Wedding First Dance Outside at Kingston Estate in Devon

Photography by Harry Michael Photography

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What Made Our Day Unique

In terms of direction, we knew exactly what we wanted from the outset; we wanted a fun, relaxed wedding with as many of our family and friends staying with us at the venue as possible and a REALLY late music licence. We generally pride ourselves (or disgrace, depending on the way you look at it!) by always being the last ones standing, and it was important to us that on our wedding day we celebrate for as long as possible surrounded by all the people we love. Aside from the clear sentimentality of the day, we tried to ignore the traditions that didn’t suit us (a wedding cake vs. unlimited gelato?!) and embrace the parts of weddings that we really enjoy as guests. For us, that was the music, dancing, speeches and the Night Before. As we’re both from different ends of the country, we weren’t fussed on location so we were able to look at venues absolutely anywhere, with the hope of creating a fun weekend away for everyone.

Vickie & Liam

Inspiration & Styling

We wanted to keep the atmosphere relaxed, but obviously easy on the eye. Our styling focussed around dusky Summer Evenings; modern, soft lighting, lots of flowers and mixed pastels/pinks and gold tones. At first our ideas were all over the place, but our stylist Danielle came into her own taking control and pruning various Pinterest boards to create one consistent look. Most important was to dress areas to create gathering spaces; in particular a gorgeously rustic open courtyard and Linhay Barn which was dressed with blossom trees, uplighters, festoon lighting, a neon sign of our new married name, and our wedding car an E-type Jaguar parked there too. We were lucky to have great weather, and the Courtyard was our central point for the whole weekend; we held a street food feast there for all of our guests the Night Before, Breakfast the next morning, had our Gelato pop-up and the band playing there after the meal, and we even had our first dance there, so it was worth the extra effort on dressing that space.

Vickie & Liam

Suppliers

We tried to choose suppliers that we got on with well. A lot of the best decisions we made were through recommendation; our stylist Danielle for instance, our wedding would have looked nowhere near as good, or consistent without her. She was so incredibly supportive in all aspects and we were lucky to have her. Harry, our photographer was a total LEGEND and again a recommendation from a friend who had stumbled across his work, and we just loved it from the first sight. Harry’s style is so relaxed and he took the time to get to know us as a couple to be able to capture the photos that he knew we would love. We were so blessed to have my extremely talented cousin hand-draw and design all of our stationery, and the vast majority of signage/ dressing calligraphy we used (some of it in the morning of the wedding in her dressing gown!) Where we couldn’t get direct recommendations, we used reliable sources like The List for pointers and Danielle was able to use her network too so that we didn’t come unstuck.

Vickie & Liam

Written by Lorna Shaw