PRIMROSE BRIDE // HANNAH & ELLIOT

With a relaxed city wedding in Oxford, at the Bodleian Library, Hannah and Elliot couldn’t have had a more romantic and atmospheric wedding celebration. Boasting hints of boho, Autumnal colours, and lots of gorgeous flowers, they opted for a modern wedding but in breathtaking old buildings, letting the architectural elements speak for themselves.

After tying the knot, the couple lead their guests through the streets of Oxford to their reception at Frevd’s, Jericho, where they’d initially gone together on one of their very first dates. The rainy day held out for the festive excursion and as they arrived and sat down, a picturesque thunderstorm ensued!

Hannah had known, almost instantly, that Elliot was going to be ‘the one’. To propose, he had organised a romantic scene with a picnic rug, Hannah’s favourite bottle of champagne, with their song playing in the background on a beach in Barbados. The last-minute birthday trip shortly become a core memory as they danced in the sand and he spun her one last time, only to be on one knee when she turned around.

COUPLE’S NAMES

Hannah & Elliot O’Brien

GUEST TOTAL

63 day time, extra 16 in the evening

MARRIAGE TO US MEANS

We both believe and understand that people and relationships are constantly evolving. Marriage to us means supporting, loving, and compromising no matter what. It’s also about choosing to spend each day with your best friend, to share memories with and build a life together.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Monika from MT Studio

Monika has a laid-back, documentary style of photography, but captured the most beautiful, natural, and fun photos. She was just such a joy to work with and we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome from the wedding.

THE MOST TREASURED MOMENT OF MY WEDDING DAY

There are so many! The first has to be seeing Elliot’s face as I walked down the aisle, that was so special. The second would probably be leading my whole wedding party through the streets of Oxford from one venue to another. I always wanted to walk through Oxford in my wedding dress, and I was able to make that happen. It was so fun and the weather held out just in time. When we arrived at our reception venue, we sat down, and there was a huge thunderstorm outside but it was so atmospheric! The last was dancing with my Mum, Dad, and Brother to our family’s song ‘Mr Blue Sky’ on the dance floor.

The bride had never intended on finding her gown on the day she visited Story of My Dress (Kent, UK), but knew it was the one as soon as she tried it on,

“I felt cool and elegant all at the same time, and nothing else had that effect on me so I went for it, and have absolutely no regrets. I got so many compliments on the dress, and I loved that it was so unique compared to friends and family weddings we had recently attended.”

Hannah also explicitly noted that another big part of finding her dream wedding dress was the women at our wonderful stockist, Story of My Dress, who made the whole experience amazing.

BRIDE’S DRESS

Primrose gown

WEDDING DAY SCENT

Love Story by Chloe

WEDDING DAY ACCESSORIES

My Mum’s pearl earrings from her wedding day, and my Grandma’s sapphire ring on my right hand. I hardly wore anything else as I didn’t want to distract from the detailing on the dress.

BRIDESMAIDS DRESSES

Mostly ASOS – I gave them a colour palette and the only requirement that it was full length and they chose their own dresses to reflect their styles and body shapes.

WEDDING RINGS

My engagement ring was passed down from my paternal grandma. I bought my wedding band from an antique jeweler in Oxford only 4 weeks before the wedding! Searching for an antique wedding band is very tricky, as you just have to keep going back to check for new arrivals all the time, but I really lucked out. Elliot’s wedding band was from a high street jeweler in Oxford.

HAIR & MAKEUP

May Williams Make Up – local to the Cotswolds, beautiful natural style, which I absolutely loved

Lara Stokes Bridal Hair – again based in the Cotswolds, and had a relaxed style. I went for a low bun, and my veil slotted in just above

They were both such a joy to experience the morning of the wedding with too.

ADVICE FOR BRIDES-TO-BE

Definitely do not feel like you have to follow traditions you don’t believe in, or you are doing for the sake of it. Weddings have changed so much in the past few years, and you can really just create exactly what you want now so we would definitely recommend that. You will get a wedding day that reflects you as people, and your guests will absolutely love that. I would also recommend doing a pre-wedding photoshoot. We are not natural in front of the camera at all and were a little nervous about the photos on the wedding day, so we took a few hours with our photographer, got to know her, and felt way more relaxed posing/having our photos taken and then also got some amazing photos of us. We found this really helpful on the day as we knew then how Monika worked, and what to expect. And lastly, buy the dress! If you try something on that you instantly fall in love with and can’t stop thinking about, that is the one. You won’t regret it.

FLOWERS & BOUQUETS

Sarah Harper Floral Design created the most incredible bouquets and table decorations with lots of dahlias, dancing cosmos and big hydrangeas for the ceremony flowers. We were able to go to her studio a few weeks before and pick out all of the colours we liked, types of flowers, vases and she also organised the candles and candle holders for us. We were honestly blown away by the displays. At the end of the evening, my Mum wrapped all of the flowers in little bouquets for guests to take away with them, including the venue staff, so our guests were able to enjoy them for a little longer.

FOOD & DRINKS

Straight after our ceremony, we had an amazing champagne that we had brought in ourselves. It was very relaxed so people just helped themselves and we hired some flutes for this. We then headed to our second venue where we had drinks from Frevds, and food by Oxford Fine Dining.

When we arrived, guests were given champagne as we chose to do the speeches first so this was for the toast. We then served a selection of red or white wine with dinner. After dinner, the cocktail bar was open and guests could have whatever they wanted from the very extensive menu, which was amazing.

The food was actually the biggest compliment we got from the whole day. People were raving about the service and the amazing dishes. We were very lucky as I had worked with the caterers before as an events organiser, so they allowed us to have a choice wedding menu. We had three courses, and each course had 2 or 3 options – it was incredible to be able to give our guests this experience. This was definitely the most formal part of our wedding day in theory, but the chatter and laughter around the room made it so much more relaxed.

SPECIAL WEDDING SONGS

I walked down the aisle to a song my Dad wrote specifically for this moment. He is a jazz musician and composer, and it was incredible to be able to hear his music as we walked down the aisle together.

We walked out to a string quartet cover of Rusted Roots – ‘Send Me On My Way’ which is one of our favourites. It always seems to pop up when we had significant things happening like moving house, or going on holiday, or just dancing around the living room on a Friday night after a few gins

We walked into our dinner to Natalie Cole – ‘Everlasting Love’. As an eternal fan of The Parent Trap, I couldn’t not include something from their soundtrack!

Our first dance was Aqualung – ‘Brighter than Sunshine’ which we chose years and years ago. Elliot also proposed to me with this song playing, so it was just perfect

CEREMONY & RECEPTION DÉCOR

Our venues were honestly just so beautiful and unique that we didn’t need any big décor in either. We focused on lighting and had lots of flowers and candles – it was perfect.

HONEYMOON

We escaped for a few days straight after the wedding to the Cotswolds, and are looking forward to enjoying our honeymoon in The Maldives in a couple of weeks’ time.

SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

Having worked in weddings for years, I took lots of inspiration from things I had seen over that time period. I am a creative person and had lots of thoughts about what I wanted it to look like, and how to work with the season and the colours. I of course did a lot of Pinterest too!