Sophie & Elliott

This gorgeous wedding is giving me all the feels, as not only is it seriously pretty and stylish, but Sophie found the vast majority of her suppliers using our recommended supplier directory, The List. (Their caterers, Rustic Roast, the yurt and the boys suits by Jack Bunneys). Our supplier directory, as it happens, is relaunching THIS WEEK with all sorts of exciting new features. Stay tuned to RMW to be the first to know. Sophie's bridesmaids look totally gorgeous in cream camisoles and silky copper skirts, with the flower girls in polka dots! Which is totally my favourite look for flower girls now, it's just so sweet. Images come from the lovely Nichola at Lemonade Pictures and yes once again, Sophie & Elliot found her right here!

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The Bride

Sophie the Bride: My dress was by far the hardest part of the whole process. But it made for lots of lovely days out with Mum & bridesmaids always followed by wine! I knew exactly what I didn’t want but had no idea what I did want. After visiting endless boutiques trying on every different style dress possible I started to give up and thought about heading down the route of having a dress made. I booked an appointment with a dress maker, but before this I had one last appointment booked with Miss Bush in Ripley. As soon as I walked in there I instantly fell in love with a dress on the mannequin. It was elegant but not glamorous, sexy but not revealing, simple but not boring, unique but still a wedding dress. It was perfect! Well, almost...the back of the dress was high to the neck like the front so I asked if I could have it made with a V going right down to the seam at the waist. Thankfully Houghton were happy to make the dress with the change and my dream dress was born! I chose a waterfall veil and bought some gold hair accessories from Etsy. These later changed into a hair slide with foliage which was made by my wonderful florists. I kept my shoes simple with some beautiful pink suede heels from Reiss.

The Bridesmaids

My bridesmaids were pretty easy! Having 4 very different bridesmaids with 4 very different styles I thought it would be easiest for me to order lots of options online and have a day at mine trying them all on. One of the options was a gorgeous copper coloured skirt and white camisole from ASOS which they all loved! It was that easy. We paired them with some metallic heels from ASOS and I bought them all a copper necklace from Etsy. The flowergirls wore dresses from Very. These were a great find as I managed to get 11 year olds in the same dress as a 2 year old which I didn’t think I’d be able to do. They all looked gorgeous.

The Groomsmen

Elliott knew want he wanted from the beginning so we sorted the suits out pretty quickly. At first we found that unless you wanted a dinner suit or tails it was quite difficult to find places that you could hire from. Then we found Jack Bunneys on RMW. They have the most beautiful collection of fine tweed suits with mix and match waistcoats. The first one Elliott tried he loved and we hired them all there and then. He paired these with brown monk shoes from Bertie and navy ties also hired from JB. As gifts he bought them (and himself!) copper pocket watches from Etsy with their family crest engraved onto them and tie pins from Jack Bunneys. Wolf heads for the wolf pack and a stag head for him. We spray painted these copper ourselves as they only sold them in silver.

The Flowers

My flowers absolutely blew me away. As we didn’t really have a colour scheme I left it pretty much down to my super talented florist Jo at Daisy Chain in Shepperton. I just told her I wanted something wild, lots of greenery and shades of pinks, peaches and oranges. We also asked her to decorate the inside of the yurt with foliage wrapping all around the middle and to create a large floral piece for on top of the beautiful bar that came with the yurt hire – amazing! Everything looked incredible. My bouquet was possibly one of my favourite things of the day and just totally completed my dress. Along with this she filled terrariums with flowers for our centerpieces and provided extra foliage to drape along our table plan and canvas sign.

The Photography

We spent a lot of time choosing our photographer – mainly scouring through all of the recommended photographers on RMW's List! But Nichola's style at Lemonade Pictures stood out for us. We loved her natural style and talent for capturing what looked like the greatest moments – and she didn’t disappoint! She made us all feel so at ease straight away, forgetting she was even there. Somehow she’s managed to capture all of our favourite moments of the day on camera and for this we cannot thank her enough.

The Videography

The videographer was one of the first decisions we made and by far the best. I came across one of Tregoning Weddings videos on Facebook and spent the rest of that evening scrolling through their website an emotional wreck. People I had never met yet felt I was a part of their day. We booked them instantly. Andrew was an absolute joy to deal with in the lead up to the wedding and continued to be so during the day. I have no idea how many times we have watched our highlight video but each time we notice something new he’s captured.

The Ceremony

We had the ceremony in our local church, it was important to us to get married in our hometown of Shepperton. There was lots of laughter and despite thinking that I’d be a nervous wreck throughout I loved every minute. The service was perfect. Elliott’s two younger sisters did a reading of A Lovely Love Story, they were fantastic and it was such a special moment.

The Reception

The reception was less than a 10 minute walk from the church but we had a taxi ferrying guests back and forth whose heels were too high to cope! We hired a plot of land at Halliford Mere Lakes and were pretty much left to our own devices! We found Wedding Yurts on RMW and knew immediately they were what we wanted. Not only were the yurts beautiful they offered a full package including trestle tables, chairs, bar, tea & coffee station, chandeliers, hundreds of candles, meters of fairy lights and an Aladdin’s cave of props! Lizzie and her team made our dream wedding happen. They were there for 3 days before ensuring everything was set and up in place logistically. Nothing I asked was too much trouble – including asking her husband to climb to the top of trees to hang dream catchers! They dealt with all the vendors on the day and kept our drinks topped up all evening. We literally couldn’t have done it without them.

The Décor

We agreed on the décor from the start. White & metallic. Lots of greenery, and the only colours coming from the flowers. I bought masses of Perspex on Amazon for all the signage, table numbers and the table plan. For us less artistically talented people it was super easy to make templates online and just trace through! They looked a bit rustic but for a total of £30 we couldn’t complain. Elliott had a lovely idea whilst making the table plan, to add a table number 11 with the people we’d lost that should have been with us that day. We titled it Heaven 11 and kept it as a surprise from everyone to see who spotted it on the day. We then followed this with their photos hanging from the ceiling of the first yurt as people entered. It made for lots of tears but it was beautiful to see everyone’s faces.

The Food and Drink

We bought all the wine, beer and prosecco for the day and night ourselves and Lizzie and her yurt bar supplied a paid bar for the rest. Our caterers we again found on RMW. We chose Rustic Roast Kitchen as they were totally self-sufficient. They needed no power or water from us and their catering van was so cute we knew it’d look lovely parked up next to the yurts. They supplied canapes and then a BBQ main which was served to our guests on big paddle boards with large salads in the middle of each table. I bought bags of multi coloured meringue kisses from Meringue Girls and our caterers supplied strawberries and cream for guests to create their own eton mess. The food was a huge hit!

The Entertainment

One of our best decisions was booking Super Tenants for our welcome drinks. It completely broke the ice and kicked off the day from the start. People were dancing and singing in the sunshine within 30 minutes of arriving, it was without a doubt one of the highlights of the day for us. We have had so many guests ask for their details – I could not recommend these guys enough.