Pretty & Home Made Country Village Hall Wedding

This wedding today just feels so quintessentially English, from the Church ceremony to the village hall reception, all set in the gorgeous Cornish countryside.

WWW readers George and Zephy chose to marry on the 5^th September 2015 and created a home made and very personal day indeed. They organised and crafted up a storm, with 100 meters of bunting sewn, foraged sea shell place names and jar tea lights to name a few. I especially love that they pretty much used recycled materials throughout too.

Zephy’s Dad, Pete is a musician and took control of the music, it sounded as though the live entertainment was a huge hit. There was stylish attire, gorgeous blooms and festoon lights to boot.

Thanks goes to Alexa Poppe Wedding Photography for providing the absolutely lovely imagery with us.

THE PROPOSAL | On our favourite beach in Cornwall, at sunset, next to a bonfire.

THE VISION | We wanted the day to be pretty informal, relaxed and personal. We wanted good music, good (local) food, good wine and lots of dancing. We didn’t have a theme in mind but it turned out to be home-made country (if that’s even a theme).

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We set the date for just over a year after getting engaged. It was a very hands on process with everyone mucking in. We tried to use local suppliers as much as possible, people we knew and going by recommendations by friends and family.

THE VENUE | St. Peter’s Church, Mevagissey and St Ewe Village Hall. Both near St. Austell, Cornwall.

We saw a few venues before deciding on the church and the village hall. We chose the village hall due to price, location and the freedom to transform it into whatever we wanted. It was quite the operation though, having to organise caterers, wine, a bar, a marquee and having to dress and clear the hall. Luckily we had plenty of help from friends, family and the village hall committee!

We chose St. Peter’s Church in Mevagissey because of a family connection with the church and village.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | (Zephy) The dress was the beautiful Carmen by Maggie Sottero. The shoes were Kimchee by Carvela in gold.

Jewellery made up my something old, new, borrowed and blue. My old was the first present George ever gave me, a beautiful, intricate garnet stone heart necklace from Marie Morrison. My new was my wedding day gift from the groom, earrings from Tiffany and Co. My something borrowed and blue was a peacock blue freshwater pearl bracelet borrowed from Tegen Jewellery.

My hair accessories were small bunches of gypsophilia.

FINDING THE DRESS | (Zephy) I loved wedding dress shopping and made the most of it, dragging my bridesmaids into several shops. I had an idea of what I wanted and my dress wasn’t too far off the mark! It was an ethereal looking, slight A-Line lace, satin and tulle dress which changed colour in different light and had a tiny bit of sparkle. I found my dress in Amanda K Bridal in Truro.

GROOM’S ATTIRE | (George) I wore a navy 3 piece suit – Perry, by TM Lewin, with a waistcoat to distinguish me from the other groomsmen. A ditsy flower print tie and pocket square added some colour. I finished the look with some Cornish tin cufflinks, a present from Zephy a few years earlier.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We just had one reading from Corinthians’ 13.

Zephy’s Dad, Pete, is a professional musician so he played some of his compositions during the register signing. Pete organised all of the day’s music, including a piano/violin duo for the church, gypsy jazz for the drinks reception, the ceilidh and a DJ! The music was absolutely brilliant, especially the ceilidh which got everyone up and dancing. Everyone was smiling and the atmosphere was amazing.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | The bridesmaids were a mix of old and new friends. They wore very flattering multiway dresses from Marks and Spencer in gunmetal, with the maid of honour in navy. They also had gypsophilia in their hair and each had a lilac freshwater pearl bracelet from Tegen Jewellery. They looked beautiful.

THE FLOWERS | Anna’s Flower Barn, based near St. Austell. Anna was amazing, we found her quite late in the process after being let down by another florist. Anna listened to everything we asked for and created perfect flowers for our day. We wanted a ‘just picked’ look, like you’d been for a walk in the country and came back with a colourful posy. Zephy’s Mum did an amazing job of all of the outside flowers, taking many from her own garden.

THE CAKE | Sammy’s Cake Serendipity (St Austell) did us a beautiful naked cake, topped with blueberries, blackberries and figs.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Alexa Poppe. Alexa was really personable and relaxed during the planning process. During the day she was so good at the reportage style, we barely noticed her! She was brilliant and our photos are everything we hoped for.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Most wedding details and décor were home-made, starting with the invites which were made from recycled brown card and pressed flowers.

We and our families hand-made most of the hall dressings including; 100m worth of bunting (made from charity shop bed sheets), tea-light holders from old jam-jars, willow, corn and lavender hearts, name places from sea-shells found on a Cornish beach, table names from driftwood found on the engagement beach, a timings sign from a pallet… the list goes on! 95% of what we made was from recycled materials. We did hire in a few bits such as festoon lighting and an ex royal mail post box for cards. Both items really fit in with the theme.

We had full use of the field attached to the hall so we hired in a Scout tent and borrowed some hay bales. This was a great space for our drinks reception as our friend also brought his drone to capture the moment!

We had brilliant caterers, based close to the village hall. Their food was all locally sourced (where possible) including crab-claw canapés from Mevagissey and meats from the local farm shop. The buffet was delicious and plentiful (people had seconds!). We wanted something different for our evening guests and we love pizza so we hired in a wood-fired pizza van – Slice of the West, based in our village. The pizzas went down a storm, we can still see the look of pure joy in our guests faces as they came away clutching a pizza box.

THE HONEYMOON | We spent our wedding night in the beautiful Pebble House B&B in Portmellon, waking up to an amazing sunrise and view of the sea from bed. We then honeymooned in Lake Garda, Italy. It was perfect base for a more active honeymoon and for exploring Verona and Venice, too.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Our guests playing cricket on the field at sunset and the smiles on peoples faces during the ceilidh.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Be creative and make the day as much of your own as possible.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Bar | Pop-Up Bar Company

Cake | Sammy’s Cake Serendipity

Cars | VW Wedding Bug

Dress | Amanda K Bridal

Flowers | Anna’s Flower Barn

Evening food (pizza) | Slice

Caterer (reception) | Event Cuisine

Hair | Lovella

Jewellery | Tegen Jewellery

Lighting | Bigtop Mania

Photography | Alexa Poppe Wedding Photography

Wedding rings | Cathedral Jewellers

Wedding post box | The Wedding Postbox Company Cornwall

Wine | Sainsbury’s Wine

Epp. I love it all.

George and Zephy, many thanks today for sharing your wonderful nuptials xo Lou