Emma-Lisa in Suzanne Neville Rosa for a chic romantic country house wedding

Our featured wedding today is just SO lovely. Emma-Lisa and Russell were married at the stunning Dewsall Court in Hereford in a chic romantic country house wedding, packed with beautiful flowers and luscious greenery – bringing the outdoors in in effortless style.

Emma-Lisa’s ‘Rosa’ wedding dress by Suzanne Neville was the perfect choice for their beautiful day, with the delicate rose patterned fabric echoing their gorgeous florals.

Over to Emma-Lisa to tell us all about it, in her own words…

SUZANNE NEVILLE ROSA WEDDING DRESS

Which dress did you choose in the end? The dress was a decision that took me a long time! However I knew almost straight away I wanted to buy a dress from Miss Bush. Their spectacular taste in designers alongside their phenomenal help meant I knew I would find ‘the one’ from them.

In the end I found 2 and put a deposit down with the team on the basis I had a few months to decide…

Both were Suzanne Neville dresses. Her dresses are just pure magic. The way they sculpt your body with such precision whilst not making you feel restricted is just amazing. They both had the same top structure as we worked out quite quickly what cut worked well on my body. In one corner we had Rosa; full skirted and oozed summer romance and then in the other; Emilie a fishtail number with which we were going to place an over skirt to create a wonderful full skirted visual effect and it made it so quirky and unusual. It was such a hard decision…but Rosa won. On the day of the wedding I couldn’t have imagined wearing the other dress, Rosa just fitted in so perfectly with the venue and honestly made me feel so so beautiful.

DRESS SHOPPING

In all honesty I look back on each visit now and notice signs that everyone who came with me to try the 2 dresses on; did prefer Rosa, but they were giving me the opportunity to decide for myself. My sister cried when she saw it, all my bridesmaids smiled so happily when they saw me in it and I never really had that reaction with the other dress.

But it was total strangers who helped me decide on the dress in the end….it was one of the last opportunities I had to come in and try on the 2 dresses before needing to make a decision to ensure it was made in time for our wedding and I was with my mum. The appointment before me were real chatter boxes and had a few questions to sort out before they left. Corinne asked me if that was ok which I had no issue with. I tried the Emilie on, showed mum, went back in and changed into Rosa and as I walked out I had the most wonderful reaction from the mother and daughter at the back of the Chapel. They gasped and said they couldn’t believe I was even considering anything but Rosa. And that was that. Decision made!

My favourite part was being able to explore all sorts of styles without the sales pressure. I also adored Corinne’s patience with me. It meant I never felt rushed or pressured which you can end up feeling in so many other bridal shops.

STYLING

I went for the glowy natural look. Make up was very minimalist with eyelash extensions. My hair was in a braided messy up do.

My shoes were from Freya Rose and they were the satin blue.

My Granny sadly passed away in June and she left me her blue opal earnings. One was already broken so took the gem to a local jeweller and made it into a simple drop necklace in white gold.

A ROMANTIC COUNTRY HOUSE WEDDING

We always wanted somewhere with a church, main house to accommodate a good portion of the bridal party and barn for the meal and Dewsall court had exactly those elements. We also wanted to have a 2-night celebration as we had a few guests flying in from overseas, so we wanted to elongate the fun. We had a Friday afternoon welcome drinks and evening meal followed by the wedding day, finishing with breakfast on the Sunday morning followed by everyone waving us off as we drove to the Airport to head for our mini moon in Sorrento.

We were also quite particular with the barn; we wanted an outdoorsy feel but didn’t trust the weather enough in September to have an outdoor wedding, so we wanted to bring the outside in. Dewsall Court’s barn has glass doors that run for almost half of the barn which helped achieve the outdoors in feel. We added in a canopy of lights in the barn to give it a bit of a stars in the sky feel (our first dance was Coldplay a sky full of stars acoustic) and then we had greenery flowing down from the barn beams with around 150 hanging glass balls with tealights in. The tables had green runners with around another 150 tealights in glass candle sticks. The tealights all bounced against the glass doors and really made the whole room feel so cosy and special. I’m a sucker for candles!!!

We wanted to reflect the glass effect in our invitations so we used vellum and so for our guest table names/favours we cut and sprayed copper pipe and ordered Perspex rectangles with everyone’s names in them to promote the glassy vibe.

In summary our style/colour pallet was very green white with some hues of pink and loads of candles.

THE BEST BITS

It’s not always the case but I spent pretty much the whole wedding day and night with my husband and loved every second of it. We were both told my both sets of parents make sure you go around and speak to all the guests and we totally didn’t (not intentionally I might add! We just got so swept up in our day). I just have so many special memories of just looking at Russ and smiling so much. It honestly was the most wonderful day and makes my heart feel so full thinking about it.

ADVICE FROM THE BRIDE…

A few tips from me:

– The last 2-3 months were pretty full-on wedding wise for us so make sure you make the time for the last few bits and don’t let it be stressful. Make sure you have 1 days’ worth of holiday to take in case you need it. You only get to do this once so savour every moment.

– Hold back 1 or 2 invitations and make sure they are blank as there are always last-minute changes.

– Get a videographer

– Pre-order a food shop to arrive on the day you either get back from your wedding or honeymoon so it makes it that bit more ok it’s all over. PS add in Ben and Jerry’s, it’s OK you are no longer dress conscious haha!