flowers and foliage in this one are just perfect. Plus Danni & Rob did a really cute display of images they'd recreated of their parents, grandparents and great grandparents together as couples when they were younger, which was a really sweet tribute, and also a great talking point for guests. Don't worry I've included lots of photographs to show you how they did it...

Danni The Bride: Choosing my dress was a tougher decision than I could have ever imagined, I wanted something classic and something that would suit my shape and style as well. The dress I finally chose had quite a lot of alterations made to it to customise it to exactly how I wanted it to look. The end result was perfect, it had the elegant beading to the bodice, and a lovely chiffon skirt with a small train. The staff at White Minx were so helpful in choosing my dress, I don’t think I could have found it without their help and ideas for the alterations. I bought my headpiece when I went back for a dress fitting, my Mum actually spotted it in their display cabinet, it had delicate pearls and a small amount of bling! I wanted something to wear to one side of my head an to sit among the pin curls in my hair. I found my earrings in a small shop in Hereford and they were just what I was looking for, a small drop pearl with a vintage feel to them. I wore my great grandmothers pearl bracelet as my something old, which my mother also wore on her wedding day. I had my heart set on a pair of silver glitter court shoes, and managed to find the perfect pair from L.K. Bennett.

The Beauty

The search for a wedding hairdresser took me a while, as I was quite specific as to what style I wanted, and I also have incredibly thick hair, so I needed to be confident that whoever I went with could make my hair stay in place all day. I used Hilary’s Wedlocks on Dewsall’s recommendation and she was just fabulous. Right from the start of my hair trial, where we went through my Pinterest board, and she just really seemed to get what I was after, I really didn’t want to take my hair down after the trial as I was so amazed, I never thought it could look so good. On the morning of the wedding Hilary was great fun, but also incredibly calming, she arrived at 7am and didn’t stop until we went to the church, she styled the bridesmaids hair to how they each wanted it, as well as the mother of the bride and mother of the grooms. My hair looked and felt amazing, and stayed in place all day and night. Hair is such an important part of the day to get right, and Hilary is amazing and incredibly experienced. Natasha my make up artist was incredibly professional, and also a friend and wedding guest so it really was fun to have her there as part of the getting ready. I had Air Brush make up as I wanted it to last all day and have a flawless finish as sometimes my skin can not be so great. I was so pleased with my look and it didn’t budge at all.

The Bridesmaids

The search for my bridesmaids dresses did take some time, I wanted the girls to feel great but also comfortable in the style. After trying on many dresses and lots of shopping trips, I met with my chief bridesmaid Kate one lunch break and we popped into H&M and found the dresses, initially in a coral, but when I got home and had a look online, and also posted a link to the dresses to our ‘bridesmaid’ Facebook group, and everyone was happy, ordered them. We also added some belts to the dresses to give them more of a vintage look and to tie in the colour of the dresses to the shoes.

The Groom & Groomsmen

Rob The Groom: I’d gone through 5 other suits, all of which cost hundreds of pounds but I was never quite happy with the fit. On the week of the wedding I ordered a suit from ASOS, next day delivery, and I found my suit. It was finally ‘skinny’ enough for me to feel comfortable in, and at a snip of the price of the other suits I tried before hand. I definitely didn’t want to hire, the idea of myself and groomsmen in another bland and boring ill fitted suit was not going to happen. The suit had to be a skinny fit, I’m slim, regular suits have always made me look like I’m going off to my year 11 dinner and dance. And the bow tie had to be self tie and floral. The suit colour was bright blue, just to stand out more than the groomsmen. It received a lot of comments on the day. The Groomsmen wore TM Lewin - we needed something that Dads and Groomsmen in their late 20’s were happy with, and we nailed it. All my groomsmen were on board with learning to tie a self tie bow tie. And all agreed it was immensely satisfying when they had completed the process. These were bought from Mrs Bowtie.

The Venue

We stumbled across Dewsall Court online after having visited a few other local venues, we wanted a venue that was rustic and had country charm. Our first visit was with Danielle’s parents and as soon as we made our way up the drive and the house came into view we knew it was the venue for us. It offered us everything we could ever have imagined we wanted, from the beautiful house and grounds, the quaint church within walking distance to the wainhouse and yurt. We hadn’t considered having a whole weekend for our wedding but this made the whole weekend all the more incredible. To be able to have our close family and friends altogether for the weekend was great fun. Dining at the banquet table on Friday evening, allowing both sets of families to get to know each other a bit better before the day was super. We could play snooker, enjoy the gardens and watch the most dazzling sunset. All the rooms we spectacular, all individually designed with some of the most breathtaking baths you’ll ever see. When Dewsall explained we would have the house to ourselves, they really meant it, once the catering staff had left, it was just us, which made it all the more intimate and special.

The Decor

The colour scheme we chose had a muted vintage feel, we used a lot of lavender and gypsophila which was also reflected in our colour scheme together with soft corals. The décor had a rustic feel to match the venue, and we used a lot of lavender, rosemary and scented candles, greenery and hessian to decorate the venue.

The Flowers

We used a family friend Tracey Lafford to do our flowers, she really listened to everything we wanted and I was so pleased on the day with the result, the arch above the door to the church was fabulous and we used these flowers later on the day at the top table (as reccomended by the Dewsall staff). Tracey decorated the beams in the Wainhouse to accentuate them and not cover them up, the effect was amazing, she also put together some pots for the tables, flowers for my bridesmaids hair, the corsages and of course the Brides bouquet. Her attention to detail was second to none, even down to having a ‘spare’ bouquet to throw. I was thrilled when I received my bouquet on the morning of the wedding, it really was perfect.

The Cake

We had a three tier cake consisting of Carrot cake, Lemon & Poppy seed with lemon curd and Madeira with white chocolate buttercream and raspberry jam. All covered in an Italian meringue. All placed on a slice of English oak and decorated with flower wreaths made by our florist.

The Photography

We were happy for Jess to be as creative as she liked, and we loved the result. Jess managed to capture every special detail from the day. We are so pleased with the finished photos

Special Details

We’re particularly proud of our ‘Family Tree’, hanging wedding day photos of our Parents, grandparents, great grandparents and even Great Great Grandparents. But what was particularly special was when we lay them all out, and documented all the dates and locations we decided to revisit all of the sites of the wedding photos, and re-enact the scenes. We had a fantastic collage of Danielle and I posing in the same spot our parents, grandparents and great grandparents stood many years ago. It was a big talking point on the day. Danielle’s favourite book is Pride & Prejudice, so I decided to buy and old Pride & Prejudice book, get creative by taking some of the inside pages out and turn it into our wedding ring carrier for the day. I did it by firstly gluing all the pages together with PVA. Once dry I was able to make two circular indentation by using a holesaw (gently by hand). Then decorated the holes with a felt lining and brown twine. It looked fantastic, and now lives on the shelf with all our favourite books.