Real Peaches & Cream English Wedding with a South African Theme

Some of us blushing brides really get into the whole wedding 'thang'. For some, it's just the special day when they married their gorgeous man, but for others, it becomes something of an obsession, and then a hobby, and then even a career. That's exactly what my wedding became for me, as I started this wedding blog a couple of months before I got engaged {it's a long story involving a very long-suffering boyfriend who eventually got the hint!}. Gorgeous bride, Clare, had a very similar experience. She enjoyed planning her wedding so much, that she started her own company, The Beautiful Wedding Company, which ingeniously combines planning with bridal beauty. You can see her work in the fabulous details in her own peaches and cream wedding. From her exquisite wedding gown, to her gorgeous colour-popping bridesmaids' dresses, every detail is perfectly matched, right down to the ushers' ties. I'm also loving the countryside chic of the barn venue - one of my closest friends celebrated her wedding at Loseley Park, and it's a gorgeous venue. Huge thanks to PR Photography for these beautiful pictures.

We celebrated our wedding at Loseley Park, Guildford on June 18th. The venue is breathtaking, a stunning old manor, surrounded by rolling English countryside, a rose garden, tithe barn and even a Tudor hall. We wanted a venue that was magnificent, English and yet intimate. Loseley Park is also in-between our parents' homes, making it ideal for both bride and groom’s parties!

My dress was aptly called 'Summer' by Maggie Sottero. I tried on tonnes of dresses as I had no idea what I wanted to wear or what would suit me. The wonderful sales assistants at Miss Bush Bridalwear, in Ripley, made sure I tried on everything from the big 'Grace Kelly' style dresses, Grecian styles, full laced dresses…..every style going!

All I knew was that I did not want any sparkly diamante, I’m much more of a flowers and bows kinda girl. When I tried Summer on it was instantly 'the dress' it fitted so well, made me feel amazing and my mum cried! Definitely the winner!

I wore pearl earrings borrowed from my mother and an ivory rose with pearls in the middle from Etsy in my hair. I wanted a classic chignon hairstyle, but flowers featured in my dress and I wanted to mirror that in my hair.

My shoes were ivory 'Marylyn's' from Rachel Simpson. They had bows on the side {of course!)}, and they were simple, pretty and elegant. I am a huge fan of Rachel Simpson, her designs are varied yet feminine!

My bridesmaids wore cornflour blue, full-length, Dessy dresses. My mum found flowers for them to wear in their hair, and they wore silver Carvela shoes.

I enjoyed planning my wedding so much, that I’ve trained to do it as a profession and have launched my own company! Check out The Beautiful Wedding Company.

For our flowers, we picked Sarah More-Molyneux, who's a fabulous florist and owner of Loseley Park. I met Sarah in London to go through flowers and colours. I knew I wanted soft pinks and creams, and Sarah encouraged me to go for roses – as they're timeless summer flowers. Sarah created cream rose buttonholes for the groomsmen, and all the fantastic floral displays in the Great Hall and the Barn.

George and the groomsmen hired their tails from Austin Reed, and the dark grey worked really well with the cornflower blue ties. George wore a Ferragamo tie with giraffes on it {his contribution to the South African theme!}.

My veil was my 'something borrowed' from one of my best friend's. It's full-length, and it looked amazing as I walked down the aisle with my Dad. My Mum didn’t want me to wear a veil, she thought it would detract from the dress, but you only get married once and I was adamant I wanted to wear a veil!

Our wedding photographer was Sasha from PR Photography London. This was one of the easier supplier choices as she photographed my best friend's wedding, and I fell in love with her pictures. Sasha was great - she captured so many special moments, and took George and I off into the rose gardens and caught some of my favourite pictures.

Our main wedding colours were dusky pinks, creams and peaches, with the bridesmaids in 'pop' cornflower blue dresses, which matched the groomsmen's ties. The other key theme was, 'South Africa', as we got engaged there and wanted it to play a part in the wedding.

We named our tables after African animals, with illustrations drawn by my very talent mother-in-law, who happens to be an artist! She also drew our table planner. It was amazing to add her talent to our wedding, and the stationery was so unique and personal to us. Epic were our printers, they were brilliant and very efficient!

We had hand-made South African soapstone bowls as favours, and mini ivory buckets filled with Percy Pig sweets on each table with a label saying, 'Percy Pigs, Love is Sweet'. These looked lovely and were a fun additional detail, albeit a bit random!

Our cake was three tiers, with an extra cutting cake. The bottom tier and the cutting cake were Rocky Road, and the top two tiers were vanilla sponge. We both hate fruit cake and when our lovely cake lady, Rachel from Surrey Cakes, gave us mini rocky road cakes to taste we were sold! Our guests loved it as they were expecting fruit cake and got a little yummy surprise instead. Our cake had delicate iced pearls and butterflies around it, as well as our gorgeous pink, cream and peach roses.