Magical & Festive Church Ruins Wedding with Clear Marquee

What a pleasure it is to be sharing the Clophill Eco Lodges wedding of WWW followers Anouskja and Michael in Bedfordshire.

The atmosphere at Anouskja and Michael’s Christmas time nuptials must have been pure magic, what with the ceremony location, the clear span marquees, oodles of fairy lights and abundance of greenery just to name a few. And that’s without even mentioning the stunning outfits and every little thoughtful touch.

I am so excited to be sharing WWW fave and wedding supplier member Thyme Lane Photography‘s epic images which really document all the smiles, the winter light and the festive decor. Beautiful!

Clophill Eco Lodges Wedding

The Proposal

Mike proposed on Brighton beach on the 10th Jan 2020. He knows that January can be quite a hard time of the year for me so wanted us to have something special to celebrate.

He picked me up from work and we walked along the seafront with a coffee in our hands. I thought we were just taking the scenic route home and he wanted to stop on the bandstand. There was a couple having a photoshoot on the bandstand and as I didn’t want to disturb them, I said no. (if only I had said yes as I am sure the photographer would have caught the moment – what a photo that would have been)

We got onto the beach and I was putting my gloves in my pocket, I turned around and Mike was on one knee. The words basically fell out of his mouth whilst his eyes were filling up with happy tears. ‘Of course’ I replied gazing at the beautiful ring he had bought me.

We stayed on the beach calling our families until our hands went blue (to match the ring). Once we got home, we opened a bottle of bubbles and Mike had organised for our close friends to come round and help us celebrate.

The Vision

I keep going back to the phrase ‘Lady and the Tramp’. It is one of our favourite films and one that we feel represents us as a couple. We wanted our day to be beautiful, elegant yet fun and full of laughter whilst also being comfortable and relaxed.

We wanted the day to feel magical and most importantly intentional. We didn’t make any decisions without being 100% passionate about each one. (even the loos had a lot of thought go into them)

The Ceremony & Music

Our ceremony was at 2pm, the perfect time with the winter sunshine to say ‘I do’. It was important for us to create our ceremony to be a true reflection of not only us as a couple, but who we are thanks to the guests whom witnessed our ceremony.

We asked a close friend to officiate the ceremony, once he excitingly accepted, we got to writing. 18 months in the making and we created a ceremony that was intimate, personnel and fun. We wanted our guests to have a tear in their eye but also laugh and laugh and laugh.

I walked down the aisle, arm in arm with my dad, being led by my confetti boy, 5 bridesmaids and 2 maids of honors. Ellie Sax played ‘Jubel’ by Klingande live on her saxophone. This song brings back great memories of the pair of us being stuck in M25 traffic, dancing in our seats with not a care in the world that we were going to be 3 hours late to wherever we were going. I wanted my entrance to be fun, the start of a real celebration and our guests even had a little boogie as I walked down the aisle. The atmosphere was exactly what we wanted.

There were 2 readings, 1 by my mum and 1 by one of my bridesmaids. We wanted fun readings that were not traditional and also not just about our love. We had Wild Awake by Hilary T Smith & Everything I know about love by Dolly Alderton.

Once we were pronounced as a married couple, we exited the church ruins into the winter sunshine to This will be (an everlasting love) by Natalie Cole.

The Venue

As a wedding planner myself, the hardest part of the planning was the venue. I wanted to create an environment that encapsulated all of the above. No hotel or barn was going to suffice our vision. In my head, I wanted a greenhouse vibe, I wanted to feel as if we were outside in the beautiful countryside whilst still protected from the December chill. Our wedding planner (Vanessa Harness) recommended clear span marquees.

We both had been to Old St Marys Church in Clophill as it is within the village of our close friends. I loved the magical atmosphere it has (even without a roof) and of course the beautiful views over Bedfordshire. We thought it was the perfect place for us to have our ceremony and also dance the night away.

We had a clear span marquee within the actual church (Marquees with Pryde) and a clear span marquee running alongside it for the drinks reception and wedding breakfast (Countryside Marquees).

The Styling & Decor

Theme: as mentioned, we wanted everywhere to be beautiful but a comfortable environment. We wanted greenery to look as though it had grown into the marquees – it was also important that the theme was wintery and festive, but not too Christmassy

Decorations: Gemma from White Emporium styled our wedding with her beautiful treasures. We chatted about the vision over a few meetings and she worked very hard (whilst being 9 months pregnant) to make it all come to life. She styled the Church and dining marquees with lots of candles, twinkles and personalised decorations.

Cake: My Grandma very kindly made our wedding cake (Eve Lewis). This used to be her job full time so we knew that she would make us something delicious and beautiful.

Flowers: Becky from Flowers at 58 created us beautiful greenery installations. She created a large centrepiece that was hung above the top table. She also designed and built a stunning archway for us to get married in front of. These were all tied together with my bouquet and Mike’s buttonhole. We wanted everything to look lush and green and also smell amazing which Becky created and built for us.

My mum and aunt spent the week before our wedding foraging local greenery from friends and families gardens. They then worked hard the day before making the bridesmaid’s bouquets and boys buttonholes. These were beautiful and natural and also smelt amazing, full of eucalyptus and rosemary.

Our wedding planner helped us massively with DIY elements. For the name cards, we wanted wooden flat lay baubles with our guests’ names on. Something that they could take away and hang on their Christmas tree each year and remember our day. Vanessa massively helped us create this with her Cricut.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Our photographer was Noemi and Pal from Thyme Lane Photography. We had a facetime photoshoot with them at the beginning of lockdown which was so much fun and a great way to start to get to know them. We also had a pre-wedding shoot in the rain and they are some of my favourite photographs ever.

Noemi worked so so hard to ensure that we got our wedding photos back ASAP – 3 DAYS later, whilst we were on our mini-moon in Edinburgh, we received the email to say that the photographs were ready. Yet again, we were blown away with the photographs. Noemi and Pal captured the day perfectly and we have lovingly gone through the photos every day since.

Lewis Adger was our videographer – we are yet to see the video but we are so excited to see how it has turned out.

Your Outfits

Anouskja: I went to the Tailors Cat in Cambridge (now sadly closed) I have had my eyes on this shop since I was 16 and shopping for a prom dress. I knew that this was the place I wanted to look for my wedding dress so I booked an appointment in October 2020 and took along my Maid of Honour, Mum and Dad.

I knew I wanted something sparkly but I wasn’t sure of the shape or materials etc, I just needed to bear in mind that I was effectively getting married in a field, in December.

The dress actually was the first one I tried on. I was expecting to have a feeling that none of them was really going to be good enough but the first one was magic. It was an ivory lace and moscato tulle gown with ivory regency organza.

Becky (From Love from Becky) also made a matching tulle cape that sat on my shoulders with a scoop back to add even more sparkle.

Mike: As Mike’s dad is Scottish, he knew he wanted to wear a kilt. His family’s tartan was a beautiful mixture of greens and purples which matched the winter-inspired theme. Although we would have loved to have purchased his kilt for him to enjoy wearing time and time again, the budget would not allow this. So we hired this from Dickies Suit Hire in Eastbourne.

Bridesmaids all wore dark green dresses however, they were open to choose their own so they are all from different brands.

The Honeymoon

Our parents treated us to a trip to Edinburgh for our Mini-Moon. With the Christmas markets and likelihood of snow (also not being out of the UK so Corona was less likely to ruin this trip) we knew that Edinburgh was the place for us.

We left on the Sunday lunchtime and got into our hotel early evening. It was the perfect place to soak up some history and also a lot of mulled wine. I think we both were about 90% mulled wine when we left.

Our guests very kindly donated to a honeymoon fund rather than presents and we are hoping to get that booked this year (corona dependant) however, we cannot decide where we want. Mike wants Canada and I want Hawaii, know of anywhere that offers both?

Memorable Moments

This is the hardest question as I have so so many. The 3 that really stand out are:

Getting ready at my childhood home with the friends that have always been there for me throughout my life so far. Filling the house with laughter, beautiful flowers and dresses and a little Christmas music was the most perfect environment for us to get ready in a relaxed, calm and fun way.

Walking into the church. This is something that I have thought about even before Mike proposed. Walking up to the church, behind my beautiful bridesmaids in the sunshine with my dad is something that I will never forget. My dad took one look at me, squeezed my hand and said ‘Let’s do this’ just before we walked in. Being able to finally see our friends and family in the same place, celebrating our love, was such an incredible experience and I am so grateful for each and every one of them.

The final memory that gave me goosebumps was at the wedding breakfast. My dad and Mike made their speeches before the meal so that they could eat and relax. Their speeches blew me away with their love and also comedic elements. Mike and I cherish mealtimes with friends and family, we love sharing good food and conversations and this is what we wanted to recreate. There were only 3 tables (for 85 guests) and our caterers (Little Piggy Catering) created a beautiful family sharing style Christmas dinner for everyone. This was not only delicious but so beautifully served. Being able to walk about and chat to our friends and family whilst they were enjoying a beautiful meal in a stunning environment made us feel whole.

Of course, there were more memorable moments and I could go on and on and on ☺

Advice For Other Couples

INTENTION. I cannot stress this enough. If there is no intention for the decisions you make, your wedding may end up looking like anyones. Our guests made lots of comments saying that they could tell our hearts went into each decision and element of the day which is all we wanted.

THIS IS YOUR DAY AND NO ONE ELSES – we all go to weddings, lots of weddings, however, this is yours. Each decision should be made with you both at the forefront of your mind. You won’t be able to please everyone (whether that is the food choices, the table plan, and the music) so don’t try to. Try to please yourself so that you are both excited for each element of the day.

Wow wow wow! Anouskja and Michael thank you so much for sharing your incredible Clophill Eco Lodges wedding story with us.