Victoria & Ken

When you hear that the Bride is an ex wedding planner you know the wedding is going to be full of details, and oh my are we spoilt with Victoria & Ken's pastel pretty country wedding. The sweetest pink blooms, including hydrangeas & roses, twinkling fairly lights and the most adorable DIY rustic crates & chair back signs fill Stoke Place. And how can I forget the cakes loving gifted by family. Whilst Ken dons a tartan kilt and rocks to the ceilidh band to pay homage to his Scottish heritage, Victoria and her girls look the picture of elegance in gowns from our Look Book members Karen Willis Holmes and Coast. If you love your wedding's full of light and feminine touches, then this wedding captured by Source Images is for you.

Planning

Victoria the Bride: Following our Engagement in April, I think most of our family and friends expected me to have an instant wedding vision as I have been working in the wedding and events industry for 10 years. I certainly had some ideas but one thing we were sure of was that we wanted to hold our wedding back in the UK, we are currently living in Sydney and have been for the last 3.5 years. We wanted to hold back home to ensure all our family could play a part and to incorporate Ken’s Scottish heritage and have Ken and his Groomsmen in Kilts. A number of our family and friends travelled from Australia including my Cousin who gave me away and Ken’s Best Man.

The Dress

I found my dress (Molly) in Karen Willis Holmes store in Paddington Sydney, I had only tried on a handful of dresses but this was perfect balance of delicate French lace and tulle and although I looked a few more designers in Sydney and also back in the UK I kept coming back to the Molly and I was completely taken once the dress was finished off with a full length Muslim veil. My look was completed on the day with a fresh half flower crown of miniature roses and gyp and my stunning bouquet of scented David Austin roses and sweet peas.

Groom & Bridesmaid Dresses

My chosen colour tones for the wedding were soft grey and pink, these tones also blended with Ken’s family tartan the Hunting Stewart. The Bridesmaids dresses also incorporated lace and the Maid of Honour (My older sister) had a slight variation to make her standout.

The Church

The ceremony was held at a small church close to the village where I grew up, it was the perfect size for our intimate 102 guests, who just fitted in the cosy church.

The Venue

We really wanted an exclusive venue for our reception and found a beautiful country house called Stoke Place that was only 20 minutes from church. It had spacious and beautifully maintained grounds that were designed by Capability Brown that we used for the photos and large ballroom that suited my vision of the room layout perfectly. The feel I wanted was vintage, but with a very simple elegance and gave my Mum and Mother-in-law the task of organising the families to collect and source 250 glass vases and jars.

DIY Decorations

Between everyone they collected a vast array of crystal cut vases, jam jars and glasses with hardly any replication between them. Flowers were very important to me and I really wanted the country garden feel, think sweetpeas, roses and hydrangeas. My Mum also created metres and metres of lace bunting that we hung in the ballroom that paired beautifully with the pealight canopy. A family friend cleverly made a number of crates by recycling old pallet boards that helped create the garden feature, a display compiled of potted lavender, rosemary and mint (all home grown by Super Mum) and complete with bunnies! Two dear friends kindly painted two whitewashed old pallets as signs to display the Order of Our Day and a surname feature.

The Photography

We cannot thank Ines and Jordan enough for all their amazing work. They came highly recommended by a friend of ours and from the moment we meet we knew they were the ones! We are incredibly happy with all the images and looking at them brings back such special memories of our gorgeous day!

The Cake

A very special surprise on the day was my Mum and Sister revealing a wedding cake they had baked and decorated with sugar icing flowers, pink Peonies my favourite flowers which were unfortunately not in season when wedding took place put meant that they were part of the day in some form. This was in addition to the cake of cheese that my Auntie sourced for us as a gift. The Cheese and other cake were served in the evening along with an excellent Creperie which produced sweet and savoury crepes for the guests.

DJ/Disco

The evening entertainment started with a traditional Scottish Ceilidh that got everyone up dancing including Ken’s two Grandmothers and a DJ took over for the second part of the evening and we danced through to 1.00am!