Jess & Ash

I've been looking forward to sharing this beautiful wedding day with you all since Claire Penn sent over a sneak peak and asked if we'd like to feature it. Ummm YES PLEASE. The styling is gorgeous, Jess and Ash both look HOT and SO many of the suppliers involved are proper RMW favourites. Jess has created the most perfect rustic luxe styling, with a Great Gatsby twist and a sumptuous colour palette of plums, oranges and navy. The florals by Juliet Glaves are dreamy and look like something from a styled shoot, not a real wedding - just incredible. You may recognise the wooden decor used throughout the big day - Made By Wood & Wood had their own wedding featured right here on RMW too. Images come from the lovely Claire Penn, who always has the most fun and stylish couples. The incredible video comes from Gione Da Silva. His work is SO momentous, moving and magical that I promise you'll be on the phone to him immediately to check his availability. Enjoy this one lovelies, it's a pretty special wedding and I just know you're going to love it.

{Watch The Film}

The Bride

Jess the Bride: I first saw my dress in WED magazine. I knew we were having an Autumn wedding so I wanted something that was fairly warm and covering, but still sexy...Claire Pettibone's dresses were perfect. We headed to The Bridal House Of Cornwall with my bridesmaid and selecting some other dresses while leaving the best to last, and there was no question this was to be the one. I struggled a little with the neckline along the way, I was unsure about the bold flowers for a while, and thought about changing them out - but I'm so glad I didn't! (thanks Kelly!) My husband gave me a Tiffany locket in Rose Gold as a gift (something new) while I have some precious old vintage 5ct diamond earrings to wear as my something old and my mum let me wear my grandmothers ring for something borrowed. I really wanted flowers in my hair, or a flower garland after seeing so many beautiful brides on Pinterest and RMW, but it needed to fit into a more wintery/autumnal style, so opted for a single fresh Dahlia and a beautiful garland made by Hermione Harbutt. We made our wedding rings with Richard from Canary Blue in Truro. He's just the nicest guy (and his jewellery is gorgeous!)

The Groom

Ash wore a 3 Piece Burberry Suit in Claret with his Grandfathers Antique Gold Pocket Watch. His groomsmen hired DJ's from Moss Bros. which were paired with Claret Bowties and Braces to match Ash's suit. The suit journey was not a quick and easy one - being in Cornwall, there aren't many high end suit tailors around. We must have ordered close to 30 suits online in the lead up for him to try on!

The Venue

After visiting a few local wedding venues, we decided there really isn't anywhere better, or more personal to us than having our wedding at home. My parents house, Harlyn House "is a large rambling house" dating back to 1520, and has since been adapted and extended, with each generation leaving a definable mark. Our favourite feature is the walled garden, there is date stone "1831" on the arch above where we recited our vows. Until early last year, when we decided to use the garden as our wedding venue, it was completely overgrown so the family worked extremely hard to get it cleared, ploughed and re-seeded in time for the big day. Our marquee was thanks to Rupert at LPM Bohemia who put up with me and my continuous late night text messages, together with the wooden floorboards, extra large chandeliers and the chunky rustic tables and chairs from Virginia's Vintage Hire we managed to pull together the 'Rustic Luxe' vision I had for the day.

The Flowers

Juliet Glaves is incredible. I knew I wanted the rustic nature and outdoors elements of Autumn to go with the 200 year old archway where we would be saying our vows, so we asked Juliet for oversized bouquets that looked like they had been scooped up rather than precisely arranged. We went for neutral and dark and berry colour palettes. Our colour palette dictated much of our other styling choices, such as dark nails for the bridesmaids, dark fur shawls, and the claret bowties for the bestmen.

The Decor

I love movies, Ash loves books - so we decided to make a table plan that played homage to movies that have been adapted from books. The 8ft oak bookshelf has been in my family for decades so we used that for the open book display and each of the tables had a black and white film still from the movie, presented in an ornate gold frame. The BADGES! Now they were a hit. Every guest had a personalised name badge with a little silly slogan beneath it. We felt this was a great way for people to get to know one another, we also had a real laugh creating them together. Ash found a stunning 1924 Rolls-Royce in Maroon & Black and a Deep Red Velvet interior for our transport. Jerry the driver was pretty awesome too. I styled and planned the wedding myself, I'm quite creative and have always embraced throwing a good party! Sarah Vaux was a terrific on the day coordinator, I couldn't possibly have done it without her.

The Wedding Party

My flowergirl Audreah's dress is too adorable for words! Handmade by Mary Grace at Anagrassia, it had a champagne lace leotard with nude lining, paired with a poofy tulle skirt. My bridesmaids wore the art deco blouson beaded gowns in Taupe by Adrianna Papell. Lindsay Adams worked wonders in creating our natural faced make up, Alana Rickard styled our hair and put up with my indecisiveness and Stephanie Kilby made our nails look like perfection.

The Ceremony

We booked the incredibly talented John Adams for our ceremony music, he played "Can't Help Falling in Love with You" as Dad and I walked down the isle - it was incredibly emotional. We didn't have a traditional religious or church ceremony, it was at home, in my parents garden, so we wanted to keep it simple, and make it personal to us. We "tied the knot", had two readings and my bridesmaid Natara sang our favourite song alongside John Adams. We wrote our own vows after attending a wedding that summer and enjoying our friends doing the same. They were a mixture of sentimental and funny that kept the ceremony light-hearted. We created our vows on a rough template and the basis that lines had to begin with ‘I promise to...’, ‘I vow to...’ ‘I will...’ etc. to give our vows a similar feeling, as we wrote them separately.”

The Entertainment

We love live music! Following John Adams for the ceremony, The Deco Quartet played at the drinks reception and during the wedding breakfast. My mum sang "Make You Feel My Love" for our first dance, which was a truly special moment. Love Gap were our evening band - Tam was amazing, he got everyone up and dancing! Including my Dad and I dancing our hearts out to "Uptown Funk". We also had the very talented Cassie Kemp from Cornwall Caricatures during the day, and Alfie the Black Cab for the evening photobooth, which were a real hit with our friends and family.

The Food

We hired Dartmoor Kitchen because we are big fans of “Tom's Pies”. We didn't want anything too fussy, we opted for some hearty mouth watering autumnal grub - posh pies! Starters were a sharing platter with beef carpaccio, truffle mayonnaise, parmesan and baked soft cheese while dessert was a trio of three miniature treats - chocolate brownie, rhubarb pavlova and lemon cheesecake. For the evening food we had the wonderful Lewis from Wild Bake. We had Yorkshire Tea and Cornish Cream Scones on arrival, followed by "his and hers" cocktails after the ceremony. The ultra cool duo Thilda and John from Strong Adolfos made our cakes, and our personalised cake topper was actually made by me! I have a little business called Oh My Hero (Ash is my Kermit, because he often chirps at me and marches around with his little legs and beaky eyes!) I create a wide range of character + personalised cake toppers.

The Stationery

Words cannot express how much we love these guys, Tom & Chloe from Made by Wood & Wood are incredible. They're not just super talented, but so friendly and so patient - we were lucky enough to meet them in person when they dropped off our signage and bar - yes our very own bar! Another surprise for Ash was a handmade personalised 'wedding bar' that will eventually go into home. They also did our amazing invitations, newspapers, badges, table plan and logo.

The Photography

Claire Penn, where do I start, she's amazing. Claire was the very first thing I booked, (we actually finalised our wedding date around her availability!) I saw her photos on Rock My Wedding and totally fell in love with her style. She has the most delicious and visionary editing style I have ever seen. After following RMW and her own blog religiously, I can't actually believe it's us in her photos. If only she could follow us around and capture our whole life! Claire made us feel so comfortable and relaxed. It's one of the best decisions we made for the wedding and could not recommend her enough.

The Videography

OMG. The video. I can barely find the words to express how much we love our wedding video. Gione has an incredibly warm sincerity about him, you honestly feel like it's not just a job for him - he genuinely wants to create a beautiful film for you. He captures beauty within one another you didn't even know existed. At first, like a lot of couples we thought it was an unnecessary cost and Ash wasn’t too keen on being filmed but thank god we did! Not having a wedding film would have been a huge mistake. We couldn't have asked for anyone nicer to follow us around all day.

Tips For Future Brides!

#1 Choose a photographer that suits your personality. We knew from the beginning that Ash and I wanted to have bright and colourful (yet still romantic) photos that show how happy we are above all else. Someone that would capture the energy of the day and the fun that we have together. This style isn't for everyone, but it was for us and we couldn't be happier. #2 Don't sweat the shoes - I must have ordered over 10 different styles and types of wedding shoes. Everything from Jimmy Choo to Valentino, thankfully I evened up wearing a reasonably priced pair of Burgundy Mary Jane shoes from Dune a. because they were the most comfortable and b. because they fit perfectly with the deco theme - and they ended up covered in mud and pretty much ruined at the end of the day anyway! #3 Everyone said to me, don't sweat the small stuff - this was impossible for me. Detail is everything, so I made sure that I put in so much effort in so many areas, like the badges, the table plan, the music, the signature cocktails.. so much that everyone would notice at least one thing. I've been to various weddings over the last few years and taken note of something I liked at each one, kept a little note and made sure to do something similar but make them personal to us. #4 Book something for the night before, we had Rick Steins chefs come in and cook a lovely evening of sushi and cocktails while we had our manicures, it was actually really relaxing and nice to spend some time alone with the girls and thank them for supporting me along the way. #6 Prioritise a wedding video!