Country cottage style garden: real wedding | cotswold

I am totally in love with the emotion of this wedding… it really has me feeling all warm and gooey inside! Our lovely couple Alex & Andy, said their vows in a beautiful, humanist garden ceremony located in this picturesque country cottage in the Cotswold. Alex painstakingly crafted all the gorgeous DIY details of their day, so their wedding really does have a lovely, handmade, country cottage style feel to it.

It was incredibly difficult to select from the images captured by talented wedding photographer Emma Lucy, as there are so many damn good ones! Therefore, I’m spliting this wedding into two pretty posts for you to enjoy! I will now hand you over to Alex who shares the beautiful story of her big day.

We chose this venue because we wanted a wedding that we could make our own and for everyone to enjoy over the whole bank holiday weekend.  Wellacres House is a holiday rental, not a wedding venue so it was a complete blank canvas. We transformed the barn in the garden into our reception and we had our ceremony in the garden underneath the tree.

Andy proposed to me under a big tree on a snowy Christmas eve, so when we saw the large tree in the garden we knew this was the perfect place to get married under in the Spring….it was meant to be!

We didn’t hire an event planner. I designed the wedding myself, from the ceremony to the reception and all the details inbetween.

I knew exactly what I didn’t want in a dress, but not what I did want. I didn’t want a big dress or a dress made with ‘noisey’ fabrics with lots of layers. With the nature of my business and being a textile designer, natural fabrics are important to me, so I didn’t want anything synthetic.

I wanted something that would represent the venue and a garden wedding. And my only requirement was a dress that featured lace and had lovely drape to it. Plus I love bows and ribbons! The Queen Annes lace was cotton and silk with beautiful lace and ribbons down either side. It was perfect and made me cry when I tried it on. It was ‘the one‘!

My shoes were a brilliant find.  They were also my something blue! They were from Kurt Geiger and were in the sale at £60. Bargain!

I bought the bridesmaid dresses from Dorothy Perkins and the pink bow belts were also from Dorothy Perkins. They were beautiful and each dress suited each of my maids.  I loved the mid length of them as well. It was so flattering. The pastel pink/nude colour and the lace tied in perfectly with my dress and the wedding.

As a textile designer it was so important for me to contribute to my own wedding by making as much as I could. The bouquets, buttonholes, bunting, favours, place names and the alter at the end of the aisle were all made by me. It was a little stressful and I very nearly ran out of time, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world as all the personal touches gave our wedding a really personal feel.

The best man, ushers and our dads and brothers each wore their own suits, but they all wore a handmade fabric buttonhole that I made for them all to tie them into the bridal party.  What is really lovely is that  they all kept them after the wedding.

Andy bought me a beautiful diamond necklace that one of my bridesmaids gave to me on the morning of the wedding which I wore. I also wore a pair of my grandmothers pearl earrings. My something new and my something borrowed.

I did my own makeup and my hair was a plait that wrapped around the back of my head and was pinned in place. I had grown my hair all year ready for my wedding! The lovely Hayley from Tabitha Khan salon in a nearby village did my hair in the morning and I was so pleased with it. I wanted a style that would fit the relaxed garden themed countryside wedding and I felt she did just that. It was perfect.

Each of the girls chose their own shoes in various different colours. 

 I walked down the aisle to Etta James ’At Last’   

We had a humanist ceremony in the garden. The house was not a licensed wedding venue and neither of us are religious, so this was a lovely alternative as we got to write our own vows and our ceremony was completely about us without any religious references, which was perfect and personal to us.

So, so, so gorgeous and emotional, don’t you agree? Pop back tomorrow you  really don’t want to miss all the pretty DIY details of this stunning wedding.

p.s. Go on, leave this happy couple some blog love ;-)

{Image credits: Venue – Wellacres House, Brides Dress, Queen Anne Lace by Claire Pettibone, Zena Birch – Humanist celebrant, Richard Cook – Hog Roast, Bar – The Great Western Arms in Blockley, Wedding Photography Emma Lucy, Furniture and lighting, Fabric Bouquets, Buttonholes, bunting and favours – By Alex}

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