Alice & Matthew had an incredibly pretty and colourful wedding with rustic detailing held in the most beautiful of venues – a place called Matara which has a picturesque oriental garden!
Our gorgeous bride looked an absolute vision in a stunning, floral, soft pink, needle and thread gown and Matthew complemented her unconventional look with a complementary maroon asos suit.
This is one wedding you need to see.
Words by Alice. Images by Jun Tan Weddings.
After searching online for venues or a few days, as soon as we came across Matara we knew we had found what we were looking for. We booked a viewing and knew it was right for us as we wanted a relaxed atmosphere and the Oriental gardens and decor really stood out.
I always knew I didn’t want a very traditional dress but still wanted something that looked elegant and reflected taste. I loved the colour and the detailing was exactly what I had been looking for.
I’ve always liked Needle and Thread so I didn’t look at any other brands or designers. I had to have it altered a bit but found such lovely seamstress who did an amazing job.
We have always liked both rustic and Oriental styles. Matara really ticked those boxes for us so it inspired us to almost blend them together. We decided to try and keep things colourful to tie in with the hints of colour around the venue and offset against all the plants.
I was so nervous before walking down the aisle, but seeing our friends and family and Matt at the other end I felt so relaxed. Having the ceremony outside in the courtyard just really made it perfect.
I wanted to keep the flowers quite simple as I didn’t want to detract from my dress too much, rhetoric pale pink roses complimented both my dress and Matts suit, as well as the bridesmaids’ dresses.
We came across Jun while searching for a wedding photographer on bidvine, after taking a look at his website we knew she style was exactly what we were looking for.
He really took the time to get to know us and what we wanted, so pleased we found him!
We wanted to keep the decor quite simple and as we loved the Oriental feel of the venue, we opted not to have a colour scheme and just choose things that reflect our taste.
With help from a friend, we handmade origami cranes for the centrepieces and used decoupage paper to decorate wooden table numbers.
We bought an a-board from ebay and Matt designed and painted our timings for the day. I also sourced a large dream catcher to hang our seating plan on.
We loved our wedding cake, we left the design fully in their hands as their cakes look amazing. They looked at pictures of our venue and asked us how we were planning on decorating.
The hints of colour and floral details really tied in with our decorations. We chose to have a different flour for each tier, vegan chocolate, banana and salted caramel, courgette and lime. We served the cake for desert and was fun for our guests to try and guess the flavours.
If we could offer any advice on planning a wedding? Just make sure you try and pick things that are relevant to your style and you as a couple. Don’t worry about the small things, we had 1 or 2 tiny hiccups, but no one noticed and it didn’t spoil the day at all.
We decided not to get too many people involved in the planning, I didn’t want to put too much responsibility on to other people or have anyone feel left out. Most of all, just enjoy the planning because it’s about the two of you and what you love.
Such a colourful and beautiful wedding in the most unique of wedding venues! Thanks to Jun Tan Photography for sharing this absolute beauty with us.
Congrats Alice & Matthew!
wedding credits / photographer: jun tan photography / venue: matara, cotswolds / wedding dress: needle & thread / brides shoes: dune / bridesmaid dresses: coast, monsoon / hair: kerry nixon, cloud 9 & co / makeuo: julian castaneda / grooms apparell: topman, next, asos / florist: bows bells, gloucester / cake: ahh toots / entertainment: alive network, darren campbell, all about funk
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Wow your dress is spectacular and so pretty on u. The lighting is so lovely and romantic. Congratulations!
I love this warm colors, it’s so delicate and elegant!
Ahh this is a great article! I love love love it! Some of these ideas are so simple but sooooo beautiful! I am definitely going to have steal one (or maybe even a few) of these ideas for my own big day! Also can we all please just take a minute to talk about how insanely cute that cake is, and the flowers? Beautiful! Gosh I’m excited now – I will have to add even more things to my ever growing wedding wish list now haha! Gahh the struggle to get that luxury oriental wedding dream fairytale affair is real. I know everyone says it but there’s just so so so much to think about! I really think I might just hire a wedding/events planner. I’m just not very good at this whole thing! Plus my fiance is just no help at all (I mean I love him to pieces but when it comes to organising things he’s as useless as a chocolate teapot). Does anyone actually know of any good party wedding planners? I don’t want the ceremony planned, just the after party bit as that’s where I’m really struggling the most! I read in a magazine about a company called Scarlet Events that specialise in chinese weddings (this is their site:https://www.scarletevents.com/chinese-wedding-planners ) Has anyone used them or been to a party where they’ve hosted? Obviously they look great but I really wanted to read some reviews from fellow brides and wedding goers first! So if anyone has been to any of their events I would love you forever if you could give me any reviews and opinions on them! Thanks everyone! (Sorry for the long post – just call me bridezilla – my fiance does!) x
Thank you so much for the feature Sonia!