Welcome back!
Today is all about real bride Charlotte’s wedding to John. This afternoon’s post is dedicated to their wedding reception. With their day set at Braziers Park, Oxfordshire they used the rustic barn and a beautiful marquee to host their party.
They created much of their day themselves, arranging the gorgeous blooms, creating rustic signs and even the picnic tables! There was a picnic style wedding breakfast, a delicious cake table, a camp fire and even their dog made an appearance. Perfect.
Thanks so much to the wonderful Assassynation for sharing her images with us today.
Budget… More than we originally expected but much less than it would have been had we not found a DIY cheat for just about everything!! I became a Google ninja in the run up to the wedding.
The Details + Decor… Where do I start with the details!! As I said before, absolutely everything was handmade, recycled or collected by us over the two years of planning.
John handmade the benches for the ceremony from wooden pallets, the aisle backdrop was made from cut offs of lace, sequins and garden bamboo, we made loads of signs out of pallets as well, the flowers were arranged in recycled dog food tins which we spray painted, the picnic tables were handmade and then assembled from scratch the day before the wedding, my grandma made elderflower wine for the drinks reception and raspberry vodka as favours – we’ve had quite a few requests for the grandma’s moonshine recipes since the wedding!
The Cake… We were greedy and had a whole cake table!! Five cakes in different flavours…including banoffee, chocolate fudge and lemon and blueberry. Yum! Rebecca from Streatly Village Cakes got my styling ideas perfectly! The cakes not only tasted amazing but they looked awesome too!!
It wasn’t just the cake that rocked at the wedding! We decided to really focus on carrying our relaxed ethos through to all of the food at the wedding. Our caterers put together a family style picnic lunch for the afternoon – artisan breads, local cheeses, antipasti, cold meats and fresh salads – all served up on the tables ready for our guests to pass around and dig in. It was just perfect for the seriously hot afternoon we were blessed with and encouraged everyone to get chatting. In the evening we had the amazing Fundi Pizza serve each guest a wood fired pizza fresh from the oven…sooo tasty!
Your Photographer… Arrh the lovely Sassy from Assassynation, another defining choice as far as the wedding goes. Sassy was on hand to offer advice on just about everything from family politics, to where to put the guestbook guitar. On top of all this she has given us the best wedding gift we could have ever asked for…totally incredible photos! We will be proudly showing everyone the pictures for years to come.
The Honeymoon… We already had a summer holiday in Crete booked for after the wedding so we turned this into our minimoon. We are planning on visiting family in Hawaii next year for the big honeymoon.
Memorable Moments… There are so many amazing memories! Sitting on our sweetheart table, surrounded by our favourite people in the world – it was probably the only chance we got on the day to just relax and take it all in. Our impromptu first dance (halfway through the evening), whilst the super cool Plastic Pantomime, our evening band, rocked the party barn! Singing round the campfire into the early hours with our friends and families and then retiring to our wedding bell tent.
They weren’t kidding when they told us it would be the BEST DAY EVER!!!
Advice for Other Couples… Don’t feel you have to do something just because it’s traditional…follow your gut instincts. If something is too expensive and it looks like you can’t afford it, there will always be a way around it with a DIY cheat. Get creative!
Pick your suppliers carefully and try to go for people you feel a connection with. A lot of our suppliers ended up partying with us late into the night and the band even stayed overnight!
Credit Where Credit is Due…
Venue – Braziers Park – www.braziers.org.uk
Ceremony – One Life Ceremonies – www.onelifeceremonies.co.uk
Photography – Assassynation – www.assassynation.co.uk
Coordinator – Utterly Wow – www.utterlywow.co.uk
Flowers – Green and Gorgeous – www.greenandgorgeousflowers.co.uk
Pizza – Fundi Pizza – www.fundipizza.com
Cake – Streatly Village Cakes – www.streatleyvillagecakes.co.uk
Acoustic Band – Kin Wah – www.facebook.com/KinwahCoverBand
Evening Band – Plastic Pantomime – www.plasticpantomime.co.uk
Make Up – Katherine Louise Make Up – http://katherinelouisemakeup.com/
Lighting – Oakwood Events - www.oakwoodevents.co.uk
What a wonderful day. It looked like a blast from start to finish. Thanks so so much to Charlotte and John for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today. And thank you to Charlotte for sharing her wedding planning journey with us all :-) XOXO Lou
