Rustic Natural & Boho Pastel Wedding at High House Weddings

I am so happy you are here to join me for Havva and Lew’s sublime High House Weddings wedding in Essex. Their day was utterly beautiful, with a pretty pastel colour scheme, rustic boho style and the most amazing dried flowers (I am looking at you bridal bouquet of dreams 😍).

From the incredibly stylish outfits to the stunning drip wedding cake, you will adore all the styling. Most of all though, the sentiment and meaningfulness of their day really shine through, as do their happy beaming smiles.

Kerry Ann Duffy Photography, thank you so much for sharing with us these truly delightful images of a very inspiring celebration indeed.

High House Weddings Wedding

The Proposal

It feels like so many years ago now. May 2012 Lew proposed to me, which was completely unexpected actually!

Lew has always known I hate being the centre of attention or having all eyes on me, so his proposal was perfect for us. I was on my way home from work one day, we had had plans to go out for dinner with family which we were supposed to be meeting directly at a family member’s house, but Lew was so insistent on me coming home first.

He was acting so odd, so I honestly thought he was planning to play one of his usual tricks on me, Lews always been known as a bit of a joker.

When I arrived home, he kept hovering around me, so I knew he was up to something, I just didn’t know quite what. He asked me to look in the bathroom, which reluctantly I did 😊 Lew had candles lit around the whole bathroom, with a bath filled with red rose petals and had used our daughter’s alphabet letters, stuck to the tiles asking me to marry him.

It was actually very cute and romantic. I turned to look at him and he had a box in his hands and was shaking like a leaf. Even as the years have passed, that moment feels like a dream I had yesterday.

The Vision

We always wanted our day to be relaxed and somewhere where ourselves, friends or family had not been before. To be undisturbed and completely private.

We dreamt of countryside, wildflowers, gardens and natural settings. An informal day with no separations or divides. Our families to combine as one. We are very sociable people with most of our guests being our friends than actual family. We love to have BBQs and parties, so we really wanted that vibe throughout our day.

Budget

We had budgeted about 15k.

The Venue

For years we looked for a venue, nothing ever caught our eye. Nothing ever made us want to go and view it, at all.

That was until I came across High House Weddings. Oh, my goodness, I personally fell in love with it just from looking at the photos on Instagram. It’s the only time I’ve ever mentioned about viewing a venue. We most certainly were not disappointed either. It is truly stunning. We both fell in love with the venue before we even arrived. It’s surrounded by beautiful countryside for miles.

The venue is a family-owned property, which they maintain themselves, as their home. Everything about the venue is picturesque, the heart-shaped lake, the beautiful rustic barn which is covered in fairy lights and had a piano for a centrepiece. The wildflowers everywhere and a bridge that crosses over a lake.

It has a dressing that you can only dream about – a cottage with its own private swimming pool, it was dreamy. It made you feel like you could have been anywhere in the world.

Your Outfits

The dress – I always knew there was only ever one brand for me – Grace Loves Lace. I had many years to look and was always drawn back to the same brand. Grace Loves Lace is an Australian brand, with their own showrooms around the world, with one in London, thankfully.

My dress was an open-back silk gown. It just felt so effortless. A simple statement. It was completely me. No fuss, but the perfect shape.

The men’s suits were from Moss Bros, we had more difficulty getting a suit than a dress. We wanted to stay away from the traditional colours and styles, but that made it a long process of finding one that had a matching junior suit for our son to wear.

We did end up finding the perfect suit in a natural slim fit suit that also had a matching children’s one. They were a 3 piece suit with matching waistcoat, trousers and blazer.

The Ceremony & Music

The run-up to our wedding had been a truly difficult time, I had lost my dad to covid 7 months before our wedding day. It was completely unexpected and very traumatic. My dad has always been our biggest supporter, he idolised Lew as a son in law to be. Always so grateful for loving his daughter the way Lew loves me. He more than anyone, more than me, was so invested in our wedding day. What marriage meant to completing our family, making that ultimate commitment.

He believed in us. The thought of my dad not walking me down the aisle, holding my arm when I felt wobbly, being there to witness us making our promise to each other was heartbreaking. At times it made it difficult to plan or even think about. But he knew we were getting married and the 23rd August and that’s what kept us going.

The ceremony, our vows and promises felt even more meaningful and powerful. Through all the pain our love got us through it all. We decided to have my dad’s reflection song as our aisle song, a song called – Dancing in the sky – by Alisha Mae.

To lift the emotion, we had At Last – by Beyonce to exit the aisle.

Your Photographer

Our photographer was Kerry Ann Duffy. She is absolutely unreal, in person and behind the camera. Kerry was the only photographer for us, her natural styling was exactly what we wanted.

Kerry was everything and more on our day, she blended in with friends, that you didn’t even feel the camera present. She giggled with us, sang with us and captured every moment beautifully. We decided against a videographer but Kerry made video reels of the day, memories we will be able to keep forever. Things she never had to do, but still did anyway.

The Styling & Decor

The venue was so naturally stunning we really did not have to do very much. We went for a rustic/natural theme. I did all the decorating and table pieces myself. I used a lot of flowers which I purchased from a supermarket the day before the wedding.

I love candles, so had them everywhere and used loads of polarised photos of our life to decorate around the marquee. We used a lot of soft pastel colours in the flowers which flowed perfectly with the blush bridesmaid dresses and natural suites.

Our yummy cake was made by the lovely Lottie and Jakes Cakes. We had a semi-naked drip cake with a dried flower cake topper. Three layers of Lemon, coconut and chocolate orange. We decided to use our wedding cake as our dessert, which went down a treat.

My flowers were just wow! I found my florist on Instagram and had been following her for a while, she specialises in dried flowers, which we absolutely love. Folkey Dokey created a bouquet of dreams. They exceeded my vision, my hopes and they are still as beautiful now, with a place in our home. They were a mixture of flowers including hydrangea and roses in a mixture of soft pretty colours.

The Honeymoon

We booked a mini-moon to Spain, 4 days of being child and puppy free. We went to Cala Dor, which was actually both of our first time there. We did nothing but relax and indulged in loads of food and cocktails, it was heaven. It is so beautiful there.

Memorable Moments

Lew’s words – Havva walking down the aisle.

I would say every part of the day was just perfect. I know everyone probably says that, but given how tough the year had been it really was perfect. No restrictions on the day, the weather was 23 degrees and sunshine. The food was delicious, the staff amazing. All our friends and family made it. My bridesmaids and Lews best man just got lost in the moment with us.

A moment that will always make us chuckle when we think about it is Lews speech. There really are no words to describe how much he waffled on and not even about me, his wife 😊. It’s still a topic of conversation, it made everyone laugh, but only because it was so bad.

Advice For Other Couples

Don’t try and please everybody else. It really is your day and about the two of you and your relationship. You see and read it so much, people asking advice based on pleasing everyone else. Myself and Lew do this daily but for once, we really did think about what we wanted and the day was perfect.

If you have children attending a paid supervised bouncy castle, was an absolute godsend, kept the children entertained and the parents could relax.

Mostly, the day will pass quicker than any other day in your life. Soak every moment in, don’t stress about the imperfections, it doesn’t have to ruin your day. Take some time out for just the two of you, you really will remember those moments the most.