Jemma & Charlie - A Winter Wedding: The Old Stables

I thought it was time that I shared this gorgeous winter wedding from way back in December 2018.

With lots of you postponing your booked weddings due to the covid-19 virus outbreak, i know that some of you will have been forced to have a winter wedding when you have always dreamed of a summer or spring wedding.

It really is an unfortunate position to be in and lots of you guys will have had no choice but to postpone so I wanted to share this gorgeous winter wedding today to show you just how beautiful a winter wedding can be - and it was glorious weather too!

The absolutely gorgeous Jemma & Charlie first got in contact with us over a year and a half before their wedding. They had planned to have a rustic winter wedding at The Old Stables, Swithland in between Christmas and New Year back in December 2018.

From the offset, Jemma had a clear idea that she wanted to incorporate lots of greenery, warm gold tones and woodland aspects to her styling design. The old stables wedding venue is actually located just on the border of the most incredible woodland in Leicestershire - Swithland Wood so the theme was absolutely perfect.

I remember my first consultation at our old studio with them both very clearly and remember Jemma saying that she was unsure if she would still love her initial ideas a year and a half later when the wedding rolled around. I assured her that we are super flexible at The Rustic Wedding Company and that if she wanted to change her mind along the way then we would quite happily re-design the day and change it all!

After months of planning and a few little additions to the styling plan (she added on bridal party flowers when she realised we had started offering this as a service), their day finally rolled around on December the 28th.

We started the morning by creating some gorgeous simple gypsophila and eucalyptus bridesmaid posies, gypsophila male buttonholes and some pretty ladies corsages and delivered these to their home just down the road from our studio in Sileby. We didn't make the bridal bouquet as Jemma's friend wanted to buy this as a gift for her from The Flower Plant florist which was a really lovely touch!

Being a winter wedding, you always worry a little bit about the weather being bad but it was actually glorious as you will see from the pictures provided by the incredibly talented Sophie May Photo throughout this blog post.

First on the agenda was decorating the church. We didn't provide huge amounts of decorations for the church because as you can see, it was already beautiful inside. We did however provide some pinecone pew ends and some signage to help assure the guests that they were at the right church - i don't know about you but i always worry about this with church weddings because quite often small towns & villages have more than one!

Jemma & Charlie are actually yet another set of childhood sweethearts (did you catch our blog about Stef & Ash?) and had been together for many many years, so they wanted to have a little sign at the end of the aisle to confirm that both families were truly becoming one and that guests could sit wherever they wanted the in the church and didn't have to stick to the traditional bride and groom sides! We created a chalkboard "Pick a seat, not a side" sign for them to match their other wedding day signage.

After the ceremony was complete and Jemma & Charlie were officially Mr & Mrs, they headed outside for some confetti & some gorgeous photographs and we headed over to The Old Stables to begin styling the venue.

We created a styling plan which included some gorgeous woodland themed top table styling, guest table styling, a fabulous greenery backdrop with laser cut surname signage that could be used behind the top table and then moved in the evening to become a photo booth backdrop, and lots of other little bits around the venue to pull all of the styling together, including an unusual guest book table, a transparent table plan and a cards & gifts area with sparklers ready for the evening.

For the Top Table we used a selection of large pinecones in bell jars with entwined copper wire fairy lights, eucalyptus and other greenery to create a long table garland, gorgeous brass candlesticks with coloured candles at different heights to create interest and pillar candles in tall glass cylinder vases along the length of the table.

You can't beat a bit of candlelight - especially at a winter wedding when the daylight turns to dusk and the evening celebrations roll around.

As an extra special touch, Jemma & Charlie wanted to have a photo frame of their beloved fur babies on the top table with them so it was placed right in the centre of them, in the greenery garland. It's such a shame that Cat's aren't able to come to weddings like dogs are, because i know J & C would have loved it! (and so would i). Let's make cats at weddings a thing please!

Underneath all of the top table greenery, we placed a floaty, chiffon table runner in a nude colour to break up the white table cloths but not add too much colour. It also matched the bridesmaids furry shawls too which were also nude.

Each centrepiece was created slightly differently and had a variety of the same props as the top table - pinecones, tea lights, brass candlesticks with green tall dinner candles and greenery.

For the table numbers, J & C wanted to create something different and use special & memorable dates as their numbers. We used our small brass frames and added cut vinyl lettering to the glass.

Other details included printed personalised menus and acrylic table place names - to match the transparent acrylic table plan.

Jemma was a little worried that the guests would struggle to read the table plan with the white walls of the wedding venue so we created a frame and inserted greenery between two pieces of glass to make it easier to read.

For the guestbook, our bride and groom had an idea that they wanted to create something a little bit different and they made this giant M letter out of wood for guests to write all over as their alternative guestbook with the intention of hanging it on their wall at home rather than putting it away in a drawer to be forgotten. I loved this idea so we then pulled together an accompanying chalk board sign which said "Please sign our 'M' cHugh as guestbooks are overrated". (McHugh is their new surname.)

The wedding cake itself was a masterpiece so it deserved a table set up to match.

Usually at the old stables wedding venue, the cake sits in the same place - near to the doorway, against a dark brick wall - but because we like to mix things up at The Rustic Wedding Company, we chose to move the huge chunky wooden table to a super light corner of the venue, next to the top table to give it time to shine rather than hiding it in a dark space.

We added a drapery table runner and a gorgeous gold pedestal cake stand, pinecones and greenery and surrounded the main focal cake with an array of glazed donuts on little wooden stands!

We absolutely adore this wedding cake table - the colours and the textures are incredible!

Oh... and we added an extra mince-pie station to the display to reflect the time of year & we couldn't love it more! Just check out the super cool pin board sign.

I just want to take a moment to wish Mr & Mrs McHugh huge congratulations and also to thank their wonderful Photographer "Sophie May Photo" for sending over these images from their day.

Here's some more eye candy for you to feast your eyes upon...

It is always so lovely to see the celebrations unfold after we have set up and left the venue so if any of our past clients want to be featured on our blog then please do get in touch and send over some pictures.

Thanks for reading

Lesley x