Our wedding - special gifts, fun favours and wedding stationery

Wedding photography by Katherine Ashdown

My next post in my wedding series focuses on all those little gifts we gave and very gratefully received during our wedding day, from the favours for the guests to the bridesmaids gifts, as well as the stationery we used to help style our day. For my lovely bridesmaids I wanted to treat them to a few little treats during the wedding morning so firstly presented them with these floral B by Ted Baker kimonos to match my own chemise. I knew it would be nice for them to wear them in the morning as we all excitedly got ready and would make for some super lovely photos right before we got changed into our wedding outfits. I also bought them each a cream dressing table mirror from Laura Ashley to use on the morning but then take home with them as a little reminder of our day. Finally I presented them with their own Jo Malone Orange Blossom cologne to compliment my own bespoke scent and again to give them something personal to always provoke a happy memory of our day together. They are all such amazing friends and beautiful bridesmaids, I really wanted to give them something special to cherish always.

Just before I began to get ready into my wedding dress a special delivery arrived from Rob for me to open which I did with utmost excitement. He sent over such a lovely card that I will read and re-read for a long time to come and then I had much fun and wonderment unveiling my wedding gift, my dream bag, the Mulberry Willow Tote in Ballet Pink. It is beautiful and was such an expected, thoughtful gift from my husband-to-be. Ironically I had also bought him a Mulberry bag, the Oak Clipper Holdall, which was being delivered by one of our ushers at the same time. Great minds, eh?!

For all our wedding stationery and bespoke jam jar labels I used the wonderful Wedding in a Teacup who were amazing at helping me create my individual invitations and order of services, giving me the freedom to reword the templates and play about with the layout to ensure they were delivered just how I wanted them. They have so many lovely designs and little ideas for favours, gifts and handmade items for your wedding, I would definitely recommend them to help add some rustic charm to your day. We of course went for the Love is Sweet stationery - the cupcakes and pastel hues went perfectly with our theme. For our favours we made homemade strawberry & rose jam for the girls and spicy plum chutney for the boys and spooned them into jam jars with our bespoke Spread the Love labels placed on the front from Wedding in a Teacup also. We made the tops for the jams and chutney from the leftover bunting fabric and tied them in place with some fine ribbon.

We loved the idea of having some personalised apple crates and boxes dotted around our venue to  house various things like some warm blankets for the evening and the wedding cards and gifts from our lovely friends and family. We ordered a whole host of different crates and boxes from Plant a Box online which is a great site. You can choose the size, colour and text of each box so was perfect for personalising the items for our wedding day but equally they would make a lovely gift for someone and will remain a keepsake for us for many years to come.  

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Our Wedding - Pimms, pizza & our naked wedding cake

Wedding photography by Katherine Ashdown

Being massive foodies ourselves Rob and I knew instantly that we wanted to make our wedding a food-filled occasion - a feast for the eyes and the bellies. We wanted the day to be a really treat for our guests and ensure they were well fed and watered all day long with delicious, homemade savouries and treats. We felt it was another way to inject our own personality into our special day so once again decided to do all the catering during the day ourselves. With Rob being a chef and his mum running her own catering company, I knew we were in good hands and the two of them worked tirelessly throughout the run up to the wedding and made me so proud with the most sumptuous spread of food I have ever seen.

We both knew we wanted to treat our guests to drinks and canapés the moment they entered the field following our wedding ceremony so we made our own pink lemonade and bottled it up in schweppes bottle with our own wedding label - "First Kiss Fizz" stuck to the bottle. These were handed out with stripy straws and were a huge hit to refresh our guests on a very hot, sunny day. We then had trays of Pimms in jam jars and a huge tin bath filled with ice and bottled drinks for the guests to help themselves to throughout the reception. Because we knew it was going to be hot and didn't want anyone getting too tipsy before the afternoon tea was served we had three large Kilner drinks dispensers filled up with soft drinks which the children loved to loiter around and serve themselves. We made up a variety of cordials such as ginger & lemongrass and pomegranate & elderflower as well as an iced mint and lime water to keep everyone hydrated. There is nothing worse than being at a wedding reception and having to make your one glass of prosecco last for two hours! As Rob and I are both vegetarians we opted for a completely vegetarian food theme throughout the day from the homemade canapés through to the vegetarian buffet in the afternoon. For the canapés we made a selection of tasty morsels such as watermelon and halloumi, fruit skewers, black olive and feta scones and polenta with red onion chutney and goats cheese. Delicious! Rob also surprised me with the entrance of trays of ice lollies made up for all our guests which was so sweet and a wonderful talking point for all our guests. He made orange & lemon, strawberries & cream and pistachio nut & rose water.

For the sit down meal we were really keen to keep the atmosphere casual and relaxed and didn't want to serve three courses of hot food on a balmy Summer's day and have everyone sitting down for longer than was necessary. We skipped a lot of the traditional aspects and didn't have a head table but opted for our own lovers' table for two which was honestly one of the loveliest things as we were able to just talk to each other and take in the whole day and look out together on all our favourite family and friends. We wanted to keep it light and breezy and encourage people to get up and mingle throughout the meal so therefore we served a vegetarian buffet and encouraged all our guests to go up for seconds (and thirds in some cases) whilst the waitresses kept the tables topped up with cold water and chilled rose. Our vegetarian dishes were heavily influenced by the delicious food that Ottolenghi makes and we also made sure we catered for a few of our vegan friends too. We served a selection of salads - the butternut squash and pomegranate being one of my favourites, homemade hummus, asparagus and roasted vegetable quiches, figs with roasted pistachios and honey, quinoa salads with a selection of homemade chilli and rosemary oils to season to taste. For our place names we decided to order some homemade garlic and rosemary breads baked in mini terracotta pots which we then stuck planter sticks into with each of our guests names written on.

Next up was the most exciting course - the afternoon tea which arrived on our gorgeous vintage cake stands with the delicate vintage tea cups to match. We hired our vintage china from a local company to us called Vintage Flair and loved the elegant, pretty feel they gave to the tables. Rob's mum did an incredible job creating the perfect assortment of cakes and treats with everything from scones, jam and cream to Bakewell tarts and blondies on offer. It was a lovely way to get all the guests interacting with each other as they passed the cake stands around and we ensured there was lashings of tea and freshly brewed coffee to wash it all down with.

Our wedding cake was the ultimate naked cake which I had had my heart set on from the very beginning. Considering Victoria sponge is my absolute favourite and I cannot stand fruit cake or marzipan, it was an obvious choice and yet again Rob's mum brought my Pinterest dreams to reality. Three tiers of soft vanilla sponge with homemade strawberry & rose jam and cream sandwiched within, dressed with fresh fruit and flowers to finish. Perfect!

And now onto the evening food, the pièce de résistance of our wedding culinary journey, our very own pizza van which rocked up to make and serve up fresh pizzas to our guests all night long! Pizza is our favourite food ever, you only need to glance at my instagram to know that pizza features heavily on a weekly basis so we knew that we wanted to celebrate our first night as Mr and Mrs with a slice of authentic Italy. We hired The WoodBox pizza van - a converted vintage 1969 Citroen H horse box van which serves up traditional sourdough street pizzas, freshly made in front of their customers in the wood fired oven. From the moment they arrived to late on into the evening, the boys worked tirelessly to satiate the appetites of our guests and we heard nothing but praise from our little corner of Italy nestled in the heart of the English countryside. From the very beginning we had this vision of hanging out with all our friends with a glass of sparkling in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other, perched on a hay bale watching the sun set over our wedding field, and that is exactly what we got. It was perfect!

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Our Wedding - homemade signs, the flowers & floral bunting

Wedding photography by Katherine Ashdown

So the next instalment in my wedding series is all about bouquets and bunting! From the very beginning we knew we wanted to create a very personal, homemade wedding and try and do as much of the creative graft as possible between ourselves and our amazingly helpful family. When my mum and I started discussing the flowers for the day we didn't think twice about doing them ourselves - I wanted to be able to look around on the day and see all our own little touches and details. The day before our wedding I headed to our local flower market where I had pre-ordered what felt like a field of gypsophila and stocks to pick up a car-full of country flowers. For my bridesmaids I made a simple bouquet of gypsophila tied together with a cream lace ribbon and for my own bouquet I grouped together three purple and pink hydrangea heads interspersed with a few sprigs of gypsophila for a pretty country feel.

For our church decorations we filled large, pastel-coloured enamel jugs with handfuls of stocks, wild daisies, gypsophila and gladioli to add height and fill the large stain glass window arches. We had a lovely friend in the village who offered to grow us practically a meadow of sweet peas which we picked the day before and placed in jam jars to line the aisle pews and dot around the church and marquee. We left them in the church the day before so during the service the church smelt beautiful and the scent of sweet peas will now forever remind me of our wedding. I wanted a feature for outside the church so my mum offered to make a heart to hang over the arched doorway which would be a lovely touch for the we're-just-married photos as we exited the church. I was blown away by her lavender heart that she seemingly just 'whipped' up the few days before and it was a beautiful focal point for all the guests as they arrived. For the flowers in our marquee we filled mismatched jugs, which we collected over the past year from antique stores, with stocks, gypsophila, lysantheum, nigella and daisies for a freshly picked look. I never wanted a colour scheme for our wedding but much preferred a floral country theme, light pastels and pretty hues set against a clean fresh palette. Rob's dad grew and nurtured apple boxes of country flowers which we dotted around the marquee to frame our venue and add a splash of colour.

For our confetti we bought dried natural petals from Shropshire Petals Confetti and used it to fill some musical sheet confetti cones we found on eBay. We loved the idea of having lots of chalkboard signs dotted around our church and marquee reception to convey little messages and menus to our guests. We bought a host of shabby chic looking frames from The Range and then painted them in a rainbow of pastel shades before painting the board inside with chalkboard paint. Over the few months leading up to the wedding I laboured over our signs whilst Rob's dad constructed some amazing signposts for our field which made a really fun feature for our guests as they arrived. As our church service and wedding reception was literally 30 seconds walk away from each other we decided to have a procession from the church to the marquee down the lane led my our two favourite little boys bearing some homemade signs which Rob constructed and painted and I wrote a few days before. I loved this photo of us all walking down and it was such a joyous moment right after becoming husband and wife.

I had always had a vision in my head of how I wished our marquee to look and I think we definitely achieved my Pinterest dream. We hired our traditional marquee from Cambridge Marquees and then we dressed and decorated it all ourselves. Our mums were absolute angels and made over 100 metres of gorgeous floral and gingham bunting which we proudly hung in the marquee and outside the church. It was really so beautiful and it was the best wedding gift they could have ever given us and will be something we will use again and cherish forever. The paper lanterns came from eBay and we bought some helium tassel tail giant balloons from Bubblegum Balloons which looked so sweet swaying in the breeze and were the perfect prop for one of our couple shoots later in the afternoon, as were our LOVE and R&M light up letters which we hired from Doris Loves. So dreamy against the pink sunset at the end of a truly perfect day.

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