English Garden Wedding from Marianne Taylor Photography

What you are about to see is the world’s absolute best confetti first dance. It’s made my day and then some. And served on the side of that cheery confetti is a wedding so perfectly relaxed and beautiful, you’re going to die. Marianne Taylor Photography sent in this one, complete with vintage ice cream truck, cute as can be flower girls and ring bearers, and a couple so absolutely in love.

A real tissue grabber from Reel Weddings, which just so happens to include a poem from the groom!

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From the stunning bride… For as long as I can remember it was always my dream to marry the love of my life in my local church and to have the reception at my family home. I always wanted my wedding day to be completely personal, unique, filled with nothing but family, friends and love. To be surrounded by happy memories of my family home really was the icing on the cake!

As soon as Andrew proposed I knew the most important thing to book was our photographer, since we would cherish the images forever. I studied photography for my degree and work in pictures, so this element was the closest to my heart. As soon as I found Marianne’s website I knew she just had to be the photographer! She creates not only the most beautiful imagery but captures the pure ambience of the day, in the most unobtrusive way. Every wedding she photographs, the viewer really feels the magic of the day. I was incredibly lucky she was available the following summer, so the date was to be set around her!

However much it was my dream to be married at home, it soon became evident that there is an element of added stress and hard work as you have to think about everything from refrigerator trailers to outdoor lighting to water supplies for the caterers, solutions for limited parking and the list goes on

Andrew and I knew we wanted a beautifully relaxed day with a whimsical garden party feel in which our guests could completely relax and celebrate with us. I always had images of our nieces and nephews running and playing on the lawn.

I was also very clear on the sort of dress I wanted to wear – it was paramount for me to feel comfortable and be able to move and dance, but more importantly to just feel like me! As soon as I tried on my Vintage Wedding Dress Company dress I instantly knew it was the dress I would marry Andrew in it was fabulous in every way and fitted the relaxed, boho feel so perfectly.

Our florist Kate Avery was so utterly brilliant and she understood the look I was going for completely, I wanted a typical country garden feel with wooden crates, milk churns, jugs and jam jars. I knew I wanted to keep the colour scheme simple with mostly white flowers with hints of green and apricot. For my bouquet I wanted it to be filled with my favourite flowers, but to look as if I had just picked them from the garden.

I put everything into the decor of the day and I tried to think of lots of little details that our guests would enjoy. One of those was surprising one guest on each table with the job of being carver for the main meal. I had placed a sticker on the chosen guests name place bookmark and after the starter was cleared it was announced that those with a sticker on their bookmark should make their way to the service tent and await further instruction! There they were dressed in full chefs attire, hat and apron and were given their carving boards to take back to their tables. It went down a storm and had everyone in fits of laughter. Some of the guests didn’t take their aprons off all night!

Preparation for the day really was a labour of love – decorating hundreds of jam jars in hessian and lace, creating various playlists, hanging twinkling lights, hand-juicing over 200 hundred limes for our cosmopolitan cocktails, collecting sweets we knew each guest would love for our sweetie bar, organizing a retro ice cream van, making and hanging paper lanterns for the marquee, putting together our wish tree, and making our personalized bunting and organising a photo booth which was a roaring success with our guests! It really all paid off in the end and I wouldn’t have changed a single thing – it really was magical. It was the day I had always dreamed about and so much more – I married my best friend and soulmate surrounded by the people we love the most in the world.

Photography: Marianne Taylor Photography | Videographer: Reel Weddings | Florist: Kate Avery Flowers | Wedding Gown: The Vintage Wedding Dress Company | Cake: Rosalind Miller Cakes | Stationery: Charlie Scribble | Ceremony venue: St Bartholomew's Church, Haslemere | Caterer: Tandem Catering | Entertainment: Supatight | Hai & Make Up: Gemma Sutton | Ice cream van: Daisy Vintage Ice Cream Van