Dec 1, 2020

Winter Wonderland Wedding at Soho Farmhouse

When a high flying couple oozing both red carpet status, glamour and incredible style ask you over for a breakfast meeting to discuss their incredible Winter Wonderland Wedding at Soho Farmhouse its difficult not to feel a little overwhelmed but as soon as I met Sophie, a Barrister specialising in Family Law & Gregg, an Associate Film producer for some of the most recognisable films in the world, I was immediately put at ease and quickly warmed to their infectious warmth and fun personalities.

The more the meeting went on the more excited I was by their ideas, a magical winter woodland wedding at the incredible Soho Farmhouse in the depths of the Cotswolds, only a stones throw from our garden studio. As the conversation continued my eyes widened as the idea's for their wedding stationery became wilder and wilder and I left feeling both incredibly excited and also slightly stunned by what I had just talked myself into!

I spent the next 2 weeks cutting, sticking, crying, laughing and drowning in pop up inspiration. The colour scheme reflecting the wintery, festive wedding date, the illustrations including the Scottish traditional Thistle, mistletoe and deep blue anemones from Sophies floral aspirations for her bouquet and stunning style inspiration from her bespoke Hermione De Paula gown.

The final invitation design was inspired by one of the couples favourite books, a pop up extravaganza by David A Carter { One Red Dot } seriously, if you want a new coffee table book then this is it.

Each invitation was hand made, hand stuck and hand finished with a grey silk ribbon by yours truly - i'm not going to lie, they took days... but the end result was simply jaw-dropping.

To put it in context, each of the 130 invitations were individually named, and had particular personalised details on each of the the pop up elements which needed to be individually compiled and checked with tailored accommodation, post and pre wedding event details, and various travel and flight details included for different guests.

The attention to detail created and executed by Deabill & Quince was only just shy of OCD.

The reverse of the pop up invitation featured a bespoke illustrated wedding map of Soho Farmhouse grounds showing the various venues that S&G would use during the course of their wedding.

A testament to how much my couples trust me, is that having only seen a hand made proof Sophie and Gregg trusted the craftsmanship and artisanship of me enough for me to post the compiled invitations out directly from my studio. Now, this doesn't happen often, as most couples like to see the final result all packaged up and feel the anticipation of taking them all to the post box themselves... and I made sure I sent Sophie and Greggs keepsake and the spares to them the day before so they got to see and open theirs first. But this was a seriously humbling moment, knowing that having worked with me over a number of months already they trusted my judgement and attention to care enough for me to send the rest 'un-seen'.

Soon S&G were sending me comments they were receiving from their guests 'THESE ARE INCREDIBLE' 'YOUR INVITATIONS ARE SOOO YOU' 'THESE ARE THE MOST AMAZING INVITATIONS I HAVE EVER SEEN!'

Soon enough the morning of the wedding arrived, and the on the day stationery was compiled, finished and ready to deliver and after a 'very' last minute table plan amend I decided to deliver the last bits of stationery personally, by hand. And boy am I glad I did. Just being in the meleé and hubbub of the morning set up was like a dreamland! As a stationer, unless couples have ask me to attend and set up, I am not often onsite on the day of the wedding.. and it was a real treat for me to be able to see my stationery in situ, set up as we had been envisaging for months. And it didn't disappoint.

The order of service included a set of illustrated caricatures depicting each of the bridal party, a quote from the couples favourite film and special details throughout to replicate the fun filled ceremony which was held in the beautiful rustic Hay Barn.

Then came the magical marquee, set up behind the Barwell Barn like a magical Narnian banquet tent. Following on from the invitations and Order of Service I had created a complete set of table stationery including bespoke and personalised Christmas crackers, with differing gifts for men and women and children. These, again, had been hand filled, hand made and hand tied by yours truly with personalised bespoke jokes, messages and gifts.

The menus, place name tags, bar menus and table plan all followed suit and helped tie the whole evening reception together matching the decor, florals and colour scheme perfectly.

Its not often we get a bride with such a deep and specific vision, her attention to detail when planning her day (mostly by herself!!!) was seriously applaudable!

Honestly, I do actually wish every wedding was like this, I love being involved in every detail, from the announcement to the thank you card. It really is a honour and just writing this brings me such a feeling of joy. I am still in touch with Sophie and Gregg, who now have the most beautiful daughter, and I know that I helped make their day even more special through creating their stationery.

Oh... and they had a life size SNOW GLOBE!!!

" We cannot recommend Freya more whole heartedly. We had some whacky ideas and she embraced them, bettered them and just brought everything together and to life for us. She went above and beyond and we got so so so many compliments on all the stationery (particularly our pop up invites and bespoke crackers).

Thanks for everything Freya."

Sophie & Gregg Wilson