A Botanical 1930s Style, English Garden Inspired Wedding: Adam & Kathryn

You know a wedding is going to be a little bit special when the bride is an actual bridal model! The absolutely gorgeous Kathryn & Adam married in a stunning Georgian town house incorporating a 1930s, English garden vibe with a beautiful botanical influence.

I love everything about this wedding and particularly how they worked with the dark blues of their chosen wedding venue mixing in classic ivory and organic greens to beautiful effect! The cakes, florals and Kathryn’s dress are just wow.

Words by Kathryn. Images by James Powell Photography.

We’d been doing a lot of research, and were feeling a bit disheartened when we couldn’t find a venue within our budget that could handle both the ceremony and the reception without us doing a lot of the organisation ourselves.

The Townhouse had just reopened after refurbishment and we were driving past on our way home when we noticed how lovely it looked. I ended up tweeting them that afternoon, and we organised to go in and meet their event team. We were blown away by what they could offer and booked without even looking at anywhere else.
Even better, they didn’t charge venue hire, just a minimum spend on food and drink!

I found my dress in a Bridal Outlet Store in Burton Upon Trent. It’s an unlabeled dress, so I don’t know where it came from, but it was a bargain at £300.

My shoes were from Debut at Debenhams in the sale. I chose them as they were a lovely shape and not too high – I didn’t want to risk sore feet and also wanted to be a little shorter than Adam.

Friendship is a huge focus for us, not only in our relationship but with those around us, so it felt right to consider friends and family when planning our day. We just really wanted them to have fun and enjoy themselves.

Colour-wise we were guided by the colouring of the venue – dark blues – so wanted to lighten it with ivory flowers.

My dress also inspired a lot of what we did – we were kind of opting for a 30s, English Garden, Botanical Theme… not sure if that’s what we ended up with, but we loved it all the same! We just chose what we liked.

Mum and I had were on a fact-finding mission to decide what style of dress I’d be after before going to a Bridal Boutique, and didn’t expect to find anything.

Mum picked the dress from the rails, and I decided to try it on first as it wasn’t at all what I thought I was looking for.

I put it on and that was it. It fitted perfectly straight off the bat and I could really visualise how I would look on my wedding day – but to be honest I was a bit shell shocked! I tried on a couple of others after, but they didn’t compare in the slightest.

As it was off the rack it then sat in my wardrobe for 9 months, and every so often I’d sneak upstairs and try it on and fall in love with it all over again.

Having done some Bridal Modelling, I have a few contacts who were really kind to me when my own wedding came around. My Hairpiece was a bespoke comb from Tantrums and Tiaras based on Kelly’s ‘Henrietta’ Forehead piece.

Kelly does stunning work, and it really set off the dress. Earrings were from Yarwood White – they matched the headpiece to a tee and were that great mix of glamorous and elegant.

I didn’t wear any other jewellery as I wanted to keep it simple.

Adam bought his Suit from ASOS in the Winter Sale. It’s a gorgeous 3 piece Herringbone Wool Suit and he looked so smart and handsome – but we did forget to consider how suitable wool would be for a Summer Wedding!

Luckily, though very sunny, it wasn’t as warm as it could have been in the height of summer, but the jacket did come off mid-ceremony and was never seen again.

Flowers were by Sarah from Bramble and Berry who was highly recommended to us. I know absolutely nothing about flowers, despite pinning hundreds of bouquets on my Pinterest board, and Sarah was really helpful in talking me through my options and coming up with the look and feel which would complement the rest of the wedding.

Our friend also has a little business for selling terrariums through her etsy shop and made one for each of our tables, which really suited the style we were going for and looked great against Sarah’s loose, wild flowers.

My Dad walked me down the aisle- the plan was to walk down the aisle to Avril 14th by Aphex Twin – a really lovely instrumental piece and have ‘You’re My Best Friend’ by Queen as our recessional, but that didn’t end up happening due to a technical hitch!

Adam and I met at University – he was in the flat above me in Halls – though I’d actually spotted him at an open day almost a year before. Back then he wore his red hair down in long curly locks and was pretty eye-catching (and still is…

We were both studying English Literature and quickly became best friends, which then grew to love. We moved in together in 2010, and have now bought our own home and have 2 cats, Tilly and Mona.

Adam proposed at home on Good Friday 2014 – unfortunately the English Weather and my obliviousness foiled his original plan – the day before we were due to meet my parents at his family home for Easter, so we were all able to celebrate together which was perfectly timed.

As the Georgian Townhouse didn’t have their ceremony license at the time of our wedding (though they do now) we signed the register with just our parents as witnesses on the Thursday before. The ceremony was beautifully intimate, and was followed up with Afternoon Tea at the Assembly House, Norwich, just the 6 of us.

For the Saturday, we worked with Mary Harboe, a local celebrant, to tailor a symbolic ceremony just for us. Mary really took the time to get to know us, and understood what we wanted for the day perfectly and created a ceremony that was truly us on her first try.

Our Readings were ‘Friendship’ by an Unknown Author and a quote on Love from the American version of The Office, our favourite TV show.

Adam and his band, Falling From Trees, also wrote and performed a song for me during the ceremony. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house, and it was such a personal declaration of love.

Our Photographer was James Powell from James Powell. Photography was really important to us, as I’ve been very lucky to work with some amazing photographers on Wedding Shoots and wanted our wedding to be captured just as beautifully.

We did a lot of research into local (and not so local!) photographers and when we found James’ website we absolutely fell in love with his style.

We booked in to meet him (at a country village pub!) and clicked immediately; We spent most of the evening just chat ting and laughing.

We got on so well and knew immediately that we want ed him to be there on our wedding day. James really blended in with our family and friends on the day, putting everyone at ease, and worked so hard for us. As you can see, he captured the day perfectly and we’re really grateful to him for giving us such amazing memories of our wedding day.

The venue – the Georgian Townhouse – handled the majority of the catering. Early on, we decided that we wanted something that people could share, so settled on a roast dinner with joints of beef & pork, yorkshire puddings and bowls of potatoes and veg. Dessert was a board of lemon tart and chocolate brownies.

Canapes were served between welcome drinks (Gin and Tonics!) and sitting down for dinner, whilst Adam and I snuck off with the photographer for couple shots, and we also had a tower of cheese and biscuits for the evening.

Emma at Buns of Fun made our cake and we found her at The Curious Wedding Fair at St Andrews Hall, Norwich.

We were there for the free wine and cake samples, but as soon as we tried her sticky gingerbread and butter cream cupcakes (!) we knew it was the cake for us.

Emma also made us 12 Gluten Free Cupcakes in the same flavour so everyone could enjoy it together.

Our band was The Magic Number Swing Emporium and they were absolutely amazing.

We’d seen them a couple of years previously at the Spiegeltent as part of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival and loved them then, so when it came to hiring a band we immediately thought of them and tracked them down.

They traveled such a long way – some of their journeys started at 9.30 in the morning to get to us for 6pm! – and we’re so grateful to them for making the journey as they completely set the tone for the evening, and everyone commented on how wonderful they were.

We didn’t plan a formal first dance, but did eventually take to the floor just us two in the middle of one of the band’s sets. We loved how off the cuff and fun it was – it just happened!

If you could impart any words of wisdom to a Bride to Be planning her marriage and wedding day, what would they be?

We’d just suggest building the kind of day you want, rather than what anyone else, or tradition, says you should do.

Planning should be fun, and in the end it’s about the two of you committing to each other in front of your loved ones. Everything else is just nice little extras.

Adam suggests setting a time for doing wedding planning stuff – ours was Sunday Mornings – so that I didn’t bombard him with wedding emails and pictures throughout the week!

Also, things will go wrong on the day, but in the end it won’t matter. Just have fun. What was your most memorable moment of the day / evening?

All of our guests forming a circle around us during Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at the end of the night, before piling in and jumping all over the place for the guitar solo – unforgettable!

Thank you so much to James Powell for sharing this stunning town house wedding with the WTW blog and a big, massive, huge congrats to the lovely Kathryn and Adam.

wedding credits / photographer: james powell photography / wedding venue: the georgian townhouse / brides dress: bridal factory outlets / grooms suit: asos / brides shoes: debut at debenhams / grooms shoes: jimmy b / brides accesories: tantrums & tiaras / bridesmaid shoes: / hair: james webber / makeup: emily of love moi makeup / florist:  bramble & berry / terrariums / wedding cake: buns of fun

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