Rustic & Relaxed Country House Wedding

Oh so dreamy, let’s get lost beside the sea this morning with a super loved up bride and groom.

Ellie and Ken Robin were married on the 19th August 2015 at the beautiful Newton Hall in Northumberland and planned their celebrations from their home in Norway. They envisioned a relaxed, rustic English wedding which they created perfectly.

The setting was just right for their vintage inspired décor, which included crates filled with blooms, blackboard signs and hessian aplenty. One of my fave elements has to be the dessert table, that ruffle cake! Plus I have to mention Ellie’s stunning Cymbeline gown and delicate bouquet, she looked incredible.

Fairclough Photography, thanks so much for sharing these utterly wonderful shots with us.

THE PROPOSAL | We were on holiday in Naples, Italy. One day we decided to take a boat out to the island of Capri. We got there and rented scooters that we drove around on all day, saw the light house and went swimming in the blue grotto. It was a lovely day! In the evening we asked the guy who rented us the scooters if he knew of a restaurant. He gave us a map and said that he knew the owner of the restaurant and we were to say he had sent us. He also said the restaurant had the best sunset view on the whole island. We got there and the people were lovely, it was run by a family, and the view was breathtaking. There was only me, Ken Robin and the other couple who we were on holiday with who were there, sitting outside. The couple we were with went to the bathroom and that was when he proposed. He got down on one knee and told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. First I didn’t even believe him. I’ve known him for quite a while and know he is very spontaneous and not good at planning. So all I could think about was: “I’ve been with him the whole day and I know he hasn’t bought a ring”. When he pulled out the ring I was completely shocked, this must have been one of the first things he has ever planned. Later I also found out that he had filmed the whole thing, it turned out to be a pretty funny video, with me just laughing and saying: “stop joking.”

THE VISION | I had always said that if I was going to get married, I would do it in a castle in England. I wanted to get married in England because I was born there, and my grandparents and other relatives live there. I had always wanted a small wedding with only people I know and love.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We got engaged on the 5th of August 2014, and Ken Robin had said he wanted to get married one year from that date. So the planning started in October-November time. Being a student I had all my exams in that period, so it was a slow process to begin with. Even though we were planning a wedding in England and lived in Norway it was an easy process as everyone was very helpful and keen to help us.

BUDGET | We had decided to spend under 20 000 pounds, and luckily kept to that! Unfortunately we weren’t very lucky with the exchange rate, and everything cost a little more than expected. But it was worth every penny!

THE VENUE | We got married at Newton Hall, Newton by the sea, Alnwick, Northumberland. I had been there when I was a child, but could not remember the place. My parents remembered it and kept on telling me about the lovely beaches and countryside. The venue is a lovely old building with a rustic style. As I mentioned I was planning on getting married in a castle, but after hours of looking at different castles I couldn’t really tell the difference between them in the end. It was my mum who found Newton Hall, she thought it was quirky and different, just my kind of style. She showed it to me, and I fell in love with the venue straight away. I called them in December and they only had a few dates left for 2015. Luckily there was a date that fitted in with us, the 19th of August.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | The dress is a vintage style Cymbeline. It is a flowing, mermaid line dress in Calais lace with a draped trapeze neckline. The skirt has a flouncy train and a low cut back that has a Calais lace inlay. The belt is draped and made of soft tulle, the back is mostly bare but there are tulle buttons in the lower part that button up. It is all lace and a very soft and light dress. I loved the fact that it was so comfy and different. I wore a cathedral length veil with a lace trim to go with the dress. The dress itself was very special and I didn’t see the need to spend hundreds on accessories. I bought flat white ballerina shoes (as my husband SAYS he is only a millimetre taller than me, even though I think he’s shorter) and my father bought me a lovely pair of gold tear-drop earnings with diamonds.

FINDING THE DRESS | Before I started trying on dresses I didn’t really know what I wanted, I think its hard to know when there are so many lovely styles out there.

I had been to a few different bridal shops, and already seen the dress I wanted to try on. After trying my dress on first, then trying on 3 others I couldn’t stop thinking of the first one. I loved the fact that is was so soft and comfy and fit my body perfectly. The fact that I could actually breathe in it was a big plus, opposed to some of the other dresses they had me trying on.

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Since we were going for a rustic, vintage styled wedding I had suggested green suits for the guys. Ken Robin heard the word “green” and was NOT impressed. After trying on different suits in a local store I finally got him in a green suit I had been looking at for weeks. He tried it on and loved it! It was a perfect fit and the green really suited him. My father, father in law, and the best man all wore grey suits that matched Ken Robin’s. They all wore brown shoes and belt, that was a lovely contrast to the green and grey. The ties were all the same (except for my father in law). They were vintage inspired with a lovely floral pattern with green and light pink that matched my bouquet and the bridesmaid dresses.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We had a humanist ceremony, since none of us live in England it would have been quite the hassle if we wanted to do it in a church. We booked a pianist for the daytime and a guitarist for later on in the evening. The pianist, Hannah Daisy was wonderful and played lovely music for us all day, it gave the wedding a very easy and relaxed atmosphere. I walked down the aisle to ‘Canon in D.’ My uncle gave a reading at the ceremony. It was ‘Blessing for a marriage’ by James Dillet Freeman. For the first dance Hannah played and sang the lovely ‘The One’ by Kodaline.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I had three bridesmaids, my sister and two friends I have known since we moved to Norway. They all had different coloured dresses but all were long, simple, and had a few lace details. My sister had a pale pink dress, Lillann (bridesmaid) had a grey dress on and Malin (bridesmaid) had a light purple dress on. They all had the same bouquet as me, only a smaller version, and I really loved how their dress colours matched the bouquets.

THE FLOWERS | The bridal bouquet was a relaxed handle of roses and hydrangea inspired by vintage tones, base of cream with mocha and soft pink tones such as Menthe rose Amnesia Rose, sweet Avalanche, Majolica rose Avalanche rose and hydrangea. The bridesmaids had a smaller version of my bridal bouquet.

THE CAKE | The Master Cakesmith was recommended by Newton Hall, and I got in contact with Dawn. Dawn is a lovely and very talented woman who made an incredibly lovely little dessert table for us. She listened to everything we said and came also with great options for us. We decided to have a small dessert table and the design was; bohemian, romantic, ruffles, textured and a soft yummy look.

The cake was a smaller white 2 tier cake with ruffles on, very simple and sweet. Since I am a chocoholic I really couldn’t see the point in having a cake, if it wasn’t chocolate, so that made the decision pretty easy; It was a rich dark chocolate cake made using a single estate couverture filled with a whipped milk chocolate ganache.

We also had some handmade milk chocolate and toffee truffle pops, yummy bite size English strawberry/vanilla and salted caramel macarons and cupcakes that were sweet mini versions of our cake.

I must mention our cake topper as it was somewhat unusual. We got a 3D printer to print out «mini me`s» of me and my fiancé.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | My photographers were great! They were a couple, and I really liked the fact that Katie (photographer) was with me when I was getting ready, and James (photographer) spent time with the boys. They were lovely people and very easy to talk to. I think it’s amazing that they took so many lovely pictures, because I can’t even remember seeing them at the ceremony. It was as if they were invisible!! They made us feel very calm and relaxed and were always laughing and having fun with it. They were able to catch not only all the emotions, but also the best poses, haha! They really made everyone look like models. We chose them because their pictures had lots of emotions and I loved the colours and details in them. I must mention that I have never met a person who is as quick as Katie at answering here e-mails, and I’d give them a BIG star for that, because it’s good to know that you can have a good dialogue with people that are such a big part of the wedding. They had me laughing all day!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | The Finishing Touch Company had full responsibility for details and décor. Unfortunately I never got to meet them, but they did a great job. I had asked for a vintage, rustic style and that was exactly what I got! The Finishing Touch Company decorated the venue with little jars and bottles with vintage toned flowers. This really gave the whole venue a lovely vintage and relaxed touch.

HONEYMOON | After staying two nights at the LOVELY Newton Hall we unfortunately had to leave the day after the wedding. The last night before we travelled back to Norway was spent on a sofa bed at the cottage my mum and dad rented for that week. It may have not been the softest bed I have slept in, or even the best smelling, but nothing beats spending the last night with my family AND husband in a lovely little cottage. Although that was a great laugh, we didn’t really count that as our honeymoon, so at the end of January 2016 we went to Rome. It was a lovely time of year to travel, because there were hardly any tourists and it wasn’t too hot. We had a great 3 day trip, eating yummy food and sightseeing. It was a lovely break and fun to go back to Italy.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Having moved to Norway with my mum, dad, brother and sister at a young age we have become a very close little family. And since we don’t really have any family close by we are great at making an effort at doing things like having game nights and doing fun stuff together. We always put in an effort to make each other have a good time, and they definitely didn’t disappoint at our wedding. My father gave a lovely speech and my sister made a video for me. But I think everyone was shocked when my brother sited a poem he had written for me, I didn’t even know he could rhyme. I think everyone was pretty much in tears then!

Unlike me, Ken Robin is very musical and can sing and play guitar. We had found a video on Youtube where the father of the bride rewrote the song «rude». He changed the lyrics and made it so the song was from him, talking to his «son in law». We thought it was so funny that we decided to change a few words to make it more personal, and Ken Robin sang it at the wedding. He put a mask of my dads face on, and gave my dad a mask of his face. No one knew about it and it was really funny watching him perform.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | When having a lot to plan and a lot of people to think of, it’s important to remember to have fun with it and don’t get too stressed out. After all, it’s YOUR big day, and it’s important that YOU have fun. Because it will (most likely) never happen again. We planned the whole thing in less than a year and it was great fun, I never really felt too stressed out with it! We did everything over the phone since we live in Norway, so everything was a first on the big day. It was really fun doing it that way because you were so exited to see if the real thing was better than the pictures. And luckily everything was!

There is always going to be so many people you have to please, but remember you should only invite people you want to be there. There is no point in trying to please everyone, because there is always someone who isn’t pleased.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photographers | Fairclough Photography

Venue | Newton Hall

Styling and flowers | The Finishing Touch Company

Hair | Capella Alnwick

Cake | The Master Cakesmith

Music | Hannah Rhodes and Function Central and Garston Entertainment

Oh me oh my. Beaut.

Thanks so much to Ellie and Ken Robin for sharing their lovely nuptials with us today xo Lou