Sophie & Mark

Sophie and Mark's gorgeous sun-kissed summer wedding is a true breath of fresh air in this hideous February weather. The lovely couple own a coffee shop down here in Cornwall (which you should definitely visit if you're down here for a holiday) and chose to get married at the magical Nancarrow Farm. This rustic barn venue has to be seen to be believed, I've mentioned how much I adore the place before, several times in fact, but it truly is fairytale-esque and if you're looking for a wedding venue in Cornwall Nancarrow should be top of your list. Right, I'll stop waffling on and let you enjoy the photos from Ross - another Cornish gem who will help to make your wedding dreams come true. His images speak for themselves, capturing the moments you never knew were happening. I'd suggest enjoying this wedding with a big cup of tea and piece of cake close to hand...you'll want to savour it and it is Sunday after all...

The Proposal

Mark proposed on Christmas Eve 2014. He took me off late in the evening in the pitch black across the fields on his Dad’s farm to a pond where we often walk, he had lit the whole of pond with hundreds of fairy lights and festoons! We walked around the pond and on the bench was a Christmas present wrapped up, inside the present was a box, inside the box was an old mechanics grease tin and inside the tin was a Christmas bauble written on it ‘Sophie will you marry me?’ On the morning of the wedding Mark gave me another box and inside that was another bauble identical to the one he gave me on the night we got engaged, however this one said ‘Marry me today’, it was a really special moment hanging both baubles on our Christmas tree last year!

The Bride

Long before I got engaged I used to work for a high-end bridal designer in Sydney, so I used to spend many hours styling and dressing up brides and helping them chose their dream dress. I thought my experience working in bridal fashion would make choosing my wedding dress easy, but it was actually really difficult and rather than knowing exactly what I wanted, I knew exactly what I didn’t want in a wedding dress. I started my search in bigger bridal stores but soon realised I preferred smaller independent boutiques for their unique dresses and more intimate shopping experience. I chose my dress while shopping with my mum in Bristol, after visiting a few bridal shops that day I tried it on a immediately fell in love with one particular dress, I had a few other appointments that day (which I didn’t want to cancel at short notice) but went back later that day and ordered my dress! The designer was Demetrios from Clifton Brides in Bristol. I borrowed my sister-in-law’s veil as my ‘something borrowed’ and wanted to keep everything else fairly simple with just a few flowers in my hair.

The Groom

For the groom & groomsmen Mark opted for a tailor-fitted three piece suit in navy blue. Mark decided to incorporate a country twist through adding a light grey tweed waistcoat underneath the jacket. Mark wore personalised cufflinks, each with a vintage map of where we lived together in Sydney on one cufflink and where we live in Cornwall on the other, the groom and groomsmen wore mint green ties to match the bridesmaids dresses and the colour scheme of the day.

The Venue

We went to view Nancarrow farm on a cold, rainy dark February evening. As soon as we pulled up in front of the barns we thought if it looks this amazing now imagine what it will look like in the middle of summer! After being shown around by the owner Steve we just knew it would be perfect for our day. The detail in the interior design throughout the old barns was incredible as well as the added bonus of the brand new bridal suite (which was still a chicken shed at the time), we knew Nancarrow was definitely for us. We decided on a church ceremony and chose a St Piran’s Church in Penhallow as this is just a stone’s throw from Mark’s family farm where Mark had grown up. It’s a pretty, traditional stone 11th century church and in June the church grounds are filled with wild flowers, exactly the look and feel we wanted on our wedding day. Another one of the deciding factors on the church was because the pond on Mark’s family farm was close enough to get all of our guests to gather there for a post-ceremony celebratory drink together. The pond is special to us because it’s where Mark proposed on Christmas eve. On the wedding day we decorated the pond with bunting & wild flowers and we had rusty wheelbarrows full of champagne and our cellists playing music on a pontoon in the summer sunshine.

The Decor

We went with a mint green colour scheme for the bridesmaid dresses, flowers, groomsmen’s accessories, wedding stationary etc. We both love how summery, light and refreshing mint green looks in summer weddings, it worked perfectly against the wooden beams in the main barn too. We used local florist, Donna Ayre for our flowers. We specifically wanted our flowers looking wild, natural and as un-arranged as possible, Donna did a fantastic job of our flowers and we were delighted with how they looked on the day. I also have a love of succulents so Donna was able to incorporate succulents into the bouquets and buttonholes. We also gave each of our guests a succulent in a terracotta pot as a wedding favour, which equalled as a lovely table decoration. Having green fingers myself there were certain foliage decorations that I created myself, in the weeks leading up to the wedding, my mum and I rusted a load of large baked bean tins. I filled them will trailing ivy and suspended them from the beams in the main barn at Nancarrow, I also filled wooden troughs with fresh herbs, lavender and succulents to put in the window sills - they smelled amazing too!

The Stationery

Two of my best friends (who were also bridesmaids) are print designers. Kat Bryne designed all of our invitations, RSVP cards and table name cards, she is also an amazing font designer so she wrote out our menu on to a big A-frame in chalk as well. My other friend Carrie Osborne designed a huge canvas print with a timeline of the day with cute illustrations, we hung it on an wooden easel outside the church and at Nancarrow so our guests could see the schedule of the day.

The Wedding Party

The bridesmaid’s dresses were from the bridal range on ASOS, including the shoes. Each bridesmaid had simple gypsophila in their hair and a simple silver bracelet.

The Ceremony

A really special moment in the wedding ceremony was when one of my best friends read an extract from ‘Winnie the Pooh’. It was a lovely reading which all ages could relate to, as a wedding present my friend framed a quote from the reading. Another favourite part of our day was when we took all 110 of our guests down a little footpath leading from the church after the ceremony, over an old cornish stile (with the help of the groomsmen for lady’s in heels!) and through a field down to a pond. It was a beautiful blue skied sunny day, we drank champagne by the pond, greeted our guests for the first time, listened to the cellists playing over the water. An old Series 1 Landrover defender arrived with tin cans in tow, Mark and I hopped in the open-top back and waved off our guests before heading to have our photos taken (followed by our boxer dog Oscar chasing capturing the moment with a GoPro strapped to his head).

The Entertainment

We decided on a Ceilidh as entertainment once our evening guests had arrived. We chose a local three piece band called Splann consisting of fiddle, accordion and guitar. It really got everyone into the spirit, dancing away and having a great time. The caller was great at getting everyone in time and co-ordinated (sort of). As Mark and I had decided not to do a ‘first dance’, instead we decided to line up our guests on each side of the barn as we did the first song of the Ceilidh working our way down the line linking arms with each of our guests and one another until we reached the end. We also provided lawn games for our guests to play in the late afternoon sunshine, they including skittles, bowls, hoopla and giant jenga provided by local wedding hire, stationery and styling business, Life is Rosie.

The Food

The food was cooked by Ben Quinn from Woodfired Weddings, we chose informal smoked lamb/broad bean and feta tacos on arrival with champagne. For the sit-down meal with went with informal sharing platters with beef brisket & burnt aubergine and for our evening food we had delicious Korean steamed buns cooked on the outdoor wood fire in the courtyard as our guest enjoyed the evening sun. As Mark and I own and run a little coffee shop in St Agnes, we asked our cake baker if she would make us a simple yet tasty wedding cake. Neither of us are a fan of icing so we opted for a ‘naked’ cake, covered in fresh strawberries, cream and gypsophila. So incorporate a little bit of our coffee shop on the wedding day we also decided to distribute the natural petals as confetti in our takeaway coffee cups branded with The Sorting Office.

The Photography

Our photographer, Ross Talling captured the day perfectly. It took him a little while to edit the photos but it was totally worth the wait - we are so happy with each and every photo and enjoy reliving our wedding day while looking through our wedding snaps. We didn’t want many formal photos of people looking looking directly at the camera, so Ross took extra care in capturing the little moments of people laughing, talking, drinking and dancing - just what we wanted.

The Videography

Our videographer was Ben Foster from Foster Filming. Ben was brilliant on the day and we were rarely aware of his presence, Ben compiled a beautiful video capturing the happiness of the day from start to finish. Ben also incorporated some old-fashioned flickering clips as if filmed on an old camera to create a nostalgic feel within the film.