Helen & Dom

This Oxfordshire wedding at the gorgeous Tythe Barn couldn't be more perfect. For one it was shot by RMW fave Samuel Docker so you know it's full of emotion and pretty, and two it features bride Helen in a truly stunning Catherine Deane Tamsin gown and Irina belt from Victoria Fergusson. It's a seriously heady combination of beauty and elegance, and one that I know you'll be swooning over and pinning. Groom Dom is a a rather dapper chap too in his classic Paul Smith suit, and adding to his coolness is the fact he owns that red GT6 vintage car you see gracing the pages and wedding. With a 'Pimp your Prosecco' bar, gorgeous signage and adorable flower stemmed filled vases your creative juices are going to be sent into overdrive. So I'll keep you no more and let you enjoy. Every. Last. Detail.

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The Dress

Helen the Bride: When Dom asked me to marry him I always knew it would be a short engagement but little did I know he wanted to do it in 6 months! - ‘Do you know the lead times on a Wedding Dress!?’  Without Natalie at ‘Exquisite Brides‘ in Winchester none of this would have been possible. Dom’s sister arranged my only dress appointment two weeks after I said ‘Yes’. Originally I was drawn to wear a two-piece but after trying a few different options without any spark, Natalie picked out the Catherine Deane Tamsin Gown. She teamed the blush dress with the Irina belt from Victoria Fergusson and I was SOLD. This was the one and if I was going to meet my fiancés timelines I had to act fast… The Dress arrived only a few weeks before the wedding.  I wanted the focus to be on the dress and belt, I wore a pair of my Nan’s pearl earrings and I ordered my handcrafted bracelet from my new favourite BHLDN… why aren’t they in the UK yet!? The shoes had to be Manolo’s and where better to pick them up from than Harrods.

Grooms Attire

The suit was really important to Dom and he was keen to go ‘suit shopping’ with his best man. I was well aware what ‘suit shopping’ was, so I made sure I supervised with Dom’s sister to ensure that the boys didn’t end up in the pub empty handed. Dom always wanted a classic Paul Smith suit so there was only one place to start. We went to the Paul Smith store in Mayfair where, after several cups of Earl Grey, Dom fell for a slim fit navy and green check suit that we teamed with a floral tie. Originally he wasn’t fussed about new shoes until he saw mine.  After researching brands online he stumbled across Trickers, a local Northampton brand.  He found out the factory had and outlet and that it was only around the corner from us.  The staff were really helpful and shortly later came home with a beautiful pair of tan brogues.

The Venue

Dom and I both liked the idea getting married in a Barn. We only saw the one venue and fell for it after just the one visit. (again we are not normally decisive … at all). Our venue was the award winning Tythe Barn in Oxfordshire. The Tythe Team have thought of everything. ‘The Nook’ for myself and bridesmaids to get ready with our ‘glam squad’, Ceremony areas both inside and out for plan A or B dependant on weather. As well as the ‘Shephards hut’, somewhere on site for the bride and groom to retreat to after the celebrations.   It was important to us that the day was informal and relaxed and the venue played the perfect part. The team are extremely professional and helpful both with the planning and on our day ensuring everything ran smoothly. The grounds are immaculate and their attention to detail is excellent.

Colour Scheme/Décor

We split the venue into sections. The main barn where we had our wedding breakfast and evening entertainment was decorated to mirror our seating plan from Geri loves Emi. We used white lace table runners with scattered metallic tea light holders and Gold wooden laser cut place names from VMBespoke. Festoon lights were hung in parallel lines drawing the eye up to the rustic beams setting off the room.  In the cowshed ribbons were hung from the beams to tie in the colours from the main room and our wedding stationery again from Geri loves Emi.  We sectioned off the ‘Hovel’ to create a Mexican themed area. We hung vibrant ribbons and homemade piñatas for Dom and I to replace cutting of the cake. In the secondary bar area we had tequila bottles with mini sombreros as favours, cacti in tin can planters and more ribbon!  In the evening the bar area turned into our photo booth area supported by Vintagebooth.me.

Flowers/Florist

I showed our florist Emma at Signature Flowers one image and she knew straight away what we were after. She used a colour palette of pale pink, lilac, mint and of course the striking chocolate cosmos. I asked for a wild bouquet, as I didn’t want it to look too neat. As for my bridesmaids, they walked down the aisle hand in hand so we switched their bouquets for wrist corsages that were perfect for our ceremony. Emma also decorated our cake with spray flowers to personalise our naked cake. The flowers were again used for our tables, where she used groups of three vases with tea lights to dress on top of the lace table runners.

The Wedding Party Fashion

Our Sisters were both Bridesmaids and wore beautiful Jenny Yoo floral floor length gowns.  We found a UK stockist in ’Coco and Kate’ who shipped the dresses over from the US. My two nieces wore white dainty Monsoon dresses, with breaded cape detail teamed with rose gold Next sandals. The pageboy wore navy blue shorts and a polka dot shirt from H&M, teamed up with braces from Zara and a homemade bowtie to match the groomsmen (cute!)

Ceremony

I had my heart set on an outdoor ceremony walking through the pergola to say I do. We were really lucky with the weather and it turned out to be a beautiful warm sunny day. Dom’s brother in law did our reading, we chose I wanna be yours by John Copper Clarke, it was used in an Arctic Monkeys song that we listened to on repeat during a US road trip. Dom did a great job of the play lists through out the day but my favourites were during the ceremony. I walked down the aisle to ‘English Rose’ by The Jam. Our signing of the register was to motown hits including, ‘my girl, 1,2,3, rescue me and B-A-B-Y. Our exit music was ‘You Did It’ Ann Robinson, Dom played it to me one evening and its been my favourite ever since. Our guest had vintage floral hankies and ribbon wands to wave as an alternative to confetti (I didn’t want lavender petals in my hair!)

Entertainment

The Mad Mods and Englishmen … Legends! The Mad Mods are a local cover band with their own loyal following, including us.  We have know a number of the band for a long time and the guitarist was a guest during the day. We had to keep a close eye on him to make sure he would still be ok to play in the evening.

Food

The Tythe Barn has a chosen in house catering partner in ‘Jamie Oliver’s fabulous feasts’ (JOFF). Due to the short timelines we were unable to have a tasting so we went in blind on the food. Luckily our risk paid off. We opted for canapés instead of a starter and had a 2 course sit down meal.  The main was slow cooked lamb shoulder with a potato dauphinoise and a Caramelised red onion tart for vegetarians. I can never remember eating ‘The cake’ at weddings so ‘we’ decided to cut it early and serve it as desert to our day guests. JOFF served our naked Victoria sponge cake with seasonal berries, and cream on boards. For our evening food we opted for a hog roast. Instant crowd pleaser!

Photographer

Sam Docker is incredible! He is a ‘creative’ wedding photographer which makes for truly stunning pictures. He captures every special moment naturally… no cheese (apart from his jokes). I assure you Sam is one talented guy and is a pleasure to share your day with. Honestly we can’t speak highly enough of him, his work speaks for itself. We are besotted with his work.