Emma & Andy
Photography by Weddings Vintage
Dresses
Emma The Bride: As a well-known bargain hunter, Emma was visiting her favourite fashion store in Cannock called Newlife, a business that sells imperfect high street clothing and donates the profits to charity. I was lucky enough to say yes to the first ever dress I tried on, buying it for a heavily reduced price of £20 down from £1,000! My shoes were some simple ivory satin heels with bow details from ASOS. Also from ASOS, the bridesmaids wore matching mustard waffle effect paired with simple cream peeptoe heels, surprisingly from BHS!
Groomsmen
Andy, like most guys would, did most of his shopping from the sofa. Ebay really is a mans best friend when trying to buy 12 matching waistcoats and ties. The ushers all wore their own black chinos and brown brogues, and I bought them all their waistcoats, ties and shirts. I got the shirts from ASOS, they were a western style beige flannel which looked great behind the brown herringbone waistcosts and brown waffle textured ties for that more casual feel. Topped off with a pair of shades, and what a good job too as it was the hottest day of the year!
Venue
The venue was at Wood Farm in Croxden Abbey which we discovered whilst on a camping trip. It is a working farm with a large barn which is usually used for karaoke nights for the campsite guests. We used a local company called Storer Smith Events to come and hang drapes and festoon lighting throughout the barn. The transformation was amazing.
Colour Scheme
The colour scheme chosen was browns, creams and mustards. In terms of décor, we did 90% of it ourselves, it was a proper DIY wedding, which was great as it really captured our characters and felt very personal to ourselves. It made such a difference. We made photo boards and other displays out of old wooden pallets, my grandads old step ladders, wooden logs, you name it! We used a lot of hessian, lace, twine and even made our own bunting to really give the place that rustic feel. We also had the pleasure of decorating our venue with the help of a company called Lamplight Design, they made us some amazing custom light up pieces such as wooden stars, an anchor, a sign for the bar, and some huge letters spelling the word ‘LOVE’. Best of all, with Andy being a tattoo artist and our love for tattoos, they built us a tattoo booth which came with temporary stick on tattoos. This was a massive hit amongst the guests! Nothing like seeing your grandma with a swallow tattooed on her neck on your big day!
Florist
Our bouquets, button holes and hair pieces were all put together by a local independent florist called Petals Scent. These were mostly made up of fern, eucalyptus, gypsophila and roses tied together with twine. The rest of the flowers we did ourselves, some of them coming from our families gardens and some from the local market.
Ceremony
Our ceremony was conducted by a humanist and took place in the most unbelievable setting, in the middle of a field on a hot summers day, right underneath the big oak tree. A path was mowed through the tall grass creating an aisle leading up to a wooden arch hand made by Andys dad, and it was dressed with cream cloth drapes, flowers, and a rusty steel heart fitted with lights, another handmade piece by Lamplight Design. We chose two special friends to do readings, ‘How falling in love is like owning a dog’ and ‘I'll be there for you’ and another special friend conducted a hand fasting ritual for us. We also added some laughter by hearing the story put together by the humanist from personalised questions we had previously answered separately.
Entertainment
For our entertainment, we had a guy called Calum Marriott-Manning perform in the field right after the ceremony. We literally found him busking in our local high street. He performed a number of classic and more recent songs on his acoustic guitar and was fantastic! Throughout the course of the day and in the evening, we just had an iPod playing specific playlists that we had created for certain times of the day.
Catering
Our catering was all done by two of our good friends as a wedding gift. They did the most amazing buffet food and people just went to help themselves table at a time. We hired all of our tables, benches and chairs from another local company called The Poppy Trading Company and then we just brought disposable plates and cutlery made from bamboo from a company online. We doubled up by giving everyone a mason jar as wedding favours that they could also refill and use throughout the day! Our cake was made by one of our special friends, Claire, at Rosy Cheeks Bakery. We chose a 3-tier cake consisting of Red Velvet, Chocolate and Vanilla sponge layers, finished with buttercream, wrapped with hessian and a raffia bow. She also made some delicious cupcakes and Emma’s mum made a beautiful fruit cake. Both cakes were topped with wooden ‘Mr and Mrs Radford’ sign.
Photographer
Our photography was the first thing that we booked when planning and putting together our special day. Weddings Vintage, the name just says it all! After seeing Harriet and Hayleys’ work, we didn’t even have to look any further, we knew that they were the ones to capture all of the incredible and unforgettable moments in the most perfect way. We can’t thank them enough for what they did for us. Looking back on all the pictures brings back all of the amazing memories for us and reminds us both of what a truly one of a kind wedding it really was.
