You might remember a certain gorgeous smile, which I fell in love with during Jill & Gareth’s engagement session. The first thing to greet us after walking through the door of Gareth’s parent’s house, where Jill and the girls were getting ready, was Jill’s infectious laughter, which instantly let me know that this was going to be one special day.
Jill’s beautiful Alfred Angelo gown had the coolest pockets ever, and I probably don’t need to tell you that I spent way too much time with her gorgeous Charm heals by Kate Spade, talk about shoe heaven! Earrings by J. Crew, and that stunning smile, finished off Jill’s look for the day. Since Jill and Gareth planned the wedding from overseas, it was easier for Jill to let her bridesmaids choose their own dresses – the one guideline was the colour black, which pulled the whole colour scheme together with a splash of green. A family friend made the flower girl dresses and page boy’s tie, and Sophia the flower girl’s adorable button bouquet came from Etsy.com vendor kottonkandy52.
The ceremony of Jill & Gareth’s wedding took place at the Holy Trinity Church in Rothwell, followed by a reception at Kilworth House Hotel. I’ll let Jill tell us about the preparations:
‘We tried to do as much as possible on our own, as we wanted the wedding to be a true reflection of us, even though we planned it from another country. I designed all of the paper products (invitations, programs, menus, escort cards, push pins, and favour tags), and Gareth helped make my ideas come to life by putting the invitations, programs, and escort board together. We chose to have Washington DC as our reception “theme”, since it’s the city where we met and still live. Gareth took all of the photos in DC for the table plan, and we came together in a major team effort to make all of the green topiary balls and paper flower bouquets. (Of course, getting them from America to England was a bit of a challenge!)’
‘Of the things that we had to purchase, I wanted to keep the vendors either local or independent, so I used Etsy.com quite a bit. I always loved Jones Soda when I was growing up, and I thought that the colours would add a fun pop to our tables and serve as the perfect place card. I worked with Jaime at TheButterShop to create all of the soda bottle labels, and I couldn’t have been happier with how they turned out.
About three weeks before the wedding, Gareth and I decided that it would be nice to add another favour that was specific to each table location (burning bookmark for the Library of Congress table, FBI badges and spy glasses for the FBI table, etc). It took quite a bit of thinking and quick planning, but it felt so much more personal to us.
Gareth and I couldn’t have been happier with our wedding day. It was perfect in every way, and completely us!’
I couldn’t agree more. It’s a huge feat in itself to plan a wedding from another continent, and to do it with such flair and attention to detail is nothing short of a miracle! I feel so very privileged to have been a part of this wedding, and for the opportunity to get to know Jill and Gareth who are such lovely people. I will forever miss the sound of Jill’s laugh – I hope you two will have decades of laughter ahead of you. x
As ever, a huge thank you to Susanna for having my back, and thanks also to Mark Brown for keeping us entertained on the train journeys!
Perfectly awesome wedding! You have captured all the details so beautifully, it looks like it would have been an awesome wedding to be part of :)
Marianne – you are brilliant… this is stunning!
Amazing, lights! well done.
Wait a cotton pickin’ minute! I thought UK photographers complained about the lack of light all the time?!?!
It’s abundant here….and GLORIOUS! Marianne, I love you style!
I think Jill brought the sun with her from the US, at least it was pouring down the whole week until the wedding day! :D
Gorgeous coverage, and I love the reception decor, as well as how the flower girl’s dress matched it!
Oh Marianne, they are PERFECT! Thank you so so much for the lovely pictures! Looking at them takes me right back to the best day of my life. :-) You are fantastic!
i love visiting this blog. that is all.
Amazing job! Pictures are beautiful!
That wedding is beautiful! Such lovely pictures I can’t stop looking at them!
GORGESOUS all around Jill!!! Congrats to you and Gareth!
I always love the way you capture things and this wedding is no exception! Beautiful work throughout – I love that they had a bug for their wedding vehicle, and that reception venue is amazing!
You captured their wedding day beautifully… and I love the splashes of green during the reception. =)
What a great wedding, stunning dress, love all the stationery elements and details at the tables, the centrepeices are fab and you’ve captured it all so beautifully.
A very happy bride! Very nice shots.
Fantastic images, as they always are, but additionally I love the background story of the day; it cements the meaning in all the pictures.
Wow, getting ready in a green house. You couldn’t ask for better light! Lovely photos, pretty colors and processing. Great job!
The brides getting ready room is amazing! Beautiful light! Your processing is clean and consistent. Great work!
Your work is always amazing!
You are a details queen! Amazing work as always!!
Love all the pictures of everyone getting ready for the wedding!
Oh my. There are so many amazing captures in here. I am so glad I found your blog. These images are incredible!
such personality in these photos! you captured some great moments & I love your processing. the dancing shots are soooo romantic and make me smile :)
Stunning! Absolutely – not just technically perfect but emotionally too. I’ve shot at this venue as well but it rained all day :( Love your work. Brilliant
What a perfect wedding – you’ve done such a fantastic job. All that glass and light, it just looks magical.
wow! stunning images!
Holy crap! Every wedding you post you just get better and better. It blows my mind. You captured such beautiful emotions in these… stunning work yet again.
These pictures blew me away! what an awesome house and venue to!
Stuning, amazing work as always.
I adore that black and white of the little girl during the ceremony- she’s so adorable! You did a fabulous job, as we’ve come to expect. :)
really nice wedding history, great photos
That little girl is very adorable, all in all some fantastic and inspirational photo’s here.
Wow ! Simply WOW !
Fantastic work here. Everything – the emoition, the details……..your clients must have been delighted.
Amazing photos and great locations. Good Job !!!!!!!!