Eco-friendly wedding with handfasting ceremony

What a beautiful way to welcome in the New Year with this down-to-earth, relaxed eco-friendly wedding of Tamsin and Alex. Captured by the lovely Emma of Emma Stoner Photography (and second shooter Heather Birnie), who can be found featured on the Photography + Film page of our directory, this wedding is bound to inspire you. Plus it has my new all-time-favourite wedding cake and wedding hair!

Tamsin and Alex got married in September at Middle Coombe Farm in Devon, where they fell in love with “it’s wonderful inhabitants and beautiful sprawling woodlands.” Here at TNWC we recently fell for the charms of Middle Coombe Farm and are delighted that you’ll now find them on the directory too.

Over to Tamsin to tell us more…

Middle Coombe Farm for a woodland wedding

“[We wanted] a relaxed and rustic [feel], with lots for everyone to do and an eclectic take on decorations and as eco conscious as I could make it. We chose Middle Coombe Farm after finding out about it’s wonderful inhabitants and beautiful sprawling woods. The accommodation was also spot on, with a place for campers, a campervan, family and close friends and little ones! It advertises itself as an eco venue too so we were very sold!

The morning of the wedding

“The boys were taking care of last minute details, but as the bride I was having my nails and make-up done from 9am so my morning was very chilled out. Our wedding weekend was over three days though so most of the hard work was completed the day before.”

Tamsin’s wedding dress

“I wanted to shop for my dress with my mum, so since she lives in Wiltshire I travelled up from Devon to meet her in Bradford-on-Avon. It’s a lovely town and happens to have some great wedding dress shops.

“We found Perfect Day bridal which I found online through their pretty website and connection to Rembo Styling, a brand I liked the look of. I explained about my woodland wedding and they suggested I try a plain underdress from Rembo Styling with a lace overlay from Charlie Brear. It was the second outfit I tried on and it was instantly the most flattering. The relaxed silhouette and soft patterned lace seemed to chime perfectly with my wedding style.”

Tamsin’s wedding accessories

“I wanted to wear a splash of colour and after giving up on the idea of dip-dying my dress (I still love this idea!) I settled for a waist sash. I found an ombre piece of sari fabric on ebay which graduated from dark teal to light blue. My fantastic seamstress created a sash in moments and a pocket square for Alex.

I also wore a vintage necklace my Grandma left me, it’s gold with turquoise stones, which also happens to be my birthstone! Luckily I found a pair of closely matching earrings on etsy. I had ‘love in the mist’ flowers in my hair. My shoes caused quite a stir, I bought them from ebay over 2 years ago – they are by Irregular Choice.”

Alex’s outfit

“Alex’s waistcoat was found in ‘The Real McCoy’ vintage store in Exeter and that set the style for his whole look. He found the tie by himself on a solo shopping trip to Bath and it was so perfect, his look was all about relaxed textures. He had dark brown jeans from Scotch & Soda, and his jacket was All Saints, and it came together over about six months.

His best man was Tim, one of his oldest friends, but all our friends had roles on the day – one played the piano for us during the ceremony, several were in our band and one did a reading for us. We even christened one Keeper of the Flame, as his job was to light the campsite fires, BBQs etc on the day.”

Seasonal wedding flowers

“I wanted them to be grown locally so that was my stating point when I found In Bloom Devon I was delighted as they grow without the use of pesticides or artificial fertilisers in Devon. We asked for wild flowers and seasonal flowers in a palette of blue, white and green – they were absolutely stunning and I had lots to give away on Sunday afternoon.”

That hair! Pure perfection in my books.

The official wedding ceremony

Tamsin and Alex held their official ceremony in the barn at Middle Coombe Farm in front of an old cider press.

“The official ceremony went by very fast and I didn’t have time to be too nervous. Both of our readings went perfectly and were beautifully read by Alex’s step dad and Jon one of his groomsmen read a poem by John Cooper Clarke. The registrar said she never heard those readings before in 20 years of wedding ceremonies.”

Hand-fasting wedding ceremony in the woods

“We held the official ceremony in the barn in front of an old cider press, but we also wanted to have a hand-fasting ceremony under the oak tree in the woods because we wanted to build a personal ceremony and show everyone the gorgeous walk up to the oak tree glade.”

“Our celebrant Sarah Chapman visited us at home to help us shape the hand-fasting and flower ceremony that we decided on. I made dip-dyed rag bunting for decorating around the tree and over 60 meters of lace bunting for the barn.”

Vintage fairground games

“We hired some vintage fairground games for our guests to enjoy and the photos of people hooking a duck are really funny!

The best thing about the weekend was how everyone came together and worked really hard to make it all happen. It’s a very hands-on venue so you have to have a great team of friends to bring it all together. Not to mention our friends’ band who came all the way from Bournemouth and London to play for us.

We should have ordered more cider as we ran out very quickly… people wanted to drink in the Devon experience – but we should have known with the venue also holding cider making weekends in October.”

The wedding reception

“We wanted to cater for all different diets so provided mostly vegetarian and vegan food across a BBQ buffet. Lucy at Feast Without Fuss gave us so many great gourmet salad choices and could cater for our gluten-free guests too. It looked spectacular and tasted even better!”

The (most incredible!) wedding cake

Need I say anything….?

A Victoria sponge tiered wedding cake. All kinds of berries including blackberries and those yellow raspberries! Ferns and seasonal flowers. These are a few of my favourite things…

DIY details and inspiration

“I really enjoyed mixing and matching elements and not worrying too much about a structured ‘theme’. The other ethos was to buy as much second-hand as we could and make as much as we could ourselves. We also went to the Eco Wedding Fair in Bristol 2 years ago and I was greatly inspired by all the wonderful ideas and suppliers who attended. I kept all my samples to refer back to.

I’m a graphic designer so felt that I had to design everything myself! From save the dates and invites to the menu cards and table placements, but I enjoyed the challenge and got to tailor them to exactly as we needed.

We did outsource design and creation of the table plan board and gift letterbox to my Dad, who went over and above to make them beautiful. Alex and I also had fun painting our sliced wood table coaster place settings and signs for the venue.

We also spent a few nights wrapping 80 pieces of soap in muslin cloth for our wedding favours, bought in bulk from an online store we sliced it into portions for a really economical way to make your own favours.”

Stunning wedding photography

Tamsin and Alex chose Devon based wedding photographer Emma Stoner, who captured their day beautifully.

“We chose Emma Stoner and liked her straight away, she put us at ease from the beginning by chatting with us on Skype. On the day she was incredibly hard-working and good to be around. The photos are stunning and I know we’ll treasure them.”

A huge thank you to Tamsin and Alex for sharing their day with us, and to Emma Stoner for the gorgeous photography. What a way to kick off our 2016 Real Weddings here at TNWC – I can’t wait to see what the year will bring.

{ Details }

Photography: Emma Stoner Photography (TNWC Recommended Supplier)
Second Photographer: Heather Birnie Photography
Venue: Middle Coombe Farm (TNWC Recommended Supplier)
Wedding Dress: Rembo Styling and Charlie Brear
Wedding Shoes: Irregular Choice
Flowers: In Bloom Devon (TNWC Recommended Supplier)
Wedding Cake: Queen Bee Cakes (TNWC Recommended Supplier)
Celebrant: Sarah Chapman
Food: Feast Without Fuss
Hair Stylist: Sarah Case