When Jessica started planning her wedding she knew she wanted a DIY wedding. Her family are very creative and the wedding was very much an extended family effort. This made the wedding preparation extra special as Jess knew she could call on them to help decorate the church and venue and make the wedding cake. But it wasn’t until we met and started working on her dream dress that the theme really came together. Taking inspiration from the forest setting of her Gloucestershire wedding and Jessica’s love of all things Japanese her gown featured handmade lotus flowers and vines over hand cut lace. The family then took this theme and interpreted it as they made the cake, decorations for the church and tables and even Japanese origami wedding favours.

Theme: autumn/forest
Colours: burgundy/brown/green/cream.

Church: St John the Baptist, Kingscote, Gloucestershire
Reception: Matara Centre, Kingscote, Gloucestershire

Bride’s dress: Elizabeth Bessant Couture
Church flowers, bride’s bouquet, bridesmaids’ flowers, corsages, buttonholes, incidental flowers: family friend and florist Fiona Turton with help of mother in law Paula Patterson

Bridesmaid dresses: Arabella in berry from Phase Eight with wraps from Accessorize
Flower girls: RJR John Rocha dresses & cardigans in ivory from Debenhams

Venue the Matara Centre in the Cotswolds: wedding breakfast and late night hog roast https://matara.co.uk/cp/weddings/
Matara Centre centre decor: both sides of the family took on this job: Cheese wedding cake: The Cheese Shed
Wedding cake: each layer baked to a different recipe by family members including the bride’s mother Linda and her grandma Evie, mother of the groom Paula and Jessica, iced by mum Linda and sugar flowers made by Jessica and her sister Kirsty.
Entertainment: Ceilidh Band
Dance music was a mix tape made by Emily Dongray (and played by a DJ friend of Will’s brother)
Photography: James Fear Photography, Cheltenham
Video: Foster Filming, Devon

Jessica, bride wearing Elizabeth Bessant Couture wedding dress and silk velvet cloak for her winter wedding

Jessica, bride wearing Elizabeth Bessant Couture wedding dress with wellies for the forest walk

THE BRIDE

Jessica, the bride: I had a particular idea in mind for my dress but I just couldn’t see anything I liked on the high street.

Then a family friend, Fiona Turton, who helped with all the flowers for the church and my bouquet, saw a wedding dress hanging in Elizabeth Bessant’s couture showroom and thought the style was exactly what I wanted. The rest is history!

Family friend, Fiona made my bouquet and helped decorated the church and venue with my mother in law Paula.

My dress was couture but the wedding itself was very DIY, I drew and designed the stationery, map of the venue, menus, order of service etc.

THE DESIGNER

I got on straight away with my designer Elizabeth Bessant. I loved that I was able to play a big part in the designing of my dress.

I am passionate about everything Japanese and wanted lotus flowers incorporated into the design.

Elizabeth painstakingly made silk lotus flowers, hand painted with a blush tint and stitched to my dress with pearl centres.

Hand cut and painted vines were sewn to sheer sleeves making it appear that the vines twisted around my arms. Vines also draped over my dress.

I also had a long veil edged with flowers and vines to walk down the aisle pinned in place by a crown of real flowers.

I felt like I had walked out of a fairy story.

BRIDESMAIDS

I had five bridesmaids, two flower girls and a ring bearer, my little nephew Caleb.

Originally, I wanted forest green dresses but the colour changed when I found deep wine red dresses at sale price – I liked that these were in tune with Autumn and changing colours and berries and it was a really flattering colour for all my bridesmaids – plus it’s a colour that features a lot in Japanese design.

Jessica, bride wearing Elizabeth Bessant Couture wedding dress and veil

THE GROOM

Will and his father Tony wore McLaren tartan kilts because Will’s family have Scottish connections. My mother in law Paula hired a kilt for Chris the best man – a friend of both of ours from Durham University – that vaguely matched the McLaren tartan. We had five ushers: two of Will’s brothers and a great friend of Will’s who also wore kilts, plus my two brothers who refused to wear a kilt but said on the day that they wished they had done.

WALKING TO THE RECEPTION

For the walk through the forest to the reception, I had an ivory silk velvet cape with lotus flowers and vines winding around the hood and draping over the shoulders also made by Elizabeth Bessant – and little white wellies to cope with the mud. My bridesmaids were kept busy holding up the dress and veil but eventually, Will decided it was time to carry his bride! The ultimate romantic gesture……..

Jessica’s bonsai table decorations

Jessica’s origami lotus flower favours

RECEPTION

We chose the venue because of its’ oriental themes and also because we wanted to be able to walk from the church to the reception preferably through woodland. When we saw Matara Centre we fell in love with it. Also they were happy for us to decorate the room how we wanted. We used lots of ivy in the church and also to decorate the reception area. Small trees on slices of wood were used as table centre pieces with dried burgundy flower petals scattered on the tables. Woods were used for the table names (top table was the Hundred Acre Wood). My mother in law Paula made all 180 origami lotus flowers and filled them with sugared almonds – a nod to my love of all things Japanese and sugared almonds for the Italian on Will’s mother’s side of the family. The place names were written on real leaves and I made the table decorations – bonsai trees decorated with moss and fairy lights

THE CAKE

Me and my sister Kirsty who was one of my bridesmaids went on a cake decorating course the week before the wedding to learn how to make sugar flowers and forest creatures with a Japanese influence. I love everything Japanese and that is where we went for our honeymoon.

My dress featured handmade lotus flowers and vines over hand cut lace. I took this theme and interpreted it when I iced and decorated my wedding cake. The tiers of cakes were made by different members of my family each making a different flavour.

CHALLENGES

Making sure that we allowed for bad weather (such as having cars by the church, advising guests about wellies, a cloak and wellies for me etc) and being prepared for things to change suddenly. Also the early sunset meant the guests never really got to enjoy the grounds.

SPECIAL MOMENTS

Will choking up with tears during the vows; Max Wong playing a beautiful violin piece during the signing of the register; walking through confetti scattered by our guests as we walked through the woods; the best man’s speech when he presented Will with a tray of dried insects; the first dance to theme from Up, the marvellous fireworks and the ceilidh!

PROPOSAL

Will proposed to me in a cave system in Tenerife and then he had to do it again on the beach a few minutes later so we could take some photos!