Today’s real wedding is none other than bridal supplier Hannah who owns and runs Enamelware Events who had the most magical woodland wedding.

Hannah + Tom’s Story

It is quite a long story! We met through Hannah’s sister as Tom and her went to the same university. But it was about 6 years later – after times of living abroad, the wrong timing, and so on, that we actually came together and started dating. A key moment was us both ending up in a small town at the same time after graduating, both knowing nobody and it starting our friendship properly.

Our engagement. We decided we wanted to go on a canoeing trip. We settled on Scotland and decided to take a couple of days at the end of the trip to visit some places. Hannah found Eilean Donan Castle which ended up being the spot where Tom proposed! It was a stunning place, and after a week of Canoeing, wild camping, one campsize, and fighting to stay alive (yes, it was fierce out there!) on Loch Ness, it was a firm “Yes” from Hannah to the proposal. We made a great team.

The Woodland Wedding Venue

We had quite a few requirements that proved hard to fulfill in a venue but we found Moor Farm, Gloucester as it ticked all the boxes

• Space for an outdoor wedding
• Happy for us to plant a tree during the ceremony
• Indoor space that could hold up to 200 people
• Would allow us to bring in our own caterers
• Accommodation on site (Hannah and her bridesmaids slept in safari tents overnight)
• Near to Tom’s parents’ house so that he and his family could stay there over the weekend
• Plenty of parking
• Near to Bristol
• Happy for us to do our own thing during the ceremony

They were great on the day! Because we had terrible wet and windy weather, they were flexible with using more of their spaces. So the teas and coffees and cake after the ceremony were served in their conservatory at the side of the farmhouse and the bar relocated to in a cowshed. It was so fun to discover the bar there!

The Theme

I guess our theme could be called woodland rustic. We loved lots of greenery alongside rich reds and golds. We found some inspiration on Pinterest from woodland themed inspiration shoots. 

Hannah had bought enamel dinnerware to start her business Enamelware Events so that added some fun and lightness to the tables.

We had Emma Chapman-Burnett from Yonder Collective help coordinate on the day and also set up our styling (including the floral arch) which really helped our vision come together.

We had friends make things for us – our friend Sarah of We Are Hairy People made a huge fabric banner for us that hung behind us in the barn, based on Tom’s design.

Our friend Joel of Asaph Woodworks made an amazing wooden arch that we hung fabric and flowers on for our ceremony. 

The Dress

I choose the Catherine Deane, ‘Harley’ dress. The shop was Flossy and Willow in Bradford on Avon, which has now merged with their sister company Perfect Day Bridal.

I just couldn’t let go of the CD dress once I had felt that soft silk netting! It felt really luxurious and it felt good to be in. It was a really nice combination of soft and quite loose fitting, kind of boho/1920’s feel, but then it pulled it in at the waist so that it had some shape to it. I loved the back with the little buttons, the floral pattern underneath the netting and the beading on the top is stunning. There’s also a bit of a rose-gold tint to the lining so it warmed it up quite a bit. 

I chose not to have a veil but got hair accessories from Hermione Harbutt instead. I also got bespoke earrings made to match the separate hair comb which had an art deco / 1920s feel.

The Hair + Makeup

I had my friend Ally do my hair we did several tests to make sure the hair accessories would sit well with it. I chose to have my hair down and flowing to fit with the informal outdoor farm wedding setting.

Elle Hitchens did my make up, she has amazing reviews and after doing two trials with her I felt very comfortable. I also didn’t take off my wedding makeup for 24 hours I loved it so much!

The Maids

I went for a mix of sage green-coloured dresses. I got some Adrianna Papell dresses in John Lewis sale but there weren’t quite enough so the other three found dresses to suit them in Zara and Asos. They had their own shoes – a mix of silver sandals and heels.

The Men

It took some time to work out where to get the suits from. Tom wanted a well-fitted suit and a bright blue, which just wasn’t coming up in the rental options. In the end we found the ideal one at Moss Bros, but to buy. We got the same design for all of the ushers (6 including best man) too.

We got the floral ties from The Style Hub Trends on Etsy.

The Photographer + Videographer 

Matt + Esther, took the photos and Vanilla Bear Films shot the video both are good friends of ours. 

The Florals

Lily Violet May – she has a stall at Bristol Temple Meads train station and I always used to love walking past and wanting to buy all of the arrangements! I used the bridesmaids’ bouquets as table flowers in vases (from Tiger) which became their presents to take home at the end of the night.

The Cake

My mother in law made our ‘cake’! It was a 4-tiered pavlova with raspberries and fruits and cream. 

The Food

I ended up finding Smoke Catering through searching for street food vendors in Bristol. We wanted something delicious and interesting but affordable. We visited them at one of their stalls to try it and were sold! We had pulled pork and salmon, beetroot burgers for the veggie/vegans, with lovely coleslaw salads and slow-cooked sweet potato.

I bought lots of ice cream for dessert to have with the pavlova and caramel stroopwafels.

The Stationery 

That was Tom, my husband, a graphic designer. He made the invites on a 2-sided A5 card (including special gold printing), printed place cards and order of services. For the save the date he created a graphic and we used paperlesspost.com  to send the RSVPS out.

The Entertainment

An amazing eight-piece ceilidh band with a caller called Three Penny Bit – got everyone dancing!

The Ethical Bit

I chose to get enamelware for the meal. Hiring china plates was actually really expensive and didn’t really achieve the look we were after. We could have had coconut palm plates or boxes as we essentially had street food, but we still wanted a bit of formality. I now hire the enamelware out Enamelware Events.

We used biodegradable bowls for the pudding though just to save our friends that little bit more washing up! That worked really well. 

I would recommend making sure you have a bin system set up – one for recycling, one for waste, so it starts off well even on set up day.

The Best Bit

At the end of the ceremony, we had people write blessings/advice to us on leaf-shaped post-it notes. They then walked up to put them on us. Because it was so windy they weren’t sticking so they were flying around like actual leaves! The words were lovely to read the day after our wedding. 

Is there anything you would do differently?

Probably not getting ready in the barn on the morning of the wedding where the meal would be in the evening – turned out lots of people needed to come in and set stuff up – including my mother in law which wasn’t ideal! It meant it was quite hard to switch off from things that needed doing, it was also really cold! 

The Advice

I advice (especially if you having a DIY wedding) making a really clear plan once things are in place – I made a 3-4 page (!) a few days before our wedding running through for the best man and key people to have that marked out what was happening when and what jobs needed doing by who, and also for the pack down the day after. I visualised myself walking through my wedding and running through things along the way. I delegated little things too like lighting the candles and serving out drinks – these things can be easily forgotten! This allowed me to really hand it over, and if it wasn’t on those sheets, then they would just have to improvise.

Oh what a gorgeous DIY wedding! Hannah and Tom thought of all the small details and it looks like they had the best day. A big thank you to photographers Matt + Esther for allowing us to share these beautiful images of the big day. Click here to see more examples of great wedding destinations on Adam Fayed’s finance blog, one of my regular reads.