a gold and sequin humanist wedding in norfolk | uk wedding blog

Morning!! Oh Rachel and Andrew went allll out with the gold and sparkles for their wedding. There is also not a bloody paper pom pom in sight, woo hoo! Rach and Andrew chose some of my favourite suppliers for their wedding, from Twobirds dresses to a Hummingbird Bakery cake. Yes please.  On top of all of the pretty stuff, they had the cutest first look session before the wedding. Also Rachel, your questionnaire was the best I have had submitted in years, perfectly filled out with all the links. Gold star for you.

photography | Fuller Photography 

Making Brides Smile – Facebook shop

Make up by Kristianne

Hair by Nikki of Amanda Steed Hair and Make-Up, Bridesmaids hair by Amanda Steed

Samantha Powell at The Little Flower Shop, Norwich – bouquets and buttonholes.

I left finding a florist quite late in the day; I didn’t imagine that they’d get booked up! I found Samantha via Instagram and adored her style. I wanted a sweetly scented bouquet with lots of texture and beautiful colors plus an abundance of trailing ribbons. Boy  – she did a great job! I had a selection of herbs, foliage and roses assembled in an unstructured wild design. The pretty roses added a hue of color, which complemented the Bridesmaids dresses beautifully. They arranged smaller versions for the Bridesmaids and a super mini one for the flower girl, which she looked so pretty holding. Luckily, Sam had given me a menu of the flowers she planned to use which helped me to buy similar foliages and flowers for the tables.

The venue flowers were bought from Triangle Nurseries, who delivered the flowers a few days beforehand. This led to panic hunting for buckets to help condition the flowers! My Sister, Elly, who then helped to arrange the flowers into the vases I had been collecting the past few months, organized this expertly. I wanted to have single stems in the vases and she really made the tables looked beautiful. Again, I wanted people to remember the smell of my wedding so opted for stocks; sweet peas and eucalyptus to hopefully bring them back to our day!

Emsley by Sottero and Midgley, purchased at Pure Brides, Norwich. I wanted a floaty, ethereal dress, which I eventually found in Pure Brides. I wanted a dress with straps so had it altered by local seamstresses Sisters with Scissors in Stalham. I lost about 10kgs in the lead up to the wedding (stress, anxiety and slimming world) which meant they had quite a lot of adjusting to do, however they kept a cool head about it and did such a lovely job that you wouldn’t have known it’d be altered. 

Shoes – Jude by Emmy London.  In the build up to the wedding, I attended a few wedding shows and was lucky enough to win £450 towards a purchase at Emmy. At the time I hadn’t realized how much of a coveted prize this was, but when I started looking online I discovered the world of Emmy. I visited the Emmy boutique and was lucky enough to have a personal experience with Emmy herself, who guided me through selecting the right pair of shoes. I knew I wanted flat shoes and luckily she had just brought out the beautiful Jude style. A blush pink sandal with all the typical glitz and detail found in Emmy’s coveted footwear, I ordered a pair on the spot. 10 weeks later I had my beautiful shoes delivered, I was in love!

Hair vine from Bonny Bride – Etsy shop.  I didn’t want a traditional piece and also didn’t want to spend a great deal so I did my research and found Bonny Bride online. I bought a matching bracelet, which I didn’t wear in the end (got caught in my dress when I was about to leave for the venue)

Veil – Britten Weddings – church length. I really wanted to feel ‘bridey’ so opted for this lovely veil, which even though it fell off when I was coming up the aisle (typical) I felt it really brought my dress together.

First look photographs taken at East Ruston Old Vicarage Gardens, Norfolk. We visited the gardens during our engagement and fell in love! The gardens are beautifully designed with different themed areas around every corner. We could have spent all day there getting snapped.

I loved the experience of the ‘first look’; I’m so pleased we made time for this to happen. I felt much more comfortable and confident having already seen Andrew before the ceremony, plus we managed to capture some gorgeous images, which we adore.

‘Our First Look’ we’d decided to have our first look and portrait photographs done before our ceremony, to allow us to spend more time with our guests during the reception. We chose the East Ruston Old Vicarage Gardens after visiting them the summer prior previously, which is a beautiful venue with a different garden and theme around every corner. We had part one of our engagement shoot there and so knew the areas we wanted to use.

Anna, (MOH) drove me whilst the other bridesmaids were still getting ready and we met Karen there. She’d already positioned Andrew where she wanted and I just slowly approached him with Karen capturing every moment. It was so intimate seeing Andrew before everyone else and the smile on his face I will never forget. We then had more photographs taken in the gardens at different spots; we will treasure these images forever, as they are so beautiful.

In hindsight, this was the only time during the wedding that I actually got to spend with Andrew! Even with Karen snapping away with us (and Anna crying in the back ground), I felt like it was just us there and I felt much more relaxed going into the ceremony having already seen Andrew a little while before. A must for any nervous Bride.

Karen Fuller of Fuller Photography was one of the first suppliers we booked – two years in advance to ensure we had her secured! Karen had already photographed both of my Sister’s weddings so we knew we were in great hands. She put such a great deal of work into our engagement shoots and on the day she kept me sane! The images captured are spectacular and we will treasure them forever. When we looked at the photographs it really brought back the emotions of the day and I can’t wait to design our album together!

Sparkly chic, golds, champagne, silver, rose gold, blush gold.

I scoured blogs and Pinterest for most of our engagement, saving ideas I liked and making mental notes. I began sourcing lanterns and hurricane vases whenever I saw them, eventually making me forget what I had bought. The theme eventually developed into being about the bling when I found some beautiful mercury votives on eBay – I was instantly in love with sparkle.

I’d seen a few stylists use mini posie and bud vases with single stems of flowers and herbs and they looked so elegant. This brought about hunting for mini vases in charity shops and eBay. Like a maniac I managed to find over 60 vases. I wanted the barn to smell beautiful, so selected some lovely eucalyptus, stocks, roses and sweet peas to invigorate the senses. We selected similar flowers to those used in my bouquet to have continuation within the look. I also used the Rosie by Autograph candles from Marks and Spencer, which bring me straight back to my wedding day whenever I smell them.

Andrew and I both enjoy essential oils to scent our apartment and so chose to name our tables after our favourite. A relative made the table names, Andrew expertly sprayed these gold – his fave job. We had bespoke names places made in a similar style by VMBespoke (found on facebook), these doubled up as favours too – winner! 

I wanted to have some pieces reflect my job as a nurse so found some old ceramic bedpans, which we filled with candles – much to my Father in Laws disgust! I thought they looked awesome though!

I didn’t want to have pompoms or bunting so looked for inspiration elsewhere. We settled on buying fairy lights, which we hung around the barn. These looked amazing as you could still see the gorgeous brickwork behind them. We also made some tassel garlands with gold and patterned tissue paper which we hung from the railings and across the walls, these looked smashing! Clear baubles were filled with glitter and electric candles, which were strung up around the venue, which I thought looked great and will probably re-use on our Christmas tree!

The tablecloths were found on eBay, these were bought from an English seller via China and I think I got a pretty good deal. I would have loved to use the sequin tablecloths, which went to the floor, but gosh they are spendy so found an overlay, which worked out at a 1/3 of the price. They really brought the room together!

The LOVE letters were from Lou Lou Loves Vintage hire, which we used in our ceremony backdrop and for some candid pictures in the evening.

Heather  – Twobirds and Lilac Tulle – Twobirds

Suit by Hackett London 

Shoes by Russell and Bromley

Flower girls – Monsoon 

Dairy Barns, Hickling, Norfolk.

What a location! Minutes from the seaside and surrounded by beautiful green fields, plus being on a working farm made it a must for Andrew and myself. The barn is usually a bed and breakfast with a lovely selection of rooms, which meant that our friends and family could also stay over for the weekend. The host, Hannah Deane, was very welcoming and helped us to create the perfect day, nothing was too much and on the day I didn’t have a worry in the world – everything was just done! Our guests appreciated the endless Prosecco and varieties of canapés after the ceremony, plus the hog roast, which went down a treat! We had such a fantastic stay and can’t wait to return.

Gold laser cut individual names (also used as place settings!) 

Hummingbird Bakery, London

Hog roast from Cawdrons of Stalham and Dairy Barns, Hickling

Evening catering – Beefed Up Catering, who served awesome burgers and chips to help soak up the alcohol

Harry from DiscoWed – DJ

Vivace String Quartet, Norwich

(Andrew said, “Do as wife tells you” ha ha.)

Towards the end of the planning process I began to feel quite stressed about the whole idea of the wedding (will everyone turn up, will there be enough food, how will people get home, what bit do I walk in at?!) I started to take time every week to do something non-wedding related such as a massage, facial or wine with friends. Our first dance lessons helped as well to re-focus my energy on spending enjoyable time with Andrew rather than panicked conversations before bed.