An English Country Garden Wedding — Buxted Park

Katie made all of her wed­ding recep­tion sta­tionery her­self, and the details made for a very beau­ti­ful day at one of England’s lux­ury wed­ding venues. I’m sure her lovely ideas will inspire some of you — it would be great if you leave a com­ment at the end of the blog post for Katie and Craig.

All of today’s images are by London’s Cecelina Pho­tog­ra­phy — my huge thanks to Cecelina for sub­mit­ting this wed­ding. The wed­ding report is halfway down this blog fea­ture, but before I launch into the words and pic­tures, I’d like to share Katie’s glow­ing review of the staff at Buxted Park wed­ding venue with you — because it’s so lovely:

“They can­not do enough to help you before, dur­ing and after the wed­ding day. It runs like clock­work with­out mak­ing you feel like “just another wedding”.”

An Eng­lish coun­try gar­den wed­ding — Katie and Craig

The wed­ding report: Katie and Craig’s Eng­lish coun­try gar­den wedding

Wed­ding venue: Buxted Park Hotel, Uck­field. Hand­picked Hotels chain
Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher: Cecelina Torn­berg
How would you describe your wed­ding style? Eng­lish coun­try gar­den with a hint of vintage

A lit­tle about the wed­ding ceremony:

It was a civil cer­e­mony in Buxted Park Hotel. We had one read­ing from Craig’s aunt. Katie’s nephew made every­one laugh a few times with some well timed talk­ing. The room was full of our clos­est friends and fam­ily. It felt very inti­mate, which is what we wanted.

Which read­ings did you choose? The magic of love by Helen Steiner Rice. Read by Craig’s aunt.

Tell us a lit­tle about your wed­ding venue styling and details:

Our florists “Pollen” www.pollenflowers.co.uk do a lot of wed­dings at Buxted Park Hotel and really know how to style the venue per­fectly no mat­ter what look you are going for. They took care of every­thing from our bou­quets to the chair cov­ers and sashes. I explained what I wanted and they under­stood exactly. Although it was an Octo­ber wed­ding we did not want dark colours. We still wanted it to be light and bright with­out being too summery.

Invi­ta­tions and recep­tion stationery:

The invi­ta­tions were from Vistaprint. They have lots of choice and styles. Recep­tion sta­tionery, I made all of it. I found the table name cards online and printed them. I also used this card for the table plan. The place cards were found on ebay. I then printed the names of the guests on to card and stuck them on each label. I really enjoyed doing this as it gave the day a per­sonal touch, even though the guests did not know I did it all!

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

Dur­ing the recep­tion drinks we had a jazz trio play­ing music, it was one of my brides­maids’ Uncle’s band. They played at her wed­ding and it really adds a nice touch to the day.

What did you wear?

Katie wore a Sot­tero and Midg­ley ivory silk satin gown. It had a sweet­heart neck­line with a beau­ti­ful band of crys­tals under the bust and a bal­loon hem. Shoes, ear­rings and bracelet were from Debenhams.

I wore a full length veil that was bor­rowed from one of my brides­maids. It was very spe­cial wear­ing such an impor­tant item from a dear friend.

I was sur­prised whilst get­ting ready by a gift from Craig — a gor­geous sin­gle dia­mond neck­lace. It was the icing on the cake.

Craig wore a din­ner suit from Next with a sage green shirt that the Ush­ers all wore. I got him an ivory silk hand­made tie from Gre­sham Blake to match my ivory dress.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

Walk­ing in to the cer­e­mony and ini­tially see­ing all our guests’ friendly faces, then see­ing Craig at the end of the aisle. I had to tell myself to hold it together and not ruin my make up!

Wed­ding day advice:

Try not to worry if every­one is enjoy­ing them­selves, they are! I spent a lot of time wor­ry­ing over every­one else that I for­got to relax at some points. All your guests will be so happy for you and shar­ing the spe­cial day with you that you really do not need to be con­cerned. Relax and take it all in!

Also be spe­cific about what you want, it is your day and the two of you should be 100% happy with every deci­sion you make. Don’t be talked out of some­thing you really want.

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

• Cecelina Torn­berg – pho­tog­ra­pher http://cecelinaphotography.com/
• Cake Mai­son – Emma Drew. Cake maker. Extremely friendly and help­ful with deli­cious cakes! www.cakemaison.co.uk
• Pollen – www.pollenflowers.co.uk Donal and Dex are incred­i­ble and know what they are talk­ing about. They sourced spe­cific roses for me as I could not have peonies.
• Buxted Park Hotel – the staff are bril­liant. They can­not do enough to help you before, dur­ing and after the wed­ding day. It runs like clock­work with­out mak­ing you feel like “just another wed­ding”. www.handpickedhotels.co.uk/hotels/buxted-park/