A Flower-Filled Day At Ashridge House

Becky Richardson, 26, married Mark Richardson, 31, at Ashridge House in Berkhamsted, on 27^th May 2017. She says:

We originally wanted a church wedding but, after viewing Ashridge House, we decided to host the whole day there. I liked that the once royal residence still has church-like architectural features and loved the fact that we could actually get married on the grand staircase. The Lady Marion room, where we had our wedding breakfast, was full of stunning period details. And although the venue is large, you can still keep a very intimate feel by using different rooms and spaces for various parts of the day.

I had in my mind that I wanted to wear something fitted and a little sexy, but that would still had a bridal feel to it. I discovered Julie Vino at Serendipity Brides, where they were hosting one of her trunk shows. I tried on lots of styles and they were all exactly what I was after – the detail on them is beautiful. The dress I chose was actually the last one that I tried, but I knew straight away it was 'The One'. The main selling point for me was its plunging back and sheer train with stunning lace embroidery. I felt so special in it. And I loved the fact that it also wasn't actually white – which totally threw my husband-to-be when I told him at the time!

I knew that I wanted something quite simple in a specific shade of pink for all three of my bridesmaids, and that I really wanted them to match. But I also had the problem of them being different ages: two adults and a nine-year-old. Twobirds Bridesmaid had dresses in the exact colour I wanted and they had a slightly different style for my youngest maid, but it was made of exactly the same fabric. The dresses' material is lovely – it's very heavy, so hangs perfectly with no creases. They then wore crowns and sprigs of gypsophila in their hair.

Our florist, Rebecca Marsala, really stood out to us in terms of service. She quickly took on board everything we asked of her and was completely understanding – from start to finish – when we were matching up what we were imagining and what we could achieve with our budget. The flowers she created for our big day were everything we had ever dreamed of.

Because we were getting married on the grand staircase, I really wanted some special flower arrangements to enhance its beauty. Garlands of fresh hydrangeas, roses, white carnations and gypsophila were wound up each banister. She placed large hurricane vases on each step with LED candles inside, and scattered fresh rose petals around them. The columns at the house's entrance were adorned with crowns of the same flowers to match the stairs. Rebecca also decorated the 'Welcome' sign we had outside. It all made the beautiful statement that we had envisioned.

Our bouquets complemented the decor. I had a simple and elegant bridal bouquet in a spherical shape, which was full of peonies, hydrangea and Vendella, Menta, Sweet Avalanche and spray roses. I didn't want anything distracting from my gown, so asked for a pure flower bouquet – with no trailing foliage or anything like that.

We had a four-tier sugar flower cascade wedding cake from Emily Jane Cakes. Each tier was made with a different flavour, including lemon zest with buttercream, orange zest with chocolate buttercream and caramel and Victoria sponge with vanilla buttercream. The intricately made sugar roses swept across it in ivory and blush. Hydrangea blossom was scattered all around it. It was magical.

Photographs by By Lumiere