Laura and Alex tied the knot at the beautiful Woodmancote Place in West Sussex on 28th September. I remember this day well last year as it was a milestone birthday for me and the sun shone beautifully all day long.
The couple wanted their elegant black tie marquee wedding day to be a riot of colour and contemporary style. Laura wore a beautiful Royaldi gown – a discovery at the Wedding Atelier boutique and she’s open about the challenges of dress shopping when you have a larger bust – a frustration for many brides (we recommend these excellent boutiques if you have any concerns at all about body shape – they are run by the most excellent and highly skilled stylists who have years of experience helping women of all shape and size feel maximum confidence on their wedding day). She carried a glorious bouquet created by the talented Em of Frank Floristry that was bursting with colour and joy.
Everything was captured beautifully by Lauren Elizabeth Photography whose portrait images of the couple I adore. Enjoy!
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Alex had always loved the idea of a black tie wedding, and so from there everything else kind of fell into place. It worked perfectly, as my dress ended up being quite classic in style. I am slightly flower obsessed and so knew I always wanted bright flowers to pop against the white dress and have the bridesmaids in tonal champagnes.
We had always wanted a church wedding and loved the idea of staying on one site for the day. As soon as we drove down the amazing entrance at Woodmancote Place, we knew it was perfect. The grounds, the lake, the flexibility to choose our own suppliers, the proximity to the church… and our coordinator Hannah was amazing.
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The Ceremony
I’m so grateful that my dad accompanied me into the ceremony – to the sound of ‘Beyond’, by Leon Bridges.
Rev. Janneke Blokland of St Peter’s Church in Woodmancote lead our ceremony. We started the service with a mash up of classic English and Welsh hymns; Jerusalem and Cwm Rhondda (Bread of Heaven).
For a reading, we had slightly shortened version of Dust by Harry Baker. We loved the laid back love story of this poem and Nick our videographer used it perfectly in our wedding video.
Both our wedding rings were from 77 Diamonds in Mayfair, where my engagement ring was also from.
Photography
Our photographer was Lauren Elizabeth. We found the sea of wedding photographers difficult to navigate, but I could not be happier that we found Lauren.
We found Lauren through a referral from one of her photography network and as soon as we spoke over Teams, we both knew it was the perfect fit. Despite Lauren getting married a few weeks before us, we never once felt unsupported or a lack of communication, she did everything to make us feel unbelievably excited for our big day. All of our friends and family loved her, and she blended in perfectly to the day.
We found Nick & Molly from Heartwood Films on Instagram after searching for a supplier who could capture our day. A lot of videographers we had seen we’re producing slower, more emotive films and we just knew we wanted something with more tempo, laughter and excitement.
After a Teams intro to Nick, we discussed our vision and we had complete faith Heartwood could bring this to life. I think I’ve watched our film at least three times a month since we got married, so they definitely succeeding in creating something that we will keep watching together for years to come!
Alex and I met at our mutual friend’s wedding back in 2018. Midnight on our wedding day marked exactly 6 years to the day that we met, so it was a date that we had hoped would be possible considering we had a fairly short engagement (compared to most!) at only 10 months.
How They Met
Alex and I met at our mutual friend’s wedding back in 2018. Midnight on our wedding day marked exactly 6 years to the day that we met, so it was a date that we had hoped would be possible considering we had a fairly short engagement (compared to most!) at only 10 months.
We spent a lot of our early relationship living back with Alex’s parents during the pandemic, as space was lacking in our London flat.
We found a lot of happiness at this time by walking the fields with their two dogs and taking in the scenery of the Northamptonshire countryside. On a trip back up to the Midlands in October 2023 Alex proposed as the sun was setting, becoming our most favourite dog walk to date.
We jetted off to France immediately for the Rugby World Cup and had a lovely week celebrating with friends, and by early December we had selected Woodmancote as our venue. Not ones to sit around!
The Reception
I have proud Welsh heritage, so we gave our guests Welsh cakes as the wedding favours. Super easy for bulk orders, delivered just before the wedding and stayed fresh and delicious.
Alex and I never envisioned a cutting the cake moment, so instead of a traditional tiered wedding cake we opted for 3 yummy cakes from Luminary Bakery.
I have bought many cakes from them previously for friend’s birthdays and celebrations, as think it is just such a wonderful company.
They are a social enterprise, who use baking as a tool to take women on a journey toward employability and entrepreneurship.
Our florist was Em of Frank Floristry. I am slightly flower obsessed and selecting a florist that could bring my vision to life was super important. I found Em on Instagram and after our first conversation, I knew she was going to be amazing. She went the extra mile and was always happy to bounce ideas together before the Big Day. Couldn’t’ recommend her more!
We had an amazing velvet sign for the marquee from Daydreamer Creative, which was placed behind where we sat for wedding breakfast and served as the perfect backdrop – alongside flower arrangements for the speeches. The sign read “This Love is Ours”, quite simply because 2024 was the era for Taylor fans everywhere.
Our first dance track was to Sam Fender’s ‘Will We Talk?’. A friend edited together the acoustic version to flow straight into the original, so we could quickly get into some proper dancing!
Laughing and dancing together, with all our loved ones will be a core memory for both of us.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Try not to fill your day with too much organized wedding stuff/jobs, that takes you away from the party. You spent so long planning this day, you should both reap the rewards and love from everyone around you!
For the brides. There is a danger of being consumed by everything that is thrown at you when planning a wedding. We all want to look and feel our best selves on our wedding day, but try not to lose the essence of yourself in the sea of diet plans, workouts, supplements and salmon sperm facials. A smile is your best accessory after all.
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