A Pastel Circus Homemade Wedding

It’s Monday morning, which means only one thing, a super beautiful wedding to start a gorgeous week ahead here at Whimsical Wonderland Weddings 🙂

Rosie and Tom married in April at Kingscote Barn in the Cotswolds. They wanted their wedding to be homemade, playful and stylish with a circus theme using pastel shades.

Rosie wore a lovely lace wedding dress with a homemade headpiece and she held a stunning bouquet scented with rosemary, while Tom found his suit on Saville Row. What a stylish pair.

They homemade much of their day, from typography stationery to screen-printed sweetie bags and a ceramic cake stand. Gorgeous! And the Jenga guest book… brilliant.

Thanks so much to the fantastic Samantha Jane Photography for sharing her photographs with us today.

Pastel Circus Homemade Wedding

The Proposal

On Christmas day morning 2012 Tom woke me up with a huge bunch of roses, strawberries, champagne and a ring he’d designed and asked if I would marry him. I was so overwhelmed sat up in bed that it took me a while to actually say yes! But I’d already put the ring on so Tom knew it was a done deal.

The Vision for the day

Vintage circus, homemade. Playful, relaxed and stylish.

The Planning process

I designed the invitations which gave me a starting point for the theme, using various circus style fonts and muted blues, greens and pinks for the colour pallet. We wanted it to feel playful and visually exciting rather than traditional and formal. We started looking at bridesmaid dresses fairly early and searched for ties for the dads and ushers that matched. I wanted to start planning early so it didn’t feel rushed and I left myself enough time to make things to keep costs down and give a personal touch.

The Venue

We visited 6 venues before deciding on Kingscote Barn, it was the best setting, most well organised and nicely presented, its easy to see why they’ve won the Wedding Venue of the Year award two years running! It was also good value and a wonderful space inside too if the weather wasn’t good.

Budget

We managed to spend around £13,000 in total. We were fairly on budget as lots of things were homemade.

The Readings + Music

I walked down the aisle to VCR by The XX. Our brothers both played guitar separately and Tom’s brother sang There’s Something in the way she Moves by James Taylor song. My auntie Pascie sang Our House by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and played guitar too and one of my closest friends, Ella, read a poem I’d written years ago to tell Tom I loved him for the first time.

Beautiful bridesmaids

There were three bridesmaids, Lucy, Stephanie and Helen. They wore long floaty Coast dresses in a thyme colour and had white pashminas and patent nude heels. Their jewellery was understated – silver necklaces and pearl earrings. I didn’t want to dictate too much but they organised themselves to co ordinate very well.

The Dress + Accessories

I bought the first dress I saw in the end. It’s a Justin Alexander style number 8596 in Ivory/Oyster and I love it. I made a hair accessory using feathers, vintage lace, newsprint fabric and a button. I wanted an old film star sort of look to match the feel of the dress. I bought a pair of Clarks low heels (so comfy!) in a pewter leather and replaced the dimante jewel on the front for a newsprint fabric rosette with a grey pearl cluster. I knew I wanted something I would wear again and that wouldn’t give me blisters. I also didn’t want to spend a lot of money as you barely see them under your dress.

I typed ‘wedding dress’ into Google and Justin Alexander’s website popped up. I found my dress on the second page of their website and instantly loved the cut and fabric. There was a stockist near me so I organised to try it on, but in a different colour which I wasn’t as keen on, in the end I had to find another stockist with the ivory/oyster colour. I didn’t feel like it was my wedding dress until it had been altered to fit me but that was when I knew it was the right one.

Your Photographer

Samantha Jane Photography. Being into photography myself I found it very difficult to find someone who isn’t a commercial style photographer. We wanted our photo’s to look quite vintage and Sam’s style was perfect. Her non intrusive approach meant she got lots of great relaxed shots of people interacting but she also managed to command the crowd (not an easy task!) firmly but nicely. She has the patience of a saint and an eager eye for good lighting and playful depths of field.

Groom’s attire

Saville Row three piece mid grey suit with a muted blue/green paisley silk tie. Personalised silver cufflinks with our initials on (I designed a logo for the invites, signage and the cake topper)

The Flowers

Sorori Design Florist were the florist we used as I enjoyed Maria’s innovative designs and her passion for something different. I bought some newsprint flowers and asked to have them as button holes and part of the brides and bridesmaid bouquets. This worked really well with rosemary, gypsophila, hydrangeas, forget me nots and antique roses in a dusky pink. The colours were perfect for the theme and didn’t look too stiff as we wanted quite a natural look. We also had giant balloons hanging from carafes with one hydrangea as a table centre piece.

The Cake

Caroline’s Cake Company, a local cake maker baked our cake. We met at a wedding fair and I filled out my details to win £100 off a cake and I won! I then started to design the cake and met with Caroline to discuss ideas. We wanted a three tear cake, each tear a different flavour with a flag on top. Using Pinterest I research circus style cakes, which was useful but most of them were children’s birthday cakes and I wanted to steer away from that so tried to make it more grown up but still playful. We had a layer covered in hundreds and thousands and the words “Have your cake and eat it too” in circus fonts reading around the bottom layer. It was very tasty with carrot, lemon and vanilla to choose from.

The Details + Decor

My step mum and I made several metres of bunting and I saved jars for sweets and candles. I screen printed pink and white striped sweet bags with a message to thank the guests and made a ceramic cake stand with the date of our wedding on for cupcakes. I made a flag for everyone’s table setting with their name on one side and a personal funny comment on the other, these were also to be used with a photo booth we set up with fancy dress. We had giant Jenga as our guest book and asked every guest to right a message on a block, so every time we play, we can be reminded of the wedding and read our lovely messages. Signage was imported too, the menu, welcome sign and signs for the giant Jenga and photo booth were all done in the style of the invitation. The table plan was an old fashioned ticket for each guest pegged to a different ribbon corresponding to the table number. That was a lot of work and couldn’t be done until the last minute when we had the final numbers.

The Honeymoon

Sharm el Sheikh at the Hyatt Regency Club for 7 days. It was pure luxury and bliss but just wasn’t long enough. Two words – Pool Butler.

Memorable moments

Walking down the aisle finding Tom’s eyes through the crowd and wanting to be stood next to him that instant. Later on, after a few drinks, many of Tom’s friends came out wearing masks of Tom’s face which was highly freakish, it was hard to find the real Tom!

Advice for other couples

Do your research to save money and try not to let the little things mount up. Ask for and listen to peoples recommendations – having a team of people who enjoy working with each other makes for a better day all round. We had every supplier recommended by either the venue or the caterer. It was nice to know they were happy to work together.

Credit where credit is due

Venue: Kingscote Barn

Photography: Samantha Jane Photography

Cake: Caroline’s Cake Company

Flowers: Sorori Design Florist

Wow wee, so elegant and super fun. Thanks so much to Rosie and Tom for sharing their wedding with us today XOXO Lou