Our Wedding - the photographer, the videographer & the fun photo booth

Apologies for the very photo-heavy blog post but choosing a mere selection from the abundance of wedding photographs my photographer recently sent me over was proving a bit trickier than I first imagined! So this post is all about those amazing talents that went about capturing all the love and happiness from our lovely day. I am someone who loves the value of a good photograph. I love the memories it can provoke, the smiles that it can produce and the fact that they are a timeless reminder of a certain period or time in your life. I love the idea that many images will live on longer than you and future generations will pour over the scenes, reminisces and imagining what was going on in front of the lens. Pretty much as soon as our wedding date was set I took on the task of tracking down the perfect photographer for our day. I am quite particular of what I like and what I don't like when it comes to wedding imagery and I knew the moment I saw some of Katherine Ashdown's work that she was the perfect match for us. Soft, light, airy and whimsical. Her photos are natural yet completely charming and I knew her clever eye and creative flair would completely capture our day how we wanted it to be seen with the upmost attention and appreciation to all the tiny details with some fun, not too posey couple shots thrown into the mix. Meeting Katherine in person late last year only cemented our initial feelings that she was the lady for the job and after experiencing our engagement shoot with her a few months before the day, we were brimming with excitement to have her with us on our wedding. I think it is so important to have a great rapport with your wedding photographer and I feel lucky to say that we now regard Katherine as a good friend and felt she was more of a guest on our day than someone there to do a job. She has this indescribable ability to blend in and be completely inconspicuous yet capture those dear moments that you would miss in a blink yet will now cherish for a lifetime. Everything you need to know about Katherine can be found on her website and she also runs a Facebook page which is a must if you love pouring over wedding day sneak peeks like I do...even if it does make me wish we could do it all over again!

Next up is our wedding videographers. Having a wedding video from our day was an idea I toyed with for quite a while before deciding that it was something we definitely both wanted. I was a little indifferent at first and had always been put off by a few cheesy, somewhat shaky films I had seen before but once I found A Hint of Mint and watched a few of their recent pieces of work, I was convinced! These guys are an extension to Minty Slippers who are equally fabulous yet were not able to accommodate their growing client list hence their sister company was born. The guys on the day were amazing - very subtle and lovely to work with and again captured all the little details and moments from our day in such a fresh, endearing way. Our little highlights video is so wonderful and literally brings back all the happy memories from our day and is keeping us going until the full length, big video is ready to view in a few weeks. If you are in two minds about a wedding video then I would definitely recommend having one and think the Minty team is a great place to start your search.

And finally, the most fun factor from our wedding for sure, the amazing photo booth which was provided to us by The Photo Emporium. I first saw this idea at the Brides Show last year and loved the concept and different set ups you could have so headed home and booked them up. We went for the vintage photo booth which came complete with a picket fence, retro camera and a suitcase of vintage props and paraphernalia. It was a huge hit with our guests! At weddings some people like to dance in the evening, some people are happy to drink and people-watch and others love to take photos and play with novelty props all night long! And judging by the constant mingle of guests around the photo booth from early evening until late into the night, our guests definitely loved the latter. Each guest gets to take a print out of their photo there and then and they can go back (and back!) as much as they like. It was a great addition to our wedding and we love looking back at all the hundreds of funny photos, giggling at the random mix of people, props and silly faces in many of the images. Brilliant!

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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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