Low Key & Relaxed Staffordshire Registry Office Wedding

Charlotte and Laura’s Staffordshire Registry Office wedding was 4th time lucky due to the Covid-19 postponements. But as they say below, it was worth the wait and their day was simply beautiful.

Their wedding was all about low-key relaxed vibes with their nearest and dearest and a non-wedding atmosphere. Following their registry office ceremony, they headed to a restaurant for an amazing meal to celebrate. Sounds pretty perfect right? And all for around £4000! Amazing.

I love Charlotte and Laura’s beautiful dresses and teddy coats, not to mention their greenery bouquets and the cute pup appearance during their wedding photos. So sweet!

Charlie and Em Photography, thanks ever so much for sharing these totally beautiful images with us.

Staffordshire Registry Office Wedding

The Proposal

30/10/19

In Salcombe, Devon. We holiday in Salcombe most summers so it’s one of our favourite places. I (Laura) had planned a little three day trip over the October half term. I knew that I’d cry throughout the whole thing so wrote everything down in a card, panicked, threw the card at Charl and then dropped it behind the sofa.

I also forgot to actually get the ring out of my bag. It was very “us”. We spent the rest of the day walking around Salcombe and our favourite local places in torrential rain in a little happy bubble. It was perfect… kind of.

The Vision

The original vision was for a small wedding in Central Park, New York but Covid changed our plans so with attempt number 4 and a two-year wait, we went for a very relaxed Registry Office wedding with our immediate family and then an incredible meal – we’re big foodies!

Budget

In between our original wedding and our actual wedding we bought a house and a puppy so our aim was to keep the budget as low as possible. In total, we spent approximately:

Food – 900
Flowers – 178
Registry Office – 500ish
Photographer – 500
Charlotte’s Dress – 495
Laura’s Dress – 1500 + a LOT of alterations

The Venue

Lichfield Registry Office

Dubberley Delicious – in the Plant Plot, Lichfield

The Ceremony & Music

Whilst people waited: I giorni by Ludovico Einaudi
Walking in: Arrival of the Birds by The Cinematic Orchestra
Signing the register: Theme from Jurassic Park by John Williams
Walking out: Make your own kind of music by Paloma Faith

Our ceremony was quite short. We only had two readings; Jim Henson’s ‘Picnic’ and Beau Taplin’s ‘Buried Light’. Our vows were non-traditional but weren’t our own. It was a very emotional ceremony and was exactly what we hoped it would be!

Find wedding reading ideas on the blog!

Your Outfits

Charlotte’s dress – Monsoon. I wanted something cheap and something not overly weddingy.

Laura’s dress – David’s Bridal. I wanted something slightly ethereal looking and definitely a wedding dress. I loved how lacey it was and that it wasn’t white.

We also loved that they complemented each other but that they were very much our individual style and taste; it was not intentional at all that they would match!

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Charlie & Em Photography

Our photographers we found locally and were booked for just a few hours to photograph our ceremony and some photos after. Charlie & Em were great we really loved our photos. We also liked the fact they were a gay couple themselves.

The Styling & Decor

Cake: Amy Lomas – my friend from work made our cake. Bottom layer was chocolate, middle layer was lemon and elderflower and the top layer was coffee.

Flowers: Mandy Smith – my friend from work’s mum was a florist and she was kind enough to do our flowers. They were quite possibly the most beautiful flowers we had ever seen! Laura’s flowers were roses, freesia’s (my mum’s favourites), lots of greenery and Charlotte’s “flowers” didn’t actually have any flowers in them. They were all greenery, willows and were amazing!

We didn’t really have a theme, just a “come as you are!” although all of the men did come in tuxedos, including our 6 year old nephew/ring bearer who gave James Bond a run for his money!