Gorgeously Green Autumnal Wedding with an Incredible Sunset

Today we bring you Zoe and Mike’s gorgeously green autumn nuptials, which took place at Elsham Hall, North Lincolnshire on the 24th November 2018. They were blessed with the most incredible autumn sunset but the beauty certainly doesn’t end there.

Having decided that they really wanted a lot of foliage and greenery to accent their day, Zoe and Mike decided that their main colour should be dark green. This informed outfits like the bridesmaid’s dress and groomsmen’s pocket squares as well as the décor itself. Greenery trails along the table and our pair created such a cosy vibe with all the candlelight.

They managed to create a ceremony which is both romantic and airy, thanks to the white draping and gorgeous autumnal light pouring in. The hanging florals are simply amazing too.

Kazooieloki Photography were on hand to capture the beauty, including of course those all-important sunset couple portraits. Thank you so much for sharing these wonderful images with us Richard and Christine!

The Proposal

The Taj Mahal, back in 2015! We spent four months travelling around Asia, and one of our last stops before heading home was to the Taj, a place I (Zoe) had dreamed of going for years, it was the most perfect ending to our trip.

The Vision

I always wanted an autumn wedding, as it’s my favourite time of year and we knew the photos would look amazing with the autumnal light. We wanted our venue to feel warm, and cosy with lots of candles, lanterns and twinkly lights. We also wanted a venue with character, and stunning grounds or landscape as a backdrop to our day. We wanted cosy and rustic, but we also wanted elegant too.

The Planning Process

We had already been engaged for over two years when we decided to finally book the wedding. We just decided one day to crack on with it and get married within that year. We knew the venue and photographer we wanted, and they were the key elements in our wedding planning. Our venue only had one November date left, and by a stroke of luck our photographers had had a cancellation for the same date, so it all fell into place so easily. We had six months to plan everything, and we found that was plenty of time for us.

Budget

We budgeted for £10k, but it ended up being around the £12k mark.

The Venue

The Barn at Elsham Hall.

Your Outfits & Accessories

My dress was a Wed2B dress called ‘ Sawyer’. I must have tried on about 20 dresses, but I kept coming back to the second one I tried on, it was an absolute perfect fit. I wanted something elegant, fitted, and not too fussy. I felt my dress had just the right amount of detail that I was after.

My shoes were Jenny Packham. I spent months looking and was really cutting it fine, about three weeks before the wedding I finally found my shoes and I fell in love with them, they were in the sale too, which made me love them more! They were also incredibly comfortable, I managed to wear them right until the end of the day.

My art deco style hairpiece was from Etsy.

Groomsmen

The men all had suits from Slaters.

The green ties and pocket squares were from Etsy.

The tan brogues were Next.

Bridesmaids

I only had one bridesmaid, Nicola, so I let her choose her own dress, all I asked was that it was dark green! She found a stunning dress in the perfect colour from Scarlett & Jo. Her gold beaded shawl was an Etsy find. Nicola’s shoes were from Light in the box, which I was really dubious about, but they were beautiful, and fab quality!

Beauty

My make up was done by Rachel Helen Key.

Mine and my bridesmaid’s hair was done by Emily at Xandrias Hair.

Your Photographer

Kazooieloki, we knew before we had booked anything in the lead up to the wedding that we had to have these guys! They captured the magic of our day so perfectly. We knew our photos would be out of this world, but when we received some of the photos back we were just absolutely blown away by them. These guys truly love what they do, they have an amazing energy and you can see they are buzzing with excitement when they’re working. We couldn’t have asked for better.

The Flowers

The flowers were done by a local florist, who did such a beautiful job. I loved my bouquet so much that I’ve dried it out so I can keep it, I couldn’t bear to throw it away!

The Cake

The cake was an M&S cake (Gold shimmering hoop!) it was absolutely delicious! I bought our wooden ‘Mr & Mrs Johnson’ cake topper from an Etsy seller in the states.

The Details & Décor

I knew from the off that I wanted lots of greenery and foliage as the main focus of the décor, so we decided that our main colour scheme would be dark green. We added hints of champagne gold décor such as tea lights to help break it up. We added a few rustic hints too such as log slices as we felt the barn really lent itself to that look.

We wanted to make the barn feel as cosy as possible, so we asked for lots of lanterns, candles and twinkly lights. The lighting was perfect on the day, it looked like a fairy tale in the barn. The team at Bride Beautiful did an absolutely outstanding job in creating our vision, everything down to the finest detail was just perfect.

All our stationery was done by Mike, he is graphic designer and did an excellent job!

The Readings & Music

We had Mike’s mum do a really beautiful and quite emotional reading called ‘Blessing of the hands’. It pretty much summed up the journey of marriage perfectly.

I also had one of my best friends, Katie, read some of the lyrics from a Pocahontas song called ‘If I never knew you’. Which is my favourite Disney film.

My dad and I walked down the aisle to ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. It’s a really special song for me and my dad, so was a perfect choice.

Mike and I walked back down the aisle to ‘You are the best thing’ by Ray Lamontagne, which is one of our favourite songs.

Our first dance was ‘Dig’ by Incubus. We felt the lyrics were just perfect for us both, and we both love Incubus.

We had a very talented friend play piano whilst we had our meal. It was beautiful, he played lots of Disney and even did a few requests! He went down a treat!

In the evening we had a live band called Tailor & Co. A three piece from Chester, who were absolutely brilliant!

The Honeymoon

We had 10 nights in Aruba.

Memorable Moments

For me the whole day was memorable, it’s really difficult to pick out a certain moment as there were so many, but the sunset was just the icing on the cake to a beautiful day. We were so blessed with the weather as the week leading up to the wedding was torrential rain and gale force winds, as were the days that followed, we couldn’t have asked for better weather in November!

Advice For Other Couples

You hear it all the time but it’s true, the day goes so fast. Be sure to take a few moments just to stand back and take it all in. Find time to sneak off with your husband/wife for five minutes, as on the day you actually end up seeing very little of each other, you will really appreciate that time when you look back on the day.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Thank you so much Zoe and Mike for sharing your gorgeously green wedding day with us, it really was incredibly beautiful. Rachel x