Sarah & James

I can't think of a more perfect celebration to start the week with than this brightly colour woodland wedding in Tring. I'm literally in love with every single detail, but especially the adorable tree house also used as the DJ booth, and the vintage caravan bar. I mean, come on, what a way to start a party. Before all the celebrations commenced Sarah got ready in her stunning 'Cosmo' Anna Sorrano gown with her gorgeous entourage of ladies, who not only had beautiful brightly coloured getting ready robes, but also stunning high street bridesmaid dresses in matching shades. There were surprises galore, and so many moments of joy I couldn't possibly list them all, so sit back relax and enjoy ALL the wonderful images by Epic Love Story because they really have done a sterling job at capturing all the emotion as it unfolds.

Dress

Sarah the Bride: I spent ages looking for my dream wedding dress and had in my head I wanted something with a vintage feel so after visiting many bridal shops, vintage wedding fairs, bridal magazines, and trailing the Internet and Pinterest my Mum and sister suggested visiting the dress store Wed2B. I was amazed at how many stunning dresses they had in stock and immediately found “The one”. My dress was an embroidered mermaid gown in ivory named “Cosmo” designed by Anna Sorrano. It fitted my figure perfectly and just felt so feminine. Ruby from the Milton Keynes store looked after me on the day and was so helpful and honest, she literally couldn’t do enough for me.

Bridesmaids

For my Maid of honours, bridesmaids and flowergirls I searched high and low for their dresses and eventually found the perfect flowy boho dresses for them in the colour scheme of mint green and soft pink. The dresses were sourced from Monsoon, Jane Norman and Boohoo. I made all the girls a gift bag to say thank you and filled them with treats such as a feather bracelet to wear on the day, bridesmaid custom tops to get ready in and gorgeous silk dressing gowns for us all to get ready in which tied in to our colour theme. We got some stunning shots in my parent’s garden of us all together pre ceremony!

The Groom/Groomsmen

James the Groom: For my suit I wanted a modern twist on a vintage styled three piece tweed number and searched all the high street shops and some internet sites looking for the right one but couldn't find what I was looking for.  Then I came across another local company called Vintage Suit hire in Bedford which is run by a delightful couple called Jess and Tom.  They had just what I was looking for. Beautiful three piece tweed suits designed by themselves in a choice of 3 colours: brown, grey and blue. After much deliberation I decided on the blue for myself and the grey for my groomsmen and both fathers.  I’ve always had trouble with suits because of my body shape but this wasn't a problem, Jess took all of my measurements and I had a custom one made to measure which fit perfectly.  The Blue is set off amazingly with tan coloured buttons on the jacket and waistcoat.  I paired the suit with a stunning tan leather Ted Baker belt and John Lewis tan leather brogues.  For our pageboy we opted for a similar grey tweed suit which we sourced from Roco Clothing which was a great fit. To match the bridesmaids my groomsmen, fathers, pageboy and I wore either mint green or dusky pink ties and pocket squares which set the suits off nicely. All sourced from Swagger and Swoon.   Another great touch supplied by Jess and Tom were their accessories I picked up 2 lapel pins one of a feather and the other of a stags head for myself, then I chose a stunning pocket watch for each of my groomsmen which Jess got engraved for me with messages to each of them for me to give them on the day as a gift. 

The Transport

Sarah the Bride: We decided to go for a wedding car that suited our outfits, the venue and the general laid back feeling of the day – a yellow vintage VW Camper, hired from Croydon based company Buttercup Bus.

The Venue

From the moment we 1st got engaged, James and I always dreamt of a wedding outdoors. We instantly fell in love with Lila’s Woods when we attended their open day back in Spring 2016. The venue was just stunning and has such a magical woodland festival vibe to it, which was exactly what we wanted. The décor is incredible and features a huge stretch tent, awesome tree house, giant swing, wishing pond, chill out tents, rustic seating, hammocks, fire pits, hanging frames, hay bails vintage caravan bars and so much more! It was the 1st venue we both instantly agreed on so we knew it was definitely meant to be. Faye Messenger the Managing Director at Woodland Wedding’s was an absolute dream to work with and has a fantastic team who were so supportive from start to finish. Faye is so creative and is so passionate about her venue.

The Decor

Our colour theme for the day was mint green and pink and this was incorporated across the fashion, cake, flowers and décor throughout the day combined with a rustic feel. We spent the year leading up to the wedding hand crafting a lot of the decor and accessories such as dream catchers, the tree log cake stand, the vintage map table plan, the table graphics, the name cards, Instagram photoframe and so much more. My Mum created the favours for us that were mint green organza bags filled with wild flower seeds tagged with handwritten labels “Sew with Love” James’ Mum made and designed the button holes for everyone which tied beautifully in with the rest of the flower theme. My maids of honours were both amazing helping with creating the table & venue décor and giftbags for the children to keep them entertained.

Flowers

I grew up adoring flowers Thanks to my Mum so this was a very special aspect of our day and I always visioned having tones of flowers everywhere in bright rainbow colours at my Wedding. The florist we chose was Minka at Minka Myles Flowers.com and she fulfilled my dreams and more! She was just incredible and did such an amazing job of arranging all our flowers for the day such as the table centre pieces, the ceremony aisles, the swing, arches and tree house. Moving on to the bouquets they were equally as stunning and incorporated into my bouquet was my favourite hot pink peonies as the main feature, sweet peas, roses, stocks, cornflower, nigella, eucalyptus, daisy and foliage. It was full of colours such as pink, coral, blue, green, purple, white and was a boho, English garden flower theme. The bouquet was tied off and finished in natural string on an organic posy, which I held, basically it was nothing tight and symmetrical, just how I wanted it. The bridesmaid’s bouquets were then a mini version of my bouquet whilst all kept beautifully natural.

The Ceremony

We had a humanist ceremony at the Woods and it was so personal and everything we wanted. We had amazing weather on the day and the sun shone through the trees and made it such a magical setting for all our guests to enjoy. We opted for a very relaxed ceremony and told guests to sit altogether instead of each separate family side. The ceremony took place under the treehouse by the arch which was beautifully decorated. The ceremony itself was so personal to us and was so well written by our celebrant Liz Harwood. After we completed our vows and towards the end of the ceremony we decided to ‘plant’ a tree using soil from our parents gardens to take home and plant at our house to remember the day forever.

Food

For our wedding breakfast we chose slow smoked BBQ food carefully and lovingly prepared and served by a local caterer called Cardona and Sons. It just had to be BBQ as my husband is mad for it and is quite a foodie so guests were expecting something pretty magical! They served up perfectly melt in your mouth tender, delicious meats such as beef short ribs, brisket and pulled pork on platters along side huge bowls of hand made mac and cheese, coleslaw, corn, salad and brioche buns.  Andre and Jane's (Cardona) attention to detail is impeccable. Everything we asked from them they delivered and more.  The evening guests didn't go hungry either! For our evening food Cardona and sons fired up the bbq's and served up amazing fully loaded hotdogs and stacked wagyu beef burgers! Which included anything you wanted from the toppings trays, even pretzel pieces!!  The food was unreal through the day so much so our guests are still talking about it now! Andre and Jane are such nice people we couldn't have asked for a better caterer to work with us on our special day. We met them and became acquaintances but now consider them friends!

Cake

We designed our cake with Libby at Lillibet Cakes and we were thrilled with the outcome. We went for a four-tier cake to serve as our dessert and each tier was a different flavour. The design of our cake tied into our woodlands vibe and our colour scheme of mint green and pink. Libby made each tier different and included a tier with a hessian texture to fondant; a wooden crackle effect on another and the other two were airbrushed metallic. To finish she created sugar flowers to match my bouquet. Not only did it look amazing it also tasted amazing and we positioned it on a tree trunk log cake stand my husband custom made.

Photographer

We considered as most people do, our wedding photos to be one of the most important bits of our wedding to get right.  We spent quite some time searching wedding fares, on the Internet and speaking to friends and family about different photographers, but then we found Emma who owns Epic Love Story.  From day one she made us feel so relaxed about it all she is so friendly within minutes we felt as if we had known her a lifetime which showed as our guests though she was a friend of ours.  We had numerous conversation in which we both discussed what we felt would work best. On the day she was amazing and at times you barely knew she was there.  But then when she needed to organise the group shots her professionalism shone through getting everyone together which is no easy task. At different times throughout the day she would take us off for our couple shoots. She was so attentive topping up my makeup from her little bag of essentials! & adjusting my hair if it was slightly out of place from all the festivities. It was great. She made us feel so relaxed which I think helped make the photos so stunning. Her ideas for the different shots she wanted to take were amazing and when we received them we were delighted and she is worth every penny!  In every photo she took she managed to capture the moment as we remember it and it instantly takes us back to that day.  We don't feel like we are looking at a picture of the day we feel like we are there again and that is a testament to how amazing Emma is at her craft!

Videographer

Before the Wedding so many couples shared with us their biggest regret was not getting their wedding filmed so we ensured we included this in our budget. We searched around for different videographers but nothing attracted us so we asked our Photographer Emma for recommendations for alternative videographers so she suggest Ignite Films. Another key aspect to remember if you are having a Woodland wedding is to select a videographer that have experience of shooting outside and especially in dark shaded woods where there is very limited light. After viewing Ignite’s portfolio we knew they were perfect for our Wedding and the style we were looking for. On the day Keith and Andy were so fun to work with and once again created such a great experience for James and I as well as all our guests.

The Entertainment

We had an acoustic duet band playing up in the tree house looking out onto the crowd throughout the day and it was just perfect. They played hits from the 70’s to present day and just fitted into the setting wonderfully. As the day went on we then had the venue DJ playing a mixed set list from the tree house and this was a great playlist that James and I put together ourselves to get everyone up and dancing!

Final Thoughts

Our Wedding was literally the best day of our lives filled with so much love, fun and laughter whilst being surrounded by our family and best friends. All our hard work paid off as the day turned out perfect and guests are still talking about it now, which is so lovely as a day to remember is exactly what we wanted to create. I have always worked in Events so thoroughly enjoyed the planning process from start to finish and since being married I have set up my own Events and Wedding planning business “I Dream Events” to help with all your planning needs. We would like to Thank everyone again who helped us to make our day amazing and for all the support on the lead up to the Wedding. Our only wish now is to do it all over again!!! <3