Meg and Tom were married at Templars Barn, a historic venue in Berkshire, England. The pair chose the location particularly because the venue allowed them freedom to get creative. Both sides of the family contributed creatively, helping to create their invites, signage, bunting, and even homemade jam for favors! The images of their gorgeous day, shot by WOOKIE Photography completely capture the relaxed yet chic approach Meg and Tom took to their wedding. It’s all so gorgeous and sweet, we know you’ll adore!
What made the wedding special and unique?
Tom and I wanted our wedding to feel really personal, and not just about us but about our friends and family as well. We chose our venue, a rustic old barn in Berkshire, as it didn’t have a wedding events team or caterers attached to it – instead we could decide on our own décor, food, layout giving us free reign to create the wedding we wanted rather than walk into a ready made venue. Our venue wasn’t licensed for marriages so we did a quickie registry office ceremony the day before with family (which was such a lovely day!) and had a Humanist celebrant to do what we considered, our ‘proper’ ceremony on the actual day. She was brilliant as we could make the ceremony completely unique to us, which made it so special. We were able to choose the songs to sing (A Little Help from my Friends, The Beatles and Stand by Me, Ben E King) and some beautiful readings of our choice. We asked that the ceremony spoke a lot about our friends and family, as they are equally important to us as a couple.
Tell us about the dress and how/where you found it.
I had a lovely little shopping trip with my mum and best friend, and had a few ideas in mind but knew it would be hard to choose! I loved the idea of a lace dress so chose a beautiful Justin Alexander dress from a gorgeous shop in Epsom called Harrington and Cleur After the seamstress did her magic on reems and reems of material (I am 5ft) it was my perfect dress, and I felt gorgeous all day. If I could change anything it would be not to have such a big train, very hard to dance in after a few glasses of Prosecco!
What were some touches added to make it personal?
We wanted the day to feel very personal and keep costs as low as possible so we called on friends and family to help us out – Tom’s mum made all the beautiful bunting and my mum made home made jam from fruit from her garden for the favours. Tom’s sister hand designed and drew our save the dates, invites, table numbers and plan, and some amazing signs–you can check her work out here. We also asked a handful of friends and family to bring a cake for the pudding table, which were just delicious! Not having a wedding planner or venue team member looming over us all day also meant the day felt very personal and not constricted to others’ timings!
What was the most memorable part of the day?
So many – sounds very cliché but being able to look around the room at lunch time and see all the people we love in one room together, making a lot of happy noise! For me, walking down the aisle and seeing Tom’s face beaming was just perfect. Singing our favourite songs at the tops of our voices with everyone during the ceremony was also really special. My grandma is too old to travel so during my dad’s speech he played a video of her wishing us well, which was a very teary moment but really special to know she was there in spirit. The list could go on!
Tell us how you met and became engaged.
We met at University 10 years ago – Tom was a friend of my housemate’s and after a few coy looks in the uni bar we finally got together in our second year. About two years ago Tom and I went to Paris for a lovely long weekend and on our last night he popped the question on a bridge at midnight overlooking the sparkling Eiffel Tower. I was completely taken by surprise as I hadn’t envisaged Tom could be so cheesy!
Vendors: Photography: WOOKIE Photography // Dress Designer: Justin Alexander // Dress Shop: Harrington and Cleur // Flowers: WOOKIE Flowers // Venue: Templars Barn // Stationery: We Went Walking // Caterer: The Pot Kiln Anywhere // Music: The Secret Showband