OMG, are you ready for this super cute intimate outdoor Oxfordshire wedding? This wedding was a scene from a film, I’m sure of it.
Nathanael and Rachel really are something out of a novel. They met in a youth hostel in Switzerland and then chased each other around the world to be together. This intimate back garden wedding was set in Oxfordshire where Rachel wore her grandmother’s vintage wedding dress and Nathanael wrote a song that made everyone cry their eyes out (me included).
Rachel tells me, “Out of everything that happened on our wedding day, by far the best one was that we got married. The flowers were lovely and the food was fabulous and all the guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves but my clearest memory was the rush of delight and relief as we walked out of the ceremony, arm in arm, knowing that we would never need to be separated again.”
A DIY WEDDING
This wedding was DIY through and through.
Rachel did her make up, her wonderful bridesmaids did her hair and they all helped each other get ready. These women are seriously inspiring, strong feminists and it’s an honour that we are still in touch via social media. Rachel gave the girls a simple brief of the colour scheme and they each found an outfit that complemented their style and personalities.
FIRST LOOK
Rachel and Nathaniel had a ‘first look’ before the ceremony. A first look is where you get to see your loved one before the actual ceremony. This is a very special moment and can be quite emotional. At the bottom of the garden there was this cute little bridge over a river and so I positioned them both as below… when they turned to look at each other it was the first time they’d seen each other in their outfits.
“Nathanael and I had dated for 4 years before we were married. Half of that time we had spent on different continents, Skyping each other every night but only actually seeing one another in person every six months. Nathanael is British-Australian and I am American, making our meeting, and our eventual courtship both unlikely and complicated.“
“We have spent thousands of dollars flying around the globe to see one another, before I finally decided, 2 years in, to take the plunge and move to Australia with him for a year. It was a blissful 12 months of sunshine and adventures, but when my visa eventually ran out we had to look for other options.”
“It wasn’t straightforward for him get a visa to the US, and I couldn’t stay in Australia, so our only other viable option was the UK, where I could obtain a student visa and he could live easily with his British citizenship. We moved to London while I undertook my MA, but knew from the beginning that it was once again a temporary solution as I had only been granted a year and a half to stay. We were staring down the barrel of another international move followed by more months of separation when we realized we just couldn’t take it anymore. We decided there and then to get married, and it was the best decision we ever made.”
“Like any wedding, it was stressful to plan at times—a problem that was compounded by my looming MA dissertation at the end of the summer—but through it all we kept our eyes focused on the end goal: being together. Our family and friends were instrumental in bringing it all together and keeping us sane throughout the process, and we couldn’t have asked for a better photographer or a more beautiful venue. The weather ended up being perfect (not too hot or too cold!) and it was a pure delight to be able to have our loved ones from around the world all in the same place.”
These two had the right idea about what the most important thing is on your wedding day. It looks dreamy, it sounds dreamy, and it really was dreamy. It was small, simple, intimate and very much them.
If you’re having an outdoor Oxfordshire wedding please do let me know, I’m always on the look out for new venues and locations, I had an outdoor Oxfordshire wedding – that’s how much I love them!! (Check out my wedding day here – AN OXFORDSHIRE WEDDING FESTIVAL)
OXFORDSHIRE WEDDING SUPPLIERS
VENUE: Friend’s home in Oxford
DRESS: Grandmother’s 1953 wedding dress that she made
FLORIST: Grace + Thorn
RECEPTION: Turl St. Kitchen
PS – You loving a wedding dress like this? Well I’ve just interviewed the designer of a brand new wedding dress shop in Oxford, she makes vintage inspired wedding dresses take a peek here: ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A VINTAGE INSPIRED WEDDING DRESS IN OXFORD?