We’re feeling the joys of autumn today with this beautiful September wedding from lovely Rutland wedding photographer Amanda Forman. The colours are glorious, our couple are stunning and the flowers and little styling touches are out of this world! We’ve saved some of our fave pics for insta, so do head on over to @englishweddingblog after you’ve ready Chloe and James’s interview and supplier recommendations just below!

Our wedding was everything we had dreamt it would be, one of my youngest bridesmaids had a gorgeous little bespoke dress made for her, I bought a small size from where I got the other dresses, and took it to a local woman in Stamford who created a mini version of the big girl dresses. A rust velvet dream!

Wedding photographer’s website

Amanda Forman Photography https://www.amandaforman.co.uk/

Wedding photographer review

Amanda was incredible. Shes such a wonderful person and really enjoyed her being around on our wedding day. I’m not so good when it comes to having my photos taken, but Amanda knew what to do to help us feel relaxed. Her photos when we received them were outstanding! Absolutely love them and can’t wait to have them printed in the house.

Any crafty projects or homemade styling touches?

We did all of the styling on our wedding day ourselves. We made two large ivy rings which were suspended up into two of the peaks of the tipi, we made our own place names, our own wedding favours, which were small corked glass bottles full of toffee vodka and whiskey, we decorated the tables ourselves, sorcing mix match lanterns and candle holders from eBay, local stores and car boots, we went and hand picked our own pumpkins from a local pumpkin farm, and used some small wooden cut tree trunks on the tables to put the food on.

Your best moment or memory

I don’t have a particular favourite memory, I loved the whole day. It was everything I had dreamt it would be. But if I had to choose, it would have to be our first dance! We had a friend of ours choreograph the dance for us, and with a lot of practise (my husband has two left feet) we cracked it and we couldn’t wait to show everyone the dance! It was beautiful – pretty good for two people who can’t really dance!

Tell us anything you did differently – we love hearing about NEW traditions (or none at all!)

I feel a fair amount of our wedding was quite different really. We didn’t use very many suppliers, quite a lot of it was done ourselves even when it came to the catering. Curry is our favourite food, especially from a local restaurant in one of our local towns, so it didn’t feel right to hire a caterer and get them to make a curry. So we asked 10 Dining Street in Oakham off they would cater for us and they gladly accepted! (As you can imagine we are regulars and they know us quite well) they provided tasty Indian canapés, poppadoms, starters, 4 different curries, rice and naan! It was so yummy. They just didn’t supply staffing and cooking equipment so we went to friends from local pubs and restaurants to see if they’d be interested in helping staff our wedding. Which they did! It was perfect.

Venue name + review

We didn’t have a specific venue, we had a tipi in a field borrowed by a friend of ours in the village we got married in, the village my husband grew up in, Harringworth. The field had the gorgeous viaduct going through it which created a stunning backdrop for photos and a view while us and our guests all ate their wedding breakfast. The tipi was from Serentipi, who were absolutely perfect, even after we had to postpone our wedding twice due to the glorious covid.

Tell us a little about your outfits – both of you!

My dress was incredible. If I could get away with wearing my dress everyday, believe I would! I never wanted to take it off. It was timeless, simple and so elegant! the complete opposite to what I ever thought I would go for. It was the back of the dress that caught my eye, but wasn’t keen on the front so I put it off. It turned out to be the very last dress I tried on in the shop, my mum forced me to put it on. The moment the lady in the shop was doing it up, I already knew it was the one.. oh and it really was! Suzanne Neville what a dress! My husband’s suits were navy blue, with a rust coloured tie, which worked really well with the rust velvet bridesmaids dresses

Dress or suit shop name + review

Serendipity Brides – Northamptonshire. These ladies are wonderful! It was the second wedding dress shop I ever went to. Not only were the ladies there lovely, warming and welcoming, the shop was beautiful and the variety of dresses they had were great, so many different styles. I highly recommend them to any bride recently engaged.

Florist name + review

Pickleberry Flowers
Isobel from Pickleberry is such a talented florist! She brought my autumnal floral vision to life. The huge arch at the entry of the church was one of the show stoppers, it was full, bright and screamed autumn! The next piece she did was in the church, it was the only floral part on the church, it was like a wild autumn meadow. Stunning.

Cake maker name + review

Our cake maker was yet again another friend of ours, she used to live in Oakham and I had used her a few times for birthday cakes, and it didn’t feel right not to use her for our wedding cake. We had three different layers. Victoria sponge Chocolate And lemon! SO GOOD!

Stationery maker’s name + review

Stationery was all done by ourselves, the menus on the tables, the table plan and welcome sign was designed by us and ordered online. The place names were cut from trees by yet another friend of ours, he’s a local tree surgeon.

First dance song? Playlist recommendations?

Our first dance was to Michael Buble – Everything

Hair + makeup name + review

Mine and my bridesmaid hair was done by my hair dresser, she’s fantastic! She created the look I had dreamt of, she has a salon in Market Harborough- Steph Guadagnini
Mine and my mums make up was done by one of my oldest friends – Zoe Clarke! She’s a talented self taught make up artist also based in Rutland.