Purple & Green Rustic Woodland Glade Wedding

Whether you are a woodland couple or not, there are plenty of steal-worthy ideas here.

Jeremy and Laura were married on Saturday 2^nd May 2015 in a stunning woodland glade on privately owned land. As Laura said “there aren’t many brides who can say I grassed my aisle.” It took a lot of preparation to ensure the spot was suitable for a marquee wedding, but boy oh boy did it pay off.

The use of the clear sided marquee was a stroke of genius as it really connected the whole day to the setting. I adore the rustic touches which included fresh blooms and wooden details.

The boys looked fantastic in their tweed and chino look, while the bridesmaids fit into the green and purple colour scheme with their long dresses. Laura chose a Justin Alexander lace gown which really looked wonderful accessorised with a long veil.

Razzleberry Photography, thanks so much for providing these lovely images.

THE PROPOSAL | The date of the proposal was my birthday, Saturday 25^th January 2014. And I have to say it terribly simple but lovely all the same. We had woken as normal and we were literally sat in bed alarms ringing. Jeremy turns to me “morning, happy birthday” I respond as normal “aww thanks.” “Well better get up then I guess.” Jeremy then just said “emmm I don’t suppose you’d like to be with me forever?” I’m like “well I already intended to,” but with that he pulls this ring from his bedside draw and I immediately cried “it’s 6.30am what are you doing to me, my emotions aren’t intact at this time!” anyway I said yes and received this amazing sparkling diamond – which fitted!

THE VISION | Tweed and lace meets rustic woodland glade. quite early on we had decided that we would like to get married at home or nearby. I can’t say a church wedding totally suited either of us so we new a relaxed home wedding is what we wanted. The other certain was to have tweed due to our countryside connection and lace, just because I love it. I had a strong vision of what I wanted (luckily I have a laid back husband to be who let me get on with it!). The colours, which were a palette of purples and greens, to the flowers which were to be home grown from bulbs in pots, and precision re-planting in the wood. My main intention for décor was that as much of the outside should be inside. So clear span marquees, trees inside, logs, flowers, bushes, and lots of natural material.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | I started about 2 hours after been engaged!! It took a full year to get everything planned out and booked in. In terms of first jobs, it was the planting and flowers we had to do that back in 2014. Once we had decided on the wood for our venue, the actual ‘woodland glade’ had trees in it! So we went about cultivating selected trees to create an area, had it all re-drained and graded so it wouldn’t water log and then grassed it all. There aren’t many brides who can say “I grassed my aisle.”

Booking of the usual then followed, registrar, marquees, catering, DJ, photographer, wedding dress appointments…

I have to say I totally loved planning the wedding

BUDGET | Approx. £20,000.

THE VENUE | The Big Wood, which is on our privately owned land. Melbourne, York, East Riding.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | The dress was a Justin Alexander dress from the signature collection. beautiful full lace mermaid shape. It was a strapless dress however it had a lace jacket which blended perfectly into the lace design to create a full effect. It was the first one I visually picked out, but I tried it on last, about the 5^th dress I think, and I fell in love with it, I couldn’t take it off. Topped off with a single tier vale with Swarovski crystals on it, diamond and pearl drop earrings and bracelet along with a Tiffany bracelet which my hens had bought me.

FINDING THE DRESS | I found the dress in the first shop I’d gone into. I had taken my mum on the first visit and we knew it was the one. My bridesmaids however had booked some appointments at other stores so we made a day of it. At the end of the day there was nothing as beautiful as this one. I returned 2 weeks later with one of my bridesmaids in October 2014 and put the deposit on my wedding dress!

GROOM’S ATTIRE | My partner had the idea of a tweed suit and luckily his best man to be has a menswear shop, so as his duty he made to measure a suit for Jeremy in wearable timeless coloured tweed, waistcoat and jacket, but teamed it up with chinos and a crisp white shirt, finished off with a purple silk woven tie. The best men and four ushers were all in matching tweed waist coasts, chinos, shirts and purple ties.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We had one reading in our service which was ‘What Is Marriage’. We walked down the aisle to the piano guys version of Beethoven’s 5 secrets and left as husband and wife to Clean Bandit – Rather Be.

The music for the wedding was very important as we love music, festivals and Ibiza trips. So our choice of DJ needed to have a slightly different feel to the normal wedding disco. So we hired in Disco Shed to for fill the party atmosphere. To ensure our day ran smoothly we had another close friend of ours from Jeremy’s side being the master of ceremonies. He was left with my military precision agenda for the day.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My bridesmaids were my two closest friends. Gemma I met at secondary school and have forever been a close friend since that moment, and another who I had gained from meeting Jeremy, Katie. who I have known for 6 years and we experienced pregnancy together of which we both had girls just 5 weeks apart. Our beautiful girls were the flowers girls on the day.

The bridesmaids were dressed in Jim Hjelm, which were stocked in the same shop as my wedding dress.

THE FLOWERS | The flowers were done by another fantastic friend of ours. She isn’t known for doing wedding flowers as she doesn’t like the pressure from bridezillas. However she is a wonderfully creative person and a brilliant florist. I think due to the relaxed, natural feel I convinced her with loose hand ties, rustic arrangements and jar picked centrepieces. She ended up doing more than an amazing job from arrangements, trees, centrepieces, to bridal party flowers and all the corsages.

The flowers were selected to fit with the time of year, new greens and bluebells, more foliage than flower, with delicate cream and purple.

THE CAKE | My mum’s second profession in her working life was a cake maker and a pretty good one. She created the most amazing cake sat upon a wooden cake stand. The bottom cake was a large traditional fruit cake iced as if it was a newly growing woodland floor, creeping to the second layer which was cupcakes (purple and green) with initial decorations J&L. The top cake was a sponge cake and finished in a mix of iced flowers and real flowers. I then handmade the cake topper of which was two cartridges (shot gun cartridges) one sprayed cream wrapped in lace and to represent me or bride and the other sprayed black with tuxedo detail represent the groom.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Our photographer was Tom from Razzleberry Photography and I honestly selected him from the examples I’d seen on his website, discrete, intimate, and documenting, with a modern feel. He was brilliant, we’d met for a site tour prior to the wedding, and then had email communication running up to the wedding. I gave him a fairly specific list of what I wanted capturing as in family set pictures but the most important thing for me was photographing situations I/we might miss. The conversation amongst friends during the reception drink and canapés, children running, smiling and crying, the reaction to speeches and of course the dancing. I couldn’t be happier with my wedding pictures.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | The woodland venue looked magical, two clear span marquees. One for formal seating, dining and dancing and the other for the ceremony. Traditional pew style seating made from the woods own pine. The area was lined with festoon lighting and home made bunting.

THE HONEYMOON | As a yearly tradition since being together we visited Ibiza, so we had 4 day child free break, to our favourite island.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Walking into the ceremony marquee with my dad, everyone looking at me but I really didn’t appreciate the moment at the time but looking back through pictures it was really special. The amount of family and friends that attended the day and evening, its quite an alien feeling to have the best part of 200 people there at a venue for two people just to celebrate a marriage, lovely but a bit overwhelming.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Make it personal and special! Even if it’s through favourite colours, music, hobbies, or relationship memories. Put a personal touch to the day. Also try to embrace the male side of the wedding. Maybe traditionally brides can get carried away with ‘the day of their life’ and ‘what they’ve been dreaming of’ but I know the whole venue and wedding wouldn’t have come together without both of us working together. Being totally organised (military precision, quote from our master of ceremonies) definitely paid off.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Dress | The Harrogate Wedding Lounge

Groom Attire | Michael Stewart

Caterers | Saunts

Photography | Razzleberry Photography

DJ | Disco Wed

Bar | Marquee Bar

Drinks | Wine and Whisky

Toilets | Convenience Company

Just perfect.

Jeremy and Laura, thank you so much for sharing your wedding story with us xo Lou