Well, hasn’t February been beautiful? Rewind to last year and we had snow and cold frosts. Fast forward to the last week and we’ve had the most glorious sunshine, the daffodils are already popping up and the skies have been perfectly blue. The weather here has certainly made us excited for the warmer months and many more outdoor festival weddings – stroll on wedding season!
Today we have a seriously pretty woodland wedding to share with you….from a tree house! Elizabeth and Andy made their vows at a hidden conservation center in the middle of Hartford Woods in Hampshire. Beaulieu Treehouses only host a very small handful of weddings per year, but through Elizabeth’s conservation volunteering work (can we hear a cheer for the bride please?!), she was able to get a heads up on the venue and book early.
Our woodland setting and the beautiful autumn season was the perfect natural theme for the wedding. Everything fell into place around this!
Benni Carol Photography are the cool, creative and full-of-sass duo that captured this wedding, and boy did they do good! The heavens pretty much stayed open the entire day, which made their job a tad tricky, but they spared no expense at bringing the joy, love and glamour from real wedding to film effortlessly. We adore their unique style!
Elizabeth wore an art deco beaded and delicately put together gown by Morilee Gardner, and used the woodland environment to theme their reception. This wedding is full of rustic features with an elegantly charming edge. We LOVE the forest setting and the florals are just too dreamy.
Here’s Elizabeth to tell you all about her tree top woodland wedding to Andy….
Boozy Rio Engagement!
Andy proposed completely out of the blue when we were travelling in Brazil. It was a very caipirinha-fuelled night out in Rio! Andy later told me that he had originally planned to propose on the hike up to Christ the Redeemer, but thank god he didn’t as it wouldn’t have been as romantic with me exhausted and sweating!
Classic ‘updo’ and super talented MUA
I always imagined I would wear my hair down for my wedding day, but with such a detailed high neck dress, my hair needed to be up to show it off! I found some ideas on Pinterest and when Kelly Gill came to my house for the trial, we had fun trying a few different styles and ended up with a really lovely classic style that went with my dress.
I’m a bit useless with my own makeup and so I knew from the start that I didn’t want a wedding day where I was forever looking in the mirror to touch up. I found Teresa Jolly (based in Salisbury) and she was fantastic. She made the whole process really enjoyable.
Classic Vintage Wedding Gown
I’ve always liked classic, vintage style wedding dresses and found the perfect one from Morilee Gardner. It was just what I was looking for, and incredibly, it was the cheapest of all the wedding dresses I tried on! I bought it during the February half term (I work in a school) and so I also got a bonus Valentine discount from Pascali Bridal Boutique in Poole.
I wanted shoes that I would wear again, so went with the beautiful Harriet Wilde Peony shoes in blue. As it turned out, it rained and rained on our wedding day, so in almost every photograph I’m holding my dress up from the forest floor – my shoes were on show for the whole day!
My dress had a high detailed neckline, so a necklace wasn’t needed. I wore a beautiful pair classic pearl drop earrings that Andy had given me for the previous Christmas.
Conservation Wedding Venue in the New Forest
We were married at Beaulieu Treehouses, Countryside Education Trust, Hartford Woods in Hampshire. We always knew we wanted a slightly unique venue and through my conservation volunteering network, I knew about the Countryside Education Trust in the New Forest. They have a Treehouse Centre there which is mainly used for educational purposes, but I discovered they also had capacity to hold a small number of weddings there per year – perfect!
We had a marquee outside in the forest for our entertainment – a local college steel drum band called Panatical – and thank goodness we did! It hammered down with rain the entire day and luckily there was room for everyone to squidge underneath and have a dance!
Beautiful Ceremony Officiated by a Dear Friend
We have been to many weddings over the last few years and never once really liked the registrars – after all, they are an integral part of the most special part of the day, why should it be some stranger? We decided very early on that we wanted a friend to officiate our wedding and it was the best decision we ever made! We were able to craft the ceremony together in the months running up to the wedding and it really did make our ceremony extra special.
Leaf Bunting and Ping Pong
I spent the whole summer creating autumn leaf bunting to trail over the path and wooden walkways. As there were two Treehouses, we wanted another activity for the evening and so bought in our huge ping pong table for fun! As a silly touch I also had two custom ping pong bats ordered with our faces printed on.
Honey Jar Favours and Autumn Leaf Stationery
Andy’s Dad is a beekeeper and produces his own honey, so we gave away little hexagon jars of Fordingbridge-made Kratzke honey! On the honey jar labels we also provided information on Bee Against Poverty, a charity that his dad is involved with that helps set up beekeeping enterprises in Africa.
I love the ethos behind Etsy, so decided upon Luella Paper Designs – the invitations were bound with twine and an autumn leaf, and really did look beautiful.
Perfect Caterers and Wedding Cake Made by Nan!
Due to the uniqueness of the venue, we played safe and used Ginger Catering who are the venue’s recommended caterers. We honestly couldn’t have picked better suppliers if we tried! Ginger Catering were amazing right from the start and we were completely blown away from the very first taster session.
We weren’t going to bother with a cake, but just a couple of days before the wedding, Andy’s nan said she’d make us one!
Sage Green Bridesmaid Dresses with Art Deco Detailing
After a lot of searching, my maid of honour found the perfect dresses – they were sage green with art deco detail and even had small leaves beaded on!
Andy, the best men and the dads wore handsome stone coloured linen suits in Racing Green from Debenhams. We wanted these suits to be versatile and something they would actually wear again. They wore sage green ties and I spent ages finding just the right shade from Swagger and Swoon. They delivered them beautifully in a display box.
Benni Carol Photography
The photographers were one of the very first things we booked. I knew I would treasure the photos forever and would want them displayed everywhere at home! I found Benni Carol Photography. They were amazing suppliers to deal with – picking photographers is really important and these guys had such a smiley positive presence.
British Seasonal Flowers
I wanted seasonal British flowers and ideally from an ethical company too. As luck would have it, a florist called Joey from The Wildfox worked in our local area. Me and my bridesmaids attended one of her summer festival crown workshops the year prior and I knew then that this was the florist I wanted.
First Dance
Even years before we got engaged, we always commented on how fun it would be to do a surprise first dance. We decided to go for it and had two private lessons from All Steps First Dance. They came to our house and we spent the summer practicing in the courtyard. We didn’t tell a soul about this and it was a really wonderful surprise for all our guests!
Favourite Moment
One of my favourite moments of the day was running through our guests as they threw confetti at us! The mixture of relief from having made it through the ceremony was so overwhelming! Seeing all of our family and friends with huge smiles on their faces – it really was a happy moment!
Any Advice?
My sister recently got engaged and my first piece of advice was….take your time! Weddings can become very complicated events and you want to enjoy the process so don’t add any stress unnecessarily. If the venue you have your heart set on has no availability for this year, but does for next year, then just wait. It’s a day worth waiting for.
The Line Up
Photographer: Benni Carol Photography; Venue: Beaulieu Treehouses; Bride’s Dress: Morilee Gardner; Bridal Boutique: Pascali Bridal Boutique; Bride’s Shoes: Harriet Wilde; MUA: Teresa Jolly; Hair: Kelly Gill; Groom’s Suit: Debenhams; Ties: Swagger and Swoon; Caterers: Ginger Catering; Florist: The Wildfox; Confetti: Shropshire Petals; Invitations: Luella Paper Designs; Dance Lessons: All Steps First Dance; Rings: Eco Wood Rings
Love the B&W treatment, great story telling
Beautiful wedding. Thank you for sharing!
I’m currently struggling to hire/buy table linen. Where did you get yours from?