Mark & Abbie’s Sage Green Wedding at Sandon Hall

Surrounded by lush Staffordshire countryside (including spring lambs!), with picturesque gardens and an Orangery where they chose to hold their ceremony, Sandon Hall was already beautiful on its own. Pulling in help from friends and family they largely DIY’d the elegant decor with the addition of some beautiful blooms from Myrtle Fox and Maude, captured perfectly by Lucas Vale Photography.

Abbie says…

It was always a dream of mine to get married at Sandon Hall. It’s close to home so super easy for family but more importantly it’s very beautiful. We got married in May so there were baby lambs in the fields as you drive up the long drive, and the expansive gardens mean you are spoilt for choice when it comes to wedding photos. The Orangery, where we opted to be married, was dreamy with a water feature at the end offering soothing trickling sounds and the plants growing inside and gorgeous tiled floor made it a perfect setting for us to be married in there. We also stayed on the estate on the wedding night in one of the guest houses which meant we walked hand in hand down the drive after the wedding, through the countryside which was a magical end to the evening.

I wanted a minimal dress so opted for a sleek ivory Pronovias dress from Georgina Scott Bridal with a low cowl back and long train. My aunty is a hairdresser so she did my hair in a sleek bun with side part at the front and loose curls so it was soft around my face. I had a pearl headpiece above my bun with a long single tier ivory cathedral veil underneath with very minimal scatter Swarovski crystal detail for a tiny bit of sparkle that was only noticeable as the light caught it. For my ‘something blue’ I wore my Nan’s diamond and sapphire earrings as nod to her as she passed away a few years ago. My makeup by Alice Olivia was ‘soft glam’ as I try to be mostly natural day to day and she used Charlotte Tilbury Pillowtalk lip colour which is now my new favourite.

I’ve always loved the multiway bridesmaid dresses as they are classy and versatile so I went for the ‘fossil’ colour floor length dresses and gifted all my bridesmaids gold pearl drop earrings so they matched. I also got them matching green gowns to get ready in in the morning which they loved.

The groom and groomsmen hired their suits from Peter Posh opting for a dark navy three piece with the groomsmen having grey waistcoats to differ from the groom. On the morning of our wedding I gave my husband a gift which was a Tag watch which he wore on the day and my family got him a ‘welcome to the family’ gift of socks that were the Marauder’s Map as he loves Harry Potter.

The ceremony in the Orangery needed minimal decor so my mum and aunt made dried flower pew ends using pampas bunny tails and dried sage green hydrangeas and tied them with neutral hessian ribbon with sage silk ribbon which was in keeping with our neutral style.

The weather was glorious sunshine and 21 degrees so the drinks reception was outside on the lawn and we had lawn games like giant Jenga and giant inflatable Pass the Pigs to keep our guests happy! The room for the wedding breakfast was decorated simply with green ruscus foliage garland on the top table and also along the main grand stairs along with logs of pillar candles and we used our bouquets to decorate the top table and cake table. I also paid for a bucket of single stem white and neutral flowers that we made into a few bunches and placed in old ceramic jars my dad collected, along with different height sage green taper candles. On a mantlepiece in the venue we had wedding photos for both our parents and my grandparents with tea lights and a single chair with a sign to remember those who are no longer with us.

Claire from Myrtle Fox and Maude was our florist. She understood my vision perfectly and was able to design gorgeous simple bouquets featuring reflex roses in ivory and quicksand and large ivory peonies. Around the venue I didn’t really want lots of florals instead opting for green foliage around the main staircase and along the top table.

Our cake by Cakes ‘n’ Sprinkles was a three tiered cake with Biscoff, raspberry and white chocolate and lemon and poppy seed, with a buttercream covering that was ivory and minimal with wafer paper detail on one side and a few dried flowers which were the same as what we used around the venue to tie it all together.

For our wedding breakfast we had a three course sit down meal catered by Vanilla in Allseasons. Fresh artisan breads were served first and then a starter of Heritage tomato bruschetta, roasted lemon and thyme chicken with salsa verde served with spring greens and parmentier potatoes and as I’m vegetarian a vegetable roulade for me in replace of the chicken. Pudding was sticky toffee and apple pudding with cream or custard. The service was truly amazing and the portions were huge!

Lucas Vale Photography was exactly who we were looking for as we loved his candid arty photo style instead of the traditional wedding photos. He is also so laid back so fit seamlessly into the day without stopping the flow or making it awkward and snapped some great moments. He also understood my vision so when I asked for a champagne pour and spray he new exactly the images I wanted and captured them perfectly. I think it’s very important to choose a photographer on their photo style as there is so much choice out there you have to go with what suits you and your day. His natural unforced images and use of clever tricks to get cool shots really appealed. He also arranged early to capture morning bridal prep all the way through to the evening so we could have images from the whole day.

Best part of the day

It was all perfect so it’s hard to pick, but my biggest one was seeing Mark standing at the aisle whilst his mum and aunties played a string quartet version of Higher Love as I walked down to meet him. It was just magical and such an emotional moment. In terms of the most fun it was probably the champagne spray with the wedding party – it made great photos and was a huge laugh with all our favourite people. Or it could be surprising my new husband by doing a speech!

From one couple to another…

Plan, plan, plan and invest in a wedding coordinator or use a venue that has one so that on the day you can relax knowing it’s all sorted as it goes so quick!

Also try make time for each other, even if its 15 minutes alone. We went for a ride in our wedding car after the ceremony and we chatted about our morning and his thoughts on the dress and it was so lovely to have some alone time just after we got married.

Also if your family are helping a lot with preparations for the day leave some secrets for them too. We didn’t tell our families about the saxophonist as they new everything else, I just wanted them to have something that was a nice surprise!