English Cotswolds Wedding

An English Cotswolds wedding – I’m already swooning; are you? Rachel Brierley-Jones of The Cotswold Wedding Planner and Flowers by Passion recently teamed up to bring together a romantic wedding with a vintage-inspired color palette full of dusty pink, mint green, and greys all captured by Ann-Kathrin Koch Photography.

From the bride, Jay: Our colour scheme was a mix of grey, vintage dusty pink, mint green, and white. With the travelling theme and the Cotswolds setting, it felt natural to veer towards the more country-chic colour scheme rather than those with bold splash of colours. Also, I thought these colours went really well with the romance of the softly lit tea lights and the fairy lights that were strewn around the venue. We decided that on a travel theme for the wedding early on. Having grown up in South Korea and subsequently lived in India, then in London before I met Matt for the first time at his leaving drinks to move to New York – we felt that there is a strong theme of travel and the journey we took together, not to mention the journey we are about to embark on. Matt grew up in the heart of Cotswolds and the location had a sense of home for both of us, as it is also somewhere we would like to retire in our later years too.

Bouquet recipe: Lily of the valley, grey brunia berries, dusty pink lisianthus, dusty miller, berried eucalyptus, white anemones, Queen Anne’s lace, pink and white wax flower, roses.

I work in banking professionally but I really enjoy DIY craft work so there were many DIY elements in our wedding! Some of them included: In keeping with the Travel theme, I designed the Save the Date card to look like a retro post card and printed them on thick kraft paper to give it that aged feel. The menu was designed by my sister to look like a boarding pass and placed on a table outside the dinning room in an airmail envelope with each guest’s name. Each guest would pick up their envelope, find out where their destination is on the boarding pass, then look up the table on the world map that was placed by the door before entering the room. The table numbers were designed by me to look like an old school departure boards at airports (the kind that used to have each letter flip with shuttering noise when the destination changed!). Each table was named after a destination that carried significance for us (ie Crete being our first holiday together etc). Seating Chart was fashioned out of a world map to make it look like a flight map with the path of the flight laid across the map. I purchased a map from ebay, mounted it on a foam-board, and used a few pretty coloured pins and strings to attach the destination lists with guest names for each table.

Our cake topper was hand-made by one of the bridesmaids and her husband with clay, then painted. They now sit in a lovely bell-jar on a shelf in our bedroom to remember the day by. Two birds on a branch in a jar was made by Jay’s parents to moss and branch from their garden and the two little birds to represent Matt & Jay. It was such a sweet gift because they obviously spent the time to put it together for us. Guest welcome packs were put together by me and handed out to each guest when they checked into the hotel. They were put together in a paper brown lunch bag with a white paper doily at the top with two little wooden pegs to close them. I also used a small eraser to carve out a balloon shape (bringing out my lower school craft workshop skills) and used them to make a home-made rubber stamps to decorate each bag. They contained a bag of jelly beans, “When & Where” schedule, and local info sheet

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Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? 2 months into our engagement, I started a new job. Organizing the wedding therefore took on a whole dimension because let’s face it – it’s like having a second job! I spent the subsequent 10 months stressing constantly about the finding the right suppliers for every element of the wedding. Everyone thought I was going to be an absolute nervous wreck on the day but when the actual day came, I was able to let go of control completely as I knew that I had selected the best people that I could source. More importantly, Rachel (my wedding planner who I contracted for the Day Management service) was worth her weight in gold. She met up with me at the venue 2 weeks prior to the wedding and took over the communication with my suppliers, immediately lifting the burden off my shoulders. On the day, she was the clear point person who orchestrated the venue and the suppliers. Without her, I don’t think I could’ve managed to let go of the control and enjoy the day. I would definitely recommend brides-to-be to think about hiring someone (even if the venue has its own wedding planner) so a third party person who is a paid professional can run the day for you.

Wedding Music:
Processional: Pachelbel’s Canon and Gigue in D Major
Recessional: Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
First Dance: “My Baby Just Cares for Me,” Nina Simone

Wedding Location: The Cotswolds, UK / Photographer: Ann-Kathrin Koch Photography / Wedding Planner: Rachel Brierley-Jones of The Cotswold Wedding Planner / Floral Design: Flowers by Passion / Ceremony Venue: Badminton Church / Reception Venue and Caterer: Hare and Hounds Hotel / Wedding Dress: Rosa Clara “Adamo” / Wedding Shoes: Christian Dior / Pearl Earrings: Liberty / Hair Comb: Vintage / Hair: Jay Doan / Makeup: Victoria Reynolds / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Jarlo / Groom’s Suit: Thom Sweeney / Groom’s Shoes: JM Weston / Wedding Cake: Contemporary Cake Designs / Music: DJ Nigel Pierce of Stylish Entertainment / Lighting: Chieme and Jonathan at Reveries Events / Photo Booth: Booth Revolution / Wedding Invitations: designed by bride’s brother-in-law / Save the Dates: Bride / Menu: designed by bride’s sister / Table Numbers: Bride / Classic Car: 1935 Austin Westminster by Wayne at Kens Kars