Real Traditional English Wedding: Sarah & Michael's Wedding Reception

With wedding details galore, you're going to love the reception pictures from Sarah and Michael's beautiful big day. Sarah chose lace as her wedding motif, and purple and white as her colour palette, for a truly coherent wedding theme. I love the clean lines of their white wedding marquee, and the purple punctuation of the wedding flowers and table stationery. Even their wedding cake is in keeping with the theme, with super-realistic purple flowers made out of icing. The effect is one of classic elegance, all perfectly pictured by Anna Rosell. Enjoy her wedding photographs, and be sure to read all of Sarah's great wedding advice, and don't miss Part 1 and Part 2 of this wedding!

We celebrated our wedding at Longstowe Hall in Cambridge on 4th August 2012. We wanted a real English wedding, and felt the historical feel of Longstowe's Elizabethan architecture, and its beautiful English rose gardens was just perfect.

We had a purple and lace theme to the wedding, and also white roses, again keeping with the traditional English feel. We wanted to keep it simple and traditional yet classic. We also felt it was really important to use local suppliers and we managed to do just that.

My favourite chocolate is Ferrero Rocher, so I decided to give each guest a chocolate as a wedding favour. I bought organza and purple ribbon from Hobbycraft and my Nana, Mum and I had a great {and long} day wrapping each one.

Our wedding flowers were from The Flower House in Cambridge. I don't know much about flowers, and only knew that I wanted purple and white roses in the stem of the vases, so I let the florist decide on the arrangements. 

We loved planning our wedding! Being a teacher I love researching and organising, and a friend bought me a wedding planner, so I was in my element buying wedding magazines and tearing out bits that I liked for reference. The worry is whether it will all come together on the day, a few things didn’t go as planned, but that added to the day.

My advice to other brides would be, don’t get too bogged down with research, there are so many options out there and many people offering similar ideas. Choose something you like and then don’t research it anymore, there may always be something else to find, but you have draw a line, otherwise it can be never-ending. Most importantly, enjoy it all as it is over very quickly.

We spent ages designing our wedding invitations, menus and table names, keeping with the purple and lace/white theme. We found an wonderful lady called Julie, whose local stationery company is called Little Button Nose, who handmade them for us.

For our wedding cake I chose a local lady called Margaret who makes wedding cakes as a hobby. She made handmade the purple icing sugar flowers that cascaded all the way down the cake, and afterwards, as a keepsake, she put them in a little arrangement for us. We had a three tier cake, sponge, fruit and chocolate.

Our photographer was Anna Rosell. She was recommended by the venue, but I also loved her work and the gorgeous colours that she always manages to capture in her shots. I spent months in the run-up to our wedding following Anna’s blog, and looking at the other weddings that she had shot, so I was very excited, as I knew she would provide us with pictures to treasure.

♥ Want to see summer wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about elegant weddings? ♥

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Real Traditional English Wedding: Sarah & Michael's Portrait Pictures

Your wedding portrait pictures will be some of the most important photographs of the day, so it's worth having a bit of a think about what you want beforehand. Consider using props to help you relax - some brides carry a parasol, or you could pose with matching bicycles or even funny hats and signs. An engagement session can also help you relax with your wedding photographer, and with posing in front of each other! In these gorgeous portrait shots from Sarah and Michael's big day, their photographer Anna Rosell took full advantage of the stunning gardens at Longstowe Hall. I love how she frames the shots with the rose arbours, and takes a mixture of informal and posed pictures. Make sure your wedding photographer knows what pictures you want, and scout out good spots at your wedding venue when you visit. Meanwhile, don't miss more gorgeous reception details from this wedding, coming soon!

We celebrated our wedding at Longstowe Hall in Cambridge on 4th August 2012. We wanted a real English wedding, and felt the historical feel of Longstowe's Elizabethan architecture, and its beautiful English rose gardens was just perfect.



Our photographer was Anna Rosell. She was recommended by the venue, but I also loved her work and the gorgeous colours that she always manages to capture in her shots. 

I spent months in the run-up to our wedding following Anna’s blog, and looking at the other weddings that she had shot, so I was very excited, as I knew she would provide us with pictures to treasure.

We had a purple and lace theme to the wedding, and also white roses, again keeping with the traditional English feel. We wanted to keep it simple and traditional yet classic. We also felt it was really important to use local suppliers and we managed to do just that.

♥ Want to see quintessentially English weddings? ♥ Or how about elegant weddings? ♥

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Real Lace-Themed English Wedding: Sarah & Michael

Much as I love quirky weddings, I'm a traditionalist at heart, and there's nothing I like more than a classic marquee wedding, set in the beautiful English countryside. Sarah and Michael chose the stunning Longstowe Hall in Cambridge for their summer big day - it's one of my favourite wedding venues because of its stunning rose gardens, and they struck lucky with a sunny August day - perfect for their portrait pictures. Sarah was keen to create a classically elegant feel to her wedding, so picked a lace theme, and a simple colour palette of rich purple and white. With this in mind, every wedding detail is perfectly matched, from the bridesmaids' dresses, to the wedding invitations and the wedding cake. Even the confetti matched, creating a brilliantly put-together feel to the whole day! You'll find tonnes of wedding inspiration in these beautiful wedding pictures by Anna Rosell - I'm a huge fan of her work, particularly her portrait shots. Don't miss the reception pictures, in the second blog post, later today.

We celebrated our wedding at Longstowe Hall in Cambridge on 4th August 2012. We wanted a real English wedding, and felt the historical feel of Longstowe's Elizabethan architecture, and its beautiful English rose gardens was just perfect.

We had a purple and lace theme to the wedding, and also white roses, again keeping with the traditional English feel. We wanted to keep it simple and traditional yet classic. We also felt it was really important to use local suppliers and we managed to do just that.

Like most brides, my original idea for how my wedding dress would look, was not what I ended up with. After visiting many shops I finally chose a beautiful Augusta Jones lace gown from Lara B in Newmarket. I wanted to be slightly more covered up, so I re-designed the top part of the dress, but I especially loved the open back and the lace edged veil.

I couldn’t find any bridesmaids dresses I liked so I ended up designing them myself, and having them made by a local seamstress, Cheryl Stratton.

Our wedding flowers were from The Flower House in Cambridge. I don't know much about flowers, and only knew that I wanted purple and white roses in the stem of the vases, so I let the florist decide on the arrangements. 



I was over the moon with her work! After the wedding I sent my flowers off to Precious Petals to be preserved, and now have my beautifully preserved bouquet framed above our bed.

We spent ages designing our wedding invitations, menus and table names, keeping with the purple and lace/white theme. We found an wonderful lady called Julie, whose local stationery company is called Little Button Nose, who handmade them for us.

Our wedding stationery was one of my favourite parts of the planning process, and I've kept a souvenir of everything that was made.

My husband's suit was from Moss Bros, teamed with a cream tie. The other men in the wedding party had purple ties, to fit in with our wedding theme.

Our photographer was Anna Rosell. She was recommended by the venue, but I also loved her work and the gorgeous colours that she always manages to capture in her shots. 

I spent months in the run-up to our wedding following Anna’s blog, and looking at the other weddings that she had shot, so I was very excited, as I knew she would provide us with pictures to treasure.

♥ Want to see quintessentially English weddings? ♥ Or how about summer weddings? ♥

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Real Pretty Pastel Wedding: Kirsty & Buzz

When it comes to wedding venues, I'm a sucker for the traditional English garden. So when Anna Rosell sent me these gorgeous pictures from Kirsty and Buzz's wedding, the first thing I spotted were the incredible portrait photographs, taken in the midst of the fabulous rose garden at Longstowe Hall. It's up there with the perfect setting for a romantic photo shoot, and finding a great wedding portrait location is definitely something worth considering when you pick your own wedding venue. At our wedding, we were lucky enough to have a field of wild poppies just next to our venue, and despite the slightly scary mosquitos, our photographer took some incredible pictures. Other wedding details I'm loving from Kirsty and Buzz's wedding include the pastel wedding details {very this season}, the turquoise accents in the wedding stationery, wedding programmes, menus, table plan and place names, and the incredible woodland-style flowers in the wedding marquee. Huge thanks to Anna Rosell for her fabulous wedding pictures.

The Before the Big Day Bride's Q&A - Kirsty was kind enough to fill in our bridal questionnaire, aimed at helping other brides with their planning process. Feast your eyes on her answers for helpful hints and tips from someone on the other side of her big day!

Where and when did you get married?
Our service was held at Cambourne Church, with the reception at Longstowe Hall in Cambridgeshire on 2nd July 2011

What was your thinking behind choosing the venue and the decoration of the reception?
One thing I knew was that I wanted to be married in a church, so it made perfect sense for us to celebrate our ceremony in our local family church. It meant we could have a personalised service with a minister who knew us, which made a massive difference with the nerves on the day! We chose Longstowe Hall as our wedding venue because it is simply stunning, as I'm sure you can see from the photos! They provide a superb service and inspired confidence in us that they would deliver a stress-free wedding day, which they did - fantastically. They really did make it all so easy.


Did you have a theme, colour or motif in mind?
Our theme was vintage / classic English country garden, to complement the venue. I aimed to keep it elegant but subtle, to let the beautiful venue speak for itself.

Who made your wedding outfit (dress, veil, shoes and accessories), and how did you come to that decision?
My wedding dress was a stunning Ian Stuart design and it was actually the first one I tried on in The Taylors Cat in Cambridge. It made me feel like a princess and I didn't want to take it off! I tried on lots of others but they didn’t make me feel the same, so at the end of the day we went back to that first dress. I think you know when it's THE dress when you love it so much you cant bring yourself to take it off! My accessories were all from The Taylors Cat as well, and handmade by them to complement my dress.

What about your husband’s outfit? Where was it from?
We hired my husbands outfit from Moss Bros. We chose Moss Bros because our groomsmen came from all over the country, and the idea was for them to pick up their suits from their local store. Well, there was a hick-up with the delivery of the suits to the wrong store but that was the plan anyway!

And how about your bridesmaids’ outfits?
My bridesmaids outfits were from Karen Forte in Cambridgeshire, and designed by Veromia. I had bridesmaids of very different sizes and shapes, but I was keen for them to have co-ordinating outfits, and this dress suited them all very well. The colour was a dark turquoise to fit in with the vintage theme. My young bridesmaid had a teen version of the dress with an ivory skirt, and my flower girl a separate ivory dress. This way the theme ran down through the dresses, but they were all were age appropriate.

What type of cake did you go for, and how did you come to that decision?
We chose a three-tier cake with three different flavourings – vanilla, chocolate and fruit. Our plan was to please all our fussy eater guests, as well as the traditionalists, and it worked really well. I can't say it was too difficult having to try all three at the tasting session! We chose a local cake maker, Sue Polhill Cakes and it was simply sublime! Her sugar craft flowers on the top complimented our florist's flowers perfectly and looked fabulous. She’d even preserved them and put them in display boxes for us, along with the cake topper because we loved them that much.

Did you have any favours? What were they? Was there any particular reason why you picked them?
We chose simple chocolate favours with our initials and a heart from Thorntons. We wanted something simple that we knew all our guests would enjoy, and they also served as the after dinner chocolates. The children also got wedding themed colouring books and crayons to keep them entertained during the speeches, which along with the massive lawn outside, seemed to do the trick!

Who was your florist, what flowers did you choose, and how did you come to that decision?
Our florist was Heidi Appleyard. She was my brother and sister-in-law's florist the previous year and was so imaginative and professional that I had no doubts I wanted her as our florist as well. Along with her stunning arrangements, one of my favourite things about Heidi is that she can take someone who knows nothing about flowers {me!}, and after a couple of consultations create designs that were so perfect for us, and our theme it was amazing. And she stuck to budget, no nasty surprises! It was all perfect and beyond anything I could have imagined.

Who designed your stationery? What did it look like and how did you come to that decision?
Our stationary was from an absolutely fantastic company that I can’t recommend enough, called Intricate Creations. I met them at a wedding show, and their stationery was so beautiful, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. We chose a design and colour to match our theme as we wanted the stationary to be a part of the day, not an afterthought. I especially loved our table plan which was an important feature of our reception venue and all the guests raved about it!

Who was your photographer and how did you choose them?
Choosing my photographer was also easy. There were some of Anna Rosell's photographs on the venue’s website, and it was her pictures that made me fall in love with the venue in the first place! I knew that if she could get those shots there, then I would have some great memories to look back on. She was one of the first people I booked and she was extremely friendly and professional and our album is stunning. I couldn't have asked for a better memory of our day.

Did you enjoy planning your wedding?
At times yes, and at times no! It was great fun overall, but there is no doubting it's a lot of work for one {or two if you are lucky!} people. I had a set idea about how I wanted my wedding to be but I hadn't really thought much about the detail, so I sometimes wish I'd had longer to have done my research. However, it was a fantastic experience and great to be able to design something so intimate and meaningful for you as a couple. It would definitely be fun to be able to do all over again now I’ve had the practice!

What advice do you have for brides planning their big day?
My main advice would be to try and be organised! Have a timetable and stick to it, so you don't forget anything. Decide on your budget early and if possible, have an extra contingency amount set aside for the unexpected extras which seem to crop up. Also, one thing we splashed out on which we hadn’t originally planned for, was a videographer called Capture Your Day, and we are so glad we did. It allows you to see parts of your wedding you missed on the day and is a fantastic momento of the day. We absolutely love it!

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