Lauren & Simon

For those of you who don't know, and I talk about it a lot so I'd be very surprised ;) , I live in Cornwall and so it's always a pleasure to blog weddings from down here. It's a seriously beautiful, magical place with a buzzing, creative wedding scene, as this afternoon's real wedding shows. Lauren and Simon chose the wonderful Boconnoc House as their venue. It combines the classical elegant house, with the rustic touch of the stable yard, lots of stunning green open spaces AND it just happens to be a privately run family business, so you can really make yourself at home there, just like Lauren and Simon did.

The Bride

Lauren The Bride: My dress hunt began online finding styles I was most drawn to, unfortunately the dresses I loved on the internet did nothing for my body shape, I’d tried on a few that were pretty but didn’t give me a bridal feel. Next on my appointment list was Watters stockist Emma Elizabeth's beautiful store in Twickenham, I asked them what they’d put me in and within minutes I was grinning from ear to ear in a strapless ivory dress with full skirt and train, a style I’d completely dismissed beforehand. My married friends had told me once you find THE dress, ‘you just know’...and it really happened like that! Other fuller dresses in numerous stores I tried afterwards just didn’t measure up, and whilst worrying that maybe I should visit ‘just one more store’, I found a quote on Instagram - ‘If you can’t stop thinking about it, buy it!’ The Watters dress had made me feel like a bride, I loved the non-rustley fabric and the modern pockets made it feel young and fun. I said yes to the dress! I really wanted an elegant look wasn’t too on-trend; that in 5 or 10 years’ time, when looking at the photos, you wouldn’t be able to guess the wedding year. I found some drop earrings on Liberty In Love and wore nude Louboutin’s that my fiancé had bought me for my 30th birthday. For the evening, I wore a sparkly belt and added a chunky necklace.

The Wedding Party

My six bridesmaids all live far from one another so choosing their dresses together was impossible and I really wanted them to feel comfortable on the day so I asked them to choose their own full length dress with a blush or nude colour theme. On the day, we enjoyed a pampered morning with hair stylist Joanne Innis of Gold Bird Hair Design and make-up artist Natasha Flower. Simon and his groomsmen purchased their entire ensemble from Reiss, from suits to socks! Simon chose a deep navy suit with blush toned accessories.

The Venue

Simon and I agreed we wanted to get married somewhere different to where we grew up- we both love Cornwall and whilst reading Bride’s magazine one day - I discovered Boconnoc in Lostwithiel. It is a truly stunning family run estate, with its own church and cottages where our families stayed within the grounds. We each enjoyed a family breakfast and savoured a leisurely paced morning.

The Decor

The house is grand with beautifully decorated interior - no need for wedding decorations; instead we filled it with candles including a selection from Jo Malone that created a wedding scent we can relive whenever we want! Laura Hingston designed our magnificent flowers; our bouquets were wrapped in dyed silk ribbon, smelt amazing and made me look at flowers in a whole new light. Laura made us a large urn piece for the wedding itself that we moved into the reception to save on buying two and preserved the beautiful archway she made, by dividing it into individual bouquets to give to our guests at brunch the next morning. We hired a fabulous bar from Inspire Hire and Box and Cox provided light lettering for the bar room and lawn games and a vintage post box from The Wedding Post Box Company Cornwall! We found a sequin table cloth for the cake table at Pudding Bridge which looked exquisite.

The Drinks

We were lucky enough to have cocktail and wine connoisseurs Marc Tran and Richard Pfleger from The Wine Rack select our drinks menu and even travelled to Cornwall from our home town in Surrey to serve beautiful mocktails and cocktails!

The Stationery

Our invitations were designed by my talented friend Nicola and to save money on signage, I took a Calligraphy course with Judy Broad so I could address the invites as well as design the seating plan where I wrote names across a beautifully ornate mirror that I found on Gumtree! We named our tables after Cornish beaches and purchased custom signs from eBay that we painted at home.

On The Day Coordination

One of the best decisions we made was to book the amazing Jenny Phipps and Becky Palmer at Jenny Wren Wedding and Events to help finalise the vendors and co-ordinate everything on-the-day; this was truly invaluable and the best support we could have asked for!

The First Look

Before our ceremony, we arranged for a First Look. I had seen this a lot on of US Instagram accounts and thought it was a smart idea for us to have a private moment with our photographer to get rid of those pre ceremony nerves.

The Ceremony

We didn’t want the ceremony to be a daunting and stern part of the day; it turned out perfectly - relaxed and funny! My three younger sisters read a piece by Edmund O’Neill and I even got to show off my pockets when our registrar asked who to give the certificate to! Our friend Tiny arranged a great music set for us with Marvin Gaye playing as we walked out.

The Entertainment

We hired UK’s leading close-up magician Lee Hathaway to entertain our guests post ceremony and during the meal. It was a brilliant surprise for everyone and they talked about him for weeks afterwards. We asked our guests for their favourite songs and our DJ Stu Williams of R2 Events collated the group song list for entertainment from day into night.

The Photography

Our photographer was Nick Walker - he is wonderfully talented and someone you feel you’ve already met before. As the saying goes - ‘a pictures is worth a thousand words’ - seeing them around our home makes me beam every day, his photos are perfection.

The Food

Fee Turner catered and we chose a Cornish tapas board to start and Cornish lamb for the main to bring as much local produce to the table as possible, even serving Cornish pasties in the evening! The stunning wedding cake was made by Jennifer Wells of Edible Essence, we cut the cake after our main course, followed by speeches so the cake could be prepared and served with dessert. So many of our guests commented that it was the best wedding meal they’d ever tasted. As the day goes so fast, we decided to have a small top table for just the two of us; that way we had time together and could enjoy what we’d accomplished.