Sarah in Jesus Peiro 966 for a fun and relaxed wedding at Bridwell Park Estate in Devon

We're delighted to share the wedding of Sarah and Mindaugas with you today, which took place over a fun and relaxed weekend at Bridwell Park Estate in Uffculme, Devon. The focus of the wedding was to create a long weekend celebrating with friends and family with lots of good food and laughter in a beautiful location.

Sarah wore a Jesus Peiro classic - style 966. The cross back design is a much loved signature look from the brand, which when teamed with the full skirt (with pockets!) and a simple, round necked bodice, came together to complete Sarah's perfect dress. Sarah styled her dress with diamond and pearl earrings, a romantic full length veil and the gorgeous Jimmy Choo Romy heels.

Read on to find out more about the day and Sarah's dress shopping experience, in the bride's own words...

Jesus Peiro 966 wedding dress

I wore the Jesus Peiro 966. Its a funny (and fun!) business shopping for a wedding dress - it's not like knowing from years of experience that a certain brand of jeans always works for you. How on earth do you know where to start? For not the first time in my life I took advice from one of my best friends who was already married (and took to all aspects of wedding planning like a duck to water) - she told me, 'don't try and fixate on a designer, just look at lots and lots of dresses and you'll get a feeling for ones that catch your eye, see who designed them and you'll see a pattern'. And for not the first time in my life, she was absolutely right and before I had ever tried a dress on I knew I wanted something by Jesus Peiro.

The pieces just seemed to ooze quality and individuality but with a timeless elegance to them that just kept me coming back - and then I saw the 966 with the simplest and cleanest of lines to it, contrasted with the intricate lace embroidery, the cross back design (and pockets for goodness sake!) and I was sold.

When I arrived at the fitting I said to Emma that I wanted to try the 966 first - as soon as I had it on I knew that was the one. I honestly felt amazing - I have quite an athletic figure but the style just worked with that - the skirt, the low back, the neckline - when I put the dress on I just felt so glamorous and yet at the same time, totally comfortable and just like myself.

I came to the fitting with my mum, my sister and two of my best friends - they all said the same thing - ‘this dress is so you!’. The irony of those comments was not lost given that just half an hour before having coffee they had all described seeing me in a very different type of dress (which I myself had also previously envisaged before seeing the 966) With the decision made within the first 15 minutes of arriving, Emma kindly topped up the bubbles glasses and spent the rest of the appointment giving me an up-do and a trial of accessories, capes and jackets - it was just the most fun morning!

Dress Shopping

My favourite part of the shopping experience was coming back to try on my dress for the first fitting. I had my measure up in January 2020 before my dress had arrived from Spain, and just a few weeks later the world went in to lockdown. Both my husband and I are doctors and work quickly became sombre and quite emotionally draining. We moved our wedding date four times and I have to admit each time we did so, the ongoing element of uncertainty made it hard to remain excited. Stepping into my dress 19 months later was like flicking a switch and all the feelings of excitement came rushing back. To top it off Emma appeared with THE petticoats. Having initially thought that I wouldn’t be one for too many layers, this apparently nonsensical thought was quickly dispelled and I fell head over heels in love with my new voluminous skirt!

I was so impressed with the attention to detail when it came to the fittings, Corinne has such an eye for finesse. When I tried on the dress there was just the smallest apparent crease at the hemline at the front which to be honest I probably wouldn’t have noticed - when I came back for my second fitting and accessories appointment I found out she had undone and re-sewn the entire hem of the dress - it was utter perfection.

Styling

My grandma sadly passed away three weeks before our wedding at a rather impressive age of 101. She had a beautiful old blue brooch that I wore on my bouquet. My husband had bought me a gorgeous pair of diamond and pearl earring from Lily and Roo, and my girlies had got me a bracelet from Monica Vinader.
I finished the look with the Chloe long stitched couture veil and a pair of Jimmy Choo Romy’s in platinum ice with the crystal adornments - looking back, perhaps me saying yes to the petticoat was more predictable!

A fun and relaxed wedding at Bridwell Park Estate in Devon

We had always wanted to celebrate our wedding over a long weekend - Mindaugas is Lithuanian and so we really wanted to be able to spend time with all our friends and family together. We pitched it as ‘We love you all, please come and spend a weekend with us. Oh and by the way we are getting married’. We hired the estate of Lord Ivar Mountbatten and knew we had the right place when he told us ‘if we don’t want it broken we will move it, if its left out then it’s probably been broken before!’ The house was just absolutely amazing and yet was clearly a much loved home with so much character and warmth. We had pizza vans, whisky by the fire, brunches and a BBQ and garden games and were absolutely blessed with a sunny September weekend. The emphasis was love, fun and appreciation.

This could not have become more true as COVID took hold, and by the time our day rolled round we had not seen some friends and family for nearly two years. But we felt so incredibly lucky to be able to have all of the people we cherished most in our lives healthy, happy and able to celebrate with us.

Sarah's Advice

My advice to future brides picking a dress would be to think about what you want from your day and who you are as a person and go with a dress the embodies those values. The team at Miss Bush really know how to help you achieve this - be open minded, you’ll be amazed. At no point did I worry about the dress, or how I looked in it, or how it was fitting. There was a point in the evening when I was attempting to 'cheers' my husband after he and I had been hoisted on to the shoulders of some deceptively strong guests (!) when I realised that this dress had made me feel confident and glamorous from the start whilst allowing me to do everything I wanted to do throughout the day - namely have bloody good fun!And advice for a wedding in general? Soak up every minute, spend time picking your photographer/ videographer (when the dust settles these are the beautiful memories you will be left with) and please don’t sweat the small stuff, its small for a reason.