Country Tea Party Film Inspired Wedding

WWW readers Vicky and Brendan work in the entertainment industry in LA and a film theme lent itself perfectly to their wedding.

They decided to tie the knot on the 12^th June 2015 and hold their reception at Hyde Barn in the Cotswolds. The celebrations were a fusion of US and UK traditions, alongside flags hanging in the barn and flag cakes, which looked very yummy indeed.

Vicky chose to wear a lace Aire Barcelona gown teamed with perfectly tousled hair and red heels. Brendan opted for a navy suit, red tie and tan shoes for a dashing look. Super stylish.

Thanks goes to Blooming Photography for providing these lovely images.

THE PROPOSAL | Brendan was planning the proposal for a while. He had lots of different ideas on how and when to do it, but apparently my sisters shot down every one! In the end, he decided to propose a few days after Christmas, just before New Year. We were spending it with my family in Stow-On-The-Wold in the UK, so Brendan decided to take me for a late night walk. He’s awful at surprises so I clued into what was happening and encouraged him to find a private place just the two of us, under the light of an old fashioned street lamp.

THE VISION | This took a little while to figure out. I had never really envisioned my wedding, so I had no idea where to begin initially! I bought every wedding magazine I could lay my hands on for ideas and also used Whimsical Wonderland Weddings for inspiration. We knew we wanted to get married in the UK and therefore decided to embrace the traditions of an English summer wedding, which we knew would really appeal to our US based friends and family travelling over for the big day. That meant that we decided to choose the Cotswolds (where we got engaged) as our location. Given the history of the area, and our mutual love of all things old, we settled on a vintage tea party theme. We also both work in the Entertainment Industry and live in Los Angeles, so we wanted to weave in a film and Hollywood theme. It was important to us to reflect our British and American nationalities by embracing different wedding traditions from both countries. In the end, we summed up our theme as ‘Greta Garbo and Elizabeth Taylor go to an English tea party’ with gold, cream and burnt orange as our colours.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | This was slightly tricky as we live in the US, but were planning a wedding in the UK. Thankfully, my family and bridesmaids were rock stars and acted as proxy planners for me. If I hadn’t had them, there is no doubt that I would have needed a local planner so I urge those planning destination weddings not to underestimate how much you will need someone on the ground! I would do all the online research and arrange as much as possible via email, then they would visit the potential venues and vendors, taking pictures and videos and asking the long list of questions I had sent them.

We settled on St. Edward’s Church; then settled on Hyde Barn as our reception barn. The team at Hyde Barn were fantastic and were able to supply a list of recommended suppliers they often work with, which is how we found our florist, my make-up and hair artist, and our photographer. After this, I was able to source and find local businesses for our favours and the wedding cars. I work in Film Production so I’m very used to dealing in exchange rates and organising from afar, thankfully. I’m also so thankful for modern technology! Using email, Pinterest and Instagram to send ideas to our florist, cake designer and favours designer was a life-saver.

My dress and veil were the only things sourced from the US.

BUDGET | This is hard to know as we spent a mixture of USD and GBP and the exchange rate was constantly changing. I would say it was around £25,000 total.

THE VENUE | Our ceremony was held at St. Edward’s Church, Stow-On-The-Wold and our reception was at Hyde Barn, Fosse Manor Hotel, Stow-On-The-Wold.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress was by Spanish design house Aire Barcelona. I saw it in a magazine a few weeks after we got engaged. The photograph only showed the back of the dress, but I was sure it was perfect. After a lot of research, I was able to track down the only bridal boutique in Los Angeles which stocks Aire Barcelona and, luckily, they had just received a sample size! As soon as I saw it in reality, I knew it was ‘the one’. I tried on several others just to be sure, but none came close.

My veil was hand-created by Veilsandbeyond through Etsy.com. Lonnie crafted the veil using Venetian lace to match my dress.

The shoes were red stilettos from Topshop. I’ve never been particularly traditional and liked the idea of having some part of my outfit be a little unexpected. They gave a great flash of colour peeking out underneath my dress.

I also wore my engagement ring around my neck on a gold chain borrowed from my sister (my ‘something borrowed’), earrings we bought on our first couple’s holiday to Anguilla, and carried a vintage white and gold evening bag which held my make-up and a handkerchief. My Mum sewed our initials and wedding date in blue thread into the lining as my ‘something blue’.

FINDING THE DRESS | The dress was the first thing I sorted! I had never really envisioned my wedding so I had no idea where to start. I did know that the dress was something I could definitely get excited about straight away, hence why I started my search almost as soon as we were engaged. I wasn’t expecting to find it so soon – it was pictured in one of the first magazines I bought – but once I’d found it, the rest of the wedding was worked out from there! As I live 5000 miles from my family, my friend came with me to the search and fittings. Due to the fact that I flew to the UK five weeks before the wedding, my last fitting had to be the day before I flew; the seamstress was begging me not to be tempted to diet so that my dress would still fit! My mum flew out to the US for my last fitting and to help me get the dress back to the UK. We flew Air New Zealand, who kindly allowed me to carry the dress on-board as my hand luggage and hung it in First Class (so my dress ironically had a fancier flight than me) for the journey. They were so helpful. It was absolutely hilarious putting the dress through the scanners at LAX though! I wish someone had been able to video it.

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Electric blue three piece suit from French Connection. Topshop brown brogues, Hugo Boss shirt and a Paul Smith red and white pocket square with ‘Love’ printed on. Brendan’s eyes popped against the blue – he looked so handsome! We knew we wanted Brendan to wear a three piece suit rather than a tux as he wanted to feel both relaxed and smart. Once we found the right shade of blue, the rest of the outfit came together very quickly.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | As our wedding was in church, we were required to have a reading from the bible, so Brendan chose 1 Corinthians 13, which was read by his sister, Jessica. We then decided on ‘A Lovely Love Story’ by Edward Monkton. I bought it as a Valentine’s gift for Brendan a year before and it had always seemed to fit us perfectly. Our close friend, Ursula, read it complete with voices! Finally, my Mum found another bible reading – Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12 – which she asked if she could read as well. It’s a lovely verse about two being stronger than one and perfectly rounded out the love theme of our readings.

Given that we were in church, we decided to have traditional organ music and hymns. I walked down the aisle to Wagner’s Bridal March and we exited to Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. We also chose a hymn each: Brendan chose ‘Come to a Wedding’, which has the same melody as his favourite hymn ‘Morning has Broken’, and I chose ‘Jerusalem’, because I think it’s a must at a British church wedding!

Our first dance was to ‘In Your Arms’ by Kina Grannis. One of our first dates was to see her perform. The song always stuck with us and was the first and only choice.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My sisters, Emma and Sara; Sarah, one of my best friends; my Maid of Honour was my best and oldest friend, Fliss.

Given that I was 5000 miles from my venues, they all took on a huge portion of the planning. We are totally indebted to them! They were also tasked with choosing their own dresses. I didn’t want to choose something they would hate or feel uncomfortable with, so I chose a colour palette and cut length, and they selected the individual styles. It worked out quite well in the end: they all settled on an individual variation of a Dessy dress in ivory lace with a light gold underlay. Their shoes were dyed to match the underlay, except Fliss, whose shoes were dyed a burnt gold to be slightly different. In the evening, they all changed into cream Topshop ballet flats to dance the night away.

They also planned not one, but two fantastic hen parties – on two continents! I feel very grateful to have such wonderful ladies in my life!

Their hair was expertly done by the wonderful Anna White, with their make-up done by her lovely collaborator, Amy. Anna also did my hair and make-up. She was an absolute rock star: we started early in the morning and she carefully worked on all five of us – plus my mum! Not only did Anna do an amazing job with all of our hairstyles and my make-up, she was also both enthusiastic and very calming during the whole time which was a great help.

THE FLOWERS | Our flowers were by the amazing Clare Lee at Lilyfee Floral. I don’t have strong opinions on flowers so I wasn’t really sure what to expect or what I really wanted. We knew that we wanted the decorative flowers to feel natural and not be too ‘done’ or in arrangements. Luckily, Clare is a whiz at decorating and design. She immediately grasped the theme of the wedding and came up with so many wonderful ideas and concepts. We decided to use both her and my mum’s collection of vintage pots, tins and teacups as vases and centrepieces; then fill them with a mixture of warm golds, oranges and creams.

My bouquet was magnificent. Clare hand tied together roses, peonies and ranunculas, and wove in a collection of vintage brooches belonging to my mum.

I decided that rather than carry bouquets which would just get in the way, I wanted my bridesmaids to have hair garlands instead. Clare hand-wove these to match my bouquet and our hairstylist fixed them into place around their hairstyles. They all looked so beautiful.

THE CAKE | In our case it was cakes! We decided to embrace our US and UK backgrounds by having two cakes: one British, one American. To reflect our Vintage Tea Party theme, the cakes were ‘naked’ (no icing), but decorated instead with berries to form our countries’ flags: one Stars and Stripes and one Union Jack. The Stars and Stripes was red velvet, a classic American flavour, and the Union Jack was carrot cake, a British classic! The cakes were made by Louise and Jackie at LJ’s Cake House in Buckinghamshire. Louise is a friend of my sister and so came highly recommended. Everyone raved about the cakes and people were stopping off at my Mum and Dad’s for seconds the day after the wedding!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Ben Roberts at Blooming Photography. Originally, our photographer was to be a friend and long-time collaborator from Los Angeles. Unfortunately, he suffered a minor heart attack four weeks to the day before our wedding (thankfully, he is now back on his feet and making a full recovery).

Ben was highly recommended by our venue, Hyde Barn, and we were delighted to find that he still had our date available – the perks of marrying mid-week! Ben nobly stepped into the breach and immediately clued into the style we were after: a more candid, photojournalist style. Ben was a great help at suggesting ideas for group shots and ensuring our photos felt natural and less ‘staged’. He did such a wonderful job on the day: our photos are stunning and he captured so many fabulous moments we were unaware of at the time! Ben was also an expert at making both us and all our guests feel comfortable and completely forget about the camera. His warmth and humour helped make the day hugely enjoyable and fun.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We wanted our décor to reflect our vintage Hollywood meets English tea party theme. We brought over our collection of vintage cameras, light boxes and film reels, and my Mum lent us her collection of vintage tea pots, vases and tins to use as centrepieces. We also sourced a vintage Stars and Stripes (with only 46 stars) and a vintage Union Jack, which we hung from opposite ends of the barn. My Mum found some antique letters of our initials, which became a beautiful centrepiece behind the top table; our wonderful florist Clare also provided an old suitcase for cards and presents.

Brendan’s sister, Jessica, is wonderfully crafty so she created a sign of all the distances our guests had travelled and ‘I Spy’ lists, which were placed on each table along with vintage-style disposable cameras and ‘Advice for the couple’ cards. (These also provided wonderful – and hilarious – memories after the day was over).

The orders of service were created to look like playbills by a graphic designer colleague of Brendan’s to match the fact that our invitations had been made to look like old-fashioned cinema tickets by a designer we found on Etsy.com

Our favours were created by The Cotswold Chocolate shop. We decided on chocolate lollipops to fit our theme: dark chocolate masks and milk chocolate clapper-boards. They were all hand tied with Union Jack ribbon.

Other little details included having our artist friend write the menu onto a chalkboard, and champagne glasses from Etsy.com etched with ‘Mr and Mrs.’ on the top table for us.

Brendan’s favourite detail was the 1932 Austin Ranelagh car we hired from Nostalgia Wedding Cars to drive me and the bridesmaids to the church and then us both to the reception. Everyone wanted their photo taken with it!

My favourite detail was the ‘prequels’ board my dad and I made. We found pictures of both of our sets of parents’ and all our grandparents’ weddings and compared them to classic movies. It was a nice way to tie in our theme and families, especially seeing as some of our grandparents are no longer with us.

THE HONEYMOON | As we had travelled to the UK for the wedding, we weren’t able to take a honeymoon afterwards. Instead, we went on a ‘mini-moon’ to Edinburgh for three days and stayed at The Balmoral Hotel. It’s one of my favourite cities but Brendan had never been. It’s now one of his favourite places too as it gives him a chance to combine two of his greatest loves: whisky and history! We’ll be going to New Zealand for a few weeks in January as our actual honeymoon. It’s a place both of us have never been but have wanted to visit for a long time.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | There were so many! It rained really hard all morning; our poor guests all had to run into the church. But as soon as the car arrived to pick me up, the skies cleared – like something out of a film!

During the ceremony, as I walking up to the altar, my veil got stuck on one of the stairs I’d walked off and pulled me backwards. The whole church gasped in horror, so I turned around to give them a thumbs up to let them know I was OK, and everyone burst into cheering and applause!

My dad pulled off a hilarious moment. As the car pulled up to the reception, he and my Maid of Honour’s dad appeared in ‘gangster’ hats complete with fake tommy guns to pose next to the car. It ended up providing the most fantastic photos!

As per American tradition, we played the ‘Mr and Mrs.’ game at the reception. Our close friend acted as the MC and asked us a range of ‘Who is more likely…’ questions, to which we had to hold up a corresponding shoe. Brendan decided to be cheeky and say I’m late more often than he is – which I still haven’t let him live down!

A lot of people’s favourite moment was towards the end of the night when Brendan and I performed a duet of Kanye West and Estelle’s ‘American Boy’. The lyrics have always made us laugh as they seem to apply to us quite well! It was a hilarious moment, leading all our guests – plus the DJs and venue staff – to give us rapturous applause and cheers! It was a great way to top off the night.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Make it about you. It’s your day, do it your way. If you really want something, find a way to concentrate on that and make it happen. Likewise, if you don’t see the point of something, then don’t bother with it. If you try and make everybody happy, you’ll just set yourselves up for failure.

Pay attention to the little details. Things like favours, engraved Mr. & Mrs glasses, accessories, letter to each other for the wedding morning etc. might all be hard to think about in the grand scheme of events, but they are the things that make for beautiful touches on the day.

Planning books, binders and sites like theknot.com are fantastic for helping with the organisation, if you don’t plan to hire a Wedding Planner to do it all for you!

Delegate someone to be in charge of bringing you water throughout the day/ evening so you don’t dehydrate or overdo it. Also delegate someone to box up slices of cake for you both because you’ll never remember to have some on the night!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photographer | Blooming Photography

Reception Venue | Hyde Barn

Dress | Aire Barcelona

Veil | veilsandbeyond

Florist | Lilyfee Floral

Hair and Make-Up | Anna White

Favours | Cotswold Chocolate Shop

Vintage Car | Nostalgia Wedding Cars

Bridesmaids | Dessy Bridesmaids

What a brilliantly fun wedding.

Thanks to much to Vicky and Brendan for sharing their story today xo Lou