An Ugo Zaldi Wedding Dress For A DIY Orchard Farm Wedding….

A few months back, I featured the wedding video of Tom and Claire, who had the most beautiful and dreamy wedding on an orchard farm.  The film was produced by Reellove Films, who made several wedding books as a result of the feature on Love My Dress {yay!}.  Today, I’m extra delighted to be featuring the couple’s wedding in full photographic glory, along with the story from the Bride and Groom.  And as an extra special treat, I’m re-featuring the video for you all to enjoy – simply because I love it so very much.

Tom and Claire tied the knot on 10 September 2011 with a ceremony at Broomfield Church in the Quantock Hills of Somerset, followed by a reception at Tom’s folks place, Roughmoor Farm in Taunton, Somerset.  I just love the relaxed, boho nature of this whole wedding, and the fact that so much of it was a DIY effort.  Claire told me that her addiction to wedding blogs was a great assistance in planning her wedding blog!  Tom’s background in stage management and Claire’s degree in events meant it all came fairly naturally…

“We met at Roughmoor when Claire was over from Australia WWOOFing (volunteering on organic farms scheme) there, and fell in love shovelling manure on the vege patch! When we got engaged we knew we had to have the reception there – apart from being beautiful, it gave us scope to make the wedding our own and do most of it DIY, whilst being a place that means so much to us.

After searching for a canvas marquee for ages, we eventually found one, in our budget, with a nearby village committee…”

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Film Production Copyright (c) 2011, Reellove Films

 Claire wore the most divine Ugo Zaldi wedding dress – a designer I have had my eye on for quite some time now.  She found her dress via Clifton Brides…

“I knew I didn’t want a big dress and I was after something floaty but still elegant. I fell in love with Jenny Packham dresses like most girls do, but couldn’t afford the price tag. Clifton Brides told me about Ugo Zaldi, as he does similar designs without the hefty pricetag. I tried the dress on and loved it!” 

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Rebecca Goddard + where indicated, Mawgan Lewis

“Our florist was a family friend.  We wanted an English country theme to the flowers and the cowparsley and sweet peas that were growing at Roughmoor Farm provided the starting point. From there we ordered £150 worth of flowers from Bristol Flower Markets, and with the help of good family friend Helen, spent the day before making bouquets, buttonholes and table pieces.

We’d been collecting jam jars for the year before so had lots of little vases of flowers dotted around the marquee, and some white pitchers from IKEA did the job for the church and after, as a lovely backdrop to the dance floor. Doing it ourselves saved us a lot of money and was such a fun way to spend time with the ladies the day before the wedding….”

I love the idea of writing a menu on a vintage mirror…

…and a table plan on old window pane! LOVE!

Aren’t these invites so so cute? All of Tom and Claire’s wedding stationery was designed by Tom’s Sister..

Claires sister made a chocolate mud cake, decorated with sweet peas from the garden…

 

“I decided against a veil and instead chose a vintage-style headpiece by Jenny Packham – I hired it for the weekend from Elegant Wedding Creations, saving us a few hundred pounds….”

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography {following 13 images} Copyright (c) 2012, Mawgan Lewis

  

“Mawgan Lewis was an old uni friend of the grooms and kindly did the main photos for us. And Frances of Reellove Films, our videographer, also surprised us by arranging to have some extra shots taken on the day by her assistant Beccy …” 

Claire’s bridesmaids dresses came from a variety of shops from the high street in both Australia and UK, including Kachel and Ted Baker…

“My bridesmaids all chose their dresses without me as they were all in Australia at the time-  luckily they all chose beautifully and while each one was different, the white brought it together…”

 

“The Groomsmen all wore suits from Marks and Spencer suits. None of the grooms had tried on their suits prior to the wedding day and, of course, they didn’t fit! Luckily the ceremony was in the afternoon so the boys had time for a quick shopping trip to sort it out…”

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – All Photography from hereon, Copyright (c) 2012, Rebecca Goddard

“Tom’s mother made all the food, for 120 people, in the months leading up to the wedding. It was then all frozen and a family member who happens to be a caterer in France, flew over to help oversee the serving of the food on the day, along with a team of volunteers who were all good friends of the grooms folks.

We had canapés and Pimms on the lawn (smoked salmon blinnis) then the meal started with goats cheese tarts with rocket and medulla jelly (medulas all from the garden); we got engaged in Morrocco so decided on a chicken, artichoke, olive and preserved lemon tagine for the main- served with lavendar and rose bread baked in flowerpots from Parsnip Ship (made a great centrepiece!).  Summer pudding with berries from the garden was for dessert…”

 

“We wanted everyone to be eating at the same time but didn’t have enough helpers for individual portions to be brought out at the same time. So other than the starters, the rest were served in big white pots for each table and then we nominated a ‘mum’ for each table (by putting a ladle on their chair), to oversee the dishing up of their tables plates. We wanted the food to be local, organic and home-grown where we could. A lot of it was grown at the farm or sources from small local producers. Late evening we served coffee and yet more goodies made by the grooms mum.

We asked guests to bring a bottle of wine to share and we put on lots of local scrumpy from Sheppy’s Cider Farm, the place we had our first date….”

How beautiful hey? Gorgeous light, a gorgeous couple, a wonderful setting, a dreamy, DIY filled, darling day… it doesn’t get much better.  I hope you have enjoyed looking through these photographs as much as I have.

Huge thanks to Frances of Reellove Films and Photographers Rebecca Goddard and Mawgan Lewis.

I’d LOVE to hear from any other Brides wearing Ugo Zaldi on their big day?  What about a DIY farm-based wedding – are there any more of you lovely lot planning something similar?

You can see many more DIY weddings and DIY Brides here…

Much love,

Annabel

♥

Photographer – Rebecca Goddard Photography + where indicated, Mawgan Lewis
Videographer – Reellove Films
Venue – Roughmoor Farm in Taunton, Somerset
Brides dress – Ugo Zaldi via Clifton Brides
Brides shoes – Pura Lopez
Brides accessories – Jenny Packham headpiece hired from Elegant Wedding Creations
Bridesmaids – Kachel + Ted Baker
Groom – Kenneth Cole + vintage bow tie
Flowers – Family Friend
Cake – Claire’s Sister
Stationery – Tom’s Sister
Entertainment – Hava Tequila
Catering – Grooms mother + Sheppy’s Cider Farm