Oh what a beauty of a wedding this is, with this effortlessly stylish barefoot bride in her boho two-piece wedding “dress” and the outdoor ceremony beneath an archway of weathered branches. I have literally spent hours attempting to whittle down the photos I received for Zoe and Alex’s stunning wedding, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me for not doing great at cutting them down, because they are pretty awesome.

A special thanks goes out to Alice at Forage and Blossom, one of our fab recommended suppliers and the florist for Zoe and Alex. All those gorgeous white, pale cream and green bouquets, flower crowns and arrangements – those are her work. Alice is also the one who helped get this beautiful wedding to grace our pages.

Put on some music and find somewhere to get comfy, because Zoe and Alex’s wedding deserves all the time you can give it to soak up a truly special celebration. If you are worrying about all the details you need to “have” to create the wedding of your dreams, I hope that Zoe and Alex will show you that you only need a few carefully selected elements and lots of laughter. Over to Zoe…

A rustic, hippy, outdoor inspired wedding

We wanted something rustic, hippy (I wanted to have bare feet), festivally (can I use that as an adjective?!) and outdoor. My brother has a farm that he inherited from my Grandfather so it meant a lot to me to have it there. All of these things fitted together nicely so a marquee wedding with an outdoor ceremony in a big field was very quickly decided upon.

A blind date

We met on a blind date actually. I have a rather eccentric French friend who worked as a stylist for Alex’s company (he is a photographer). She came over for dinner one night and announced she was going to start a dating agency so I told her she could practice on me! The next week she came back with a potential candidate which was Alex. Apparently she had spent that week persuading Alex to go on a date with me and he only said yes in the end to shut her up.

The date was a hit, and the rest was history. Roxy (cupid) is very proud of her achievement and she closed her business with 100% success rate.

A handmade wedding

Myself and Alex both work in interiors therefore we had pretty specific ideas about what we wanted things to look like. I was fussier about the decoration than the dress! I remember spending a whole week (maybe two) looking for the right napkins.

We also have incredibly creative friends so my dress and my mum’s dress was made by my sister-in-law and the boys ties were made by a friend. My Dutch Grandma made an incredible almond naked cake which was an entirely new concept to her.

Handmade and perfect

The ceremony was written and performed by a friend of ours and it was absolutely perfect, a lovely combination between humour and romance.

The incredible photos were by a very talented photographer friend Mariell Amelie, and for the entertainment my two brothers, my nephew and my husband formed a band called The Golden Oates and the Palmertronics – they absolutely stole the wedding, it was amazing!

Every little bit was handmade and perfect.

Beautiful British flowers

One of the few ‘luxuries’ that we did pay for at our wedding was for the flowers, I love flowers and greenery and I really wanted to have exactly what I wanted. Alice, at Forage and Blossom was so unbelievably good, she just seemed to get exactly what I wanted right from the start. I think at many points she knew what I wanted more than me. She is so friendly but professional, and knows the industry so well- she knew exactly how I would be feeling at each point of the build up to the wedding. Most importantly though her flowers were absolutely beautiful.

Advice for other couples

We did a whole weekend of things, we had a meal on the Friday with 60 guests, a big wedding all day Saturday and a BBQ on the Sunday. It’s so much fun to spread it out and it eliminates any post wedding blues.

I would also say that I focused a lot on every tiny weeny detail and actually on the day you don’t even notice most of those things so although I would totally do them all again, they are not worth spending too much time on and certainly not worth the sleepless nights or stress.

Wow. What an incredible wedding that just felt utterly natural and a reflection of Zoe and Alex, and so full of fun and laughter thanks to their fabulous family and friends. A huge thank you to Zoe and Alex for sharing their wedding with us, to florist Alice from Forage and Blossom, and to photographer Mariell Amelie, who isn’t a wedding photographer by trade but I most definitely hope this isn’t the last wedding she captures.

{ Details }

Photography: Mariell Amelie
Venue: Bride’s brothers farm
Wedding Dress: Arabesque Designs
Groom’s Suit: The Italian Suit Company
Groom’s Bow Tie: Handmade by Carrie Davies
Bridesmaids Dresses: ASOS
Flowers: Forage and Blossom (TNWC Recommended Supplier 2016)
Wedding Cake: Bride’s grandmother
Bands: The Golden Oates and the Palmertronics (brides brothers, the groom and the bride’s nephew)’