Relaxed & Country Fun Wantisden Valley Wedding in Suffolk

WWW readers Paul and Frankie really pulled out all the stops for their gorgeous Wantisden Valley wedding in Suffolk held on the 14th March 2020. Their day is a beautiful example of a country fun wedding executed perfectly. Their words of advice really ring true about budgeting and what to spend your wedding budget on, I really recommend you read their advice at the end of their real wedding feature.

They ensured that they kept their day personal with blues and greenery taking centre stage as well as ensuring their choices were sustainable. I love everything from their incredible outfits to the splendid flowers and those amazing portraits in the trees.

Beth Beresford Photography, I cannot thank you enough for sharing these incredible captures of a very special wedding indeed.

Wantisden Valley Wedding

The Proposal

We were on a cruise of Norway, which was absolutely beautiful. It was a formal night on the cruise so we were both all dressed up. I was wearing a fully sequined dress that had been my great grandmothers. It was after dinner and drinks, we decided to sit outside on the boat as the views were incredible. Paul then suggested we went inside as it was cold, so we sat inside one of the bars that had closed and therefore was completely empty.

We were just sat talking when from behind me, a string quartet came walking in whilst playing my favourite song ‘Stand by me’. Paul then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was perfect. Paul knew he wanted to propose to me on the cruise but he didn’t know how. A few nights before we had sat listening to the quartet and had really enjoyed it. So then the idea came to him, he frantically arranged it one morning whilst I was having a massage.

The Vision

We didn’t have a theme as such. We just wanted our wedding to be very personal and have lots of touches that represented us as a couple. Colour-wise we wanted whites, blues and greens. Very earthy, sustainable and natural. With the venue, I wanted to work with what was already there.

The Venue

The thing we really liked about our venue is that it was quite a blank canvas and we were allowed to do what we liked to it. We were also given two days before the wedding to decorate, which I loved, as it made it less stressful and no other venue allowed this. It had a beautiful ceremony room and a large reception room with a bar inside. This was really important to us as we didn’t want guests all wandering off in different rooms. We wanted to make sure everyone was on the dance floor. It also had some stunning areas for photos, in particular a massive avenue of fir trees.

Your Outfits

The groomsmen wore dark navy suits with blue/grey check waistcoats and dark brown shoes. These were hired from Jack Bunneys. Again we just went with these colours because blue is our favourite. My husband’s brother had previously got his wedding suits from here and they were really pleased with them so that is why he chose to go with them again.

My dress was from Just a Day. I knew I wanted a very structured simple looking dress and saw it at a wedding fair and fell in love with it. I knew I wanted straps and love the see-through panels on it.

The Ceremony & Music

We had a string quartet play before and for our ceremony, Scintillo string quartet. When my husband proposed, he arranged a string quartet to play my favourite song so it felt very fitting to have them at our ceremony and they played my favourite song again as I walked down the aisle.

Check out these wedding readings and wedding music ideas too.

The Styling & Decor

It was about recycling and using what was available, a sustainable wedding.

There were great big recycled wagon wheels hanging from the ceilings which I covered in fabric and flowers, converting them to chandeliers, to create a magical floral feel. These looked incredible once lit up.

We used mirrors for signs and the table plan, which my sister made stickers for and my dad handmade the easels to display them.

We both love fish, we have a koi pond and my husband also loves fishing so we decide to incorporate them in large vases on our tables. These fish now live in our pond and my dads. The flowers again we just went with our favourite colours (blue/green) and I knew I’d like to include succulents and eucalyptus.

We also wanted it to be fun for everyone, so in the evening we hired a reaction game for guests to play on.

The cake toppers were very fun. We decided to make them ourselves out of Fimo polymer clay. My husband gave up so I ended up making him and myself. Which was really fun as I had to keep mine hidden because it gave away what my dress was like. But again these were very personal and something we were able to keep and we now have on display. My cake was made by my sister in law, it was very simple with blue and white flowers for decoration.

Instead of favours, we decided to make a donation to the Alzheimer’s charity, everyone had little pins next to their names at the tables. A family member had recently died of it, so it was our way of honouring them and contributing money to a really good cause.

The Honeymoon

We went to Lake Garda for our honeymoon a week after. Which was amazing. We chose Italy as we wanted somewhere that wasn’t too far away because we didn’t want to leave our daughter for long. It is somewhere I had read about a long time ago. We went for 5 days in total, aside from soaking up the sunshine we did adventure out for two activities. The first was canyoning which was brilliant! Something we had both never done before. It was scary at times but very exciting. We then spent another day on the lakes where we hired a boat and spent the day sailing around, enjoying whilst enjoying music and food. It was perfect.