Steph in Jesus Peiro 8070 for a rustic English countryside weddingMiss Bush

Stephanie & Tim were married in August this year in a fun, relaxed and rustic English countryside wedding, which took place at beautiful local church St Ruthen’s in Longden, Shropshire, followed by an outdoor reception at Brook House Farm.

Jesus Peiro 8070 Lace Wedding Dress

I had an idea of what I wanted for my dress but when I tried various ones on in this style I didn’t really feel any jolts of excitement. Corinne picked this one off the rail – I had looked right past it – and suggested I try it. When she buttoned me up and I looked in the mirror I finally had that ‘wow’ feeling! I loved the traditional romantic look of the lace top half with the more modern skirt, teemed with the gorgeous waistband and pockets.It was the first time I felt like a bride!

Dress Shopping

I came with my mum, who was heavily involved with a lot of the wedding planning. We had a slightly tight schedule as I was not long in the country before heading back to New Zealand, to then be back for the wedding in under 5 months! My mum reacted the same as me with this dress – the first one we both loved! It was an emotional moment.

Both me and my mum loved our experiences at the Chapel, especially the first trying on session with Corinne. She put me completely at ease, there was no pressure, ample time, and most of all so many pearls of wisdom, that helped us decide which dress to get.

Styling

My look was fairly simple as I wanted the dress to tell the story. I wore pearl drop earrings and a pearl bracelet, and blush pink suede peep toe wedges. I also wore the most gorgeous waterfall veil, also from Miss Bush.

A rustic English countryside wedding

As we live in New Zealand, when we think of home we think of the English countryside, so that’s what we wanted our wedding based around. We got married in a teeny little village church opposite Tim’s mum’s house, and had the reception in a marquee on a farm, complete with camping for about half our guests, in yurts, bell tents, pods and tents. We ourselves had Tim’s sister’s vintage VW campervan as our wedding car, and we also hired a vintage London Routemaster to cart the guests around from church to reception. We had a large BBQ dinner served on long trestle tables, and our English friend from New Zealand made the cake for us. We included New Zealand in our theme with a NZ fern drawn by my sister, on most of our wedding stationary, as well as bringing back 6kg of local honey with us to give out in little pots for favours! We even had ferns in all our flower displays and bouquets, mixed in with a colourful bunch of meadow flowers to keep with the relaxed country vibe. We ended the night after lots of dancing with sitting by the fire until 3am – I was pretty content I was in my dress for as many hours as I could possibly be!

The best bits

Ahh there are so many! One that stands out is actually once Tim and I were married and we got in the campervan to be driven to the reception by Tim’s sister. We had about half an hour just to breathe and have a catch up and a laugh before the rest of the day, which we knew would go by like a blur. Tim’s sister had sneakily hidden some champagne in the tiny campervan fridge with some glasses, so we toasted to each other as we trundled round the Shropshire country roads!

Advice from the bride

I would say, be open-minded. I ended up with a completely different design of dress than I had entered the shop looking for. The ladies really know what they are doing so listen to them but obviously listen to what your heart tells you once you get into a dress. You’ll know when it’s the one!
Wedding planning is a tricky one – I managed to do it all in 5 months, and 80% from the opposite side of the world, but I wouldn’t advise it! On the other hand as we were super organised and we didn’t want to hang around it made sense for us!