Modern Elegance in the Cotswolds countryside

Published by Claire Gould on June 25, 2020June 25, 2020

If your week is flying by at a crazy pace like mine, this ultra sophisticated photoshoot will bring a spot of tranquility and peace to your day. Lovely Martina from Wonderful Events shared it with us, and I instantly knew it would be perfect for the blog. The styling was designed with a modern couple in mind; perhaps you’re looking for a stronger aesthetic, but in traditional monochrome. This shoot shows how beautifully an elegant and striking palette can work in the setting of a handsomely refurbished country house – Ashton Lodge is set in 3 acres of grounds overlooking the Warwickshire countryside.

I will leave you in the hands of Martina, talented wedding planner and stylist at Wonderful Events and one of our fabulous English Wedding members.
With love,

All of the wedding suppliers involved in creating this shoot are based in Warwickshire, and along with Wonderful Events they mostly look after weddings across the beautiful Cotswolds.

Ashton Lodge Country House was chosen because its been fully refurbished by new owners. This exclusive hire venue has a lot to offer: from a convenient yet private location, 14 bedrooms for the family to stay over, stunning Edwardian ceremony room, and a marquee that holds up to 150 guests for the wedding breakfast. As a bride to be you can also enjoy a brand new Bridal suite with a separate entrance and a lock so nobody sees you before you want them to!

Dave Perry Photography is a local photographer and a brilliant – and entertaining! – person to work with. His style is wonderfully dramatic, with strong colours and a fabulous contrast, which worked perfectly well with our monochrome theme.

The food and drinks are equally delicious and prepared by The Chopping Block catering. The Chopping Block went an extra mile in building a separate breakfast room and kitchen in the stables so the new bridal party does not meet the previous night’s guests. And it is very practical too as the main venue can be set up from 9am every day. www.ashtonlodgecountryhouse.com

Floral styling was by Green and Wild. The flowers were modern and minimalistic including dried flowers, grasses and feathers. Hannah is a local supplier and owns a beautiful flower shop in the heart of Warwick. She is incredibly creative and always super helpful. I tend to hire her for all my couples.

The Bridal bouquet included Ecuadorian roses, Anthuriums, bleached ruscus, chocolate cosmos, berries, pampas grass, phaleanopsis orchids and cotton flowers.

The ceremony arrangement used dried thistles, pampas grasses and cotton flowers in vases, with the fireplace arrangement using dried palm leaves, ecuadorian roses, anthuriums, grasses and phaleanopsis orchids.

The boutonniere was a mini orchid with chocolate cosmos, bleached ruscus and grasses.

The table centre was ecuadorian roses, chocolate cosmos, dried palm leaves, cotton flowers, pampas grass, peacock feathers, berries and bleached ruscus, anthuriums and white double anemones.

The individual vases used chocolate cosmos, berries, Ecuadorian roses, white double anemones, anthuriums and grasses.

Becky, the owner of lovely Lavelle Bridal Couture in Warwick, provided us with a white dress from the Hayley Paige collection. The dress is called Andi and looks fantastic on our model Gemma.

You can’t go wrong with a classic tux and there was no doubt in my mind that Stephen would look great in one. I borrowed it from Richard Paul menswear, a lovely show room in Stratford upon Avon which has been providing grooms and groomsmen with their suits for over 30 years! Mark was super helpful, and I loved working with them.

I have been working with www.modeweddings.co.uk for many years and Jess and her mum always deliver the look Bride wants. We kept Gemma’s hair loose and down for the photos without the veil and then created a small updo for the photos with the veil. Gemma’s hair is fine and a mid-length bob cut, so keeping it natural worked well. The length of her hair also complimented the big skirt of the dress. Gemma’s make up was a bit darker and heavier, to work with black colours of the shoot.

Anna from Pastiche Events is incredibly enthusiastic about everything decor 🙂 She is based in Stratford upon Avon and did a fantastic job in decorating everything in this shoot. From sourcing cutlery and crockery, to creating the bar and sweets tables, and 3 versions the dining table set up. The table is the venue’s rustic oak table with whitewash paint, black silk runner, crystal glassware and gold cutlery. These tables are used by this venue, but you can opt for a traditional round table too.
We used 3 versions of show plates, stunning black & white Denby plates with a white under liner, old LPs for our music themed table, and white glass plates for our last look with berries to contrast the white. The welcome sign for the newlyweds was see-through acrylic with black background and white hand writing.

We then used black & white sweets for our sweets table, and black & white ‘alcohol’ for the corner bar table. You can also see the RK Vodka which worked well with our theme and it is made by local vodka enthusiasts RK Vodka.

We also included Shakespeare Distillery who supplied us with these cute wedding favours.

Allison from Spin Spin Sugar and I designed the wedding cake to go with our Black & White, modern theme. It is a 3 tier cake, each tier is a little bit taller then they would usually be to make the cake look more elegant. Hannah then used white orchid flowers to decorate the cake. However, Allison can make any design customers want and can make exquisite sugar flowers too.

Lynda Loves is an incredibly talented wedding stationery designer who joined us for the day. From the wedding invitations with black wax seal, RSVPs with information cards, handwritten sliced agate stone place names, to a fantastic acrylic sign table number and large acrylic sign with a lovely note “the most beautiful part is, I wasn’t even looking when I found you”. This lady always delivers perfection.