Hannah and Josh’s DIY Floral Media Wedding in Newark

Getting ready at home, saying I do in your family church, celebrating with everyone you love – this DIY Floral Media Wedding is full of so many sweet personal touches. And a shed load of ridiculously gorgeous flowers. And a toy tractor. *nods* It’s a goodie. Take a look…

Working with Lifeline Photography

We loved the natural and laid back look of Hannah’s photos. We hated the idea of posing for staged photos! Her relaxed approach and the lovely natural and FUN photos we saw in her portfolio were perfect.

Hannah definitely delivered on this. We love all of the photos but most of all those where people are caught off guard. Hannah captured the true emotion of the day. We looked through the ‘speeches’ photos of everyone’s reactions and we could almost tell word for word what part of the speech people were reacting to. It was fab!!

A ceremony at Hannah’s parish Church and Floral Media reception

We picked the church as it was Hannah’s parish church growing up. It played a huge part in her life. Arriving was emotional for that exact reason. The venue for the ceremony was perfect and we wouldn’t have had it any other way.

The reception was at Floral Media and we picked it because it was a laid back, family-run venue. There was lots of opportunity for DIY which we liked. The gardens and bright potting shed and greenhouse spoke for themselves. We were so lucky to have fantastic weather which allowed us and our guests to get out in the gardens. From enjoying drinks during the day to the fire pit and sunset at night. Again, we just wanted a laid back, non fussy wedding venue. They let us choose our own menu from scratch and the food was fabulous! Especially the ploughmans table that we had in the evening with local cheeses pork pies and breads. YUM!

A Wed2B dress and a Moss Bross suit

Hannah’s dress was from Wed2B and her shoes were Rachel Simpson. She finished her look with Wolf and Moon earrings, a DIY hair vine and vintage necklace that was passed down from her Grandma.

The bridesmaids all wore Lipsy and Chi Chi London. Everyone’s make-up was done by bridesmaid Lucy, who is a MAC certified makeup artist among other amazing things!

Josh and the boys all wore suits from Moss Bross.

Flowers by Floral Media and DIY decor

Most of the flowers were done by Paula who owns the venue Floral Media. Flowers on the altar in church were done by Hannah’s grandma. The rest of the venue decor was DIY.

A fruit cake and a chocolate cake

Made by Aunty Paula (Hannah’s Aunty) and decorated by Hannah’s Nan. It tasted AMAZING and looked fabulous. People still comment on it to this day!

It was a traditional fruit cake. Josh’s Mum made her famous chocolate cake to go alongside it, because its Josh’s ultimate favourite. That also went down a storm as it is legendary among Josh’s friends and family.

We actually think the cakes were one of our ultimate favourite parts of the day!

The peg dolly cake toppers were made by Melissa Badman via Etsy.

Personal touches

Having the framed photos of each of our grandparents and parents wedding days was really nice. It meant that family members not with us any longer were remembered on the day.  We are so lucky to have such wonderful role models to look up to in our marriage.

We had the personalised candle made to light together during the church service. It now takes pride of place in our living room.

A family friend crocheted the bride and groom that we had on our place settings

Our groomsman Will is like the Derbyshire equivalent of Bear Grylls. He made us the lovely log centrepieces and engraved cake stand. He also sourced us some excellent cherry wood logs for the fire pit.

We had his and hers cocktails as the arrival drinks. Josh’s was Dark Rum, Lime and Ginger Beer. Hannah’s was homemade Rhubarb Vodka with rose lemonade.

The music

For the signing of the Register, we had For the Beauty of the Earth. It has such lovely lyrics
Our first dance was Kodaline, The One. It’s a song that we mutually love and the words mean a lot. This was phased into David Guetta, Titanium, which is what Josh really wanted as a first dance! We like to class both songs as our first dance song.
Our DJ from Sensation Roadshow was FAB!! He really listened to what we wanted played and our music tastes. Josh loves dance and club anthems, so he requested what he calls his ‘Power Hour’ which the DJ was fully on board with.
We loved that the dancefloor didn’t empty once, it was a crazy, drunk mess!

Amazing inhouse food by Floral Media

We chose our food based on what we both loved, what was in season and what we thought would go down well with our guests. Our first course was asparagus soup. This was followed with chicken in white wine and tarragon with dauphinoise potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

We never agree on desserts (opposites attract) so when the venue suggested a desserts table that seemed perfect. We had our favourites, including of trifle, cheesecake, pavlova and fresh fruits. Hannah’s mum also made bakewell tarts.

The evening food was a giant ploughmans table with cheeses, pork pies, bread and chutneys. We picked the cheeses right down to the specific producer. There was Cote Hill Yellow and Lincolnshire Poacher which are local cheeses. We also had Snowdonia Bouncing Berry, because it’s soooooo tasty.

Advice for other couples

Have a no-nonsense person to walk you down the aisle (Dad in Hannah’s case). Then when you have a 15 minute meltdown outside the church because you’re just so overwhelmed, you know that ultimately your Dad will help you out (haha!).

Josh says ‘drink loads the night before’ – joking! Spend a few days before the wedding setting up and making sure all of the bridal party know what they’re doing.

Have plenty of tissues to hand.

Get someone to record the speeches (we didn’t designate anyone and it’s our only regret from the whole day).

Our favourite memory

The morning was quite overcast, but we both vividly remember and cherish being in the car from the church to the venue. The roads up to the venue are rural looking over the Nottinghamshire countryside. We were taking in the whole of the ceremony and enjoying a glass of fizz when the car turned a corner at the top of a big hill. There were rolling views and the sun literally just appeared from no where. It was so pretty and such a lovely moment. It’s about the only time you both get to spend alone together all day and it was just such a peaceful moment, where we could really take everything in.

If you’d like to chat about your Floral Media Wedding I’d love to work with you. Get in touch!