Lauren & Thierry

There are SO many things to love about this wedding; it's a sea of pastel pretty for a start and will instantly lift your mood. Take the confetti shot by Lemonade Pictures for one, not only are the test tube confetti holders a genius and innovative idea, but the image itself just screams joy. Bride Lauren's bridal look is achingly romantic too, complete with a peony bouquet and a wavy bridal up do of dreams, and her bridesmaids are not only attentive but gorgeous in their different coloured Kelsey Rose gowns. Culminating in a sparkler exit outside the marquee reception and featuring a gorgeous looking homemade cake and DIY decor this Kent wedding at Wise Wedding Venue, Whetstead Farm is not to be missed.

Venue

Lauren the Bride: Isabella Grace was the second shop my maid of honour and I went too. I had my heart set on a particularly style of dress- A line, lace but quickly realised this shape didn’t do much for me! I tried my dress on and didn’t want to take it off! I was so surprised this style of dress was for me and is more figure hugging than I usually wear which I loved. I tried the veil on the same day and fell in love with the romantic and traditional style and ended up buying the veil several months later! The staff offered me to try the bolero as a cover up for the church and it was like it was made to go with the dress- and it was a sample sale item so a real bonus cost wise! Isabella Grace deserve every award they have won, they are fantastic, not pretentious at all but they still make the experience so special and fancy! Miss Kay who did my alterations were equally fantastic.

The Groom

Thierry always wanted a tweed suit which are actually quite hard to find around London – or are all eye wateringly expensive! After a lot of debates about the best options he found Victor Valentine in Southampton who have a great range of suits and are all reasonably priced and good quality, sadly we had some difficulties towards the end which involved me and the best man driving to Southampton the week of the wedding desperate to get the suits!! It all worked out and they looked fantastic on the day. We spent months trying to find a pastel coloured tie and in the end loved the floral ties from Charles Twyritt.

Venue

Thierry went to a wedding a few years ago at our venue Wise Wedding Venue and I remember him telling me about the tree houses and swinging sofa seats and knew that was the venue for me! We fell in love with the whole place, the woods, the lights, the clearing and pond, the quirky and unique style and it was exactly what we wanted. It is a truly magical venue at night. You have the option to camp and stay in the bridal suite tree house too! And we had the venue from the Friday to Sunday which was really helpful as we had set up a lot ourselves. Sam is very laid back, which was a bit stressful when I was becoming bridezilla but he was fantastic on the day, in the background making sure everything ran smoothly.

Décor

I’m quite into crafts and Thierry is a carpenter so we always knew we wanted to make as much as we could, save money and make the wedding feel as personal as possible as it was still a big wedding (150 guests). I started making bits and pieces very early on to start saving costs and we opted for the options of printing all our wedding stationery ourselves. I loved making bits and pieces and my bridesmaids were great searching hi and low for the perfect pastel candles! We bought two step-ladders from ebay, one for the seating plan and one for photos. I wanted to include photos of my mum who sadly passed away without it feeling too shrine like or emotional! Everyone loved looking at all the family photos and old photos of us with each of our ushers and bridesmaids. We had sparklers and amazing pastel and glitter lollies as our favours – Nichola our photographer co-ordinated the sparklers for us which was very needed! I knew from the start I wanted the style of the day to be romantic, full of pastels and to have a sense of a fun summer garden party. We made a coconut shy and big LOVE letters, a hop scotch, bought lots of hoola hoops and made a Whack the Rat! All of these kept everyone laughing all day and night and made for some great photos! I felt incredibly proud of the help from our family and wedding party for all the effort that went into the day- one my bridesmaid’s mum’s even helped grow all the plants for our hand painted pastel plant pots which we lined the paths and entrances with! Our flowers were simple- I knew I wanted peonies and hydrangeas and we kept costs down by adding gypsophilia to the tables. The bridesmaids bouquets were of roses to also save on some cost. We each had trailing pastel ribbons too.

Wedding Party

I knew I wanted pastels and I knew I wanted them each to have a different colour but I wasn’t too worried about the dress style as long as they were comfortable and happy in them. We found the Kelsey Rose dresses and they were perfect, so soft and in keeping with the theme. Angela did all our hair and was a star, we added some gyps too.

Ceremony

We married in my childhood parish church which is beautiful and holds many memories for me. We had Arrival of the Queen of Sheba for the procession and the Wedding March for the recession. We played ‘That’s What’s up’ by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Florence and the Machine You’ve Got The Love during the signing of the registers. My brother read from Anne of Green Gables (Anne’s House of Dreams, L.M Montgomery) when Anne marries Gilbert, he found the reading which I was very touched by as the stories are very close to my heart and bring back lovely memories from my childhood with our mum. Thierry’s eldest sister read 1 Corinthians 13. We printed the quote- Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind “Pooh!” he whispered. “ Yes, Piglet?” “Nothing” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw, “I just wanted to be sure of you”. From The House at Pooh Corner, A.A Milne as we have this printed in our home and feel it sums up a lot of what marriage is really about. We had Amazing Grace, Jerusalem and One More Step Along the World for hymns. I wasn’t prepared for the flood of emotions stood at the alter and the whole congregation of people closest to us singing behind us, a very special moment. We added a ‘who’s who’ insert into the order of service introducing our ushers and bridesmaids which funny facts about them and how we know them which kept people entertained whilst they waited and made people feel they knew them.

Entertainment

We had an Instagram border prop made from Etsy and got other various photo booth props which people had great fun with. We had Ceilidh band which was a bit random but such brilliant entertainment and it was a great way of getting everyone straight up and dancing, really really funny and great moments of my elderly grandparents diving straight in! I would really recommend a Ceilidh band to anyone.

Photography

I love photos so this was very important to me and Thierry finds having his photo taken uncomfortable so we wanted someone who could put us at ease. We knew we wanted mainly natural photos capturing the atmosphere and loved the look of Nichola, Lemonade Pictures just from her website. We then met her and knew we’d made the right choice. From the morning to the end she just fitted in so easily, knew exactly what she was doing, helped organise some of the timings and most importantly captured everything we wanted in exactly the right way, we are over the moon with our photos.