Zoe & Luke

Gosh this wedding is pretty. Every single element works together beautifully, Zoe has a real eye for combining colours and details. I love that she even went as far as coordinating the edible flowers in the Pimms to the rest of the scheme - that's attention to detail for you right there! This garden party wedding was held at The Walled Gardens, which looks like such a lovely place to host your wedding celebrations. Images come from Grace Elizabeth, a school friend of Zoe's who just happens to be an amazing photographer. We love this stylish, elegant, pretty day and I've got a feeling you will too...

The Fashion

Zoe the Bride: I wore a long sleeve trumpet gown with lace and beaded embellishments. Jewellery was kindly hand made by my friend Ange Seddon (Angel Designs Jewellery). Luke wore a 3-piece electric blue suit with a horseshoe style waistcoat from Red Herring at Debenhams.

The Venue

The wedding day was based solely at The Walled Gardens at Beeston Fields Golf Club. The staff at the Walled Gardens looked after us from our first enquiry right up until the final song was played. The setting was beautiful, an old Victorian Walled garden with a large marquee.

The Decor

We wanted a relaxed but sophisticated wedding with a garden theme. We’re both quite young and wanted the wedding to reflect us rather than something we were trying to be. We had a neutral palette with splashes of colour, which mainly came from the groomsmen’s electric blue outfits and our flowers.

The Flowers

When arranging floral details Zoe’s Mum helped out a lot. We asked Marie (Fruits of the Forest) for a selection of flowers that looked liked they’d been picked from a meadow. She was very helpful with our simple choices of floral arrangements on the table. Zoe’s Mum collected all the crystal for the tables, and the lace on the table belonged to Zoe’s Great Nan. 
When we decided on an outdoor ceremony, we asked Marie if she could arrange hanging flowers within the bandstand. She was more excited than us to do this and they really set the scene! With a bridal bouquet, 8 bridesmaid flowers, 2 flower girl bouquets, 10 flower crowns, the bridal hair pieces, 18 corsages, 15 table arrangements and the band stand, Marie worked incredibly hard and really captured our theme and brought the whole look together.

The Wedding Party

We don’t have loads of friends, but the ones we do have our extremely precious and we wanted them all to be involved in our day and to have a special day themselves too.

The Ceremony

A close family friend, who has really mentored us through out our relationship, led our ceremony. He led a very personal ceremony which showed our love for each other and commitment to our faith. He led a personal talk which linked in with Luke’s business slogan, Design, Build, Maintain. We both wrote our own vows, which we read with Zoë’s brother and Luke’s sister by our sides, the majority of people present cried. Lucie (Luke’s sister) read a beautiful reading from Galatians 5:22-23 and Adam (Zoe’s brother) did an excellent speech as best man which humiliated everyone and softened up towards the end with some very touching words.

The Entertainment

We had loads packed into the evening of our wedding as we wanted there to be something for everyone and for everyone to have fun. We had a candy floss machine (Elite Events), a vintages photo booth (Vintage Booth) and our very own wedding bake off! Luke made all the logs stands that the cakes were placed on and our friend Jules MC’d. Thank you to everyone who baked and took part. Ashley Smith from DJ Versa Styles ended the evening with some unforgettable music and dancing.

The Food

Zoe had obsessed over details when planning this, in particular, edible flowers. Guests were welcomed with mini scone canapés served on thin logs that Luke had cut. They then had to search through a display of personalised hand decorated mason jars of pimms, topped with edible flowers, which Zoe had decorated with their name and table number. Our dinner was a beautiful roast lamb which all of our guests complimented, followed by a chocolate tort, garnished with edible flowers. Guests also enjoyed an ice cream after our outdoor ceremony whilst the bride and groom legally wed. In the evening vintage fish and chips were served along with the Wedding Bake Off cakes that guests had kindly baked. Everybody also had a go on the candyfloss machine!

The Photography

Zoe has known Grace since senior school. Grace has always been an avid photographer and Zoe followed her work on Facebook and through friends throughout the years. When Zoe and Luke were dating, at the age of just 16 she had told Luke that she wanted Grace to be her wedding photographer. Grace’s style has always been so natural and fluid. Grace now runs her own wedding photography business (Grace Elizabeth Photography) as a team with her fiancé Mitch who is also a photographer and videographer. They captured all the details that Zoe had worked so hard on, they also captured so many intimate moments and the personalities of all our family/friends. Grace and Mitch were a dream on the day. They helped various people with lots of tasks, they mingled with guests and made them feel comfortable and they really made us feel at ease throughout all the photos. They really did capture everything that was important to us, from silly antics by our friends, to reactions and touches of hands. We will never forget the hard work and magic of our day because of them. They have given us the most precious keepsakes of our day and we cannot thank them enough.

The Videography

Solomon was another talent that Zoe followed over the years. His work had a comforting feel to it, natural and simple. Solomon and Aaron were amazing on our day. We hardly noticed them! They were extremely subtle. The video is incredible, we cry every time we watch it. All the moments seem so surreal now it’s over - it’s a truly special way to relive our wedding. They captured details and moments and you really didn’t feel like you were being watched on the day.

The Stationery

We worked with Ger at Feel Good Invites for all our stationery. Zoe is very creative and designed and sent them painted designs of our flowers and they then turned them into mini works of art. They were very patient with our little changes we kept making and were a dream to work with.

Special Detail

Lastly, a very special touch was our wedding rings. We worked with Puneet at the Nottinghamshire’s Wedding Ring Workshop to design and make each other’s rings. She hosted a very personal day and helped us create our dream rings ourselves!