Sophie & Alaistair’s Autumn Wedding at Bredon Manor

I’ve been keeping a beady eye on Bredon Manor even since they landed on the Directory so I couldn’t be more thrilled to share Sophie and Alaistair’s big day at this Georgina gem with you today.

Their wedding in early October was blessed with a bright blue sky, warm sunshine and the dreamiest of atmospheres. Together with their (incredible) wedding transport, Halfpenny London bridal outfit and magnificent DIY florals they ended up with a simply stunning, autumnal wedding day!

Sophie says…

The initial plan was to get married at the church in Bidford-on-Avon that I have family connections to and then have a party at a beautiful pub in the Cotswolds. Unfortunately, just over 6 months before our date, the pub had a huge fire and so we were forced to find an alternative venue at the last minute. Luckily I knew from Instagram that Charlie, an ex-colleague of mine, had moved into and was in the process of renovating Bredon Manor and so I contacted him in a panic. It felt a bit like it was meant to be, we loved everything about it on the first visit, even though it wasn’t quite finished.

Bredon has really beautiful gardens and a cool dual space in the barns for eating and partying. The Coach House cottage and the rooms in the main house are immaculate too. It worked for us because it was close enough that we could still have the ceremony as originally planned in Bidford. The barns were the perfect size to accommodate our party of 70 and even allowed us to invite some extra people in the evening. We were lucky to find catering fairly easily too using Bredon’s preferred supplier list and a bit of help from their in-house planner, Laura from Studio 81 Events, so everything worked out beautifully in the end.

My ‘dress’ was actually a separate top and skirt by Halfpenny London. I didn’t wear any accessories, a veil didn’t feel right for me, so I just wore some topaz and diamond drop earrings by Suzanne Kalan. The maid of honour wore a forest green silk dress from Ghost and the groom and best man wore custom navy suits by Suit Supply with green and gold accents. Hair and makeup was by Tash and Jen from Margot & Lace.

The overall style was ‘modern autumnal’ but not in an obvious way. The colour scheme for the flowers was muted and tonal – cream, beige and peach with accents of dusty pink, orange and brown. The beautiful, bright and airy barns at Bredon didn’t need much styling. We sourced hop bines from a local producer and hung them them in bundles from the beams to tie in with the greenery in the floral arrangements, which were transported over from the church and repurposed from aisle dressings to create a ‘meadow’ display in front of the top table and placed in the window recesses and the pedestals were put either side of the bar.

Theme wise, we wanted to keep it as ‘homemade’ as possible. We gathered sloes from the farm that we live on and made sloe gin favours. We made all of the signage and the drinks station ourselves out of pallet wood. The mother of the groom grew a lot of the greenery and flowers on her allotment; and the rose bowls, vases and candle sticks were all antique crystal and cut glass that we collected from flea markets, antique shops and eBay. The invitations, seating plan and table cards were designed by a screen printing company based in Bristol and were based around birds that we see in our garden and around the farm.

Our florist was the mother of the groom, helped by a small team of friends and relatives. She doesn’t trade professionally as a florist and is largely self taught, but she is part of the floristry team at a local National Trust property and had done some freelance wedding flowers a few times before ours. She is very talented and certainly didn’t disappoint with what she came up with on the day! We largely let her have free reign, other than having a few discussions about colours and types of flowers. She even grew a lot of the flowers and greenery on her allotment and dried things for the lapel pins and napkin ties. Some of the greenery was foraged locally, like fern from the Malvern Hills and the accent roses and bigger flowers were bought in. She hired out the local village hall and they worked tirelessly for the few days leading up to the wedding to create a stunning semi-archway for the church door, multiple large pedestals, aisle dressings, bouquets and lapel pins.

The day catering was done by Caviar & Chips, a Midlands-based company who worked with us to create a completely bespoke menu. They also did our beautiful canapés and provided a full bar service. They came recommended by Bredon and were really exceptional. The food was amazing and the staff went beyond. The evening catering was provided by Wild Pizza Co who served wood-fired pizzas from their converted Land Rover oven. The cake was made by a family friend.

I genuinely couldn’t sing Will and Celle (aka The Chamberlins‘) praises more highly. I found them on Instagram and fell in love with their style – very relaxed and candid, with no cheesy posing. Their photos just looked so joyful and they are the nicest people you could ever hope to meet too. Celle was really helpful to chat to in the lead up to the wedding and they were the most fun, friendly and calming presence to have around on the day; supportive, not at all obtrusive and super professional. We couldn’t be happier with the photos.

Best part of the day

Seeing all of our plans come together in the end and celebrating with our families and friends.

From one couple to another…

Remember to eat all of the beautiful food that you have chosen and paid for!