“Although there were some traditional elements to our wedding, we wanted to keep the day as informal as possible,” began newlywed Anna. “We wanted a traditional wedding ceremony, but for the reception we just wanted to create a space for our friends and family to enjoy themselves. We had music all day, put out games and a fancy dress box, and left a jar of moustaches on the bar. The fancy dress box was well-used and our wedding became the chaotic festival-party we always wanted!”
“We didn’t really plan a theme, our wedding was just a collection of all the things we love – The English countryside, camping, festivals, folk music, food, beer and Fancy Dress! We’re big campers, and love going to festivals in the summer so our wedding loosely followed that.”
Anna & Jonny were married in April in Hampshire. Their ceremony was held at St Mary’s Church and their marquee reception was in the grounds of Gilbert White’s House & Museum. “We both grew up around Selborne village and wanted to celebrate our wedding somewhere that was close to our hearts”, the bride continued. ” Johnny used to work in the gardens of the Gilbert White Museum when he was younger, and we wanted our wedding day to have a real English-country garden feel to it so the beautiful setting and history of the place was perfect for us! The museum has only just started making itself available for weddings so we felt very lucky to be able to hold our wedding there.”
Anna wore a second hand Cymbeline wedding dress which she redesigned herself. She loved the dress but wanted a slightly different bodice. “I’d tried on lots of dresses and liked elements of all of them, so I wanted to design my own bringing all my favourite styles together in one dress. I’d tried on a beautiful lace Cymbeline dress in a wedding boutique and was lucky enough to find the same one for sale second hand. As it was so much cheaper than buying it new I had no qualms about cutting it up and redesigning it (with the help of a very skilled dressmaker!) The skirt of the dress is original but the top half was completely reworked.”
“We wanted to make our wedding as homemade as possible”, Anna continued when I asked her about their reception decor. “I have a huge passion for textiles and prints so wanted to bring together as many different fabrics and textures as I could. There was plenty of creative expertise on hand from my mother who is a whizz on the sewing machine! We made our own napkins and bunting and I hand-embroidered the seating-plan. All our stationery was homemade too – we designed our own invites and printed the order-of-services on miss-matched floral paper. We also sourced a fine collection of vintage tea-cups for serving hot drinks, and brought in hay bales, covered with material as seats for the bar area.”
“My friend, Nicky, and I used to run a cake stall selling home-made treats at a London market so I wanted to recreate one of our stalls at the wedding. I’d asked her, and some of the other guests to make a selection of cakes for the table, but Nicky really went to town with a giant Rice Krispie cake in honour of the amazing rice krispie squares she made for the market stall. We didn’t know she’d made it until the big day so we were thrilled when we saw it!”
Just gorgeous! Thank you to Anna & Jonny and their wedding photographer Lisa Dawn for sharing this today.
