Glittery & Magical Wedding with Tropical Flowers

I am over the moon to be sharing WWW followers Natalie and Jon’s super cool glittery wedding today. Hooray! They were married on the 7th August 2019 at Stone Barn in the Cotswolds. I have to say that their wedding was ever so stylish, with on trend attire, smoke bombs and super cool tropical flowers.

Let’s begin with those outfits shall we? Natalie looked stunning in her Made with Love Bridal gown with delicate flower crown, whilst Jon was very dapper in his suit teamed with waistcoat, bow tie and braces. The bridesmaids wore pretty sequin frocks and the groomsmen rocked their bow ties and braces combo. Wow.

Other lovely touches included a suspended floral hoop, rustic wooden signs, delicious cake table and wooden place names. It all looked perfect.

The amazing photos and film are courtesy of Winnington & Coe and I am so thankful to be sharing them with you today.

The Proposal

Jon and I got engaged in New York in December 2017. We had talked about getting married and I sort of knew it was going to happen! We went into Tiffany’s on 5th Avenue and chose the ring together. It was a total dream come true. Jon got down on one knee in Central Park the next day when we picked it up (to make things ‘official’).

The Vision

A really fun, stylish but quirky wedding, incorporating the things we love. We knew we NEEDED amazing food and a perfect venue somewhere close to Bristol where we live. I think we nailed both!

The Planning Process

Not easy. When we first got engaged, I went full on into the planning process. We visited multiple venues and I provisionally booked 3 of them. In hindsight, we had no idea what we wanted. We took some time off of wedding planning and enjoyed being engaged. In September 2018, we started looking again and it all fell into place really naturally.

Budget

All in – I think we spent around £25,000. Honestly – we didn’t exactly set a budget! I know everybody says that’s number one priority but we got really carried away! We were lucky to have had some help from our parents and we don’t regret a single penny.

The Venue

Stone Barn, Upper Windrush. The team at Stone Barn are incredible. We fell in love as soon as we stepped in. The team are so lovely and made us feel at ease throughout the process. They have a great online portal, where everything is planned to perfection. They are known for their food and many of our guests said it was the best food they’d ever had at a wedding.

Our Menu
Reception drinks: bottles of beer, g&t’s and mojitos.
Canapes: welsh rarebit, smoked salmon blinis, honey mustard cocktail sausages and seared tuna.
Main: BBQ roasted sirloin steak bricks with bernaise & goose fat roast potatoes.
Dessert: crème brulee (and tequila).
Evening food – wood fired pizzas from Baz & Fred (so good, I have the cheese grease stain on my dress as a reminder).

The Readings & Music

I walked down the aisle to the Jurassic Park theme, composed by John Williams. I love dinosaurs and this felt very apt! The piece is so beautiful, it didn’t feel novelty at all! We had no readings, but instead personalised our promises to each other. The ceremony was short and sweet.

Your Outfits & Accessories

My dress was the ‘Harlie’ – from Made with Love. Purchased from The White Collection in Portishead (boutique of dreams).

I fell in love with their amazing boho dresses but wasn’t quite sure I had the body type to pull them off! When I tried on the Harlie, I knew it was the one! It had a beautiful blush underlay and gorgeous iridescent sequins that caught the light beautifully. It needed a little altering by the incredible Abilgail Westrup to make it perfect. I needed cups sewn in a as I have quite a large bust. I also had some flutter sleeves added to the dress too. I wore the matching Chani veil.

My shoes were Michael Kors, purchased half price on the Outnet (bargain).

Earrings from Monica Vinader (a gift from Jon on the day).

Celestial hairpins from Etsy.

Beauty

Hair by Abigail Constanza.

Make up by Eleanor Nancy (as well as all the pre-wedding grooming, including my gorgeous nails).

The Cake

Phil, an amazing friend and baker made all 3 of our cakes! We had tiramisu, chocolate orange and gin & tonic flavour with rose gold drip glaze. They tasted amazing!!

We also ordered mini doughnuts from Pinkmans Bakery in Bristol (because they are delicious).

The Details & Décor

The venue didn’t need much dressing at all! I made all the signs myself using pieces of wood, chalkboard paint and chalk pens! As a primary school teacher, my neat handwriting really helped here! The seating plan was created using a piece of acrylic and copper pipe stands made by my husband. We hung our huge neon sign from another copper stand which was a great centrepiece for photos! We had a polaroid camera set up with a few props. People hung their photos on a large wooden frame that we had set up.

I spray painted some little dinosaurs for place settings and bought some wooden place names from Etsy. Simple but effective! We also gave all the guests free drink tokens (in place of favours).

I created a glitter station for pre-dance decorations.

I also had a smore’s station for the firepits (including giant marshmallows and chocolate biscuits). Although, most people were too drunk to be toasting anything at this point!

The Flowers

The Wilde Bunch absolutely smashed the flowers. When we met with Claire, I had a couple of visions: I knew I wanted tropical flowers, lots of foliage and a feature hoop in the centre of the ceremony room. I was blown away when I saw the flowers the morning of the wedding.

My bouquet was made up of pink protea, blush serruria and tiny pineapples and succulents. It was finished with lots of trailing tropical leaves. It looked amazing! I had a little flower crown made too, which I wore on and off during the day.

The bridesmaids had simple foliage posies with a tropical monstera leaf and little wired flowers for their hair. The groomsmen had succulent buttonholes. Unfortunately they didn’t survive the dancing!

We had big milk churns filled with pampas grass at the entrance doors, and gin bottles filled with more tropical leaves, pineapples and protea on the tables.

Bridesmaids

My beautiful bridesmaids wore Maya dresses from ASOS, all in the same colour but the style they preferred. They wore their own shoes in shades of gold. They looked beautiful! They had small wired flowers (from the florist) to pop in their finished hairstyles.

Groomsmen

Jon’s shirt, waistcoat and jacket were made by Clifton Suits in Bristol. He chose to wear some ASOS chinos instead of the suit trousers for a more contemporary look. His brogues were also ASOS (a very last minute purchase). His bow tie was from Etsy.

The groomsmen all wore ASOS chinos and shirts, their own brown brogues and suspenders and bow ties from Etsy. Hilariously, the suspenders kept pinging off throughout the day; one half way through a speech!

Your Photographer

Winnington + Coe. Elle was incredible from start to finish. The images say it all really. We’ve had so many people ask us who did our photography! We never felt as though we were missing any of the day, and we love the natural shots. We also had an incredibly hilarious time capturing the wedding party smoke bomb photos!

Your Filmmaker

Ben from Winnington + Coe (also Elle’s partner). Again, we were blown away by the film. Guests didn’t even realise we had a videographer! He managed to capture all the best moments and turn them into a memoir of the day that we will treasure forever.

The Honeymoon

We flew out to the South of France for a minimoon right after the wedding. We stayed in Carcasonne.

We’ve just come back from our actual honeymoon in Disneyworld, Florida. It was Jon’s wedding gift to me. We had a magical time!

Memorable Moments

Our band: Truly, Medley, Deeply. They got everyone up dancing. I may have stolen the microphone during a particularly catchy Disney medley!

The sun finally coming out in the late afternoon, whilst all the guests chilled outside and enjoyed the golden hour.

Tequila shot toast.

Drafting in a friend to set off our giant confetti canon, ready for the perfect shot, only for a huge gust of wind to sweep up the entire contents above our head.

Advice For Other Couples

Create an excel spreadsheet with multiple tabs: guests, deposits, vendors etc..

Set up a wedding website (we used theknot) – all of our guests RSVP’d on this, which was so much less of a faff. I put all the details about venue, gifts, transport on there, so our invites were super simple.

Try to make a few little DIY bits (if you can) – I actually really enjoyed the process and I felt so proud, seeing my creations on the day.

Etsy is your best friend.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Oh so stylish!

Natalie and Jon, thanks so very much for sharing with us your incredible wedding celebrations xo Lou