A wonderful, nature-filled wedding in the countryside with some lovely decor and styling. Lauren and Nathan look fabulous and this is everything an English country wedding should be! Images are by lovely Oxfordshire wedding photographer Jodie Cooling, who gets a wonderful review from the happy couple!

Wedding photographer’s website

Jodie Cooling https://www.jodiecoolingphotography.com/

Wedding photographer review

Jodie photographed our wedding in June 2023 and we could not be happier with the results! Jodie (and Holly who assisted) captured the day beautifully and were happy to get involved in photographs in fields with horses, rowing boats and more! The photographs perfectly depict the happiness and joy we felt throughout the day and we feel very lucky to have such wonderful photos to look back on in the years to come. We received some sneak peaks that we could share the day after our wedding which were wonderful to be able to share with family who couldn’t make the day, and the rest of our photos we received only a few weeks later, edited perfectly showing the story of our day. Jodie had some fantastic suggestions and ideas on confetti shots and locations creating some of our favourite photographs of the day. We couldn’t have wished for anything more. Thank you Jodie x

Your best moment or memory

Lauren: The best moment for us both was when I arrived and the music began to start walking down our aisle. For me it was the realisation that all our friends and family had joined together to help us celebrate and knowing we were moments away from being stood together again and sharing how much we wanted to share the rest of our lives together.
Nathan: It’s hard to pin down one specific moment but after much consideration it would be seeing Lauren in her dress for the first time. We had spent the previous day apart and I stood nervously under the oak arbour on the island we would say our vows and the second I saw her everything melted away like it was just the two of us.

Tell us anything you did differently – we love hearing about NEW traditions (or none at all!)

We knew that we didn’t want a traditional church wedding, however we did want some form of ceremony. My husband knew of handfasting which is an ancient wedding custom where different coloured individual ribbons are placed over the couples joined hands by the celebrant. we where lucky enough to have a family member Duncan step up and provide a beautiful ceremony, and our mothers laid the ribbons over our hands. The ends of the ribbons are then tied into a knot to represent commitment to each other. This was such a special, symbolic moment and something many of our guests had never heard of before.

Wedding venue:

Three Shires Weddings

We are very lucky that this venue is actually our home. We had known since a family wedding the previous year that we would like to offer the area as a wedding venue as it gave us so much freedom to have any style and quirks we would like without the restrictions of many already set up venues. Once we had chosen the space where we would like to conduct the ceremony (island accessed by a wooden bridge) and reception (grass area at the end of the lake) we had the freedom to build our dream wedding, in our case using 2 tipis, decorated by family with bunting and various flowers and greenery all sourced locally from family gardens and hedgerows! The outside space extended into an orchard again decorated with bunting as well as hay bale seating, hammocks and fire pits for keeping warm into the evening (and for some marshmallow roasting!).

Tell us a little about your outfits – both of you!

Nathan: I knew from the beginning that tradition tails were not going to be my style at all so Myself and my grooms men wore a simple sage tweed 3 piece brought from Next with forest green ties to match in with the bridesmaids and our outdoor natural aesthetic.
Lauren: I wore a fitted column dress from Wed2b with a short laced train and off the shoulder, 3/4 lace sleeves. It turned out to be a very warm day so I was glad the dress was lightweight!

Florist name + review

Sam the flowerman based in Banbury. These guys were great as they created my bridal bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets, button holes and an extra bouquet for my late grandfather. The flowers in the tipi and around the venue were all kindly created by my mum and other family members and friends. The flower wicket baskets were a personal favourite as well as the wild flower bouquets in the wooden boat from my mother in law sourced from wild wood based in Farnborough. We later received a wonderful gift from DJCreations of some of our wedding flowers in resin which a great unexpected gift and keepsake from the day.

Stationery maker’s name + review

Our save the dates and wedding invites were made and printed on canva. We chose not to have menus but the name places were kindly written in calligraphy by a friend.

Any crafty projects or homemade styling touches?

Quite a few! We investing in a Cricut a year before our wedding which I would recommend to anyone getting married soon! We created various signs including for our guest book and for a tea and coffee station. We chose to give homemade favours of wildflower seeds pouches made by my lovely sister Hannah. We chose to name our table after flowers which were beautifully painted onto plaques by DJCreations and were the perfect finishing touch to our tables. The arch under which we held the ceremony was made by Nathans brother and elegantly decorated by my talented sister in law.

Wedding readings?

We had 2 readings at our wedding, one by my Uncle Dave was from Corinthians and one by Elizabeth which was a prayer to Freyja (Norse)

First dance song? Playlist recommendations?

Jordan David – Next thing you know

Wedding planner name + review

We didn’t hire a wedding planner, instead planning ourselves with help from family.

Hair + makeup name + review

Luckily my sister Hannah is a hairdresser and my sister in law Elizabeth is very good at make up!