{"id":189926,"date":"2017-02-02T07:00:16","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T07:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whimsicalwonderlandweddings.com\/?p=189926"},"modified":"2024-07-16T16:46:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T15:46:22","slug":"relaxed-autumnal-child-friendly-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/relaxed-autumnal-child-friendly-wedding\/","title":{"rendered":"Relaxed Autumnal Child Friendly Wedding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Relaxed<\/p>\n

I am loving the industrial meets country woodland vibe to this wedding, thanks to it’s Victorian pumphouse ceremony location and woodland portraits with the gorgeous newly weds.<\/p>\n

David and Maxine plumped for an Autumnal wedding on the 8th October 2016 at Papplewick Pumping Station<\/a> in the Midlands, the location was so special and made the perfect backdrop to their vows. They then headed to Oxton Village Hall for their party, which offered them freedom and flexibility. On hand was Orange Tree Weddings<\/a> to help coordinate and style the reception too.<\/p>\n

One of my favourite parts of their nuptials has to be the little ones, David and Maxine ensured the wedding was child friendly and the childern were suited and booted in the cutest outfits. In fact they matched in just so with David who wore a tweed and chinos combo. Maxine was the epitome of elegance in a Catherine Deane<\/a> outfit, with a lace long sleeved button top and swishy grey skirt. She teamed her look with Jimmy Choos and a gorgeous fern, rose and berry bouquet. Oh my!<\/p>\n

Thanks so much to Kathryn Edwards Photography<\/a> for sharing these amazing photographs today.<\/p>\n

\"Bouquet \"Chalk \"Catherine\"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Jimmy \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed\"Bridal\"Relaxed \"Bridal \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Bridal \"Bow \"Hops \"Waistcoat \"Relaxed \"Tweed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Bridal \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Kids \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Relaxed \"Tea \"Relaxed \"Aromatherapy \"Relaxed \"Black \"Relaxed \"Naked \"Relaxed\"Relaxed \"Relaxed<\/p>\n

THE PROPOSAL There was no distinct proposal, having been together\u00a07 years and both having had\u00a0\u2018practice\u2019 runs. I definitely knew\u00a0Max was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I managed to find a reasonably relaxed moment to ask Max to marry me in the back garden sunshine, we started looking for a\u00a0ring several weeks later. Max chose her own ring. Not massively romantic but with four boys to juggle,\u00a0our life gets very busy!<\/p>\n

THE VISION | Autumnal, relaxed, hotchpotch, kid friendly.<\/p>\n

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We started planning about a year before and knew we wanted the day to be a reflection of us. We generally attacked it\u00a0with flurries of activity, however life goes on so it certainly didn\u2019t consume us.\u00a0 We both wanted an autumn wedding and realised we needed a\u00a0decent sized\u00a0venue to accommodate our guests. We liked the idea of the freedom and flexibility of a village hall but also wanted a cool venue for the ceremony. We didn\u2019t think it mattered that there were two venues. The day flowed\u00a0really\u00a0well and there were no periods of standing around bored!<\/p>\n

Lots of things seem to happen as\u00a0the day\u00a0gets closer so a nice spa afternoon took the edge off a little!\u00a0Having Orange Tree Weddings on board definitely took\u00a0some stress out of the planning process. We\u00a0thought it would be good\u00a0to maximise the wedding weekend so planned to stay at East Bridgford Hill around the wedding day.<\/p>\n

BUDGET | Hmm, none as such, lots of costs were soaked up along the way. Some extravagances such as having\u00a0\u2018wedding planners\u2019 (not as expensive as you\u2019d think), fancy\u00a0accommodation and having hair and make-up done were wonderful. But with lots of friends helping out we also managed to save\u00a0chunks of money here and there. Essentially we planned a\u00a0fantastic day for 120\u00a0guests\u00a0during the day,\u00a0with more in the evening. We were able to relax and enjoy it and many guests said it was the best wedding they\u2019d been to,\u00a0so overall\u2026 it was worth it.<\/p>\n

THE VENUE | The bride decided to get ready in style at East Bridgford Hill and it was a fabulously grand\u00a0venue to hang out, Kathryn Edwards the photographer loved the windows and the staircase!\u00a0The ceremony was at Papplewick pumping station, which is a fully working Victorian pumphouse. Neither of us wanted a church wedding as we are atheists but the grand scale of the\u00a0pumping station\u00a0combined with its intricate detailing was beautiful. We also really liked its industrial feel and it is somewhere we can visit in the future to reminisce. Ashley who manages the pumping station was a dream to work with. He let us decorate it with dried hops punctuated with white chrysanthemums. This kept a fairly rustic feel. The reception was a few miles down the road at Oxton village hall. It was a large enough venue with excellent facilities including a stage and plenty of parking! There was also\u00a0lots of outdoor space with a park nearby for children to let off steam. Orange Tree Weddings\u2019 Jules and her team totally transformed the simple hall into a room of autumn splendour, think beautiful drapes, lots of festoon, personalised table plans and fabulously rustic\u00a0table d\u00e9cor .\u00a0Our guests were welcomed with either a black russian or hedgerow fizz cocktail, OTW\u00a0 prepared and served a pie and mash menu, which was wholesome and hearty. For anyone still hungry there was a cheese and pork pie buffet. I\u2019d also bought some sweets which we put in jars\u00a0for the children to help themselves.<\/p>\n

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | The dress was by Catherine Deane. The hairpiece was by Arianna, I only decided on it after a discussion with Rachel Liney at my hair and make up trial two weeks before the wedding!\u00a0My shoes were ivory satin Jimmy Choo mules. The wedding rings were hand made by Candice of\u00a0Firewhite. We found her shop on Etsy and really liked the organic feel of her jewellery.<\/p>\n

FINDING THE DRESS | Hmm\u2026 I knew I wanted something\u00a0\u2018different\u2019 ie not a plain white dress,\u00a0but also not too expensive. I love dresses and searched\u00a0for hours online as I just didn\u2019t have time to go to lots of bridal shops.\u00a0\u00a0I initially bought a full skirted\u00a0dress but changed my mind when I realised I would have to walk up a wrought iron spiral staircase. I realised I would need something slim fitting\u00a0and my preferences erred towards lace and longer sleeves.\u00a0 As I scrolled through literally hundreds of dresses I found\u00a0\u2018the one\u2019 on a preloved (reloved!) site. I loved the fact it was two colours ivory lace top\u00a0with an\u00a0oyster grey skirt. My seamstress told me that it was like sewing butterflies wings!\u00a0I loved the\u00a0buttons up the front and the low V back. It felt elegant but comfortable which was very important as I knew I\u2019d be doing a lot of dancing! It can be\u00a0a risk buying a dress online but I felt fairly confident\u00a0and other than the length it actually fitted perfectly.<\/p>\n

GROOM\u2019S ATTIRE\u00a0 | David – The biggest mistake made was allowing me to try to put an outfit together. I wanted to wear something on the day that I would want to wear again. I\u00a0found a nice Harris tweed Jacket, had a friend fit it to me and that\u2019s when it started going downhill fast. I have never been to the returns department as often. I realised that the laid back, casually thrown together look is actually anything but! Increasingly fraught, it was eventually all put together by me being taken, with jacket, to TKmaxx (I kid you not!) with\u00a0two friends and my wife to be, hungover, post stag do, the Sunday before the wedding.<\/p>\n

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Our very talented friend Nick Jonah Davis is an amazing guitarist and kindly offered to play at the ceremony. I walked in to La vie en rose and we signed the book to Moon River.\u00a0 We walked out to bring me sunshine by Morcambe and Wise. Couldn\u2019t resist a little dance to that one.\u00a0 We decided not have any readings as we wanted to\u00a0keep the ceremony brief.<\/p>\n

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I wanted my friend Richard to give me away, he\u2019s a therapist so I knew he could cope with anything! His style was\u00a0\u2018bohemian\u2019, we knew he needed to wear a cravat so planned an outfit around that! Sharon was my maid of honour and wore a berry colour dress from Debenhams with sparkly flip flops. My boys Alex, Charlie and Bram were truly dapper pageboys. Abbie helped corral my youngest boy Bram\u00a0and looked stunning in her ivory frock from BHS!<\/p>\n

THE FLOWERS | How lucky are we to work with someone who used to be a florist! Lindsey Barnett is also\u00a0a\u00a0good friend and did an excellent job. She has great style and needed very little input from me! I wasn\u2019t very specific about what I wanted but knew I wanted texture and also scent, there was lavender, rosemary and eucalyptus leaves\u00a0with all sorts of other things that I don\u2019t know the names of! The flowers were beautiful,\u00a0and really complimented the colours of the dresses and general autumnal theme.<\/p>\n

THE CAKE | Our good\u00a0friends Richard and Sarah made the cake! It\u2019s fair to say they exceeded all expectations! Richard is a chef and Sarah generally makes fantastic cakes! I pinned loads of naked cakes on Pinterest and really liked the look of rustic figs and blackberries. Richard and Sarah managed to create It was stunning to look at and yummy delicious to eat. The layers were different flavours including my favourite lemon. The chocolate was pretty special too. They had to assemble it at the venue and presented it on a wonderful hand stencilled box, along with a little framed sign detailing all of\u00a0the fillings.<\/p>\n

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Kathryn Edwards who is one of my best friends. Her work is fabulous. I had only expected her to take a few photos as we wanted her to be there as a guest but she is the ultimate professional and we were in awe of her commitment to totally capturing the vibe of the day. At one point I was struggling to relax my face and she had me doing funny little exercises to loosen me up. Worked a treat and her pictures are amazing! Kathryn made full use of the quirky features of the pumping station\u00a0with photographs at the greenhouse, in the engine room and in the actual grand pumping house. It was also fabulous to see her twirling around the dancefloor catching some action shots at the end of the night! She really helped with organizing us throughout the day, her wedding experience meant we could relax safe in the knowledge she would make it work.<\/p>\n

THE DETAILS & D\u00c9COR | I treated myself and my maid of honour to having our hair and make up done which took a lot of stress away. Rachel Liney was wonderful and did an amazing job at keeping us relaxed and getting us ready for the day. She somehow managed to transform my messy medium bob into an impressive vintage looking style, one of my guests commented that it looked as though I had so much hair it would come tumbling down. Rachel has skills!<\/p>\n

I wore Santal Royal perfume by Guerlain, (free sample from John Lewis!) It\u2019s a totally enchanting, eastern heady scent, quite a contrast against the feminine dress.<\/p>\n

Orange Tree Weddings! If you can you should definitely book these guys. They just get it! They listened to what we wanted, guided the process in a gentle way and were generally bloomin marvellous. Everyone commented on how warm and welcoming the village hall was. The\u00a0dressing up box they provided was a big hit with kids and adults. They created a really cool bar area and provided bespoke cocktails and real ale!<\/p>\n

For favours I\u00a0decided to make\u00a0aromatherapy massage oils with ylang ylang, sandalwood and orange essential oils (the actual blend was called sexy love bedroom disco)!\u00a0I also made aromatherapy lip balms with frankincense. Really lovely and actually easy to make.<\/p>\n

Our band were Sheelanagig and they absolutely rocked it with their Balkan flavoured chaos. Seriously though we wanted a band that would appeal to all ages and it\u2019s fair to say they smashed it!<\/p>\n

Our friend Pez DJ\u2019d afterwards and kept the party going.<\/p>\n

THE HONEYMOON | Ha! We went to stay in a treehouse in Wales for 3 nights (no kids). No electricity, no phones and nothing but a log fire, candles out door hot tub and each other. Its called Living Rooms and we would recommend it to anyone who wants a break that strips everything back. Absolutely fantastic. Lost all concept of time.<\/p>\n

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Richard wanting to be an Italian model but having a flower malfunction. Holding hands throughout the ceremony. Sharing the day with the children who loved it. Laughing and smiling so much our faces hurt. My wife swish swishing her skirt to balkan folk. Simply too many to list\u2026…<\/p>\n

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Try to keep\u00a0it personal to you. Enjoy it! Get a good photographer to capture those memories. Tap up your friends to see what skills they have! Keep it real, don\u2019t be too co-ordinated, it all comes together and people will generally remember how you made them feel..<\/p>\n

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |<\/p>\n

Photography | Kathryn Edwards Photography<\/a><\/p>\n

Planner | Orange Tree Weddings<\/a><\/p>\n

Hair and make-up | Rachel Liney<\/a><\/p>\n

Bamd | Sheelanagig<\/a><\/p>\n

Venue | Papplewick Pumping Station<\/a><\/p>\n

Wedding rings | Fire White Jewellery<\/p>\n

Hair drape | Arianna Tiaras<\/a><\/p>\n

Harris tweed jacket | EWM<\/a><\/p>\n

Treehouse | Living Room<\/a><\/p>\n

How stunning!<\/p>\n

Huge thanks to David and Maxine for sharing their wedding story with us all xo Lou<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am loving the industrial meets country woodland vibe to this wedding, thanks to it’s Victorian pumphouse ceremony location and woodland portraits with the gorgeous newly weds. David and Maxine plumped for an Autumnal wedding on the 8th October 2016 at Papplewick Pumping Station in the Midlands, the location was so special and made the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":189963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,48],"tags":[357,3664,3189,3267,23,266],"class_list":["post-189926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-weddings","category-rustic-wedding","tag-autumn-wedding-ideas","tag-bridal-separates-skirt-top","tag-catherine-deane-wedding-dress","tag-midlands-wedding","tag-multicolour-wedding-ideas","tag-village-hall-wedding"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":189963,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/whimsical-cdn.wedissimo.com\/2017\/01\/MD-237-of-498-300x200.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}