Laura & Curtis’s Plas Dinam Wedding

As well as being surrounded by lush countryside, Plas Dinam is the ultimate Welsh wedding venue due to their relaxed, flexible approach, historic house and of course, The Stables. Their glass-roofed reception space won L + C over and with the addition of a few disco-themed mirror balls (a couple after my own heart!) they turned this cool, rustic space into the PERFECT post-pandemic party barn!

Laura says…

We chose Plas Dinam Country House as our wedding venue as we wanted an outdoor wedding ceremony in the countryside with a chilled vibe. Both myself and my husband grew up and met in Mid Wales 11 years ago so it felt perfect to go back there and get married with all our family and close friends. The Stables really sold it for us as we could decorate it exactly how we wanted and make it our own. We had the venue for four days and it was the most perfect celebration from start to finish, at the most wonderful venue and in an amazing countryside location. I honestly can’t recommend Plas Dinam enough.

My dress was the Wolf gown from Rime Arodaky. I’d seen it on Pinterest and completely fell in love with it. I went to Paris with my mum after a first attempt at trying to find the one in London. I had two ideas in mind for my dress: something plain and slinky or a fitted lace dress with sleeves. I put the Wolf gown on as soon as I arrived at the Rime Arodaky studio and knew immediately it was the dress for me. The sleeves and low back were definitely my fave bits. Selecting my dress in Paris was the most incredible experience that I was very lucky to do. My parents made it possible and it’s something that I’ll remember as a very special memory.

My shoes were from & Other Stories and I wore Lily and Roo pearl earrings and borrowed my Mum’s pearl necklace as my something old and borrowed. I changed my necklace in the evening to a diamond necklace which Curtis bought me as a wedding gift. He bought this from the same place that he had my engagement right and our wedding bands made (Jewellery Studio Cardiff). The very lovely October Hair did my hair and I had a half up twist style in the day and then took it down in the evening so it was long and wavy. LC Make Up did my make up and I went for a glowy, natural look which I loved. Both October and the LC girls nailed the brief.

The bridesmaids wore lilac/slate coloured dresses from Rewritten which were long and flowy and had a similar off the shoulder style to my wedding dress. The flower girls wore white, lace flower girl dresses from John Lewis and looked adorable. Curtis wore a fine dogtooth beige suit from Reiss with a navy knitted tie from Eton Shirts. The groomsmen wore navy suits hired from Moss Bros with a fine dogtooth beige tie bought from Etsy.

We didn’t have a set theme for the wedding however the aim was to make the day as personable as possible. We’re both country bumpkins at heart and so naturally went for a very relaxed, country vibe. We absolutely love disco music and anything sparkly so tied that in whilst also including our love for travel and giving a nod to the places that mean a lot to us. We tied in the disco element by having mirror balls hanging in The Stables which worked perfectly with the sun shining on them in the day and then them reflecting off the glass ceiling in the evening looked incredible.

We used a local florist called Bloomers who are located in Newtown, Wales. They were incredible, so helpful, super friendly and nailed the brief. We went for white flowers and lots of greenery as well as sunflowers as they are my (Laura’s) favourite flowers. My mum (Philippa Wright) with the help of my mother-in-law (Chris Smart) made the flower arch which looked absolutely incredible and really was a show stopper. It was the most perfect backdrop to us tying the knot but also looked amazing in The Stables later in the day. The mums absolutely smashed it!

My very talented auntie (Joanne Jessop) made our wedding cake which was a semi naked cake decorated with fresh fruit and flowers – it was perfect and absolutely delicious. There were three layers all with a different flavour: the base was lemon and elderflower, second layer was chocolate orange and the top layer strawberry and cream. Our cake topper was gold and read ‘The Smarts’ which we bought from Etsy.

We used the very lovely Tallulah’s Catering for our wedding food. We had five canapés on the lawn which included crab mousse, asparagus, lemon and chive mayonnaise on a toasted crumpet, BBQ brisket sourdough, lemon and chilli marinated halloumi wrapped in courgette ribbon, baby tacos and leek and Shropshire blue arancini. The meat main was braised shin of beef in red wine, chive dumplings, glazed carrots and a pomme puree. The veggie/vegan option was butternut squash, chickpea and apricot tagine with couscous. For pud we chose a lemon meringue tart. And in the evening we had meat and veggie burritos. The food was absolutely delicious and Tallulah is the loveliest person with excellent communication throughout…we LOVED it!

Green Antlers were our photographers and wowee they were AMAZING!! I originally found them on Instagram and loved their style as they specialise in natural shots as opposed to posed. They captured the day perfectly and were the most easy going but professional, lovely people that we have met. Sam and Diana made us both feel so comfortable and we found having our portraits done super fun and chilled. We didn’t think it could get any better and then we received our wedding album and it is absolutely perfect and something to treasure forever. We cannot recommend Green Antlers enough.

Our videographer was one of the best men also known as Fleur De Lys Films. He very kindly gifted us our wedding video and absolutely smashed it. He captured the day so so perfectly and the happiness and love we felt on the day really shone through in the video. He’s super talented, the nicest guy and amazing at what he does!

Best part of the day…

The best part of the day was having everyone (minus a few that couldn’t make it) that we loved all in one place, as well as of course finally getting married after waiting so long due to Covid. We couldn’t have wished for a more perfect, special day and it was one hundred percent worth the wait. The weather was incredible, everyone was on top form and everything went smoothly and exactly to plan. Everyone always said to us it’ll be the best day of your life and it really, really was. I couldn’t imagine our day anywhere other than in the beautiful countryside of Mid Wales surrounded by the people with love. The happiest day filled with SO much love.

From one couple to another…

Our biggest tip would be to remember the day is YOUR day and when making decisions choose what you and your partner love as opposed to what you think everyone else will love. We followed this approach throughout planning by really focusing on making it personal to us and so many people complimented on how ‘us’ it was and how much they loved that. Don’t worry about the small things because if you make it yours it will always be perfect and if things don’t go to plan then just remember the main reason is marrying the love of your life surrounded by the people you love most.