Monday, January 28, 2013

Real English Garden Wedding: Krysten & Matt

I'm taking a quick break from my Before the Big Day Wedding Trends of 2013 series today, to feature this incredible English Summer Garden themed wedding. With pretty pinks, stunning stationery, buckets of garden flowers, and a gorgeous bride and groom, I couldn't wait to show you Sam Johnson's beautiful pictures. Krysten and Matt planned many of the DIY details for their wedding themselves, and created a truly personal big day. Krysten even designed her own wedding dress, with the help of her local seamstress, Julie Dutton - a fantastic idea if you can't find a gown in the shops. Feast your eyes on all the wedding pictures, I've got more of their stunning marquee reception to publish later today!

We celebrated our wedding on Saturday 7th July 2012 at noon in our church in Long Itchington. I was christened there when I was a baby so it's very special to me. My stepdad had been ordained a year before our wedding, so he married us.

Our theme was English Summer Country Garden – we had different coloured flowers everywhere and our day had a real personal DIY feel. Matt's incredibly talented Aunty Luciana made my bouquet and the wedding party flowers – they were perfect!

I searched through several wedding dress shops and couldn't find a gown for me, so I searched the internet for ideas, and then took these ideas to my fantastic seamstress, Julie Dutton, who worked with me to select the lace and tweak the style until I was happy. 


I always wanted bright fushcia dresses for my bridesmaids and I loved Alfred Sung from Dessy. They were ideal for a summer wedding, and I wanted each of my bridesmaids to have a different style {I didn’t want them looking like identical triplets}. I was keen for them to feel unique, comfortable and special - and with plenty of style options, they could choose their own look.



I loved my dress so much - it was perfect and exactly what I'd always pictured. I would recommend having a dressmaker to all brides who have a specific idea in mind – the final cost worked out similar to buying a wedding gown, but it was one of kind, especially for me! I’m very traditional so I decided to have a veil for church, after all, when else would I get the opportunity to wear one, plus I felt it completed the look.

I found my Rachel Simpson shoes at a vintage wedding fair. They were reduced to £50 on the day and a percentage of the money was donated to Breast Cancer Research UK. I love pink, so they were perfect and fitted my vintage style dress. I wore dropped pearl earrings – a wedding gift from my mum, and Matt's mum gave me a wedding gift – a beautiful gold Rolex watch that her mum bought her for her 21st birthday. She also lent me a simple gold bangle with a diamond on it. 


I love flowers so this was a huge part of our wedding theme. From the start I knew I wanted as many flowers as possible. My bouquet and wedding party flowers {bridesmaids bouquets, button holes, flower girls' head-dresses} were all beautiful large English roses, gypsophilia, wax flowers, sweet peas and more!




Matt's outfit was a Ted Baker three piece suit, Next shirt, black skinny tie and Dune shoes – all very classic and to his taste.


Our photographer was Sam Johnson. We went to school with him and I knew he had a very good reputation. Ahead of our wedding he came to visit the church and venue, and we spent time deciding on the types of shots we wanted.


Naturally we wanted Sam to take as many photos on the day as possible but we were adamant that we didn’t want to spend hours having our photos taken, so we were keen to be organised with a list of photos we wanted. We assigned the organisation task to the ushers, so we didn't have to spend ages trying to find people. We are so pleased with our photos, particularly the ones of us on our own in the garden - they're gorgeous pictures that we will cherish forever.



More posts like this one: 
Pretty Pastel Real Wedding
My Wedding in Provence

♥ Want to see pink themed weddings? ♥ Or how about more garden wedding ideas? ♥
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