LAURA WEARING MAGGIE SOTTERO JORIE
For her Essex barn wedding with a personal touch.
Laura & her husband Matt were married in August this year at the beautiful Great St Mary’s Church in Sawbridgeworth followed by a barn and outdoor wedding reception at Colville Hall, Essex, which involved a glitter bar, a prosecco bar and lawn games. The happy couple even judged their very own Great British Bake Off for their guests! (side note – loving this idea)!
FINDING THE DRESS
I had the absolute pleasure of helping Laura find her beautiful Maggie Sottero dress but I cannot take the credit in this instance as finding THE dress was actually down to her best friend and Matron of honour Cazz.
Here is what Laura had to say about her wedding dress shopping experience:
“Lots of people said before that they found it difficult or stressful. I loved it! I tried on 21 dress in one day in three different shops. The dress I ended up choosing – the ‘Jorie’ by Maggie Sottero – was the first dress I tried on that day. I loved it as soon as I put it on. It was just very ‘me’ – non-ivory (it was champagne), beaded and ‘different.’ I tried on a few ‘princess gowns’ which my Mum loved, but I just didn’t feel like me. I also wanted something I could dance in!” …..And do the limbo in obviously #priorities!
BOSSING THE DIY AND MAKING IT PERSONAL
Given how beautiful and professional everything looked when going through Lauras photos, I was very impressed to discover that she did so much of it herself. Serious DIY superstar here!… And what really made it extra special was all the personal touches you could find throughout so much of the day… For Laura this was her favourite part of the wedding planning:
“I made DIY glitter banners with pom poms on each end featuring the words ‘Drunk in Love’ for the bar and ‘Let’s Dance’ for the dance floor. My sister, made all of our signs throughout the venue. I ordered wooden lawn games and a teepee from eBay for guests to enjoy (luckily the sun came out all day!) and my father in law made a photo booth out of copper piping which I decorated with faux flowers.’’
‘’I loved thinking of the little touches. People said, ‘don’t sweat the small stuff,’ but I really cared about the little touches. We had a Prosecco bar for the reception where people could add fruit, syrups and edible glitter to their bubbles. All of the lawn games also went down so well, the limbo poll got broken by about 8pm though! The glitter bar went down a treat and people brought their own handmade cakes with them which me and my husband then judged, Bake Off style. We had different categories like ‘Groom’s Favourite’ and ‘Best Flavour’ which meant everyone won a prize. I also loved that the little touches reflected us and our relationship – our first date was to see Up at the cinema so we had a thumb print poster (which my friend and bridesmaid, Charlie, hand drew) of the Up house and the thumb prints made the balloons. We also had quizzes at the table for guests to answer, which acted as a good ice breaker on tables where friends had never met before.’’
We also had a nod to cats throughout the day (crazy cat lady, over here!) We had cat breed themed tables (e.g. our table was ‘Persian’ and we also had ‘Scottish Fold’ and ‘Bombay”). I also sprayed 80 plastic cats rose gold for the place settings and I made cat cookies for the Bake Off table.
A FAVOURITE MOMENT
Doing a speech! Why should the guys do all the talking at weddings? I am so glad I did one, even if I did cry during part of it. My Dad had a stroke a few years ago which left him unable to speak, so doing a speech was really important to me. It also meant I could say loads of nice things about myself, and my Dad couldn’t say anything about it, haha!
ADVICE FROM THE BRIDE
If you’re going to DIY certain aspects, don’t leave them to the last minute or it will be stressful. I had all of my decor packed away in labeled boxes a week before so I could dedicate the final days to making my cake, getting my nails done and eyebrows tinted and shaped!
Be calmer! I accidentally saw my husband on the morning of and got in a tizz about it being bad luck. Also, try not to get too merry, I definitely looked worse for wear by the end of the night, haha!
Don’t ‘over Pinterest.’ You could look at different ideas forever. Find elements you love and stick to them and do them well!
Make it personal to you. Guests loved the fact we had cat table names and a Bake Off table as these are personal to the things we love.
If you would like to view the full gallery of Laura & Matt’s wedding, click the button below (40 images)
