Sarah and Bobby married at The Edale Gathering in the Peak District on the autumn equinox in September. The venue sits at the foot of Kinder Scout, a landscape with its own important history and one that holds personal significance for the couple. Marrying at the start of autumn set the tone for the celebration and tied in with many of the details they chose.
Their day brought together the things they care about as a couple most deeply: nature, ecology, seasonality, craft, DIY, wholesome home cooking and the traditions they have shared through their Seasons of the Wild project. They cooked the food themselves, made the tableware and filled their reception space with pieces they had created or lovingly gathered.
Sarah wore a Clover London dress with their tulle ‘Rosebud jacket’, which matched the simple, modern look she wanted. They chose Earth, Wind and Fire’s ‘September’ for the evening, echoing the date they had chosen to marry.
And finally, what a wonderful privilege and delight to be trusted by one of the industry’s best; Sarah is the talent behind Sarah Morten – a hair and makeup artist for the natural bride. Photography by the wonderful Lucy Little – enjoy!
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Even though I have worked in the wedding industry for 16 years, I still didn’t have a clear idea of the kind of wedding I wanted. We both knew we wanted it to be outdoors and done in our own style. So that was the plan, outdoors and in our style, which inevitably was going to include autumn vibes, folk traditions, homemade stews and a whole lot of ceilidh and morris dancing.
The Gathering Edale
Our venue, The Gathering Edale, is located at the foot of Kinder Scout (hill), a place that is very close to both our hearts, and not far from where I was brought up.
This is the legendary hill where the mass trespass took place in 1932, factory workers from Manchester/Sheffield protested and clashed with the big estate owners to hopefully gain access to the countryside so they could escape the smog of the cities, breathe clean air and reconnect with nature.
They won, and the right to roam act was granted in 1932. This made it the perfect location for us, it was the beginning of the modern day wilderness we all know today.
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The Ceremony
Boss Morris walked me up the aisle (hillside) and danced rings around us after the ceremony, which got everyone going and everyone got to morris dance with us.
Our good friend, actress and musician Ali Bell conducted our ceremony. We wrote our vows the morning before the wedding under the hillside silver birch tree (which we used to weave the hand-fasting ribbon) where we would get married the following day.
Our vows included a poem Bobby wrote about our elements, Fire and Air but we will keep this for ourselves! We both have the same ring from Emma Aicinson – the Earth ring. ’Organic in style, nostalgic for the natural earth and journeys we take’
Photography
Our photographer was Lucy Little. She is AMAZING! She is so lovely and exactly the kind of person you want taking such special and personal photos.
I have worked professionally on wedding over the years and she photographed my brothers wedding also.
Every moment was 100% for us, but that feeling in the morning, when you wake up and know today is your wedding day… wild! You have the whole day of fun ahead of you and I just remember being the happiest I have ever felt.
We met in a Manchester bar for a mutual friends birthday. Bobby came over to chat to me and I was like… ‘HELLLLLO!” Within moments he was woo-ing me with all kinds of chat about nature and I was so into it!
The Reception
We used to run a project together called Seasons of the Wild, which included seasonal events inspired by nature and folklore.
Over the years we hosted outdoor fire cooked feasts, traditional craft workshops, live fireside music performances, weekend retreats, and during covid we also created an online membership to help folk stay connected to nature and the seasons.
The membership covered all sorts of things including folklore, wildcrafts, foraging, fire cooking, allotment advice and wildlife watching tips.
Naturally we wanted to create something special and nature based for our wedding, so we handmade all the tableware for our wedding breakfast, which included ebonised oak wooden bowls and plates, whittled spoons, silver birch candle stem vases, and homemade beeswax stick candles.
We also decorated the feasting tables and lean-to barn with seasonal treasures, which perfectly complimented the gorgeous flower design our good friend Rhian from Winter and the Willows did for us, dahlias galore!
We wanted to make the food ourselves after catering for so many of our events over the years so we made 40 litres of venison stew, allotment stew and mung bean curry! Teaming them with homemade cheese scones and sour dough bread.
We hand carved, turned and ebonised all our wooden plates and bowls, along with the silver birch and cherry wood stem vases, and homemade beeswax stick candles. We decorated the feasting tables with branches covered in lichen (air element) and hand dipped beeswax stick candles (fire element).
Each guest received a ‘Do you remember the 21st night of September? Postcard created by Ailsa Mclaggan. Our friend Ailsa McLaggan used her wonderful caligraphy skills to create the wedding breakfast place names and postcards.
Rhian at Winter and the Willows was our florist. We wanted to get married on the hillside so Rhian suggested a moveable flower nest to get married next to that could then be moved into the barn to decorate the sweetheart table and the stem vases we made.
My bouquet was a mixture of my favourite flowers including dahlias.
We wanted to get married on the hillside so Rhian suggested a moveable flower nest to get married next to that could then be moved into the barn to decorate the sweetheart table and the stem vases we made. My bouquet was a mixture of my favourite flowers including dahlias.
In the evening we had incredibly yummy pizzas from a cute pizza truck via S B Pizza Creations.
We danced to the Detectorists original soundtrack by Johnny Flynn and ‘September’, by Earth, Wind & Fire.
We met in a Manchester bar for a mutual friends birthday. Bobby came over to chat to me and I was like… ‘HELLLLLO!” Within moments he was woo-ing me with all kinds of chat about nature and I was so into it!
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Delegate! People love to help out in the run up and on the day itself, they feel like they have been a part of something and are proud of the bit they got to do.
Keep the wedding morning calm! Having been at hundreds of wedding mornings over the past 17 years (Bridal Hair and Makeup Artist) I know how quickly things can become stressful. For us, staying together the night before was a must. We knew we would get the best sleep possible being in it together, Bobby had a bath and we popped a sleep story on, great nights sleep!
On the morning, I just had a few people pop into see me. I had planned out my timings from getting up, eating breakfast, doing my own makeup (always add more time) and my friend coming in to do my hair which was so lovely as the pamper made me feel really special. I made sure I got into my dress 1 hour before I needed to leave for the ceremony and the whole morning was perfect and stress free.
If you don’t have event experience, we would certainly recommend hiring professionals for your wedding day, even if it’s just in one or two areas. Pick the right paring for you and they are worth a million dollars! Take our photos for example, they cannot be taken again, and we wouldn’t want them to be, they are utterly perfect.
We are used to putting on events and I have lived so many wedding morning with my brides over the years, so we knew how to handle prep in the build up to the day. We are so happy we chose to create the wedding we wanted, it’s almost like our experience of events was leading to that moment and it went just how we dreamed it would!
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