We all know what this year has been like for weddings, right? Our couples have been through the wringer with worry and stress. Some have had their weddings cancelled several times, some couples have come to us having had their weddings cancelled elsewhere.
I always put up a real wedding page for each wedding we have here. The selection of photos is designed to give a flavour of the day for other couples looking to book their wedding with us, to see what’s possible here. For an elopement wedding the couple will receive about 300 photos from Clare our elopement photographer. I choose between 20 and 30 to tell the story of the day but obviously that’s such a small percentage of the total number of photos so it’s lovely to have the opportunity to share some more of the details of an elopement and the couple’s story.
Charlotte & Stephen booked their elopement wedding with us back in January this year, before the pandemic was even a thing. November was their original month of choice. In the weeks before the wedding it was looking increasingly likely there was going to be another lock down so we were in touch with Charlotte & Stephen to reassure them we’d get them another date if there was a lockdown.
When the new lockdown date came, it was the day after Charlotte & Stephen’s date so it was full steam ahead with their wedding but all the other weddings for November had to be cancelled and re-scheduled. Charlotte & Stephen were in by the skin of their teeth. They had always planned not to have any guests so the restrictions on guest numbers weren’t an issue. As we only allow 8 guests for our winter elopements, the Govt restrictions to 15 people at a wedding haven’t affected any of our booked weddings from September this year through to the end of April next year. One less thing to worry about.
Charlotte and Stephen wanted to get ready separately so Stephen wouldn’t see Charlotte in her dress until the actual wedding ceremony. When couples want to do this (it’s completely up to you, some couples like to get ready together), we can supply a room for the groom (coz let’s face it, it is ALWAYS the groom) so the bride has exclusive use of the honeymoon cottage with its hair and make up station and full length mirror to get ready.
Charlotte was able to make herself at home getting ready in the cottage with a personalised satin robe, slippers, dress hanger and lucky horseshoe.
Charlotte booked our recommended suppliers for hair and make up, Hair Lounge Tavistock and No 5 Aesthetics.
Our elopement photographer Clare was able to capture all the beautiful details of Charlotte’s gorgeous dress before the wedding ceremony.
For her flowers Charlotte has shown our elopement florist Amanda a photo of a bouquet from one of our previous elopements to give Amanda a sense of what she liked. Colours were ivory, blush, dusky pink, pale blue and lilac and the style was romantic and rustic. That’s our speciality.
The quality of Amanda’s flowers is always second to none. For this bouquet she picked a selection of perfectly conditioned roses in pale and dusky pinks. She uses unusual foliage and beautiful accent flowers – scent is always important in a bouquet and for Charlotte, Amanda used a new white dianthus (carnation to the rest of us) which has a lovely perfume.
Charlotte and Stephen wanted to get married on the terrace in front of the fire with our wooden arch draped with fabric in keeping with Charlotte’s rustic, romantic feel. In fact apart from bringing a cake topper, they were happy to leave all the styling to us and the suppliers.
Stephen was waiting for Charlotte on the terrace which was toasty from the fire. We’ve also got 2 electric heaters and screens to keep the heat inside in the winter months.
The sofa for the evening was already set up on the terrace and the sheepskin rugs and faux fur cushions add to the cosy feel. Of course all the cushions are colour co-ordinated with the wedding colours, here silver grey and blush pink. Yep we’ve got a big cushion selection!
After the wedding ceremony is over and we’ve popped the champagne corks, canapés are served and deep breaths are taken – you did it, you’re married! Once you’ve got your breath back, Clare will take you out for couple photos. Charlotte & Stephen wanted photos in the woods so they booked Clare for an extra hour to give themselves plenty of time. With no guests they didn’t have to worry about being away from anyone – they pulled on their wellies and went for it!
Whilst they were outside having photos, the Ever After wedding ninjas are on the case, setting up the table for the wedding breakfast and the cake table. As it was just Charlotte & Stephen, we set up a sweetheart table in front of the fire. The table was layered with a silver grey round cloth and a blue broderie anglaise runner. Silver chargers topped with grey plates added depth and texture. We used our wooden chairs with sheepskins for the rustic, romantic feel . Bark tea lights and a bark vase for the bouquet carried on the rustic style. Copper cutlery and our beautiful pink swirl lustre ware goblets were set off by the crystal flutes and wine glasses to add that romantic touch. Rustic but elegant. Love that look.
Every tiny wedding cake gets a chance to shine. We have a selection of cake stands including wood, marble, silvered, coloured glass – for every style. We used one of my faves from Anthropologie (previous year), a wood and marble lil gem of a cake stand. We put the cake on an oak barrel and dressed it with tea lights and lanterns for the romantic/rustic vibe. We added Charlotte and Stephen’s cake topper and ta da, a teeny wedding cake with all the big cake feels.
I’m going to leave the last words to Charlotte:
“Dear Nicola & all the team at Ever After
To start with just wanted to say how grateful we are on being able to have our special day without any cancellations due to the covid 19 pandemic. We were able to enjoy our day two days to spare before we went into a second national lockdown!
We found out about Ever After by searching for elopement weddings into Google. I narrowed the search down to a few by following their social media pages and decided that Ever After was the perfect venue for us.
The whole process of booking was stress free. We didn’t need to worry about organising flowers, food or photography etc as this was all going to be arranged for us. We told the venue we wanted a romantic, rustic, vintage feel and this is definitely what we got.
We arrived the day before our wedding as was blown away by the honeymoon cottage. It was cosy and the perfect place for newly weds. I was very impressed by the bathroom……total bath goals!!
On the day of our wedding we made breakfast and then parted ways to start getting ready. Stephen went to the annexe which is next door to the honeymoon cottage. I was then visited by Tyler who did my makeup from No 5 Aesthetics and Beauty and Ashley from The Hair Lounge. Both girls were very professional and made me feel beautiful. I was then met Martine who was helping organise the running of the day, she couldn’t do anything more for us. Then Amanda dropped off my bouquet and Stephens button hole. The flowers were gorgeous. Clare the photographer took pictures of me getting ready and of me making my way down to the ceremony.
The ceremony was just beautiful, we got married next to an open log fire and surrounded by candles and fairly lights. After the ceremony we took a woodlands walk with Clare to have more pictures. The photos were ready to view online by the next day on the evening. We are amazed at how beautiful they are, thank you Clare.
After our wedding meal we left to own devices and spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening enjoying being newly weds. It was just perfect.
For any other couples who want a stress free, intimate wedding this is the place for you.
Finally we want to thank all involved in creating our perfect day.
You can see more of Charlotte & Stephen’s wedding photos over on their real wedding page – including their gorgeous couple pics.
So has this wedding convinced you to elope? Go ahead, download the elopement brochure and figure out if this is the wedding for you.
