Hello lovely! I’ve been SO excited to share today’s wedding with you! It’s gorgeous couple Hanna & Caitlin, and their festival wedding at Willow Grange Farm! Cue the sweetest and most brilliant reviews for some amazing suppliers: Cambridge wedding photographer Damien Vickers, Florist Clemmie & Twine, Boa Boutique and Flashkate! Do scroll down to read the happy couple’s story of their day, and all of those fantastic supplier recommendations!
Wedding photographer’s website
Damien Vickers – https://www.damienvickersphotography.co.uk/
Wedding photographer review
Damien did just the most wonderful job of capturing our wedding. He perfectly balanced candid shots with group and posed photos, and the “golden hour” sunset photos he did are phenomenal – so many of our guests have commented that these are the best wedding photos they have ever seen and we can’t disagree! Damien was also a lovely person to have with us throughout the day and in the lead up to the wedding – he was unobtrusive, made sure he knew of particularly special moments and people we wanted captured, and made two camera-shy individuals feel very at ease.
Your best moment or memory
The ceremony itself – we had a wonderful celebrant (Ruth Salisbury-Higgs) who helped us come up with a really personal ceremony. We both wrote our own vows and finished with confetti from all our guests in the sunshine!
Tell us anything you did differently – we love hearing about NEW traditions (or none at all!)
We had rum punch as one of our reception drinks in memory of a fun holiday in the Caribbean and the four tier wedding cake was made by one of the bride’s mums. We also lit a unity candle as part of our ceremony and involved our parents.
Venue name + review
Willow Grange Farm – We put a deposit down at Willow Grange Farm for our wedding before we’d visited the venue – and it truly paid off! The venue itself is beautiful and helped create a really relaxed and fun environment for the day and the gorgeous weather meant people were able to spend the whole day outside, from the ceremony under the pagoda to drinks outside the tent and then food and dancing in the tent. Oh and the sunset was incredible! Plus we had lots of guests stay on site which was a real bonus, and their commitment to sustainability is what made us select them in the first place. The team at Willow Grange Farm, Clara and Hannah especially, are just wonderful; they helped us plan all the details in the lead up to the day and stayed calm throughout, no matter how stressed we were! On the day they were both amazing, making sure everything ran smoothly and being the cogs behind the scene that made the whole day fantastic. The venue and the team have had so many compliments from out guests.
Tell us a little about your outfits – both of you!
We both wore dresses by a Spanish designer, Rosa Clara who has a collection called Alma Novia.
Dress or suit shop name + review
Boa Boutique in Surrey – Philippa and Sheila were amazing; they have a wonderful collection of dresses and made us feel so comfortable and special. We had a fair amount of alterations that we needed to do before final fitting and they really paid off – we both felt amazing on the day!
Florist name + review
Clemmie & Twine – the absolute dream choice to do flowers for our wedding! From the moment we met them, they listened to some of our ideas and provided lots of creative thought where we needed it. Their hard work led to such a beautiful day – with a flower arch where we had the ceremony and then moved to the reception entrance, to flowers in our hair and beautiful bouquets, to flowers for our homemade wedding cake, to posies and candles on the tables and moveable sprays of flowers inside. They were super flexible and provided us with greenery and flowers where we wanted to put together our own little personal touches too.
Cake maker name + review
Hanna’s mum! A four tiered gluten free wedding cake – it was delicious and looked stunning with real flowers cascading down it.
Stationery maker’s name + review
Little Green Wedding – we had beautiful wildflower themed order of service cards, table names and plans. They were all printed on eco-friendly seed paper so our guests could grow wildflower seeds from them when they got home; truly beautiful!
Any crafty projects or homemade styling touches?
We created a “Donation Station” and chose two charities that were important to us so people could donate rather than give us gifts. We created posters and framed them and had candles and flowers surrounding them, plus a polaroid camera so people could take photos and add them to our guest book.
Wedding readings?
Excerpts from: Thomas Merton “A Little Life” – Hanya Yanigihara “Wild Awake” – Hilary T Smith
First dance song?
Paper rings by Taylor Swift
Hair + makeup name + review
Flashkate Bridal Hair & Make up – I am so glad I had the absolute pleasure of Kate doing my hair and make up for my wedding – and she even took on a last minute ask to do my mum’s hair and my partner’s hair too! Kate has a natural knack for putting people at ease; she listens to any ideas I had and came up with styles even better than I hoped for, including fixing real flowers into my hair and making some on-the-day tweaks to what we’d previously trialled. Both hair and make up lasted so well throughout the whole day but never felt “crispy” and I felt like a better version of me!
A gorgeously relaxed wedding, festival-inspired in both look and approach, from a super fun couple whose guests camped out in shepherds’ huts, bell tents and safari lodges for the occasion! All images are by English Wedding member and Cambridge wedding photographer Damien Vickers, who gets a brilliant review from the happy couple below.
I absolutely love these two, not least for this magical little comment in their interview:
We both found our outfits in the first place we looked (mostly because we didn’t want to do anymore looking ;)).
We hear you. And we bloody love you for saying this!!!
Wedding photographer’s website
https://www.damienvickersphotography.co.uk
How did you choose your photographer?
We loved Damien’s natural style, his photos really tell the story of the day with unguarded moments, which is what we wanted.
Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!
Damien was great from start to finish. Very relaxed and made us feel at ease straight away. He blended in to our wedding party and we didn’t really notice him throughout the day, and even so he has managed to capture all the best moments in the perfect way.
What’s your fondest memory of your wedding?
It’s hard to choose! The ceremony was so beautiful and the speeches had everyone in tears from both the poignant words and/or funny stories (mostly aimed at myself and Ed).
Did you hire a videographer?
James Pearson – instagram: @jammy.pearson
It was a slightly late decision to get a videographer and we are SO glad we did, it’s a wonderful memory that we can look back on.
Tell us about your venue – what made this place special for you?
Willow Grange Farm is amazing. The sperry tent is really gorgeous and includes everything – so less faff for you to organise! It was also great that everyone was able to stay on site, as they have a mixture of shepherds huts, safari lodges and bell tents, so you can make a weekend of it! Another highlight is the magical sunsets across the Fens.
Did you love wearing your outfits? How was your shopping experience, was it fun to find your wedding gear?
We loved our wedding outfits, they both felt like a good representation of who we are, whilst making us look good and still feel comfortable. We both found our outfits in the first place we looked (mostly because we didn’t want to do anymore looking ;)).
Did you hire a florist? Tell us about any floral amazingness 🙂
Wild Rosamund. Instagram: @wildrosamund. She has such a great eye and we trusted her completely with our flowers. I gave little-to-no instruction, other than a colourful selection of seasonal flowers and she absolutely delivered on that. I know that her focus is on sustainability, getting flowers as locally and seasonally as possible, she even forages some herself. We had so many compliments on the day about the flowers.
As cake lovers here at English Wedding we’d LOVE to know who made your cake, and how delicious it was?
Anna Littler – instagram @littlersbuns. She has only just started her cake making business this year and she is outrageously good! She made exactly what we wanted. We had it for our dessert, as I wanted to make sure everyone had a taste. Everyone is still talking about how delicious it was.
Tell us about any special personal touches, or creative projects you made yourselves (we love that stuff!)
We put welcome cards in all of the tents for wedding guests arrival. We also used label maker to put tags on our guests favours of limoncello!
We did a joint speech! We both stood up together and thanked our people and then went on to speak about our partnership.
Did you have any wedding readings? What were they?
Wild Awake – Hilary T Smith
Letter from Johnny Cash to June Carter (1994)
What was your first dance song? Why did you choose it?
Al Green – Let’s Stay Together. In all honesty, we didn’t have ‘a song’ that felt right for a first dance, we spent an evening listening to tonnes of songs and this one stood out to us, as something that had lovely words and a tune you wanted to dance to.
Favourite wedding suppliers
@thesaxwalker
@greensoulweddings
@theluxepaperco
@blush_ely
@segaandtheboombox
