Charlene and Michael's Rustic & Pretty Summer Wedding....

Charlene and Michael's Rustic & Pretty Summer Wedding....

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Good Morning Lovely People,

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.

We have a beautiful wedding to share with you all today that is going to leave you pining for the summer already!

Charlene and Michael said 'I do' at the gorgeous House Meadow in Kent on a beautiful summers day in June 2014. Their wedding, captured perfectly by Divine Day Photography, is full to the brim of homemade touches, quirky detail and the most gorgeous colour palette of dusky pinks, coral and peach shades with just a hint of gold. Their wedding cake, which was the inspiration behind their entire colour scheme, is a work of art with it's gorgeous ombre ruffled tier and cascading flowers and I have completely fallen in love with the bridesmaid dresses. There is alot to love about this wedding and I haven;t even mentioned the vintage wood fired pizza van!

Charlene tells us all about it....

Michael proposed on Christmas Day, we opened our presents, taking it in turns and then the last one was for me. I opened it up and Michael got down on one knee and popped the question...best Christmas ever!

Our Florists, Frida and Sophia, gave us some beautiful big blooms based on the colour palette of the cake. The bridesmaids had smaller versions of my bouquet and the Groomsmen, Dads, Mums and Pageboys had peony buttonholes and corsages. As well as our centrepieces, Frida and Sophia decorated the swing by the lake, our table plan and dotted some individual flowers all over.

After trying on about 30 dresses, I found a ruffled dress by Sottero and Midgely online and then rang around to find a shop that had it - I had to wait about a month before I could try on a sample but when I did I fell in love and ordered it immediately. A few months later when my dress came in, I started to get some wobbles at my fitting about how big it was and whether I was brave enough! Luckily, I stuck with it and am so glad that I did! It felt amazing on the day, people were asking me if it was heavy, but I honestly didn't notice, I was just so happy in it!

I had visions of twisting my ankle walking down the aisle or sinking into the grass, so for my shoes I went for sensible flats by Jenny Packham No. 1. I also had some leopard print wellies as a back up in case of bad weather, but didn't need them in the end!

We wanted something relaxed, informal and fun. We didn't want anything too traditional and intimidating because we just wanted to enjoy our day! We wanted plenty of food, good music and pictured people drinking and chatting outside and then lots of dancing going on inside!

I started out reading a few magazines for inspiration but ended up much preferring wedding blogs and Pinterest for inspiration. I loved looking at real weddings and what other people had created and getting ideas from lots of different places and interpreting them to suit us.

The venue itself was really pretty and didn't need much decoration, but we made sure that there were plenty of fairy lights in the barn, which looked beautiful in the evening.

There were quite a few things that we ended up making ourselves, some in advance and then others with the help of some of our friends on the day before, putting all the little touches together - it was a lot of work but worth the effort!

For the ceremony, we made little bags for each guest which had an order of the day and petal confetti inside. Our friends also painted a wedding sign which matched the style of our invites.

For the seating plan, Michael used my parents' old dining table and turned it into a complicated string affair which took ages to make but looked brilliant!

One of my favourite things was the bar that my Dad built for us and the blackboard drinks menu that Michael made to hang on the front. It was so useful, we used it as the dessert bar during the meal, then turned it into the drinks bar afterwards.

For the tables, we had flowers as our centrepieces, homemade table numbers and tea lights. We gave little boxes of macaroons for favours, tied up with string and a label to double up as a place name. For the kids, we put together little goody bags which contained crayons, pads, puzzles, bubbles and tongue tattoos.

For the guestbook, we bought a Fujifilm Instax camera for guests to play with and fill up a wooden guestbook that we got from Etsy. One of the best men, wrote a little poem of instructions which we displayed in a frame. Its such a nice memento, we love how the pictures start off nice and sensible and then the back pages are filled with drunken poses!

We love Italian food and as our honeymoon was in Italy, we decided to go with an Italian theme for the catering. We served Florence Fizz cocktails and bottles of Peroni for the welcome drinks, alongside a nibbles table after the ceremony with olives, breads and oil and vinegars.

We found a lovely wood-fired pizza van called Pizza Amore for the evening food. The owner, turned out to be a chef with 20 years experience, so we asked him if he could do the food for the main meal as well. So we had antipasti sharing platters to start and then roast lamb, roast potatoes and salads for the main meal.

For dessert, we asked some of friends and family to make us their signature pudding for our dessert bar; they all tasted amazing and looked gorgeous all laid out. Then in the evening everyone tucked into the pizza from the van which hit the spot after a few drinks!

This first thing we chose was the design of the cake after finding a picture online, which then inspired the whole colour palette of the wedding! We had three tiers with an ombre ruffled bottom tier and flowers cascading down the front, by Flossie Pops Cakery.

We had an acoustic duo, Danny and Matt Acoustic Covers, to play during the ceremony and then again at the reception, followed by a DJ. We wanted something relaxed and chilled to start but then something to get the party going after a few drinks!

We loved everything about the day so it's hard to pick! One of my favourite parts was after the ceremony when we had a few minutes alone to walk over to the drinks area before everyone came over to congratulate us and the festivities began!

We loved seeing all of our friends and families together chatting and laughing, it was a beautiful thing to watch!

The first thing we have said to our engaged friends is to get the best photographer you can afford. Also an on the day co-ordinator for this type of wedding is a must, so that you can relax and enjoy your day. It's great to get your loved ones involved too. It was so nice to look around and see all of the elements that our friends and family had contributed.

Venue: The House Meadow
Photographer: Divine Day Photography
Brides Dress: Sottero and Midgely
Bridesmaid's Dresses: Coast & ASOS
Groom: Suit - Reiss; Shirt & Tie - Ted Baker
Caterer: Pizza Amore
Flowers: Frida and Sophia Floral Design
Cake: Flossie Pops Cakery
Music: Danny & Matt Acoustic Covers Duo

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