Hey, thank you so much for being here today, I really appreciate it. I’m also delighted to be sharing this particular wedding with you today because it is just so beautiful and swoonworthy with a dress to die for.
Clarissa and Oli tied the knot on 23rd December 2023 with a breathtakingly beautiful winter wedding at Elmore Court in Gloucestershire. This divine countryside home set a candlelit scene for this glamorous couple to exchange their vows in front of their loved ones, before celebrating with a champagne tower and a packed dance floor, where all their guests joined in the celebrations until the early hours.
Clarissa looked out of this world gorgeous in her Milla Nova gown, a fantastic discovery at Mirror Mirror London – who we are so very proud to recommend to all Love My Dress readers. Mirror Mirror is one of the oldest, most respected couture bridal boutiques in the country and Clarissa truly raves about her experience there.
I’m going to leave it to this sweet bride to share her story from here on (thank you so much for your wonderful enthusiasm Clarissa!). Get your Pinterest boards at the ready my loves – this wedding is jaw-droppingly fabulous. My sincere love and thanks to photographer Emily Robinson for sharing her glorious work.
The Venue
Elmore Court was one of the first venues we came across and loved the vibe and everything it had to offer; however, it was completely fully booked for 2023 so we had disappointingly ruled it out. After visiting many other venues, we were really struggling to find the one.
After months of searching, we saw on Elmore’s Instagram they had a cancellation come up for a winter solstice date. Prior to this, we had only been considering a summer wedding, but actually there was something about the Christmas long Thursday date that totally aligned to everything we wanted and we thought it could be really magical. We ended up reserving the date without even viewing Elmore in person!
We were soo glad we just went for it.
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Bridal Beauty & Accessories
I was so happy with the Hair and Make-up team – they were so calm and experienced and work together a lot. I had Juta Zorubiene for my Hair – her style is romantic, modern, elegant. She just worked so effortlessly and completely got what I wanted. I couldn’t believe how well my hair stayed in place even at the end of the night and through all the wind it didn’t budget. Then I had Amy Rose for make-up who was incredible and really cool.
I have a lot of skin issues and she made it look great and created a look I was so happy and confident with.
I opted for a bow in my hair as they are romantic, feminine and fun – very the vibe. I bought about 5 in the end as I couldn’t decide! My plan was to go with one from TK Maxx, but on the day, my hair stylist Juta and I decided to go quite rogue and use the one my bridesmaids had bought me for my Hen party. It actually worked really well as it was quite delicate. It was also very very reasonable!
For jewellery, I wore some large pearl and crystal earrings which I made myself. My inspiration was a Mateo pair – I used to work in jewellery as a buyer, and knew I could do it myself – and for a fraction of the price (they cost £500+). My jewellery felt more special, being made by me – and I got so many compliments on them. So much so, that I’ve decided to start selling handmade jewellery for weddings and am starting a small brand, Cora & Cleo – it’s a work in progress but watch this space!
My perfume was Chanel Gabriel. It was a gift from my Mum on the day who always wears Chanel perfume, so it reminded me of her and is just beautiful and classic.
I knew I needed something comfortable to make me last the day so I went for a block heeled, pearly sandal pair, from Rainbow Club.
My veil was also from Mirror Mirror London – Shamel helped me find the perfect one. It was very romantic and had delicate little pearls on it which were so pretty.
A funny story about my veil actually – the wedding was a very windy day and as I stepped out of my car to the church, the veil blew straight off my head and high into a big tree! I will never forget our Vicar and one of the photographers chasing after it as it blew away. They managed to catch it! It was hilarious and the vision of it will stay with me forever.
I really wanted my bridesmaids all to be in individual dresses that suited their personalities.
They were all black but with different textures and cuts like sequins and velvet etc, and they all looked and felt amazing. I got them from Jarlo London, Forever New, Meshki, Coast, JJs House and Vesper.
I bought them all different starry celestial earrings from Muuni Studios. They looked so pretty with the black dresses. Their shoes were from Monsoon along with a little short furry necked white cardigan which looked so cute.
Flowers
We used Rose & Co Floral Studio for flowers. We wanted very simple, classic white roses and lots of candles and we were so pleased with Imogen.
She made the styling of the day totally stress free and handled so much of the aesthetics. The flowers looked so beautiful and we couldn’t recommend her enough. She also sprinkled so really cute little mistle toes around the place which guests loved.
Photography
Our Photographer team was AMAZING! We can’t express how much we loved Emily Robinson and her team. We wanted documentary, classic and stylish black and white imagery and some film. Emily’s portfolio was beautiful and straight from the get-go we just clicked, and our visions were completely aligned.
I was a little worried before the wedding I would be awkward or camera shy, but it just wasn’t the case at all once they arrived. Their energy and enthusiasm made us feel a million dollars. They were this incredible team of hype women with such amazing ideas and visions, and they were so much fun.
Two days after the wedding, Emily shared so many pictures for the preview. The whole experience was just magic, and I am so happy and felt so lucky we got to have them there. We were so lucky that Emily bought along Milana Jones who captured some really gorgeous and fun moments from the day. She captured some really fun shots with our cake that we love!
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How They Met
Oli and I met at Piano Works in London, across the dance floor on a night out. It was a spur of the moment decision for me to go out that night and it was totally unexpected meeting him. I feel like as soon as we started dating, we knew straight away. We were so on the same page with everything.
We got engaged after four years, when Oli took me to the South of France for a surprise trip for my 30th birthday – in a Vineyard over a bottle of rose and a picnic. We were engaged for a year and a half before the wedding.
Oli wore a custom white tux from Zebel. Oli had an inspiration look that he was able to get made and we had a great time looking through the materials, monogramming and options choices in their Dean Street store. We had seen lots of bow ties, but it was great to get a style cut to the shape and style that Oli wanted.
Evening & Dancing
Our first dance was ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’, by the Drifters. I’m such a fan of music from the 60’s and 70’s and it worked beautifully with our vibe and the dance we did.
Our band was The Alley Catz as we had seen Katie performing at a club in London and she is an absolute powerhouse who really gets the crowd going.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
We did do budget planning and I kept a lot of Excel tables with guides of what we expected to pay. Overall, we did land roughly where we expected at around £40k. We tried to weigh up what we wanted to invest in. For example, we opted to not have a wedding car and instead spend the money on a bus to take guests to and from the church. We also did a lot of the stationery ourselves and printed it on Printed.com but then invested a lot of our time in it.
I learned a lot about myself during the planning. Some things I didn’t like so much like how much on a control freak I am! But please enjoy the process of planning it all, working together as a little team on all the details is really fun.
Get what you can done as early as possible, to avoid last minute stresses the week before trying to source last minute bits. We were so happy we did this.
Long it out! We loved having a meal the night before at Elmore with our nearest and dearest. It meant we could all get into the spirit of the wedding the night before and added to all the excitement. Also go with your gut and focus on the things that are special to the two of you. Like food! For example, we love lasagne so had that for our starter and it was a massive hit.
Have the best day ever and enjoy every moment!
For the evening, I made a last minute decision to change into a feathery, sparkly and rented 16Arlington dress which gave me a bit more maneuverability for dancing. I also got a last-minute pair of pointed bow heels from ASOS to go with my evening dress which were super cute and so so reasonable.
The gloves I wore in the evening were from The Glove Girl on Etsy. They have an amazing selection.
