Quirky Homespun Festoons & Ferns Arts Centre Wedding

Why hello there. I hope you had a wonderful weekend and are ready for a lovely week. It’s going to be a busy and really rather pretty one here on WWW and today we begin with this joyous celebration.

Josh and Beth chose to marry on the 28th August 2015 in a Church ceremony followed by a knees up at Foxlowe Arts Centre in Staffordshire. They hoped to create a rustic-vintage extravaganza with a laid back vibe.

There was a super cool atmosphere, with festoon lights draped across the ceilings and one of the prettiest top table backdrops ever. Josh placed ferns, polaroids and flowers on twine against the wall which looked amazing, not to mention the show stopping cake he also baked himself. WOW.

Josh and Beth looked equally stylish and beautiful in their chosen outfits, as did the bridesmaids in their sage frocks. Love love love the wild-flowers arranged by Beth’s mum too, stunning.

Bridgwood Wedding Photography, huge thanks for providing these inspirational and gorgeous shots today.

THE PROPOSAL | We went out for dinner at a local restaurant and then Josh took me up to a local Peak District destination called The Roaches. When we got there Josh handed me a sketchbook of our year together and on the last page he asked me to marry him.

THE VISION | We wanted a really laid-back wedding but still with the traditional elements of wedding dresses and suits. Pinterest was a massive help for little details and how to make the most with a lower budget. We loved the rustic-vintage style weddings so went with that as our inspiration.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We decided on pretty much everything together. We were engaged for a year, but the busiest of that was definitely the last two weeks before! I was at university for a lot of the time so Josh took on a lot of the organising which was really good.

THE VENUE | We got married in our local church and then we had the reception at the Foxlowe Arts Centre. We got full use of the place and we were blessed with lovely weather so we had full access to the garden for games and fireworks later on.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress was a strapless lace fitted dress, with a detailed sash (again something I found inspiration for on Pinterest). I had a floor length plain veil which was beautiful and complimented the dress so well. For my jewellery I had pearl and lace earrings, and my mother’s pearl necklace that was a gift off my dad. I also wore a pearl bracelet that Josh bought for my birthday.

FINDING THE DRESS | I eventually bought my dress from a local shop in our home town. I went to quite a few boutiques before, and there were some beautiful dresses that I loved just not in my price range.

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Josh wore a blue suit from Zara. It was a contemporary-cut suit rather than a traditional.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We didn’t have set readings at our wedding, but we did have a lot of music. For walking down the aisle I had a the chorus of a song by Steffany Gretzinger called ‘Promise I Always Will’, for the signing of the register we had ‘Take the World’ by JohnnySwim and for our exit song we had Needtobreathe’s ‘Something Beautiful’. We both love music, so finding the songs we wanted was really fun.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I had 4 bridesmaids, 3 of my closest friends and my lovely cousin. The dresses that they wore were from House of Fraser and sage with and embellished top. Ellie (who is slightly younger than the others) had an ivory dress to match mine and they all were super helpful on the day and looked beautiful.

THE FLOWERS | My mum loves flower arranging, so we took advantage of this and a room in our house pretty much became a garden. For the decoration we had more of a wild flower theme, whereas the bridesmaid’s bouquets were a peachy colour, and mine was just loads of bright colours. There wasn’t much of a theme between them all but I saw different ideas that I liked and just went with it instead of worrying about it, and it looked great!

THE CAKE | Josh made the cake, which was incredible! He’s never done much baking before but really wanted to, so he ran with that. We decided on a naked wedding cake, because prices in bakeries and shops were extraordinary, and it fit with the idea of a cake table. He had help assembling it on the day and it looked amazing. It was surrounded by loads and loads of other home made cakes baked by family and friends that the guests could help themselves to throughout the evening.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Our photographer was Steve Bridgwood from Bridgwood Wedding Photography. Our photographer was, without a doubt, the best we could have asked for. Steve was super friendly throughout the day and so accommodating. We were quite nervous about the couple shoots because neither of us particularly enjoy having our photo taken, but we were made to feel so comfortable; we laughed and goofed about and got some beautiful shots. If anyone is wondering who to ask for their wedding, always, always, go with Bridgwood Wedding Photography. Even if you’re not getting married, Steve does couple shoots… I know it sounds like we’re plugging, but he really is that good!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | The details were rustic and vintage like. We had looked at so many weddings set in forests and by lakes, and obviously, living in England, you can’t do that, but we did the best with what we had. We had wild flowers, we had a massive tree stump for our wedding cake stand and as much forest-y elements that we could. Josh also decorated the wall behind the top table which looked amazing! He ran twine across the wall and clipped polaroid pictures of us growing up, our families and our parents weddings, along flowers and ferns. For our entertainment we had two of our friends play a couple of acoustic sets which was so chilled and so good, exactly what we wanted as we’re not major dancers

THE HONEYMOON | We honeymooned in Tuscany, Italy and we ate so much food! We hired out a private villa that was right in the middle of forests and valleys. We had a couple of day trips to Florence where we ate the world’s best ice cream, explored all the major tourist attractions and just about survived Italian driving. As our first holiday together we had such a good time exploring a new culture and, again, eating all their food.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | I think the fireworks were one of the most memorable moments. We didn’t think they’d be as good as they were or last as long as they did, and apparently they were the talk of the town on Snapchat. And again, taking the photos with Steve was really memorable as it was just so much fun! A weirdly memorable one for myself (Beth) loads of people in our kitchen in the morning eating soup and playing Uno. I loved how chilled out everyone was and how it felt like any other normal day with close friends and family

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | My advice for other couple’s would be to enjoy the whole day and also the week running up to it. We had so many things go wrong the week before, including my dress almost being ruined, but I was glad that we were able to enjoy all the planning and all the craziness.

My advice (Josh) is book a good photographer, you’ll be thankful afterwards.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Venue | Foxlowe Arts Centre

Fireworks | Galactic Fireworks

Photography  | Bridgwood Wedding Photography

Honeymoon | OneStopItaly

And fireworks to finish… perfection!

Thanks so much to Josh and Beth for sharing their super special nuptials with us here at WWW xo Lou