Mr + Mrs Milbourn
Saturday 15th June 2019│Captain’s Wood Barn
Instagram: @pebblescottagereno│Photographer: Holly Usher Photo
Chloe and Jamie tied the knot is a small legal ceremony at their local church, followed by a big wedding celebration with a magical personal ceremony in the woods. We are obsessed with the rustic decor, wild blooms, sparklers and, of course, the stunning blue wedding dress. Guests were kept entertained with tug of war and tractor rides! The wedding breakfast was afternoon tea, followed by a gorgeous three tier wedding cake, a cake made of cheese (with all the trimmings) and a s'mores station. Bride Chloe tells us all about their wonderful day and the many wedding DIYs she made...
Where did you say yes to the dress?
Dress designer is Chantel Lauren & my dress is called Mae. I bought her from my friend’s amazing Bridal Boutique - Rock The Frock.
What was the most emotional moment of the day?
I have two, I can’t choose! The first was coming downstairs to my grandad for the first reveal in the morning just before we left for the ceremony, instant tears here!
The second was walking down the aisle to Jamie whilst Sia - Helium played. Even though I’d walked down the aisle to him the day before in our legal ceremony, that was nothing compared to the main wedding. I couldn’t believe how many people were there to celebrate our day with us, yes, even though I technically knew as I'd invited them all haha! Me & the bridal party had practiced our walk down the aisle the night before at the barn & tried to time my walking with the part of the song that says ‘your love lifts me up like helium’ and we nailed it on the day! Having my grandad walk me down the aisle was the most amazing feeling ever and I will cherish that moment and be grateful to have had that, forever. Seeing Jamie looking so nervous (or hungover?) at the end of the aisle brought all the emotions, and just thinking oh my god it’s really happening. This is it. 2 years of planning & we’re actually here!
Wedding must-have: 100000000% a videographer. Honestly, a lot of people don’t think it’s a necessity but luckily I have worked in the wedding industry for 5 years now and I knew it was a must have. It took a while to win Jamie round but now he admits it was money well spent. Our videos from our day are the only things that truly put you back in the moment. Photos are amazing, of course, but they don’t make you relive the day as much as the videos do. Not only that, we got to see our wedding from a completely different perspective with the videos, you can’t be everywhere all the time on your day and there’s a lot you will miss as the bride and groom. The video made up for that for us.
Tell us about the ceremony...
We were greedy and made our wedding last over two days! We had an intimate church ceremony on Friday 14 June with just a handful of our nearest and dearest. This was mainly because it is my Nan’s church that I’ve grown up going to, but also because Captain’s Wood Barn don’t hold a license to legally marry there. We personally felt like we didn’t want to break up the day on the 15th by going to two different venues so this worked out perfectly for us. We were only at the church for a few hours, we had a sandwich and a cup of tea after the ceremony to celebrate being legally married! We didn’t wear our main wedding outfits, I wore a white dress I purchased from Chi Chi London & the buttons kept popping off at the back!
For the main wedding on the Saturday, we had a blessing ceremony, planned to look & feel like a real legal ceremony, the only difference being the celebrants were my Nan and Jamie’s Mum. This was so perfect for us, being ‘married’ by our closest family. We had readings from my maid of honour and one of Jamie’s best men, his brother Lee. Both readings were light and slightly humorous and all about the realities of married life!
Any Wedding DIYs?
We did quite a few DIYs! My fave part of the planning! Just to mention a few...
- Order of the day sign post
- Table numbers
- Page boy signs
- Confetti cones
- Guestbook board
- Chalkboard signs
- Apple crates
- Pink gin shots for favours
Did you have have anything unusual at your wedding?
I think so, yes! Everyone says our wedding was unlike any they’ve been to, not saying it was the best wedding ever to exist, but it was totally unique to us, we confirmed to nothing and pleased nobody but ourselves. Our day was a complete representation of us as people. All we cared about was having fun and being surrounded by the people we loved.
So, back to unusual things we had...
Tractor rides! This does come as a package with Captain’s Wood Barn but even if it hadn’t I would have asked to add it on. All of our guests absolutely loved them! Bob, the owner of the venue, drives the tractor around their 50 acre woods & it’s just beautiful. The trailer also brought the bridal party to the ceremony area for all of the guests to see them arrive which was lovely!
Tug of war! We had this just by chance as a friend of a friend was selling it from their wedding a few years ago. I’d never thought of it before but I’m so glad we had it. It was sooo much fun!
For our group photos, Bob the owner drove his JCB over to us and lifted us up in the front dumper so we were above all of our guests. I didn’t expect that!
Horse & trap. Another thing that comes with the venue if you want it to, we had a horse & trap bring granddad and I to the ceremony area. We came past the guests to their left so they got to see a glimpse of me before we hid behind them waiting to walk down the aisle. It was so lovely, something I’d always dreamed of since a little girl. The beautiful horse was also brought round for us to meet again at the reception drinks, this we didn’t ask for the lovely owners just done this for us & I couldn’t have been happier!
I guess the most unusual thing would be my blue wedding dress. I model wedding dresses and have done for 5 years so I think when I tried on white dresses, it just felt like another nice dress that I’m wearing for a photoshoot. I hadn’t ever considered a big dress, let alone a coloured one. But as soon as I put her on, I just felt like me, me as a bride. It was surreal but amazing! I was very nervous to not conform and wear white, I was scared Jamie would be disappointed and people would think I’d made a mistake or didn’t look like the bride. But my goodness a I glad I went with my heart. I couldn’t have had a better dress.
What was your favourite wedding purchase?
Aside from renting the barns for the weekend and the videographer, my next favourite wedding purchase would have to be my dress. She is my absolute dream and I was in tears wearing her on my final fitting appointment. She comes from America, is hand painted silk!!??! & basically a waterfall of dreamy blues & silvers and I just didn’t want to take her off! If I could have another choice it would be my bouquet. There is just no words to describe how utterly stunning that bouquet was, a work of art!
Were there any surprises on the day?
The main surprise was the way the venue had been styled. I trusted the girls at Rock The Day so I chose not to be involved with the prep of the venue at all. Of course I gave the girls my ideas and wants but they took it from there. That was lovely because I don’t suppose many brides turn up to their wedding looking at the decor the same way as the guests. It was amazing to see everything come together and how beautiful everything looked.
Who was your favourite wedding supplier?
Now, all of our suppliers were friends of ours since I’ve been in the wedding industry for years. So they are all absolutely amazing BUT I have to give a special mention to the girls Laura, Alex and Magda at Rock The Day Styling. These girls are any brides dream. They are the fairy godmothers of weddings and they made our dreams become reality with what really seemed like just a click of their fingers. They are superhero’s. Every image we had in our heads became reality and nothing is ever too much.
They also coordinated our day and we truly owe the smooth running of our wedding to them. If it wasn’t for Magda, we wouldn’t have had music for the outdoor ceremony! And that walking down the aisle song is the one that brings myself Jamie to tears every time we hear it so thank god Magda was there!
The girls styled everything you see in these pictures, and I honestly wouldn’t have done one single thing differently. If you are a bride to be reading this and you haven’t heard of Rock The Day then you neeeeed to check them out. Angels.
Funniest moment of the day?
The tug of war! We did brides side vs grooms side and my uncles tied the rope to themselves and a wooden bench, then sat on the bench, and the bench broke in to pieces & my uncles ended up on the floor!
What was your favourite part of the day?
How can I pick?! I think I’d have to say the choice we made surrounding accommodation. We made a weekend of our wedding, after the legal ceremony on the Friday we had our bridal & groom party come and stay with us at the beautiful barn accommodation we had hired just down the road from our venue - Jepcracks Barns. 3 stables and a beautiful big barn converted into the most stunning accommodation. Having everyone directly involved with the wedding staying there with us for the weekend was my favourite part about the wedding. On the Friday night we had all the women in the barn and all the men across the road in the stables, so it was like another little hen & stag! Jamie may have taken this a tad too far and was still drinking at 1am in the morning. The morning of our wedding, I’m not sure if he could tell if he had nerves or just a hangover!
Having everyone staying with us made everything perfect. We didn’t have to worry about any of the bridesmaids getting stuck in traffic in the morning and putting the hair + makeup behind. We didn’t feel like our day was ending as such on the Saturday because we were still going home with our closest loved ones. Then, on the Sunday we woke up, still in our wedding bubble with everyone there and enjoyed another day of celebrations!
Tell us about your hen do...
So I was lucky enough to have a UK hen and an abroad one. The UK one consisted of clay pigeon shooting during the day which was so much fun! A lovely lunch at a lovely Country pub and then in the evening we went to our local bar/club and we’d hired the VIP area. It turned out another hen party had hired a part of the area too so we ended up having a hen do dance off with them! That will live in my memory forever it was so much fun! The other bridal party were lovely so it really made the evening special. I think my Nan was the last one standing on the dance floor too!
Then, a couple weeks before the wedding, myself and my 3 bestest friends flew out to Barcelona for my abroad hen do. They planned everything as a surprise and I only found out where we were heading at security when Becky said ‘it’s okay we can buy shampoo when we get to Barcelona’! We stayed in a beautiful apartment literally on top of La Sagrada Familia with a rooftop pool and stunning views and basically ate and drank our way through the trip! I don’t think I stopped laughing once!
What food did you have at your wedding?
What food didn’t we have is probably a better question!
We had the usual canapés with the reception drinks, then we had afternoon tea for our sit down meal. This was all made by Christine who owns Calamitea Jane’s Vintage Tea Parties. Usually they have a caterer on board but they were in between suppliers at the time & since I’ve waitressed for Christine and known her for years she offered to make it all herself. We were blown away and the food on the day was absolutely perfect.
In the evening we had a hog roast from A G Smith’s Butchers in Boreham which was amazing. Then my Nan supplied and prepared a stunning cheese board, with all the trimmings and the most beautiful styling.
We also had a S’mores station! I didn’t get to enjoy this one as much as I’d liked to sadly (supplied by Mallow Magic).
And of course, we had our wedding cake, made by our friend Amy, which was a rustic naked cake with 3 different flavour sponges and jams. Lots of food! I always say I’d like to go back and do our wedding again but be a guest because then I’d have much more of an appetite to eat allllll of the food! On the day my appetite was minuscule!
You may also like...
Music
- Walking down the aisle: Sia - Helium
- First Dance: John Legend - You & I (Nobody In The World) and Jordin Sparks - No Air
- Grandfather/granddaughter dance was Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
- Last Dance: Lady Gaga - Always Remember Us This Way
Is there anything you wish you'd done differently?
Ate more of our delicious food? Haha! Seriously, there’s pretty much nothing I would do differently! I’m sure Jamie would say he wouldn’t drink as much the night before. I guess I did forget to put my garter on and I felt bad about that for days after the wedding because my mother in law bought it for me and really, when else will I be able to wear one?!
Watch Chloe + Jamie's gorgeous wedding video below.
The Legal Ceremony - 14.06.2019
Venue: Captain’s Wood Barn
Dress: Mae by Chantel Lauren at Rock The Frock Bridal Boutique
Suits: ASOS/Empire Outlet
Photographer: Holly Usher Photo
Videographer: The Smiths & Co
Stationery: Wonderland Invites
MUA: Claire Marie Makeup
Hair: Lisa Alger Hair
Shoes: Linzi & customised by myself
Rings: C J Vinten
Bridesmaids dresses: Rewritten
Flower girl dresses: Mango
Décor: Rock The Day Styling
DJ: PXJ Music Entertainment
Garden Games: Rock The Day Styling
Cake: Amy Plews
Florist: The Country Garden Flower Company
Food: Calamitea Jane’s Tea Parties
+ A G Smith Butchers of Boreham
+ Mallow Magic
Post a Comment