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A Rustic Vegan Wedding at Folly Farm
This wedding oozes so much personality and charm that I had a hard time narrowing down the photos to publish here! I love absolutely everything about it; the neutral colours, the laid back camping atmosphere and just how many of Mollie and Arran’s friends and family came together to make this special day that extra bit special! Even photographer Liron Erel said that this wedding touched him on so many levels that he couldn’t help himself taking video shots throughout the day, as one medium was just not enough…
Lets Talk About The Dresses…
I knew I was going to have limited patience for wedding dress shopping, as I don’t really like to go shopping and I rarely wear dresses. In fact, I had so little patience that the first dress I tried on at a sample sale with a girlfriend, I bought! Bad idea. I then spent the next month stressing about how I would tailor it to make it perfect, and I realised that that was impossible, so a girlfriend offered to put me in touch with Franciscus. He was a dream come true. We sat down together and designed the dress, went shopping together for the fabrics first on Berwick Street in Soho and then a final trip to Goldhawk Road in West London. Originally I had wanted a very thin lace dress so the dress could be much lighter and ethereal, but it was too expensive, and we found this incredible heavy beaded lace on Goldhawk Road that weighed almost 5kg on its own! The weight of the fabric really transformed the style of the dress. Franciscus made a few mockups and voila! Dress!
My girlfriends are all so stylish and gorgeous on their own so I didn’t want them to have to wear the same dress. At first, I didn’t even want to give them a palette to work with, but they insisted and I finally did which I hope helped! I think they looked amazing.
And The Rings?
Our rings were made by my best friend and cousin, Angela, who is a jeweller. Arran had no idea what he wanted so she came up with some ideas for him and we picked out the one he liked best! It’s a gorgeous ring. I knew I wanted a stack of 3 rings and we decided that one would be an eternity band, one plain and one with some engraving. That was about all I knew. They were a total surprise and so beautiful! Angela modelled my platinum ring off of our grandmother’s wedding ring, and it has diamonds set in the band. The rose gold band is a vintage band from 1927, hallmarked from Birmingham, UK. The yellow gold band is engraved with a wheat pattern; wheat symbolises prosperity and growth (I also carried a bouquet made of wheat that Angela picked on her friend’s farm in Somerset).
What About The Food?
As for our chefs, Fatih is a friend of ours who owns a vegan food company and used to be the head chef at SAF. Yakup is chef at Fig & Olive on Upper Street and Jon spent years working in restaurants. Arran is vegan and we wanted to have a vegan wedding so it was a no-brainer in asking them to cook for our wedding. They did an incredible job. The food was amazing. I had many guests who were initially worried about the wedding being vegan but after they said it was the best food they had ever had at a wedding!
Why did you choose Folly Farm?
We live in London, but met at a music festival, and we had decided we wanted to recreate the kind of atmosphere in which we met for our wedding. We decided a farm would be perfect so we could take it over for the weekend and have camping and other festival-like facilities. My father-in-law knew the architects who renovated Folly Farm and took us out there for a visit about a year and a half before we got married. We loved it, Folly Farm suited our needs perfectly and we booked right away.
Favourite moments during the wedding?
We had so many amazing moments. Arran’s oldest friend Nick, who is a writer and storyteller, wrote our ceremony and it was so personal and incredible. Friends of ours who are musicians played me and my parents down the aisle to one of our favourite songs, our friend Laurell performed fire poi in the evening and we had everyone holding sparklers at the end, there was an incredible dance off… I am having a hard time not just saying the entire thing!
Any advice for other couples planning their wedding?
Chill out and do not sweat the small stuff. I spent a lot of time worrying about things that didn’t matter or I didn’t notice throughout the weekend (like… table runners). I thought I was going to be a chilled out bride but planning a wedding is difficult emotionally and logistically, especially for me as I had a very intense work schedule right up until a week before the wedding. Looking back, I probably should have hired a wedding planner so that the pressure was off of me (and my partner/friends/family) a bit more.
Any info regarding the planning process?
We were very lucky to be surrounded by friends and family who volunteered and helped throughout the process. It was really a group effort to make it happen and we would not have been able to do it without their time and energy. We can’t really express how generous our friends and family were and how thankful we are for them. The staff at Folly Farm were excellent: Hannah, Andrew and Claire were superstars and handled our questions and wedding weekend emergencies (such as when not a single piece of equipment, tables, chairs, etc showing up anywhere close to the time they were expected) so efficiently!
Super Suppliers:
Photography – Liron Erel // Bridal gown – Franciscus van der Meer // Bridesmaids dresses – They each selected their own; some were vintage, some new, some they owned already // Catering – Friends of ours, Fatih Guven, Yakup Arar and Jon Rusbridge did the food // Flowers – Sara Glass (mother of the groom) // Hair & Makeup – Angela Louison & Meg Cavanaugh (family/friends of the bride) // Bride’s shoes – Dune // Groom’s suit – Ted Baker // Cake – Sara Glass & Jenny Millbank (family/friends of the groom) // Rings: Jewels For Gypsies //
Finally, i’ll swiftly leave you with this awesome dance off video of the newlyweds and their guests!
Yay for vegan weddings!
A very chilled out boho vibe going on here, love it !