1930s bohemian inspired wedding

Are you ready to be blown away by today’s glamourous couple and their beautiful wedding? We are bringing you a candlelit church ceremony! Yes that’s right, candlelit, in a quaint old church, during a thunderstorm, how flipping romantic!

The gorgeous details and romance doesn’t stop there, there are elegant blush bridesmaids, to-die-for DIY details, a vintage ice-cream trike, garden games on the lawn, Scottish dancing…I could go on and on.

Dominique and Nick’s ‘everything we love’ themed wedding took place in August last year in the beautiful grounds of a private school , in Thornton, Buckinghamshire. With nods to the 1930’s and a relaxed bohemian feel this wedding truly is a feast for the eyes.

The beautiful images captured by the talented TNWC Recommended Supplier Bohemian Weddings and words by bride Dominique tell the rest of their gorgeous wedding story.

The day of the wedding started out relaxing for Dominique and her bridemaids,

‘I was relaxed, we got up and had breakfast, walked to get our hair done and then found we have lots of time to just relax, chat, pose for photos and enjoy a few glasses of bubbly.’

‘It was surprisingly relaxed and stress free, I knew everything was in order for the day as we had all spent the previous day setting up the tipis as it was a DIY wedding.’

The groom didn’t have quite as a relaxed attitude,

‘Nick apparently got hit by nerves and became very quiet and solemn; he had been down to the venue in the morning with his best man, ushers and parents just putting out the final bits that couldn’t be left out overnight.’

Dominique took a well planned, strategic approach to finding her stunning dress,

‘I had spent a while researching designers that I liked. Over the past year I had been to many wedding shops nearby with friends getting married and I knew that most of those shops did not have designers that I particularly loved. So once I had worked out who I liked I was able to find a few shops that I could book in to go to. ‘

‘I went along with my mum, auntie and sister in law on a two day dress shopping spree.’ tried on lots of beautiful dresses but was not sure; eventually we got to the last shop, Mignonette, in Slip end. It is in an old chapel and doesn’t look much from the outside. But once I started trying the dresses on I had so many to choose from. 

I put on my dress and apparently it was the only dress I came out dancing, beaming and squealing in! I loved the low back yet high slash front neck and with it being a 1930’s inspired design it fitted perfectly with my groom!’

‘To keep my theme I bought from the Downton Abbey range, drop diamond earrings and I wore Rachel Simpson 1930’s style T-bar peep toe shoes. I had my hair styled with a side parting wave too to keep it all in keeping.’

Dominique selected bridesmaid dresses that completed the style of her own dress,

‘All the girls wore gorgeous silk dresses from Ghost in a nude colour. They matched my dress perfectly as they were high necked and the same shape. The girls all have side parting and vintage style curls to match me, with big diamond drop earrings. They looked so glamorous when stood around the Grand piano!’

The flowers were kept simple and relaxed,

‘All I knew was that I only wanted white and no structure- relaxed. For my bouquet I settled on hydrangeas and gypsophila, the bridesmaids and buttons holes were all Gypsophila too. ‘

‘The flowers around the drawing rooms and on the tables were all beautiful white country flowers with stocks and freesias. A lady who works at the school put them all together for us.’

The men all looked dapper in formal dinner suits,

‘Nick wore a black dinner suit with a pin tucked white shirt and black buttons. Black bow tie and silk handkerchief.’

‘His best man, Scott, Dad Paul and Usher Josh all wore the same. My brother Kristian, and dad Graeme, wore the same on the top half of their body but they wore kilts with their sporrans and white socks. They matched perfectly though with Nick which was great.’

‘My nephews, who were page boys (4 and 2) wore white shirts and black shorts, with little black waistcoats and bow ties.’

They chose a very special and very beautiful venue for their wedding,

‘We got married in The Church of St Michael and all Angels. It is a closed church and belongs to the conservations trust now. We had to get special permission from the Arch Bishop to get married there as people do not usually marry there at all.’

‘As Nick’s mum, Deirdre worked at the Catholic school, the sisters (who run the school) wrote a special letter explaining how strong our link the church and school was.’

‘Luckily we managed to get permission in the end and we set about cleaning away the moths and cobwebs. The church has no electricity so we had to work out how to get the electric piano to work but it was all ok on the day.’

‘As there are lots of windows and it was a hot August, lighting hadn’t been an issue as the sun beamed in. We did decide to light all the candles for effect. On the day, however, a thunder storm blew over and the whole church went very dark, so dark, the readers could not read. But the photos look amazing as the candles flickered and shone it gave a special intimacy and beauty.’

‘In terms of decoration, the church is so beautiful we just wrapped gypsophila around the front altar area and the room spoke for it itself.’

‘The ceremony was fun and laid back, we had Lord of the Dance, a jolly hymn and How Great Thou Art, a hymn that Nick’s granny had chosen for us to sing only a few months before she sadly passed away. So it was a touching, yet lovely moment to be singing it.’

Dominique offers some advice for couples planning their ceremony,

‘Have fun with your vicar, make it a fun celebration where people are enjoying listening, not bored sitting down for an hour.’

After the ceremony everyone made their way to the school for drinks and ice-cream,

‘We found out that we could use the formal drawing rooms in the school which have been preserved from the original manor house the school once was. They were elaborate with a grand piano, floral chairs and ornate mirrors.’ 

‘We had reception drinks in the drawing rooms, then a bit of time for ice cream and games then into the tipi for food.’

Food played an important part in their big day and they made sure that it became a talking point,

‘We have been to so many weddings when people have left saying “the food? Yea it was alright” We knew we wanted good food, yet a formal sit down meal was not an option for the tipi.’

‘We decided on a posh BBQ but didn’t like the idea of then people having the queue up and wait for ages. We got the idea of placing a bag under one person’s chair at each table. Inside the bag had a chef’s hat and stripy apron. We asked people to look under their chairs and the chosen person donned their outfit. They then went off to the catering tent and brought back platters of all the meat to serve to their table.’

‘On the table already were bowls of salads, rice, rustic breads, anti pasti selections etc. So it made the whole eating a relaxed yet fun experience. People loved it!’

‘For dessert, we thought about how we have so many friends who can bake and make fantastic desserts, so we asked them to make one and bring it along. So the guests helped themselves to cheesecakes, brownies and all sorts!’

‘Our caterers, Lavender Dining, were amazing in helping us achieve exactly what we wanted and they also helped out with the desserts.’

Dominique got stuck into the DIY and made loads of the gorgeous handmade details,

‘I’m a teacher, so I set myself things to do each time a school holiday came round. We collected jam jars for the flowers and candles, wrapping hessian around them and tying them with twine. Or sticking pages from an old book on to the glass with a heart cut out.’

The table plan is complete pin-worthy gorgeousness,

‘For the table plan, we bought a box of heathers from the local garden centre, potted them into some £1 metal tubs and sat them on an old battered wooden ladder we had in the garage.

I had bought 1000 brown luggage tags for the save the dates and invitations so used the rest to write numbers on for the pots and table numbers. I bought some lolly pop sticks and printed people’s names onto them and pushed them into the different plant pots.’

‘For the place names on the tables I printed people’s names onto mini luggage tags and wrapped them with twine around the menu and a sprig of lavender.’

‘For the order of services, we printed them off and photocopied them at school, I got a few of the girls round and we folded them all in half and wrapped a bit of twine around them. We had made an order of the day by painting on a palette that was left near our house. So it was all very rustic. (our original theme!) All very simple and cheap yet pretty. Lots of this I did in the evenings whilst watching the telly.’

All the DIY went to plan until a little hiccup on the big day,

‘There was no stress at all until it came to standing up a wooden sign we had made from a palette to show people where the toilets, tipi and ice-creams were. As Nick and ‘the dads’ could not get it to stand up!’

Choosing TNWC Recommended Supplier photographers, Bohemian Weddings was a pretty easy choice for them,

‘Michael and Andrea were local to us and had the name of the ‘theme’ of our wedding, so seemed perfect. They also had the great bonus of their being two of them, so every moment was definitely captured. It was so lovely that they were able to split off in the morning and get pictures of both Nick and I getting ready! They were fantastic, easy to get along with and they fitted in with the guests and kept everything relaxed!’

Dominique and Nick have some wonderful, and funny memories from the day that they will always remember,

‘Just as the vicar said ‘Do you take Nick to be your lawful husband’, I replied and suddenly a huge clap of thunder bellowed through the church. All the guests laughed and cheered saying it was good luck, I wasn’t sure if it was an omen!’

‘The speeches were great as they are at most weddings, but my dad is quite’ tight’ shall we say with his money, and he made this joke about taking me off his hands and gave Nick £20. Well later on in his speech it carried on to say something about needing the money back and when he came back to collect it off Nick, Nick gave him back a £10 note. His face was in shock and the whole room, knowing my dad, were in fits of laughter.’

‘We decided to have a ceilidh band as my dad is Scottish and there is nothing better at a wedding than having everyone up dancing. I thought I was going to have to call up tables to come and do the Scottish dancing but everyone got up on the first dance, too many that there was no room – a lovely surprise!’

‘We were in the middle of a Scottish dance and as Nick was swinging me round, we caught a glimpse of 20 Argentinian school girls who were over for a summer school and had never seen an English wedding. They were in shock about people all dancing a set way and how ‘old’ people and ‘young’ people were dancing together.

They asked to have a picture with us and screamed at us like royalty when we said yes. They were screaming, ‘he is like David Beckham’ ‘oh my god I touched her!’ It was very surreal.’

We simply adore this wedding, we hope that you love it just as much! Dominique and Nick’s wedding proves that you don’t have to stick to any certain ‘theme’ to have your dream day, as it truly should be about everything you love as a couple and everyone you love around you!

The smiles across everyone’s faces throughout the day is testament to that, Dominique and Nick look like they had the most amazing fun-filled day and we thank them, and Bohemian Weddings for sharing it all with us!

 {Details}

Photography: Bohemian Weddings (TNWC Recommended Supplier)
Brides Dress: from Mignonette
Brides shoes: Rachel Simpson
Bridesmaid dresses: Ghost
Tipis: Peak Tipis
Caterers: Lavender Dining
Ice-cream: Elsie’s Ices