Luxe & Traditional Pink & Gold Wedding

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Looking for classic and luxe wedding ideas? Well I have the perfect wedding to get your creative juices flowing this morning.

WWW readers Lizzy and Ben were married on the 20th September 2014 at Sherborne Abbey followed by a reception at Brympton House in Somerset. They envisioned a traditional yet glamorous day. Think sequin table clothes, opulent rose florals and candlelight.

In fact the lighting is one of my favourite elements of this wedding, which had love lights, candles and fairy lights galore. Teamed with stylish attire, a statement tiered cake and gorgeous stationery it made for the prettiest décor.

Thanks today goes to Anna Taylor for kindly sharing her wonderful imagery.

THE PROPOSAL | By candlelight in the restaurant where we went on our first date. Lizzy cried.. a lot.

THE VISION | Think traditional wedding, but a little more relaxed - with touches of glamour. Colour wise, we knew we wanted nudes pinks and golds. The ceremony was always going to be very grand being in Sherborne Abbey (Lizzy went to school there so we were very lucky to be able to get married in such an amazing place), so we wanted the reception to continue the traditional theme, but also be a little more relaxed. We were also keen to have close family and friends with us as long as possible, so decided early on that we wanted to have a wedding weekend.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We had a very clear idea of what we wanted to do. The venue were amazing with helping us plan the day as well. The flowers and styling were all done in-house so they really helped us bring our ideas to life.

We were given a wedding planning folder which we found helpful and Google Spreadsheets became our new best friend!

Pinterest played a big part but some of the ideas we got from there were shall we say a little unachievable....!

THE VENUE | Brympton House, Somerset - for the weekend (Friday night until Sunday morning)

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress was "where love lives" by Stewart Parvin. It was very traditional and elegant. For the Abbey I had a lace bodice, which I took off following the ceremony. I had a floor length veil for the ceremony by Stewart Parvin, and a Dior bow belt. I swapped this belt for a crystal Stewart Parvin belt later in the day to add a bit of sparkle!

Accessories, I went for a floor length veil to match the atmosphere of the Abbey, and wore flowers in my hair. Jewellery wise - I wore vintage rings, watch and earrings given to me by my mother. They were my something borrowed (and blue in the case of the sapphire ring).

Oh and I had a very naughty pair of Jimmy Choos #idoinchoo ☺

FINDING THE DRESS | I only had to go into one shop to find the dress - Carina Baverstock Couture. They were amazing and helped me find the dream dress. As soon as I tried it on I knew it was perfect. I definitely shed a few tears, as did my Maid of Honour.. who NEVER cries!!

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Traditional Morning Dress with a pink tie (to tie in with the colour scheme).

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We asked two close friends to do the readings and wanted them to pick their own readings. We had one religious and one non-religious, Sophie Rice (one of the bridesmaids) read the bible passage - Corinthians 1:13 which was beautiful. My friend Holly Baker then read a beautiful passage called "What is Love" - which was lovely.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I had 4 bridesmaids, my maid of honour Katie, my school friend Sophie, my sister Sarah and my niece Willow (who is 11). They wore navy maxi dresses from Coast with embellished belts and all looked beautiful.

THE FLOWERS | Emily from Brympton House did the flowers. I love peonies (which were out of season) so we went for big roses with lots of layers in them, in nudes and pink flowers.
The bouquets were beautiful - the bride bouquet was more vibrant than the bridesmaids bouquet and larger to stand out.

THE CAKE | Cakes by Samantha - we went for a 4 tier cake with different fillings for each tier. My favourite layer was the red velvet with chocolate ganache. It was so tasty! Samantha also created amazing sugar flowers that we still have at home now!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Anna Taylor. Benj found Anna online and we just loved her style of photography. She stayed with us all day on Saturday and was great at making sure we got all of the "posed" and group shots we wanted, as well as snapping lots of natural photographs of people enjoying the day. She was super organised meaning we could completely trust her to capture all our special moments of the day. Looking at the photographs now, there are some in there which I didn't imagine we would ever have of ourselves (the shot under the fairy lights being one of those!!) and we are so happy with all of them.

THE DETAIL & DÉCOR | We wanted the reception dinner to be more formal and glamorous, with sequin table runners and floral displays. Moving into the evening light was really important for us, so we had lots and lots of candles inside to get the room glowing, as well as lanterns lighting the path from the dinner to the evening dancing (which was in the Orangery). In the evening the fairy lights were carried on into a canopy across the courtyard, as well as being the only light on the dance floor.

Other décor we had were a sweets cart, which went down like a treat! As well as fire pits where guests could roast marshmallows in the evening, and lawn games in the day. These were the parts of the day that we wanted to include to make sure that the day felt relaxed as well as traditional and we were really surprised by just how many people took part in the games and marshmallow roasting!

THE HONEYMOON | We splashed out on two weeks in Dubai as it has the perfect mix of beach, city and guaranteed sunshine. We stayed at The Arabian Court, part of The One & Only Royal Mirage which was incredible, followed by a desert retreat at Bab Al Shams, which was all camels, sand and shisa.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The horse and carriage that took us part way from the Abbey to the reception. (I love horses and had horses growing up). It gave us time to be together just the two of us and have a bit of a chill. Also my dad's speech where he referred to the 3 "loves of my life" prior to Ben - George, Mac and Luke, which he led everyone to believe were boys, but they were actually my horses!! Finally walking down the aisle of the Abbey and seeing Benj. I don't think I'll ever forget that!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Take time to spend just the two of you and enjoy every minute of the day and the planning, (even in the last few weeks when you might be feeling the stress...). It all seems to go so quickly, especially the day, and I am glad we tried to cherish every moment.

Also, don't spend time worrying about what might go wrong. Things will (a bottle of champagne exploded all over my bridesmaids when they were all ready, spraying make-up, hair and dresses!) but the day is so special that it won't matter!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Anna Taylor

Cake | Cakes by Samantha

Dress designer | Stewart Parvin

Dress Boutique | Carina Baverstock

DJ | Andy from Stylish Entertainment

Car Rentals | The Wedding Car Collection

Grooms Apparell | Mix of Own morning dress for Groom, Father of Bride & Best Man and hired from Moss Bros for ushers)

Make-up (bride and bridesmaids) | Gemma Sutton

Hair | Melanie Giles Frome (Maddie)

Venue | Brympton House

Styling | Ellie @ Brympton House