Rustic Woodland Meets Modern Wedding

Summertime loving this morning, with this delightful pair and their heavenly wedding celebrations.

WWW readers Gina and Michael tied the knot on the 4^th August 2016 at The Carriage Hall in Nottinghamshire. They were after a relaxed vibe to their celebrations with rustic meets modern styling. A woodland feel was evident in the natural style florals in an array of pinks and wooden touches in the décor. Hessian and twine brought together all of the decorations perfectly and the naked wedding cake was the star centrepiece.

Gina looked bohemian beautiful in her ethereal tulle and lace gown by Love Marley, she added a delicate floral crown and nude shoes to her look too. Michael was suited and booted in a Reiss suit with pale pink tie and coordinating buttonhole. Aren’t they gorgeous?

Thanks so very much to Jenny Macare for sharing these sublime shots with us.

THE PROPOSAL | Mike proposed to me very unexpectedly on Easter Sunday 2015. We were visiting his mum in Scotland and had decided to take our disobedient Westie (Lola) for a walk on the beach. Mike asked me to look at something behind a rock. It was a beautiful glass bottle, with a message inside! Confused, I read the heartfelt words… the last sentence read… I just need to ask you one question… and I looked up with tears in my eyes. Mike was down on one knee! I said yes before he had hardly got the question out of his mouth.

THE VISION | We both wanted a wedding that was less formal with a more relaxed vibe. We went for a bit of a hybrid woodland, rustic but still modern wedding.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | Both Mike and I are master procrastinators, so we tended to panic plan, but we got there eventually.

BUDGET | About £15,000 (including the honeymoon).

THE VENUE | The wonderful Carriage Hall, Plumtree, Nottinghamshire. Can not recommend this venue highly enough, the staff were so wonderful and helpful. The food was outstanding, high quality restaurant food whilst still catering for nearly 70 guests. The building is actually an old train carriage hall, it was modern, with exposed brick walls but still has that rustic, country fair feel.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Dress: Penelope by Love Marley (from Brides and Gowns in Derby). Shoes: Dune.

FINDING THE DRESS | Was a pretty quick process, I found the dress I wanted in the second shop I tried. I then went on to other shops, but my mind kept going back to the dress in Brides and Gowns. It was simple and understated, and I felt like a bride in it but also like me. I didn’t want a dress that was too over the top as it wouldn’t have fit with the style of wedding we were going for. Also I could sit down in it – an added bonus!

GROOM’S ATTIRE | A classic navy blue suit from Reiss, with a pink tie and pink rose buttonhole.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | The Herron Brothers provided a full live band for the evening, which got everyone up dancing. Our reading was by WH Auden and it was called O tell me the truth about love.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My bridesmaid was my beautiful sister Pippa. She was actually 4 months pregnant at our wedding and wanted something that wasn’t too fussy, and was going to be comfortable for her during the day. After trying on countless ‘proper’ bridesmaid dresses, we eventually went for a simple pink dress from Cos.

THE FLOWERS | The bouquets, buttonholes, corsages and flower crown were all from Blossom Tree Boutique Florist in Melbourne, Derbyshire. As we were going for quite a relaxed wedding, we wanted the flowers to reflect that whilst still being a classic style. We went for pink roses, with lavender and sweet peas. They looked beautiful, but still had a natural ‘meadowy’ feel. The lovely staff were so helpful, they listened to my ‘ideas’ for the flowers and could show me exactly what I wanted before I even knew I wanted it. The flower crown was perfect too; I knew I didn’t want a veil.

THE CAKE | The cake was made by Green Kitchen Cakes, Long Eaton. A beautiful ‘naked’ cake with fresh fruit and flowers decorating it.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Our photographer was our wonderful friend Jenny Macare! Jenny is just the most amazing photographer, her photos are so stunning and she made us both feel so relaxed at all times. We loved all the different moments Jenny captured, from the lovely family photos, but also the more impromptu, spontaneous moments of our friends and family enjoying themselves throughout the day, as well as the romantic shots of Mike and I in the wheat fields. She just made our day extra special! We can’t thank you enough, Jenny.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We went for log slices, and natural flowers in mason jars for our centrepieces. Blossom Tree once again provided the main centrepieces, but my lovely mum did lots of the rest of the work.

THE HONEYMOON | We pretty much blew our budget on the honeymoon! We decided to plan our own road trip down the Californian coast, starting in San Francisco, and ending up in Las Vegas, travelling via Yosemite, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Venice Beach and San Diego.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | There are so many lovely moments for both of us: the speeches, the first dance, the band starting up and finally being able to relax a bit but one of the most special was first seeing Mike as I walked up the aisle and he felt the same. Even though it was wonderful having all our guests celebrating that moment with us, we felt like we were the only ones in the room.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | The biggest piece of advice that we could give for on the day is to take a few quiet moments for yourselves. It is so easy to get distracted by friends and family and the bar (!), but just stand back with your new husband/wife and just take it all in together.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Jenny Macare

Venue | The Carriage Hall

Cake | Green Kitchen Cakes

Florist | Blossom Tree Boutique

Dress | Brides and Gowns

Band | The Herron Brothers

Many thanks to Gina and Michael for sharing their sensational nuptials with us here at WWW, what a pleasure xo Lou