Tobyn and Fran married at Tobyn’s family home on the 12th September in a beautiful, intimate wedding blessing surrounded by their closest family and friends. The couple officially married in a private civil ceremony shortly before their big day, meaning their close friend Rich was bestowed the huge honour of conducting the ceremony for them. As Tobyn is a talented chef who would give Heston Blumenthal a run for his money, such is his creativity and passion when it comes to all things food related, the wedding was very focussed around presenting guests with an array of culinary delights throughout the day. The wedding theme was very much a country vintage affair with Fran, herself, personally spending hours making beautiful decorations and attending to every little detail to make it the wedding she had always dreamt of. Close friends Chris and Millie provided the musical entertainment on the day including a heartwarming and funny song during the ceremony itself. Fresh back from their honeymoon, I caught up with Fran and asked her to share some details about what was truly a beautiful wedding day….
1) Where did you get your wedding dress and who was it by?
I got my dress from a boutique called Bride of Tenterden. I fell in love with the vintage lace dress I chose for the day which was made by Sottero & Midgley.
2) What were your favourite moments from the day?
Too many to mention! The ceremony being conducted by one of our best friends Rich was amazing, the ceremony was just so personal to us.
3) Why pick a wedding at home rather than at a venue?
It was to make the day much more personal and very meaningful to us, our friends and our family and enable us to have exactly what we wanted for the ceremony, we were a little unconventional with the way we ran the day but it was all completely personal to us. It also means we are surrounded by the memories of the day all the time which is lovely.
4) How would you describe the theme for your wedding and what was the inspiration behind it?
The theme was very much a quintessentially English vintage country garden party…Tobyn would call the gents style ‘chappish’. It’s very much our style and I didn’t want anything included in the day that couldn’t be ‘used’ again in some way so we now have all sorts of pieces from the wedding around the house on display which is lovely. I made pretty much everything by hand, I spent hours wrapping bottles and tins and anything else I could find in twine, lace and various ribbons and cutting and drying all the lavender from the garden.
5) Any special touches you put in place regards decor or entertainment that is worth mentioning?
Above really, pretty much everything was made by hand! Also, at the ceremony and for an hour at the evening reception my friend Chris Macarthur sang for us, along with one of my closest friends Millie Asquith. I’ve known Chris since I was two and he’s an incredible singer, everyone loved him. We had a fire ball that was personalised for us that we will light every year on our anniversary and toast marshmallows like everyone did on the day. Our favours were home made marshmallows and skewers!
6) Who did your fabulous hair and make up?!
Hair and Make up was by Sue Harrison from Harrisons. They really went above and beyond for us.
7) Any planning advice for future brides?
Tips for future brides is DO NOT try and do it all and make everything by hand by youself, haha! In all fairness, as stressful and time consuming as it was, our day was absolutely perfect and everybody commented on how special and personal it was which made it all completely worth it and I’d do it again in a heartbeat! 🙂
Alternative wedding photography in Brighton East Sussex by Sharron Goodyear photographer
