River Cottage is such a wonderful venue, we have photographed here a few times now but every wedding feels completely different to the last as it really takes on the vibe of the couples day. Emma and Joe picked River Cottage as the venue for their wedding blessing in the herb garden, followed by garden games and reception in the lodge.
Emma along with her bridesmaid and father got ready in the beautiful setting of The Chalet in Lyme Regis just below Mark Hix’s restaurant and overlooking the beautiful Lyme Bay. As Emma finished getting ready, her dad sat outside on the terrace overlooking the bay putting the final touches to his speech.
Joe and Emma had chosen a vintage feel to their wedding and all the time they had spent looking into and choosing the details really showed. The tractor and trailer brought the guests down the long drive to the farm where flags guided the way to the front of the farmhouse into the garden. The herb garden was decorated with big white balloons along with wild flower arrangements in watering cans. They had entertainment by a ‘Gramophone DJ’ playing 1950s records which we’ve never seen before and was a lovely touch. After the crackle of the needle, music filled the air and felt like we had been transported back to a bygone decade as Emma made her entrance into the sun basked herb garden.
After the romantic blessing, everyone headed over to the lawn for Pimms and the garden games. Emma and Joe had really gone to town and there was a wide choice of activities including hook a duck, coconut shy, skittles, welly wanging, splat the rat and ferret racing! There was a prize for the person who correctly guessed which ferret would win and as you can see below, the lucky guest was extremely happy with his win! The games allowed all the guests to get to know each other in a relaxed manner and the day was so relaxed and fun that even the chef joined in to show off his expert welly wanging technique.
River cottage is a working farm, and as much of the produce as possible is grown or kept on site or is from producers in the immediate area meaning the food is amazing as is all local or home grown produce. The menu is always chosen by the couple and introduced by the chef. For their main, Emma and Joe had a pig that had been reared on site (her name was Alice, the chef informed us) and had then been been spit roasted for 24 hours, and was absolutely delicious. This was then followed by fruit crumble and salt caramel ice cream.
The evening entertainment was courtesy of the River Cottage resident band, The Guilty Pleasures who kept everyone dancing until it was time to head home (or to the pop up hotel on site).
As well as being a really lovely couple, Emma and Joe really put on a wonderful day and one that we were privileged to be part of.
– Laura
