Kirsty and Santiago’s wedding in the English countryside is a vision of romance in a barely-there neutral palette of grey and white and hint of peach. The grounds of the Brinsop Court provided a lovely garden ceremony followed by a reception in the courtyard of the rose garden. Planner One Stylish Day assisted the bride in crafting perfectly personalized details included feminine florals by Wild Bunch Flowers, signage in Spanish honoring Santiago’s heritage, a customized gin bar, s’mores at the fire pit and a few nods to their pet bunny like the rabbit cake topper on cake by SK Cakes. The couple enlisted photographer Naomi Kenton to capture all the moments of the big day and the images are absolutely dreamy!
from the bride: Santiago and I met in London eight years ago and six years later he proposed whilst we were on holiday in Bali. Since then I loved every minute of planning our wedding, I always knew exactly how I wanted my wedding to look. Despite this I still trawled through hundreds of wedding venues across the UK. My mum and I drove for hours to so many venues but every venue we went to had so many rules, from which wine you had to serve to what time the party had to finish. We once drove five hours to one place and they didn’t even offer us a cup of tea! We never wanted a traditional wedding venue, we knew that we preferred to hire a big house for the the May Bank Holiday weekend and have our friends and family feel like they had a great weekend away – which is how we came across Brinsop Court. No crazy rules and restrictions, just one stunning house surrounded by a moat and plenty of tastefully decorated rooms for our closest friends and family to stay.
We hired the whole house from Friday to Monday and once the venue was sorted everything else followed. I’m detail obsessed and adored having so much to organize. Santiago was working in the US during the months building up to our wedding day so my parents were my biggest support in my preparations. My Mum learnt how to make soy candles and hand poured each one of our wedding favors, she also made our seating plan out of wine corks while my Dad made sloe-gin and refurbished old barrels for the gin bar.
On the day I didn’t want to have to worry about anything nor did I want my mum running around sorting things out so we sought out the help of Louise from One Stylish Day in the lead up to the big day and the day itself. Louise’s vision was completely aligned with mine, we wanted something timeless, effortless and pared-back. Louise kept everything running smoothly and me calm (particularly when the caterers starting serving prosecco at our champagne reception!)
My second priority was a wedding video, at first Santiago didn’t want one but I can honestly say it was the best decision we made for our wedding. I searched through so many cinematographers and came across HD Moments. Months after the wedding I still watch our wedding video and advise any brides-to-be to seriously consider incorporating video into your big day if you can. So much of the day goes by without you realizing and after the vows are said it’s incredible to relive those special moments so vividly.
For our stationery we had everything hand-written in calligraphy. Our “Save the Weekend” was a leather luggage tag as we wanted our guests to pack their bags and enjoy the weekend with us. Judy Broad was an easy choice for our stationary as I had long been an admirer of her work after my bridesmaid asked her to do my hen party invitations. Our entire invitation suite was made from Khadi paper and Judy worked so hard to ensure that every letter was smooth across what is actually a very difficult paper to write on (little did I know!)
I also felt the same about Naomi our photographer, I knew that I didn’t want overly posed images and loved that Naomi shot in both digital and film. Once the main vendors were booked I started to focus on my dress. I went to several boutiques in London but nothing stood out to me until I bumped into my old friend Sanyukta Shrestha. I have known Sanyukta for years and worked on one of her very first campaigns which made the process of perfecting the dress even more special. I described how I wanted the dress to look and was blown away by the sketch that Sanyukta produced. I loved that we could make changes until it was totally perfect and more importantly all of the hand-loomed materials Sanyukta uses are ethically made and support women in Nepal.
Details were the most important thing to me. I worked endlessly to ensure the aesthetic was cohesive and that everything had been thoughtfully curated. We used a neutral color palette of grey and white with a hint of peach. I loved following wedding blogs but tried to incorporate our own way of living into our big day. Santiago’s heritage was very important to us. We had some of the signage written in Spanish, played salsa music and served Colombian Espresso Martinis after dinner. Our house bunny Bonnie is my fur baby so we had lots of rabbit accents throughout the big day including our cake toppers, ‘Bon Bon’s Bar” and our ring holder.
On the morning of our wedding my grandparents gave me half an English Crown from their own wedding day while my mum presented me with an engraved box containing my something old – the necklace that my late grandad had given to her on her wedding day. I had breakfast with my mum in the bridal suite and exchanged wedding day gifts while the boys had a barber come to their room to do wet shaves.
I had always wanted to get married outside so was really grateful that it wasn’t raining on our wedding day. But as my dad was walking me down the aisle a big gust of wind blew my veil around his leg – thankfully he managed to untangle himself and I was actually thrilled with how Justina and Greg from HD Moments managed to stylize the mishap on our video. It was a really special moment to walk down the aisle and see Santiago as I hadn’t seen his suit before and we both wrote our own vows and kept them as a surprise from each other. I was so overwhelmed by Santiago’s words I cried during my own vows!
Our reception was held in the old rose garden in the courtyard of Brinsop Court underneath a stretch tent. During the reception guests enjoyed making s’mores on the fire-pits, a gin bar and my parents surprised us with a firework display in the evening. We also took dance lessons for our first dance before the wedding day and I highly recommend this if you have two-left feet like we do!
On the Sunday we had lawn games and a big BBQ to finish what was the most perfect weekend.
Kirsty & Santiago | Brinsop Court wedding video | Fine art wedding film from hdmoments.co.uk on Vimeo.
Photographer: Naomi Kenton // Wedding Planner: One Stylish Day // Florist: Wild Bunch Flowers // Stationery: Judy Broad Calligraphy // Venue: Brinsop Court // Videographer: HD Moments // Dress: Bespoke at Sanyukta Shrestha // Bridesmaid Dresses: Needle & Thread // Flower Girl Dresses: Bespoke at Milly Wedding Shop // Hair and Makeup: Evie Smith // Catering: Clever Chefs // String Quartet: Cantabile Strings // Linens and Ribbons: Kate Cullen // Furniture & Crockery Rental: Options Hire // Handmade Bar: Made By Wood & Wood // DJ: Stylish Entertainment // Brides Shoes: Chloe // Groom’s Suit: Paul Smith // Groomsmen Suits: Charles Tyrwhitt // Cake & Cake Swing: SK Cakes // Photo Booth: Vintage Booth // Signage: Thistle Paper Company // Men’s Barber: The Groom’s Day Barber Shop