Gold Sequin Outdoor Humanist Botanical Gardens Wedding

Sparkle heaven. I am definitely a magpie and so when I clapped eyes on this sequin filled affair I was smitten.

WWW readers Claire and Paul were married on the 5^th May 2016, on the day of their anniversary, in an outdoor humanist wedding at Ness Gardens. They then headed to Mere Brook House in the Wirral for their stylish reception, which was decorated perfectly. With a relaxed and personal celebration in mind Claire and Paul opted for rustic touches including, log slices, hessian, sequins and blooms galore.

Now let’s talk about the stunning outfits. Claire looked effortlessly radiant in her sweetheart Ellis Bridals gown with sweet Charlotte Mills heart heels. Paul was very dapper indeed in a grey suit and floral tie, which really was a great combination. Then there were the bridesmaids who wore head to toe gold sequin gowns, lucky ladies, they looked stunning.

Thanks so very much to Emma Hillier Photography for sharing these delightful shots.

THE PROPOSAL | Paul proposed on our 5^th Anniversary trip in 2014 to Barcelona (we’d spent our first holiday together there in 2009). He proposed in a beautiful little courtyard, Plaça Sant Iu, where we had sat 5 years earlier while he taught me bits of Spanish, although he very nearly forgot how to find it! After rummaging in his rucksack for a while (he’d hidden the ring in a sock in his bag) he, not too smoothly, slid onto one knee. It’s fair to say I was shocked, so with my hand to my face I said “nooooo!!…. I mean YES!!!” I couldn’t tell you what the people around us thought of it as we were both completely lost in the moment.

THE VISION | Straight away we knew what date we wanted and where we wanted it. Having been together for 5 years we’d had casual chats about marriage and we’d always agreed on an outdoor wedding and as we went ‘Facebook Official’ on May 5^th we thought that would be the perfect date for a spring / summer wedding. We wanted a relaxed, personal wedding with just those closest to us.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | I attended a few (lots) of wedding fayres, from big ones to small ones. The favourites being vintage wedding fayres that I visited in Chester and Liverpool. Attending these gave me the ideas for my favours (macarons) and flowers that I liked (wild flowers, looking like they were ‘just picked’). Much to Paul’s annoyance I spent A LOT of money on bridal magazines too.

We set our hearts on Ness Gardens and visited on the 4^th May the year before to make sure that was what we wanted, from then there was no doubt. I planned all the fun stuff and decorations and left Paul to the administrative duties and finding a band.

THE VENUE | The humanist ceremony took place at Ness Botanical Gardens with the wedding breakfast and evening being held at Mere Brook House. The ceremony was at a little rock garden with a wooden hut overlooked by a bridge over a pond and, as it was the beginning of May, we were surrounded by snowdrops and bluebells.

Mere Brook House is an Edwardian country house set in beautiful grounds with plenty of wild flowers in the grounds. With a small courtyard inside and small pond to the front. It was decorated in true country house style with rustic mis-matched furniture which gave a real homely warmth. The food was incredible from the first to the (forced) last bite. We’d visited a few weeks earlier for a canapé tasting session and painstakingly decided on the 5 to serve. The meal was one of the best roast dinners we’ve ever had. All locally sourced and cooked to perfection… and there was the 2^nd helping before dessert. In the evening they served a barbecue, again with locally sourced meats, that couldn’t be beaten. Along with some of our family we stayed over in the beautiful Honeymoon Suite.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress was by Ellis Bridals. A tulle and satin ball gown cut. Layered tulle with sequins to give a little bit of sparkle if the light hit it. The bodice was sweetheart neckline embroidered with beads and precious stones.

My bracelet and earrings were Jon Richards.

My shoes I fell in love with as soon as I saw them and I knew I had to have them! They were by Charlotte Mills, ‘Andrea’ style with a block gold glitter heel and gold heart shoe clip. On the bottom of the shoe was the rhyme ‘something old, something new and a silver sixpence in her shoe’

FINDING THE DRESS | My bridal party and I visited quite a few dress shops about 5 or 6 before visiting Tilly Anna’s in Farndon. I didn’t want to try anything on as was having an ‘off’ day but was forced into trying it on by my maid of honour and immediately fell in love. Even my mum and maid of honour (who had shown themselves to be very hard to please!) burst into tears upon seeing it!

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Paul isn’t a top and tails or morning suit kind of guy. We’d decided early on that he would go and buy a suit, probably a 3 piece. He bought a light grey 3 piece from Marks and Spencer’s. A plain white shirt and a cotton tie in a gorgeous lilac and green floral pattern from Frederick Thomas and tan brogues from Dune, which were my only demand. He wore personalised cufflinks (a wedding present from me) with the map co-ordinates of Plaça Sant Iu and a local place where we first said I love you. Paul’s ring was from Justin Duance – and contained the wood of an ash tree.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | At Ness gardens we had a harpist (Nerys Hewitt) play for guests first and then Nerys played ‘Can’t help falling in love’ by Elvis during the bride’s entrance and for the couple exit she played Pachelbel canon in d.

We had 3 readings from each of our bridesmaids. Natalie read a poem called ‘The Promise’ by Eileen Rafter, Jordyn read and anonymous poem called ‘Maybe’ and Nicole read ‘Foxtrot from a play’ by W H Auden.

We selected each poem because we felt it meant something to us, and what we loved. We asked the guests to repeat an Irish blessing after our Celebrant Maxine.

For the evening dances we hired a band called the Jack Rabbits who were incredible. First up was Claire and her Dad who danced to ‘You’re my Best Friend’ by Queen. Then it was time for the First Dance, we wanted something a bit more ‘us’ than your regular “slowy” and as we’re quite fond of dancing round the living room we went for one we’ve danced to many times; “You Make My Dreams Come True” by Hall & Oates. The band had learned it from scratch and really came up trumps! I think it surprised a few people but it went down very well. Paul also surprised me a little later on with another favourite of ours “I Need My Girl” by The National which he’d organised in secret with the band and Sarah from Mere Brook to make sure everyone was in the right place at the right time.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I had 3 bridesmaids. Natalie, my maid of honour and best friend, my cousin Jordyn who I grew up with and Nicole, Paul’s niece. They chose their own style of dress from the range of gold sequined Sorella Vita Modern Metallic range. Jordyn and Nicole both chose the floor length boat-neck dress with cowl back which definitely fitted in with my vintage theme and Natalie chose a strappy floor length version with a blouson bodice.

THE FLOWERS | I specifically wanted a non structured bouquet, almost ‘just picked’, but in colours like lilac and sage. We went with a local florist called Pure Floral Design, in Brimstage. I met up with them a few times to discuss what I would like and they mocked up a few designs while I was there.

The bridal bouquet consisted of lilac roses, lisianthus, lavender and gypsophila to name a few. The bridesmaids had smaller bouquets of similar but without the roses.

Button holes and corsage wristlets also tied in. All bouquets were then used for table centrepieces.

THE CAKE | Our cake was made by Sue Gates from Bella’s Cake Pantry. Her work is amazing and the detail is fabulous. She made us (following a consultation) a three tier cake, each tier a different flavour, red velvet, Victoria sponge and lemon. The cake was decorated with a ruffled base, icing flowers and a gold sequinned (edible!) top tier.

For our favours we went for macarons from The Little Macaron Shop in Waterloo, Liverpool. We went for three flavours; salted caramel, violet and Matcha green tea and white chocolate. We packaged them ourselves (we ordered a couple too many as our reward) and finished them with mixed ribbons to tie on our home stamped labels. Apart from those Natalie and I had at Ladurée in Paris, they were the best macarons I’ve ever tasted!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Emma Hillier was our fabulous photographer! Loved her work from the minute I saw it and knew we had to book her. She put us at ease with a pre wedding photo shoot which helped to put my photo shy husband at ease! On the day Emma was as fabulous as we thought, capturing amazing photographs! Even taking time to capture a few photos of our 5 week old niece as well. It was most definitely like having a friend at the wedding there with all of our guests commenting on how lovely she was. We had a few sneak peaks of a few shots before went on our honeymoon and then came back to the finished package with which we couldn’t have been happier. She really captured the feel of our wedding, the relaxed, close, fun vibe that we’d always hoped for. As well the incredible, fairytale-esque shots at Ness she blew us away with some really beautiful, natural pictures.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Due to the nature of our reception venue being an Edwardian country house we didn’t decorate too much because we wanted the character to speak for itself. We kept the details and décor rustic with a hint of sparkle/glamour. I love candles so there were a lot of tea lights/candles dotted along the hessian runners down each table. Differing in size and colour, some gold sequinned and some on log slices. For the cake table I touched on the sequins again and covered it in a gold sequinned cloth. Each chair was tied with a hessian bow by the bridal party the night before (hessian is harder to tie than I thought!)

I had made our seating plan out of an old ladder that Paul had lovingly sanded down over 3 days!! The seating plan was strung up with lilac baker’s twine and fairy lights twisted up around the ladder.

I wrote out each name on small chalkboard in white and gold chalk pen for name places (plenty of which went home with guests at the end of the night!)

We had an old suitcase on our entrance table with a card sign for guests to place cards and gifts along with our guest book and again candles!

For a little bit of fun we had a sign made for the dance floor stating the ‘rules’ such as ‘dance offs should take place where appropriate and often’, ‘lunges are law’ and ‘putting a tie around one’s head is encouraged’. Most of which were obeyed!!

THE HONEYMOON | We had no preconceived ideas of where to have our honeymoon, we just wanted it to be somewhere a little out of the ordinary so, after looking at a few options, we settled on the Sensimar Kalamota Island Resort on the island of Koločep, just outside Dubrovnik. We decided to wait until he end of May as the weather was supposedly better then, and it really was the right move! The island was beautiful, practically untouched, life went at 2 mph and it was perfect for us after the hectic build up to the wedding. The hotel we couldn’t fault and the Mojito bar kept us mingling with the other guests every night. We did the Game of Thrones tour in Dubrovnik, stopping off at various sites used in the filming of what is one of our favourite programmes, including the chance to sit on a replica of the Iron Throne and film our own version of the ‘Walk of Shame’. Our tour guide, organised through the hotel, was a young local guy with a degree in history who had worked as an extra and a runner on the show so really knew his stuff. We also went into Dubrovnik one evening to enjoy a romantic meal for just the two of us. The only problem we had with Dubrovnik was that we didn’t get the chance to see enough of the beautiful city. We came back with far too many photos to share (and some on the local nudist beach we couldn’t!) and more than enough fantastic memories to keep with us forever.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The whole day was just unforgettable, we were so lucky with the weather having been forecast ‘wintry showers’ only a week or so earlier but the sun shone all day which only disappointed our photographer as the sun reflected a little too much off Paul’s bald head. The image of Emma getting excited whenever a cloud passed… and then swearing when it cleared… will always make us laugh! The speeches were fantastic, although the Best Man’s speech could well have been ‘cutting it fine’ and the food at Mere Brook, especially the second helpings, will go down in history! One of our favourite sights was that of Paul’s 93 year old grandad adhering to our dance floor rules and dancing with his tie around his head!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Do it your way! There are so many ‘should do’ ways of getting married but, especially with the help of Maxine, our humanist celebrant, we found out that we can make it as personal to us as we wanted, even if it did raise an eyebrow or two, after all it was our big day! So I’d definitely recommend looking down that avenue if, like us, you’re not particularly religious.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Emma Hillier Photography

Brides Dress | Ellis Bridal at Tilly-Anna’s

Bride’s Shoes | Charlotte Mills

Bridesmaids’ Dresses | Sorella Vita at Tilly-Anna’s

Brides hair piece | No1 Jenny Packham @ Debenhams

Groom’s Suit | Marks & Spencer

Tie | Frederick Thomas

Groom’s shoes | Dune

Cufflinks | Sally Clay

Rings | Brides rings both Chisolm Hunter

Grooms ring | Justin Duance

Make Up | Emma Lampkin Makeup

Hair | Hair by Carol Ellis Thompson

Flowers & some décor | Pure Floral Design

Cars | Chase the Sun

Celebrant | Maxine Beech

Harpist | Nerys Hewitt

Ceremony Venue | Jen Lemon at Ness Gardens

Reception Venue | Mere Brook House

Macarons | The Little Macaron Shop

Cake | Sue Gates at Bellas Cake Pantry

Band | The Jack Rabbits

Table cloth, chair covers & ties, & suitcase | Sweetpea & Ivy

Honeymoon | Sensimar Kalamota Island Resort

Oh so pretty.

Thanks so much to Claire and Paul for sharing their wonderful wedding story today xo Lou