Summer brides and grooms – peony season is here and we’re celebrating with ALL the peonies in today’s beautiful Kent wedding. Beautiful bride Becky married her gorgeous husband Greg at High Rocks and they chose English Wedding member Helen England Photography to capture their day. The pics are glorious, the sunshine is fabulous! (Hello, outside! We LOVE you today!) – and the joy and happiness just radiates out from this pretty, feminine summer wedding.

Wedding photographer’s website:

www.helenenglandphotography.co.uk

There were a few recommendations for High Rocks wedding photographers. We looked at a lot and we absolutely loved Helen’s style. We wanted our wedding to be captured exactly how it was – everyone smiling and having fun. We loved that Helen’s photos are really relaxed and just capture everyone’s emotions without them knowing.

HELEN IS A DREAM!!! From the minute she showed up to my hotel room (which was chaos) she fitted in like one of our friends. She got on with her shooting and we didn’t even know she was there. She made me feel so comfortable.

She was amazing with her timings and got to the venue in time for Greg and the wedding guests arriving on the steam train. The pictures of that were so special as I didn’t see any of that part of the day.

After we got married we had a few group shots but nothing too structured as we didn’t want everyone bored of having hundreds of staged photos. When we told Helen we had confetti cannons she was over the moon and got the most amazing photos of them going off.

After dinner and speeches Helen quickly whisked us off for photos at golden hour. We couldn’t believe how stunning they were when we saw them.

Helen invites you to her studio when the photos are ready and you watch them all on the screen. Our hearts felt so full seeing all the unreal memories she captured. We literally couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces and couldn’t wait to show all our friends and families. It was so nice to see the natural photos of everyone laughing all through the day.

Can you describe your wedding in fewer than 10 words?

Stunning, emotional, hilarious, totally us!
Best day ever x

Your wedding style or theme:

Relaxed barn style. A little vintage. Blush colours.

Where did you find your suppliers? (Blogs, magazines, recommendations?)

The venue give you recommendations which helps as we didn’t really know the area. So we researched all the different ones. We also went one day to visit the venue and it was being set up for a wedding and the flowers were so stunning. We made sure we had the same company do our flowers.

What’s your top tip for saving money?

Have a budget in mind and make it realistic. Obviously everyone goes slightly over their budget but we didnt want to get ourselves into debt over a wedding. Plan for what you can afford. We changed our flower arrangements as we didn’t want to spend too much on flowers as they just go to waste after which we are glad we did as it still looked how we imagined. We also made our own table plan which was also nice as a personal touch.

… and which elements of your wedding are you glad you spent more on?

We are so glad we spent the money on the steam train for all of the guests to arrive on. It makes your wedding that tiny bit different from others and hopefully people remember that small detail from the day.
We also budgeted for evening entertainment, we had a singer for two hours in the evening. Entertainment is such a must for us as we think it brings a little more excitement later in the day. It was worth every penny.

Where did you buy or source your wedding stationery – or was making it a labour of love?

Luckily my brother is a designer so he kindly offered to do all of our invites. It made life so much easier he knew exactly what we wanted and was so good at coming back and forth to make sure it was perfect for us. He made us a logo and everything. He even made little train tickets to go inside the invites.

Did you fall in love with your wedding dress?

Yesss!
I went with my mum and made of honour one day but didn’t fall in love with any. Then on my birthday I went with just my mum and the last dress I picked up I never thought I’d like it in a million years. I put it on and I couldn’t stop starting at it in the mirror. So I sent a picture to my maid of honour and she said “that’s you!” So we got it there and then. I also thought as it was my birthday it was a sign haha.

Wedding dress designer and bridal boutique:

Wed2b
Dress- Callista
I also added a belt and veil from the same shop.
The dresses in the shop are off the peg so if you like the one you want you have to get it there and then or you chance not getting it again.

Tell us about your accessories: jewellery, shoes and anything else!

My mum and dad bought me Tiffany&co knot earrings and gave them to me the night before the wedding so I wore them on the day.
Gregs mum bought me a heart bracelet with our wedding date on so I wore that too.
My shoes were from Dune as I needed a little heel as I didn’t want to be taller than greg.
My sister in law bought me a lucky sixpence so I had it glued to the sole of one of my heels.

And what did the groom wear?

We wanted the boys to be quite casual.
Greg wore a grey blazer, navy waistcoat, white shirt, navy trousers and blush tie and pocket square.

Beautiful bridesmaids: what did your best girls wear?

I found this the hardest part. We finally went for dresses by Myleen Klass from very. They suited everyone’s shape and the colour was perfect. The girls wore rose gold single strap heels from ASOS.

Hair and make-up – did you DIY or hire a professional?

My lovely cousin is a hair dresser so she kindly offered to do all of our hairs which was amazing and saved us a lot of money. Our make up was done by a lovely girl I found Karla. She done a trial for me and I loved it so much. She makes you feel so comfortable and her timings are amazing. I didn’t want to look like a had lots or make up on, she was perfect.
Instagram- @makeupbykjs

Describe your wedding flowers. Who arranged them for you? (florist details would be lovely please)

Peonies are my favourite. They were in season so was perfect.
We had peonies, eucalyptus, roses, gypsophila and hydrangeas in my bouquet and in all the table arrangements. To save money we had half the tables with tall arrangements and half with rounds arrangements that had a candle in the middle. My bridesmaids had bouquets of gypsophila and the best men and ushers and a gypsolphila button hole. Greg had a peony as his button hole. The mums had roses.
Www.highgateflorist.co.uk

General styling – did your venue need much decoration?

It didn’t need much decorating as the beams are already dressed with hundreds of fairy lights which make it so pretty anyway. We just had some drapes put up at both ends of the barn and the backs of the chairs draped with a little bit of gysolphilia in the tie.
Supplier- Couture events Kent

Crafts and makes – tell us about any homemade elements of your wedding… did you enjoy them?

We made everyone’s table names by choosing the worst photo we could find of each guest (so cruel but hilarious!) and we stood them up by saving lots of champagne corks and slicing the top so the photo would stand up.
We also made our table plan with pictures of us in our favourite places and everyone’s name hung on a key, this showed which table they were at.

The wedding cake: what kind of cake did you choose and why?

We didn’t want a normal cake so we went for a cheese stack. I’ve never seen so much cheese in my life. We decided to have cheese as we never seem to eat cake at weddings so we knew that once everyone had got a bit merry cheese and crackers would go down a treat. Our cake topper was made by Greg’s mum and it was a icing figure of our beloved dog Bruce (so cute)

Entertainment: any musical recommendations, surprises or treats?

In the middle of Gregs speech he got on the mile and sung “all night long” by Lionel Richie to the whole room it was brilliant everyone was up singing and dancing along with him. Another confetti cannon was set off then too. I had no idea this had been planned it made my day.
We also booked a singer Fil Straughan for two hours in the evening. We had seen him many times before and as soon as we decided to get married we knew we had to have him. He makes everyone feel so good and gets everyone on their feet.
He made the evening.

Words of wisdom: share your best piece of advice for other couples:

Everyone says this but it’s sooooo true.
Take in every second because the day goes so quick before you know it the day is over. It honestly goes so quick.

What’s the best thing about being married?

Having the same name as your favourite person 🙂 and planning the rest of your future together.

Favourite supplier web links for other brides and grooms:

Photographer – Helenenglandphotograpy.co.uk
Stationery – Instagram: @artworkbygould
Makeup- Instagram: @makeupbykjs
Florist – Highgateflorist.co.uk
Singer – http://www.filstraughan.com
Wedding car – Thewhitevanwedding.com