Chic Downton Abbey Inspired Wedding

How can you go wrong when you pair up the beautiful images of Greg Finck and the lush floral designs of Bloomingayles? You just can’t, and this wedding is full proof. Caitlin and Patrick’s wedding took place an hour outside of London at the awe-inspiring Hedsor House, which provided the perfect backdrop for a Downton Abbey-inspired wedding day.

From the bride, Caitlin: We didn’t have a specific theme, and once we picked the venue, we let the style kind of fall into place. The house lent itself to a very Downton Abbey-esque vibe (in fact, it’s been featured in the show!), so we kept everything very elegant and classic. We had as many gold accents as possible, and we kept all of the rest of the colors very moody and organic: there were lots of black and dark marble details, and the flowers had tons of deep purple, mauve and natural green accents. We had as many candles as possible to add to the ambience, too.

If you asked the groom or my bridesmaids, they’d say our colors were “black, gold, and anything sparkly,” and they’d probably be right. I achieved a lot of this through DIY, too. For example, I wanted as much gold foil in the venue as humanly possible, so I asked one of my bridesmaids to design prints using our favorite romantic movie and literature quotes (along with a few others for good measure). I printed all of her work on black paper and then gold-foiled all the text, and I put them in gold frames that I spray painted myself. Our florist used these as additional decor throughout the venue. My other big DIY project was our photo booth backdrop. I had a really hard time finding a backdrop that was black and sparkly, so I made my own using a black bed sheet and some gold fabric paint. I designed the dots to mirror our paper goods (invitations, programs, place cards, etc.) from Minted, which had pretty gold-foiled dots along the edges of the paper. Patrick (the groom) and I had a couple fun evenings at home perfecting our art project! As for adjectives, I’d say sparkly is a top contender… but others would be elegant, classic, timeless, romantic, and personalized (so many guests remarked on all the small details).

I told the florist I cared more about the flowers being special than anything else, and she really delivered. Also admittedly – they came out incredibly different than I had originally described, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Our flowers were some of the nicest many of our guests had seen, and I’m glad we had a professional who we could trust fully to make our wedding so different. My bouquet also stood out immensely. It was our florist’s largest to date, and it was truly something incredible!

Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? It’s okay to get wrapped up in the details… you want your wedding to be truly yours, after all. But what’s most important is why the wedding is happening, and it’s key to never lose sight of that. That can be challenging when you’re planning such a big affair, so remind yourself once in awhile to step back and consider what’s truly important. The same goes on the wedding day, too. Patrick and I took quite a few moments throughout the day just to stand back and watch what was going on, and I’m so glad we did. I was so much more emotional than I thought I would be, and until our first kiss as husband and wife, the butterflies in my stomach completely took over. Because of how emotional it all was, I’m so glad we took time to step aside and reflect, because those are the moments I really remember.

Wedding Music:
Recessional: “Shut Up and Dance,” Walk the Moon (played by string trio)
First Dance: “Shut Up and Dance,” Walk the Moon (acoustic)
Before the ceremony and during the cocktail reception, the string trio provided great entertainment, too. They played a lot of modern music, and guests seemed to really enjoy figuring out what song they were playing. Bon Jovi can be a bit hard to decipher on violin!

Photography: Greg Finck
Floral Design: Bloomingayles
Venue: Hedsor House
Wedding Dress: Sarah Seven
Bridal Store: The Dress Theory
Wedding Veil: Veiled Beauty
Bridal Headpiece: Bridal Rogue Gallery
Wedding Shoes: Jimmy Choo
Bride’s Hair and Makeup + Bridesmaid Makeup: Carolanne Armstrong
Bridesmaid + Flower Girl Hair: Patricia Soper
Bridesmaid Dresses: RenzRags
Groom’s Attire and Groomsmen Tuxedos: ASOS
Catering: Caper and Berry
Wedding Cake: Sugared Saffron
Music: The DJ and MC was Anthony Winyard, and the ceremony and drinks reception music was provided by Apollo Strings
Magician: Etienne Pradier
Wedding Invitations: Minted
Videographer: Mischa and James