Happy Monday, beautiful! I have the most wonderful wedding to share with you today, from Whitney Court in Herefordshire. The colours and style are elegant and warming – Matt and Liz used navy and gold, to create a cosy, candlelit, autumnal wedding – and it is just stunning, from the overall atmosphere of the day through to the tiniest little details. The flowers by Les Fleurs are exquisite, Liz’s Ted Baker dress is out of this world – with Matt her perfect match in a Ted Baker suit – and the reception is styled so beautiful it takes my breath away. It’s no surprise that Liz is a wedding stylist, and I’m delighted to say Elizabeth Weddings is also a member of English Wedding – you’ll find her in our wedding supplier directory, and at https://elizabethweddings.co.uk (where her clients’ fabulous reviews say it all!).

“Our chosen colour scheme and theme was navy and gold with whites, ivorys, and greens. Understated, modern, luxe with geometric elements. We are also both enthusiastic about Tea and so we used this as inspiration in a number of the details. In addition we combined a traditional English wedding with aspects of Liz’s Chinese heritage (Liz is British, but with parents from Hong Kong). We felt it was important for us to include as part of the wedding.”

Wedding photographer’s website:

http://www.catbeardsleyphotography.co.uk/

How did you choose your photographer?

Liz found Cat through Instagram initially and we felt her style of photography matched what we wanted. We then went to meet her a wedding fayre and spent ages talking to her and looking through her portfolios! After that we had no hesitation to book Cat!

Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!

Yes, we were really pleased with our wedding photos. Cat worked hard to capture all the photos we had requested.

Tell us about the moment you saw your wedding photos for the first time?

Really delighted, the preview images that Cat first sent across got us really excited and we then couldn’t wait for the rest.

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

As someone who works in wedding industry, Liz has plenty of contacts! But we live in Bristol and were getting married in Herefordshire, so we did need to find some more local suppliers. Other suppliers we were recommended by the venue or found at local wedding fairs.

What’s your top tip for saving money?

Make a budget, be realistic and try to keep to it as much as possible.

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

The venue, which was perfect. The location set on a hillside with wonderful views towards the Black mountains. Then inside the venue itself, the beautiful oak panelled Great Hall was the perfect space for our wedding breakfast. That being said though, you can always spend more money on every aspect!

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

Liz designed all of the stationery but Matt had the task of having to make most of it. It has to be a team effort though of course! The Order of Service and menus featured Liz’s hand drawn elements, flower details matched the real flowers and were applied to all the stationery. The menu had additional hand drawn food items to match the bespoke menu we had created. For the Order of Service we provided individually wrapped handfuls of real flower petal confetti with a card in biodegradable plastic pouches.
We did though enlisted the help of Urban Frame for the calligraphy on the place names and printed decals for the favour and ring box.

Did you fall in love with your wedding dress?

Yes! Literally the first thing I bought before we booked our venue… I loved it that much. I was after quite a modern, sophisticated dress but was after something that was a bit special that is almost one of a kind. I had considered before, buying a lace dress but I decided I wasn’t too traditional.

Wedding dress designer and bridal boutique:

I wore two dresses, an ivory, understated, modern Ted Baker dress and my mother’s red Chinese wedding dress for the Tea Ceremony. The red dress was originally worn by my mother at my parents wedding back in 1987!
White dress – Ted Baker with adjustments made by Abigail Westrup Bridal.

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

Beautiful gold headpiece by Agnes Hart
Gold Geometric shoes
Gold drop earrings with freshwater pearls

And what did the groom wear?

Matt wore a grey-blue three-piece Ted Baker suit with a white shirt and navy blue tie. Shoes were dark brown, also from Ted Baker with grey pineapple socks. Cufflinks and lapel pin were gold pineapples. Matt was also given his great-grandfathers pocket watch as a gift from his dad which he also wore.

Beautiful bridesmaids: what did your best girls wear?

We chose a navy blue multiway dress for the girls as I was really undecided on the style to go for. I originally thought to have them in a different style but changed my mind as I thought keeping it the same style was more elegant and formal. I guess in a way a good thing I chose a multiway dress… options are endless!

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

Make-up – Indulge Beauty & Makeup
Hair – Amy Bemand

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

We created a Pinterest board for the Wedding, as we were after quite specific flowers. Over the years we came across many beautiful flowers, so we were really happy to have most of our favourites in the floral displays. We also requested quite specific displays for the venue and were really happy that Les Fleurs created them on the day!
The bridal bouquet was elegant with a romantic feel and featured lots of loose foliage throughout the bouquet. It included white flowers such garden roses, bombastic spray roses, ranunculus, scabious, anemones and scabious pods, with hints of blue viburnum berries. There was plenty of foliage such as scenecio, seeded eucalyptus, mixed eucalyptus, nicoli and ruscus.
The Bridesmaids had gold hoops with clusters of bridal themed flowers attached to it with a long white ribbon trailing down.
The Groom and his ushers wore buttonholes featuring a white roses, brunia, scenecio and blue viburnum berries.
Throughout the venue the themes of the bridal bouquet were featured in a long and low Registrars table display, a beautiful mantelpiece display and two large displays at each side of the staircase in the Great Hall.
Down the centres of the tables was a foliage runner featuring a mixture of eucalyptus and ruscus to give different shades and contrast against the dark tablecloth. There were also small white flowers and viburnum berries dotted throughout.
Hannah – Les Fleurs, Bristol – https://www.lesfleursbristol.co.uk/

General styling – did your venue need much decoration?

We chose to do the ceremony in the Morning Room at Whitney Court because it was such a lovely bright room. The windowsill was filled with a simple arrangement of pillar candles in glass containers with a mixture of glass tea light holders. This gave the look of being understated but elegant as the room itself didn’t need too much decoration. We had organised large flower displays which decorated the Registrar’s table and the mantelpiece. We wanted some flowers on the end of every chair down the aisle. The gold Cheltenham chairs were formed into an arc shape, with an Order of Service and handful of real flower confetti placed on each chair.
We then chose to have our Wedding Breakfast in the dark wooden panelled Great Hall. Navy blue tablecloths combined with a dark green foliage runner, with antique brass candlesticks and tea lights nestled amongst it. This created the dark, but cosy and welcoming candlelit atmosphere that we’d both wanted. The gold charger plates and gold cutlery made all the difference in bringing together our theme colours. We asked for two beautiful flower statement pieces on the Great Hall stairs as somewhere to take lovely photos from.

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

We would say we did most of it ourselves. We loved the idea of putting our own touches together for the Wedding. Of course we loved every moment of it.
We made the geometric table plan which was a bit technical really.
We also put together our acrylic favour boxes. For a while Liz really wanted to place favours into a clear acrylic box, so we were excited to finally get the chance for our wedding. The boxes were finished with a decal featuring our initials in navy and grey on the lid.

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

The wedding cake was a stunning two-tiered white chocolate and jasmine green tea flavoured navy blue cake, decorated with white sugar flowers. We were after this quite specific flavour for our cake as it was something we’d tried years ago and really loved. We were really happy that Celia was able to recreate this even at the tasting, it was almost perfect then but absolutely perfect on the day! We couldn’t have chosen anyone better. She worked so hard to please us and we are really glad she did.
For the evening we had a beautiful dessert table, incorporating tea flavours. Alongside the cake were beautiful white, navy & gold macarons, gluten free cupcakes, traditional Chinese cakes and Earl Grey flavoured “double happiness” biscuits amongst many things!

Entertainment: any musical recommendations, surprises or treats?

We knew that many of our guests wouldn’t stay for the party, and so we didn’t spend much here. We put on some light entertainment for everyone that stayed. We hired lights and a sound system to play through our playlist. We had a dedicated group of aunts and friends that kept the dance floor going all evening!

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

Just relax and enjoy the day, the day is all about the two of you and no one else!

What’s the best thing about being married?

Matt’s response… Not having to plan a wedding anymore! Liz totally organised most of it. It was a fantastic day and a great experience to plan everything, but it can be very stressful at times!
But in all seriousness, it’s great to be married, to have made that formal commitment to each other and now to spend the rest of our lives together.

Favourite supplier web links for other brides and grooms:

Design, Styling, Props and Stationery – Elizabeth Weddings – https://www.elizabethweddings.co.uk/
Venue – Whitney Court – http://www.whitneycourt.com/
Photographer – Cat Beardsley – http://www.catbeardsleyphotography.co.uk/
Bridal Dress & Groom’s Attire and Shoes – Ted Baker – https://www.tedbaker.com
Bridal Headpiece – Agnes Hart – https://agneshart.london/
Dress adjustments – Abigail Westrup Bridal – https://www.abigailwestrupbridal.com/
Flowers – Les Fleurs – https://www.lesfleursbristol.co.uk/
Wedding Cake – Cemlyn Cakes – https://www.cemlyncakes.co.uk/
Macarons, Cupcakes, Biscuits – Lavender & Lime Bakery – https://www.lavenderlimebakery.com
Favours – Chaaboo – https://www.chaaboo.com/
Favours – Fortnum and Mason, https://www.fortnumandmason.com
Hair – Amy Bemand
Make up – Indulge Beauty & Makeup – http://www.beauty-indulge.uk/
Gold Cutlery, Tablecloths – Prestige Hire – https://prestigehire.biz/
Decals and Place name calligraphy – Urban Frame – https://www.urbanframe.co.uk/