Jenny & Steve

Jenny & Steve took full advantage of the rural setting of Stanford Hall in Northamptonshire and set up a sailcloth tent for their reception. It included all the elements that were important to them, the grand hall, the countryside, and most of all the ability to put their stamp on everything. They had a fabulous wooden crate and gin bottle table plan, a very well stocked bar of wine, beers and rhubarb gin, and gorgeous coral flowers adorning everything. Have you seen the milk churn arrangements yet? Better get those pinning fingers ready! Both Jenny & Steve look stunning in their attire, and I just love ALL the candid images of them enjoying their day with their guests, not to mention the swoon worthy couples portraits by Rebecca Goddard Photography. This wedding is the perfect start to Spring.

Venue

Beccy the Bride: We decided that we would like to be able to choose our own suppliers and have our own creative input on the day. Trying to find somewhere local which would offer this flexibility was a bit of a mission! We really wanted to have a sailcloth tent for the evening meal and dancing so finding somewhere ideal to have this was tricky Eventually we visited Stanford Hall and knew the setting was perfect for us, it offered accommodation on site and the church is walking distance from the hall - we were sold on the idea of a prosseco table en route to the hall from the church! For the drinks reception we used the beautiful ballroom and then we moved into the tent, out in the gardens to the rear of the hall. The sailcloth tent was supplied by Shades which was beautiful - the pink up-lights illuminated it and the house perfectly.

Photographer

As soon as the venue was booked we immediately got on with booking our photographer, as soon as we both saw Beccy’s work we knew we wanted her. She was lovely throughout and captured the most special moments. She understood exactly the style we wanted and we can’t stop looking back at the wonderful photos!

Bride

Finding the dress was not easy! I must have tried on about 60 dresses and struggled to decide on which one felt like ‘the one’ - I loved most of them! In the end I finally decided on a Temperley dress which my mum and I found at Angelica Bridal in Camden Passage, Islington. I hadn’t realised they had a Temperley trunk show on so I got to see the whole collection, in the end I made a second appointment and then made my decision on the Cressida dress.

Groom

Steve wore a Sandro suit and I bought him a silk pocket square in a cycling print from Turnbull & Asser. The men wore light blue ties and pocket squares which we got from Matchimony (to match with Emma, our flower girl’s sash). The groomsmen all wore their own blue suits and we arranged for them to all be in brown John Lobb shoes.

Decor & Detail

Our table names were types of gin. We had originally started collecting gin bottles for decorative purposes, to put flowers in (being gin lovers!) and were going to have ski resort table names. In the end we had collected so many bottles we had to have them as the table names! Our family really enjoyed getting through the gin for this cause! I loved enjoyed the decor side of the planning process and tried to make it as personal as possible. We made paper pom poms for the tent, raspberry gin in mini jam jars for the favours and my wonderful friend Lucy made fudge to go on the tables. Steve and his best man set up a DIY photo booth in one of the dining rooms in the hall which was fun (apart from myself and Steve forgot to visit it!) My friend Laura made our amazing and delicious cake for us which was wonderful, luckily we saved some for the Sunday as it went so quickly on the night!

Stationery

Our stationery was designed by Maddy at Rose & Beau. She was so patient and professional with all of my many requests and questions about types of paper! She designed our invites, order of service and menus on the tables. I will treasure the order of service with her illustration of our church.

Flowers

Our florist was a family friend and did the most wonderful job, (Rosie from Perkins Florist) I sent a mood board of the colours and size flowers I like and she created table flowers and bouquets based on seasonal flowers. I absolutely adore hydrangeas so we had these at the church to match the blue bridesmaid dresses. I went for a simple long veil with my dress and Rosie made me the most wonderful flower hairpiece which I had planned to wear once I had taken the veil off, as soon as I saw it I knew I had to wear it with the veil as it was absolutely beautiful.

Food

Stanford Hall recommended their usual caterer, Charnia who were excellent. We had so many comments on the delicious duo of beef main course. As I am a real chocoholic we had a chocolate dome and hot chocolate sauce for dessert. The wines were arranged by my dad through his friend at Tilley’s Wines and we had such fun trying them at the food tasting at my mum and dads house. We went for two reds, two whites and two local beers from Towcestor Mill Brewery. We also supplied our favourite local Warner Edwards rhubarb gin.

Music

We had a string quartet in the church and drinks reception - Oceano Strings who were amazing and did all of the covers we had requested, they are so talented. Our evening band were Vibrance - a 7 piece band, they did an amazing Michael Jackson and Prince set! Both were arranged through Bands for Hire.

Final Thoughts

We had an amazing day and made sure we took moments together to take it all in. It was quite overwhelming to have all your friends and family there just for you, something I am not used to, I just wish we could do it all over again!