Our featured wedding today is Milly and Hugh's lovely, elegant and natural Gate Street Barn wedding, which showcases the work of a host of wonderful local suppliers. With a gold and emerald colour palette in honour of the Groom's Irish heritage, the styling focused on lots of gorgeous greenery, ferns and foliage, resulting in a natural, elegant and timeless look.
Milly's Suzanne Neville Nouveau wedding dress was the perfect choice in keeping with the day, with a perfect fit and classic elegance.
Read on to find out more about their day, and Milly's dress, in the brides own words, with photography by Shooting Hip.
Suzanne Neville Nouveau wedding dress
I chose to Suzanne Neville's nouveau. I absolutely loved it as soon as I saw it. It is the perfect combination between classy and a bit different. Together, the cut of the dress, the inbuilt corset and the pleats made the dream wedding dress. Id never seen anything like it!
I felt incredible in it and made a 5ft3 woman feel tall and elegant.
I brought my Mum, three bridesmaids (two of which had been bush brides the previous year) and my big brother. I loved that he wanted to come, and it made the experience even more exciting.I always thought I would go for a dress with a big skirt and sleeves, but I felt like a little girl dressing up instead of a woman getting married. I tried on a lot of dresses on my first appointment, all of which I liked but none that were standing out. I spotted the nouveau on the way into the chapel, but felt I wasn't brave enough for the pleated sleeves.
Corrine was amazing and took them off for me to try the dress without them. She hadn't even done the dress up and I saw the neckline in the mirror- I knew i'd found my dress. This was confirmed when I walked out to show everyone, and there were tears! I never wanted to take it off.
Dress Shopping
My favourite part of the dress shopping experience was the venue and the familiarity. I had been there twice in the last year helping my sister and my brothers wife pick their Miss Bush dresses, so by that stage we knew the staff well. Particularly Rosie and Corrine! I was so excited to go back and the experience you get at Miss Bush is like nowhere else. The privacy of the whole chapel to your self, and the space to really get a feel of the dresses walking around is amazing. Corrine really got a feel of what I was after, and helped me pick out the shape for me. I didn't even really know what I wanted! I got everyone to pick a their favourite dress for me to try on. It was so much fun.
Styling
Because the dress was so stunning on its own, I did not want to over complicate the look with too many accessories. I had my sisters Jesus Piero veil she had worn the year before, and because of the neckline I wanted all of my hair back. I went for a mid, big textured bun and kept it as that. I feel sometimes less is more, and this felt like one of those situations. I wore a gold bangle my parents had got me for the wedding, and a pair of gold small hoop earrings with a single diamond. It was just enough to complete the look.
After trying on the dress with some jazzy high heels at Miss Bush, I took the idea and got some gold block heels from Kurt Geiger. They gave me great height to get as much of the pleat as I could on the dress, and it was lovely to have a bit of sparkle peaking out under the dress.
A natural, elegant Gate Street Barn wedding
We chose Gate street barn as our wedding venue. We got married there too, so wanted somewhere with plenty of space and a gorgeous shell we didn't need to tart up too much. It was so relaxed and perfect! We had a big wedding with 140 guests (half coming from Ireland for Hugh who is from Galway) so it was amazing to have so much indoor, bright space. We both emerald green and gold together, so worked with that as a theme! We used eucalyptus as a focal point in terms of floristry and used other greenery such as loral leaves and fern to make some simple decorations. We made our name places using deep green loral leaves from my parents garden and foraged for fern the week of the wedding. We wanted something different from the shabby chic look in a barn so went with a very simple, informal natural look. My sister in law is a designer, so helped hugely with sticking to the theme and keeping it from looking chaotic. Because we had both the ceremony and reception there, Hugh and I took 10 minutes to ourselves in a white London taxi who drive us away to sip some champagne and have a bit of time to let it all soak in. It was the best thing we did.
The best bits
My favourite part of it, apart from getting ready in the morning, was the ceremony. We had a string quartet who were absolutely incredible and really added to the atmosphere. The walk down the aisle was the part I was most nervous about, but ended up being the best bit. The aisle at gate street is quite long, so I had time to look at everyone and take it all in with my Dad on my arm- it was magic. We chose instrumentals of our favourite music that the strings played whilst we signed the register whilst everyone chatted. It was so relaxed and once I had got to the top of the aisle I forgot about the 140 people sat behind us.
Milly's Advice
Finding a dress: Always ask Miss bush staff to pick one they think would suit you! They know so well what shapes fit their dresses and its always surprising which you feel the best in.
Get as much done as early as possible and write lists all the time. It helped me so much, and meant I could really enjoy the build up, knowing I was on top of things. Delegating tasks was something I should have done more- people want to help you so let them. Remember to keep doing enjoyable wedding bits like dress shopping and bridesmaids days to remind yourself that its meant to be fun and ideally.. you'll never do it again!
Suppliers
Photographer: Shooting Hip
Venue: Gate Street Barn
Catering: Tandem Catering
Florist: Gill Pike Florist
Hair: Sophie Boatman
Bridesmaid dresses: Whistles
Live guitarist/singer for the drinks reception: Adam Pickard