Real Wedding:

“On the day, take some time out with just you and your partner... That reflection time is priceless."”

Another Oxford:

Chris and Rachel White married on 20th May 2017 at Lains Barn, Wantage - here, Rachel tells their story...

“On the second anniversary of our meeting, 23rd May 2016, Chris proposed at home over dinner. It felt like any normal day until the moment before he proposed, when he started to look incredibly nervous. When he popped the question, I immediately said yes. On our wedding day, I spent the morning with my mum, dad and bridesmaids getting ready at our family home in Farmoor.

I absolutely adore vintage style and knew immediately that I wanted the style of my dress and our day to be influenced by classic looks of the 1950's. I'd found the most amazing hair and makeup stylists from Vintage Victory Rollers in Swindon and we started the day early, with the pin curls going in at 8:30am. My bridesmaids had classic victory rolls in their hair and classic 1950's green spotted dresses. I found their shoes on ASOS - they had pink hearts and matching sparkly heart hair clips from Crown and Glory to tie together the whole look.

Having been to lots of wedding fairs, I knew that we really wanted something different for our wedding, reflecting our style and personality. We sourced our multi-coloured heart wedding invites from Something Kinda Cute and the theme stemmed from there, with multi-coloured heart confetti for the tables and hanging paper heart garlands across the barn. My sister created our table numbers, whilst my sister-in-law and mother-in-law did an amazing job of creating some beautiful cross stitches for us to display on the day. Our cake was also made by my godmother, and it was delicious. It was all these handmade touches that really made our day feel more personal to us.

A love of Pop Culture

We are both big fans of pop culture, so blending my love of colour and all things vintage with Chris's love of the 1980s, Lego and Star Wars made sense. All our guests received Lego and a coloured heart shaped badge as Wedding favours. It was a fantastic moment to watch our guests racing each other to see who could build their Lego model the fastest. Chris made a games cabinet where our guests could play Pacman whilst waiting at the bar.

Chris is a big Back To The Future fan so I booked him his own Delorian to take him to the wedding. It even had the date of our wedding up on the electronic display, just like in Back To The Future. I arrived on the day with my dad in an original VW Camper Van.

We had only seen one venue after we got engaged and that was Lains Barn in Wantage. We knew immediately that it was perfect for us. We wanted somewhere that we could decorate in our style and that had enough flexible space, so our guests could dance if they wanted or chill out by the bar.

Music

Music was hugely important to our day. I sing in a choir and I knew that I wanted to have a small group of friends sing as I walked down the aisle; it was so special hearing them singing from the minstrel gallery in Lains Barn.

We knew we wanted Wedding Band 'The Zoots' for our evening reception as they are fantastic. We danced the night away and I don’t think there was a moment that the dancefloor wasn’t filled.

Ann Laing did an amazing job of creating what was in my mind when it came to our flowers. I knew I wanted them as bright as possible, so Ann suggested using peonies in bright fuchsia pink accented with orange and pink tulips, white astrantia, purple anemones and yellow ranunculus: a true spring mix with the bright colours of summer on its way.

The hardest aspect of the wedding was finding a dress I loved - which changed when I met Anne Bird. I knew I wanted a tea length dress, and Anne had the most beautiful tulle material that was covered in tiny white hearts to go over the top of the tea dress. I also wanted ribbons that accented our colour scheme around the edges of my petticoat. It was the dress I had dreamed about. My veil came from Crown and Glory and was also covered in multicoloured gems that matched our colour scheme."

Is there anything you would have done differently if?

"I definitely wouldn’t book a honeymoon immediately after the wedding – being able to spend some time at home before you go away is really nice. We rushed around, but luckily had the most amazing bridesmaids that went through all of our wedding decorations and packed them all away for us."

What’s the best piece of advice you can share with brides-to-be?

"On the day, take some time out with just you and your partner – it was so incredibly special to step back and see all of our loved ones together enjoying our day. That reflection time is priceless."