Katie and Ellis - beautifully traditional and flower-full of love!

Katie and Ellis had an early June wedding. Their vision was for a relaxed celebration weekend.

In the many months of planning, Katie and Ellis really took time in making sure that the weekend reflected care and love for all who they invited. They both love to laugh and have a brilliant and quick sense of humour!  On the weekend itself, everyone who came, created a really special atmosphere with some real laugh out loud moments for our gorgeous couple!

The weekend began with the arrival of the groceries.  Katie and Ellis arranged for breakfast hampers to be put in each of their guest's apartments to make sure guests were set for the Big Day! Here's Katie organising the food....

And all the family members joined in to make sure they were delivered to each apartment. Here is Ellis' mum Lynda - she was on hand to make sure all jobs on the "to do" list were ticked off.

The next arrival was the table centre pieces. I'll explain about these amazing flowers in a moment, but look at how gorgeous these are:

The amazing person behind these flowers is Jenny, also known as 'the flower fairy', 'Superwoman' and 'Katie's Mum'!  When I first met her, she told me she was going make up all the arrangements for Katie and Ellis' wedding. She said "they won't be any good, but they will be full of love."  She was mostly right - they were definitely full of love, but they were beautiful!

Here's Jenny hard at work, delegating to Grandma.

Even Auntie Carol was roped into the operation.

Jenny has never had any flower arranging training, she read a book on flower arranging and has clearly taken to it like a duck to water!

The colours all matched Katie and Ellis' colour schemes of pale peach and ivory.

Operation Flowers was a mammoth task, but everyone helped and it was a lot of fun! 

Here's Katie joining in!

Katie's wonderful friend and bridesmaid Sam, made for her this gorgeous table plan. It has all the places they will visit on their adventurous honeymoon!

Katie's brother Rob had the important task of delivering the beautiful wedding cake which a family friend made - all the way from Essex to North Devon - must have been a tense journey!

Providing the humour throughout the weekend, was the task given to Howard, Ellis' best man and big brother. I put my foot in it as soon as I met him, by saying he looked just like Ellis.....  Clearly it's the other way round, Howard is on the left, and our gorgeous groom, Ellis on the right!

Here we have some special wedding ducks, looking after a gift from some friends!

This is a glimpse of the "backstage" Pickwell wedding bit - Team Elliott getting the real ale keg ready for Saturday's fun!

In the evening, everyone headed over to the Village pub, The Kings Arms, for some hearty dinner, and one or two drinks before making sure everyone got their beauty sleep!

Saturday morning was a hive of activity in Bliss - the apartment that Katie and the girls got ready in.  Nat from Changing Faces made our beautiful bride and her best girls hair, even more beautiful!

While Rebecca also from Changing Faces did their make up.

Katie even organised for the girls to get their nails done in the morning!

There was such a lovely atmosphere of the girls getting together and having a good giggle!

Katie's bridesmaids Annie and Caroline made her this amazing scrapbook documenting her Hen do - sounded amazing, kayaking, games and lots of fun - such a sweet idea!

Notice these super cool dressing gowns Katie bought for all her bridesmaids - you can only just see it, but in sparkly writing it says "Bridesmaid" on the back, here's Annie modelling hers.

Even Lynda had one "Mother of the Groom"!

Now, I had so much fun being around the girls getting ready, I totally forgot to look in on the boys!  The first I saw of Ellis was when he made the transformation into groom and took his place greeting his guests.

Our groom and his best boys looked very handsome in their navy blue suits

And then it was time for the bride to make her walk down the aisle, bridesmaids first.

Then Katie with her lovely dad, Kevin.

Katie and Ellis had a beautiful and atmospheric ceremony in our ballroom, with twinkling tea lights, and the beautiful flowers Jenny had made. Katie walked down the aisle to one of my favourite songs - "Yours" by Ella Henderson.

During the signing of the register, their talented friend and bridesmaid, Tiffany, sang and played the guitar. It was so special and meaningful - it created a truly magical ceremony.

Here you can just about see their lovely photographer Georgina from Panache Photography capturing the newly weds walking up the aisle together!

After the ceremony, the new Mr and Mrs, and their guests, enjoyed some delicious canapés - 

yummy Devon crab,

And gorgeous local Beef.

The ballroom was set up for the wedding meal,

And although it was drizzly outside, it didn't stop our bride and groom heading out to get some private photo's of just the two of them, in front of the house!

After photo's the bride and groom greeted everyone as they entered the Ballroom for the delicious wedding meal.

Guests enjoyed this beautiful chicken and avocado starter.

And our caterers Guess Who is Coming to Dinner really outdid them with a rack of lamb, dauphanoise potatoes and seasonal local vegetables. Sadly I missed taking a photo of the main course, but I did get one of the guests enjoying the delicious meal!

And the pudding is a favourite of mine: passion fruit parfait with a mango coolie - so fresh and scrummy!

And then it was time for the speeches. Dad, Kevin, proudly took centre stage first to speak for his daughter.

Ellis gave a heartfelt, humorous and beautiful speech, thanking all family and friends for their love and support.

And then, Howard gave one of the funniest best man's speech we've heard. In a "This is your Life" style, Howard covered off Ellis' life in only the way a brother can. I cannot repeat a lot of it, but it opened with: 

Now, there are some things you never do in life: 

1. Eat yellow snow

2. Shout bomb on a plane

3. Wee on an electric fence

4. Compliment a man's watch while at a urinal

5. Ask your brother to do your best man speech!

Following speeches, guests headed to the Terrace for coffees, Devon fudge and a group photograph.

Katie and Ellis cut their wedding cake with a knife Jenny gifted to them when they got engaged. I am certain it will be used to cut several more significant cakes in their lives together.

After cutting the beautiful cake, they made their way onto the dance floor for the first dance!

It wasn't long before EVERYONE joined them!

Well, when I say everyone, I mean most...  others found the garden games more appealing in the evening!  Ellis is a big fan of garden games so brought along lots to add to tennis and giant chess.  This little one enjoyed a spot of evening cricket!

Meanwhile Ellis and bridesmaid Caroline enjoyed a shot of wedding day tequila!

Katie and Ellis, you have both been a joy to get to know, your wedding weekend was one that was full of laughter and such beautiful moments. We hope you and your family will all visit us again.  But in the meantime, all of us at Pickwell wish you both a lot of luck and happiness in your epic backpacking trip around South America!

Mucho amor y felicitaciones! 

Much love and Congratulations!

xxx