St Audries Park is a beautiful manor house and exclusive wedding venue in Somerset. With amazing views, stylish interiors, a great hall and stunning orangery, it’s the perfect location for a Somerset wedding. Sarah and Alex chose this romantic venue for their elegant spring wedding and kindly share some of their experiences of planning their lovely day, from choosing the beautiful venue and the seasonal spring florals, to designing their own gin bottle centrepieces, as well as sharing their tips for couples planning their special day.
THE VENUE
“We just fell in love with St Audries Park - the orangery was perfect with so much natural light and was a gorgeous romantic setting for the ceremony. We loved the idea of a ceilidh in the great hall, and the fact that there was so much space for our guests to stay over in the evening was another huge plus (we always have more fun at weddings where you don’t have to worry about a taxi home!). The amount of space in the house meant that we didn’t worry about the weather and everyone having to squash into a marquee if it rained, we knew it would be a great day whatever the weather.”
THE PERSONAL DETAILS AND SPRING FLOWERS
“We didn’t have a strong theme or colour scheme in mind. We didn’t attempt to match bridesmaids dresses with the groomsmens ties and the seat covers or anything, I’m not a fan of everything being matchy-matchy!”
“We wanted local, seasonal flowers and arranged for our florist to just give us what looked best on the day, in a gorgeous white/blush pink palette.”
“Our favourite decorations were our gin bottle centrepieces and table plan, which solved the problem of how to name our tables so they were personal to us.”
SARAH’S WEDDING DRESS
“My dress came from The Wedding Collection in Barnstaple (where my parents live). I had actually tried it on in another boutique and fallen in love with it, but didn’t want to be the person who bought the first dress they tried on! After trying on around 20 other dresses I confirmed it was the one, and my very clever bridesmaid Lizzie then found it on offer for half price in their local wedding dress shop (destiny!). I loved that it was a pale blush pink rather than white or cream, and the swooshiness of the multi-layered tulle skirt made me feel like a fairy princess all day. I also really loved the natural leaf-type pattern over the top of the dress, which made it feel really romantic and pretty.”
ALEX’S SUIT
“Alex’s suit came from Astaires in Taunton, and was hired along with all of the groomsmen’s suits for the weekend. He went for navy blue with a matching waistcoat and silver tie. Astaire’s were fantastic and gave us two extra suits at no additional cost when a few people had changed size between when they were measured and the wedding day!”
FAVOURITE PHOTOS
“We absolutely love our confetti shots, especially the one that captures Alex getting a faceful."
"Our other favourites are the ones of us taken immediately after the family group photos - it was so nice to have that bit of time to relax together in the orangery and all of those pictures are beautiful. My favourite is one of me looking down and Alex looking at me."
KIND WORDS
“We couldn’t recommend Ellie highly enough. We were so thrilled with our beautiful wedding photos, and Ellie was so lovely to work with - I hate having my photo taken normally but Ellie was so warm and reassuring both in the lead-up to the wedding and on the day itself. Ellie’s very organised approach (making lists of all of the group photos that we wanted, making sure to learn our bridesmaids/best men/key family members names, getting the timings nailed down) made us feel like we were in very safe hands and helped us to relax in the lead up to the wedding."
"Several of our guests also commented how clever and unobtrusive Ellie was on the day - she managed to get candid photos of all of our guests, without anyone ever feeling like they had a camera shoved in their face - from our experience at other weddings, this is a rare skill and was highly appreciated.”
TIPS FOR COUPLES PLANNING THEIR WEDDING
“Choose a venue that helps you - we loved not having any set-up or take-down stress, having our own wedding planner on hand for any questions and to make everything run smoothly on the day, and that everything was all included an on-site at St Audries. It really did mean that we could just relax and enjoy the day.”
SUPPLIERS
Photography: Ellie Lou Photography
Venue: St Audries Park
Suit: Astaires, Taunton
Flowers: JW Blooms
Cake: Charlotte Jane Cakes
Makeup: Makeup by Becky Flynn
Hair: Laura Hardie at Jane Adams Salon
#WeddingPhotography #EllieLouPhotography #SomersetWeddingPhotographer #MakeupbyBeckyFlynn #SpringWedding #StAudriesPark
BRISTOL & SOMERSET WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER | ELLIE LOU PHOTOGRAPHY