Relaxed spring wedding

Today we are sharing Jaime and Dave’s gorgeous spring wedding in Hampshire.  Fans of the outdoors, Jaime and Dave wanted their wedding to reflect the natural beauty of the gardens at Taplins Place in Hartley Wintney where they held their ceremony and reception.

Guests were entertained with giant lawn games, a coconut shy, a ‘hook-a-duck’ stall and homemade ‘Fruits of the Forest’ gin.  With a wedding cake made of cheese and the relaxed ‘fete’ feel to the wedding, Jaime and Dave were able to make their wedding truly about them – nature and garden lovers.

– Izzy x

Now over to Jaime to share their beautiful wedding day with you…

Jaime and Dave got married in May this year, I love the reason why Jaime and Dave chose May for their wedding and honeymoon, “As we grow our own veg, we knew that we didn’t want to leave too much work to Dave’s Dad and his wife, who were looking after the house, our dogs and our garden.  So I guess you can say that our vegetable dictated when we got married!”

They got married at Taplins Place in Hartley Wintney.  Jaime says “We fell in love with it because the gardens were beautiful and they gave us carte blanche to do what we wanted with it.  They had a large field at the back as we wanted to have garden games.”

“We are very outdoorsy people, growing our own veg, cooking seasonal meals, fresh eggs from our chickens, etc.  Our next step was to start keeping bees and our concerns for the decreasing numbers of bees helped drive us to this decision.  As such, we became increasingly aware of our countryside’s indigenous flora and fauna and wanted that to be a key element for our wedding, which we knew we wanted to be outdoors, amongst nature and all it has to offer. “

“With that in mind, when we sent out our wedding invitations, they were impregnated with wildflower seeds, with instructions for our guests to plant them on waste ground near where they lived.”

Choosing Taplins Place for both their ceremony and reception was just the right choice for Jaime and Dave.  “We are not religious so didn’t want a church wedding, and having the ceremony overlooking the gardens and beautiful pond were perfect for us.”

The reception was held in a barn at Taplins Place.  “I was absolutely overwhelmed when I walked into the barn for the first time!”

On the morning of the wedding Jaime was the calm and collected bride.  “I was completely relaxed until the last 5 minutes before ‘walking up the aisle.’  I had my sister, mom and best friend with me at the hotel to keep me calm and they even commented on how relaxed I seemed!  Dave, on the other hand, was restless and nervously excited and for once in his life, didn’t know what to do with himself!”

However Dave’s restless was understandable as Jaime tells us: “him and his best man did go to the venue to put out the tables and take all the accessories and ‘props’ to meet the florist who started setting up early.”

Jaime tells us about her short-lived hunt for a wedding dress:  “I found my wedding dress at Amarylis in Alton.  The staff were so lovely there!  It was the first and only place I went to and knew as soon as I tried the dress on that it was the perfect one. “

However, what bride can resist the urge to have great fun dressing up?!  But it’s always the mothers that seem to know best:  “I had to try on the big meringue dresses and the ‘bling bling’ dresses, but I’ve never been that kind of girl.  Mom pointed out the spun gold dress that was in the window and thought I had better try it on – mom’s always have their daughters best interests at heart!  That was it for me, as soon as I had it on, I knew I’d found the dress.  It was subtle, with the gorgeous lace work and hem detail that just seemed to echo the simplicity that was key to our big day.”

Jaime’s love for the simple and naturalistic wedding helped her make choices with accessories and bridesmaid dresses.  “I wanted to keep the accessories simple and decided to go for pearl studs and a pearl necklace, nothing too extravagant (thanks to Groupon and Debenhams costume jewellery!).  My grandmother gave me her ivory horseshoe which she had for her wedding, and that was tucked behind my panel on my dress.”

“My grandfather passed away a couple of years ago and she gave me his cadet badge which was intricately weaved into my bouquet, so I had him with me on the day, too.”

What a beautiful memento to remind Jaime of her grandpa…

Jaime’s bridesmaids wore delicate pale sage coloured dresses, each in a style they picked out themselves:  “I wanted my bridesmaids to have the same material and colour (sage) but let them choose the designs that best suited them.  I asked them both to choose a dress that they would be happy wearing on other occasions so that they could get the most out of the dress and I think they chose perfectly!  I gave them both a silver bracelet for the day, with an engraved heart charm on it saying ‘5/5/13 xx’.”

Groom Dave and his best man wore kilts as a nod to their love of Scotland, which he hired from a supplier in Dundee:  “Whilst Dave doesn’t have any Scottish blood in him (that we know about), he lived there for 10 years and we both holiday there with our two dogs, with plans to retire up there one day.  We love everything about Scotland, even his wedding band was made for him with a Celtic love knot.”

“My brother, Chris, was the best man, who also wore a kilt!  His first time wearing a skirt!  They both wore Ghillie shirts and no jacket (echoing the relaxed day we wanted everyone to have), as well as the Sporan and all the traditional accessories.”

Jaime hired TNWC recommended florist Jay Archer Floral Design to do her wedding flowers, “We found Jay through The Natural Wedding Company and she was the only person we went to see.  She lives locally to us and the minute we met her, we knew she was who we wanted for our day.  She understood what we wanted and didn’t try to push any ideas on us.  She proved to be more than just a florist. “

“We carefully chose our flowers with Jay Archer (our florist) so that everything came from the UK with minimal carbon footprint.”  For Jaime and Dave’s flowers, Jay used Cornish grown solomon’s seal, bluebells, forget-me-nots, yellow iris, tulips and narcissi, alongside homegrown cow parsley, rosemary, muscari and English wheat.  She also incorporated ammi and thistles.

“Jay decorated the venue with such artistry and precision and her dedication to making the day perfect for us is something we will always be hugely thankful for. “

It’s truly lovely to hear from brides who used The Natural Wedding Company for planning and inspiration:  “The Natural Wedding Company was the first and most frequent wedding website I visited throughout planning the wedding.  There was a lot of inspiration from some of the articles on there, but mostly, they inspired us to create a day that reflected our love for nature and elements in achieving this. “

“Our wedding ceremony was very simple and natural.  We wanted the natural beauty of the gardens to play the lead role in our day and they didn’t fail.”

“Nothing we planned was overcomplicated.  We chose our music for the ceremony as Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons ‘Spring’and Gabrielle Aplin’s ‘Power of Love.’  The music that played when the ceremony ended was one of our favourite feel good songs, Mr Blue Sky.  Everything we chose, everything we did, was about us.”

What a beautiful place to walk down the aisle to:  “I walked through the garden to Christina Perri;s ‘1000 years’ which we listened to the week before when we decided that was the song we wanted.”

“I had nearly 90 pairs of eyes on me as I walked towards Dave, but all I could see was him and listening to the words of the song that mean so much to us.  I was walking to the man of my dreams, on a beautiful, sunny day, in the grounds of a beautiful venue, and all I wanted to do was run up to him!”

“Words cannot express how I felt when I saw Dave for the first time. “

“We wanted a couple of readings as we wanted to involve my other brother and Dave’s step-brother, so we found non-religious readings that felt appropriate (they reiterated the love we had for each other whilst also combining a bit about nature!).”

Jaime has such great advice for others planning their wedding, especially the ceremony part, and I think all brides- and grooms-to-be should remember to ask themselves multiple times: is this us?

“It is so easy to get carried away with planning your wedding, so many magazines, so many websites.  We had to keep asking ourselves, is this us?  The whole day became about US: garden lovers and nature lovers.”

Jaime and Dave really thought about their guests when planning what to do after their wedding ceremony:  “After the ceremony, we were conscious that a lot of weddings we’ve attended, there isn’t a lot for the guests to do, apart from drink.  We had supplied 3 litres of ‘Fruits of the Forest’ gin and 3 litres of Damson vodka (both homemade) but wanted our guests to have a feeling of what we are.  We organised giant lawn games, a coconut shy, hook a duck stall and Laser Clay Pigeon shooting, to give them something to do in the afternoon.”      

Jaime and Dave’s relaxed wedding feel went down a treat. “Even with all these activities all of our homemade drinks were enjoyed with nothing left, the canapés a success and everyone commented on how nice it was to have the feel of a fete at a wedding.  They are still talking about it now.”

Food was served in the barn: “The tables were set with the centerpiece being the table herb as per the table plan, in handmade pots with painted wellies in various colours and designs.  Each place setting had a little envelope with some wildflower seeds in it and instructions, and each napkin had a bit of twine wrapped round it with a single silver bee.  We had green material bunting that had designs of chickens on them, on the wall behind the top table, and handing ferns and lanterns across the ceiling.”

“We borrowed a small marquee from my aunt and we bought some bunting to put inside.  We had two heart-shaped hangings that had photos of our youth on them, and we put our table plan (each table being a herb) clipped onto twine with miniature pegs, that ran along the back.  There was a lovely churn with wild flowers that Jay had arranged standing in the corner.”

“I still look back on the whole day thinking ‘how did we pull this off?!’  Then I remember the team of people we chose to help us achieve the whole day and know we couldn’t have done it without them.”

Jaime told us about some of her favourite moments from their wedding day:  “The whole day makes us smile.  We still talk about it and reminisce and I don’t think the day could have been any better.  Walking up to Dave and walking into the barn, beautifully decorated, do stand out for me. “

“My dad’s speech and the best man’s speech were wonderfully delivered, but Dave’s speech had me in tears, as well as all the other women in the hall.  There was no script, it all came from his heart and I remember feeling how lucky I was to have married the most wonderful man I’ve ever met.”

Jaime and Dave’s wedding day was captured by photographer Kirsty from this and that photography:  “We chose our photographer as she came recommended through a friend who had her at her wedding.  I saw the photos and thought that was the kind of feeling we wanted for our wedding album.”  

“When we met Kirsty for the first time at the venue, she was full of excitement and already had lots of fantastic ideas.  Kirsty was so easy to work with, understanding the deep love that Dave and I have for each other and she and her team have created some wonderful and beautiful memories for us.  Kirsty is an absolute delight to have as a photographer and we are so happy to have chosen her to record the memories of our day.”

Some wonderful advice from Jaime, which I think is key for all brides to remember:  “Everyone is different, and there are a lot of ideas and themes that might not suit everyone.  It comes down to who you are, what you love, and bringing that to life so you can share it with the people you love on what is the most magical day of your life.  Don’t get lost in the detail.  Bring yourself back to WHY you’re getting married and work from there.  That way, there is no way the day can be anything but you.”

Since their wedding, Jaime and Dave have been busy with their garden, enjoying lots of their homegrown edible goodies, and soaking up the fantastic weather we’ve had.  Once their vegetable harvest is over they are looking forward to an autumn holiday in the Lake District.  Plus there’s the bees:  “Dave has his bees and I’ve even started going down to the bottom of the garden with him (in all the regalia!) to check on our honey supply.  Life couldn’t be sweeter.”

A big thank you for Jaime and Dave for sharing their wedding day with us, to Kirsty from this and that photography and Jay Archer Floral Design for putting us all in touch to feature this pretty spring wedding.

{ Details }

Photography: this and that photography
Wedding Venue: Taplins Place
Wedding Dress: from Amaryllis Bridalwear
Flowers: Jay Archer Floral Design