Amy & Steve’s Blossom-Inspired Wedding at Thicket Priory

With its cosy charm and the promise of a weekend filled with friends and family, it was the perfect setting for A & S’s unforgettable celebration. And let’s talk style! From Amy’s jaw-dropping Esty Style gown to Steve’s one-of-a-kind green suit, it was all about personal touches with a dash of vintage florals. And who needs cherry blossom season in Japan anyway (keep reading for that reference!) when you can bring those blooms right to your wedding? Dreamboats & Carousels worked their floral magic, infusing the celebration with vibrant hues and creativity.

Amy says…

We fell in love with Thicket Priory when we had our virtual (Covid) tour. It fitted all of our criteria (and some requirements we didn’t know we wanted/needed), which we didn’t think was possible! We also loved that we could have all of our friends and family stay with us for the weekend and make even more memories than just the day.

The loved fact that there was so much detail! We viewed so many venues that were empty spaces without any personality. We loved that Thicket Priory has small details everywhere and we didn’t need to do much to the venue for it to feel so special.

If you’re considering booking Thicket, you honestly won’t regret it! We’ve been as guests and now as the bride and groom; honestly, it’s the best venue we’ve ever been to. All the staff are brilliant from the run-up to the day/weekend and beyond.

I wore a dress by a Ukrainian bridal house, Esty Style. As soon as I tried on the dress (at The White Yard Bridal Boutique), I knew it was the one! Everyone commented on the dress’s uniqueness and that it was very me. I needed a dress that had the wow factor to match the venue – the puff sleeves brought the drama, whilst the thigh-high slit added a modern touch. Steve’s green suit was custom-made, using fabric from W.T. Johnson’s and tailored by Owen Scott Bespoke Tailors. We always knew we wanted Steve to wear a green suit and searched for months but never quite found one we loved. W.T. Johnson’s is a client of ours and they kindly offered to gift us some fabric and dye it any colour we wanted – giving Steve a genuinely unique suit. Steve wore a William Morris tie, along with all the groomsmen, dads and brothers, to ‘tie’ them together as they weren’t wearing matching suits. The bridesmaids wore a sage green, one-shouldered dress from ASOS, while the groomsmen wore a beige suit from River Island to complement Steve’s suit rather than match it.

We always knew we wanted to go to Japan on our honeymoon, so we booked our wedding for April so we could head off to Japan straight after for cherry blossom season. Unfortunately, we missed cherry blossom season as it was the second earliest bloom on record! But we knew we wanted to incorporate cherry blossom into our styling and flowers. We love colour and are quite a creative family, so we knew we wanted to add as much colour as possible to our day, from the flowers and decor to Steve’s suit.

Our florist was the amazing Kim from Dreamboats & Carousels. Our brief to her was happy and colourful, using in-season flowers, including cherry blossoms, as a nod to our honeymoon in Japan. Kim created our bouquets, button holes, cake flowers, a deconstructed arch for the end of the aisle, and floor meadows that lined the aisle and later framed the top table.

We bought our cake from Costco! We’re not big cake/dessert people so we had a Victoria sponge cake from Costco and lots of other dessert and cake bits that we created a dessert table with for guests to help themselves.

Purple Chilli catered our wedding weekend, the food was delicious and many of our guests commented that it was the best wedding food they’ve ever had! For the wedding meal, guests had a choice between pork belly or scallops for starters and beef or halibut. For the evening, we had stone-baked pizzas and chips (which went down as a treat with everyone). Purple Chilli also made lasagne for the guests the night before and breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Our photographer was the very talented Charli Palmer. I stumbled across Charli on Instagram when we first got engaged and loved her style. I knew from first meeting her that I wanted her as our photographer, and she didn’t disappoint! We loved that she captured the essence of the day, and there were no awkward posing and cheesy wedding pictures! Charli brought a second shooter, Ryan, with her to help capture the day, and together they took photos and videos. We’ve since had a maternity photoshoot with Charli – we love how relaxed she is and can make us, and her photos just come out so amazing. Our wedding pictures and video came out better than we ever expected!

The best part of the day

It’s so hard to choose a favourite memory! Everyone says their wedding day was the best day of their lives but ours was and we got to do a whole weekend! From getting legally married on the Friday with our immediate family to celebrating with all our friends and family, to catching up with everyone the morning after.

But if we had to choose, Steve’s was seeing me walk down the aisle and the first dance. And mine was the ceremony and the love felt in the room!

From one couple to another…

One piece of advice we were given before our wedding was to spend the rest of the day together from the moment you walk back up the aisle as husband and wife. Go everywhere with each other, whether that’s the bar, speaking to people, the dance floor, or even the toilet! Your wedding day is about the two of you, so spend it together!