An Elegant Three-Day Garden Wedding in the Herefordshire, the UK

Setting: Luxury country garden at home.
Wedding season: Summer
Amount of guests: 100
Event days: Across three days 2nd – 4th July 2021.
Wedding theme/style: Modern, classic and luxurious

Charis Afan-Williams & Daniel Afan-Williams, both work in finance – Charis in sustainable finance and Dan runs a Private Wealth advisory. They met in London on Tinder while both relatively newly single. Charis shared the details.

“I remember him walking in and thinking it’s a good start, he is as tall as his profile says, I totally didn’t notice the giant cast on his leg from a football industry. After our first date in Vagabond Northcote Road, London we both knew what we had was special and Dan pretty much moved in with me and my dog Maple within a month or so. By our second date at Frenchie, Covent Garden it really was true for us that when you know you know.

Two and a half years later during a particularly stressful time with Dan setting up his business and me moving jobs he organized a dinner saying it was a long overdue date night. I honestly had no idea what was coming because we’d both been quite stressed and busy with work so I didn’t see it coming even when we got picked up in a lovely car and taken to Frenchie – the restaurant from our first dinner date.”

While at dinner Charis noticed a man sitting on his own at the bar and she said to Dan that it would be sad if he had nobody to have dinner with on a Saturday night so they should invite him to join them. Dan must have been worried at this point because unbeknown to Charis it was a photographer her twin sister and Dan’s best mate had organized to capture the moment!

“As we got to pudding a country song came on – “Humble and Kind by Tim McGraw”. We both love country music but I was well aware it was unlikely to be playing at this cool, glamorous restaurant which is when I clicked. Dan got down on one knee and proposed. The whole restaurant started clapping and cheering when I said yes. Loads of people and the waiters got up to shake his hand and hug us which was totally surreal and wonderful which you couldn’t plan.

Finally, we got back in the car and he said he thought we should go back to Vagabond for a drink reminding us of our first meeting and as we walked in he had hired out a space for a surprise engagement party for all our family and best friends. I was totally in shock – he did the most amazing job and we still can’t believe everyone kept the secret so well.”

The wedding was supposed to be about 16 months but Covid disrupted that slightly so the couple postponed it by a year and ended up being engaged and trying to plan for nearly 2 and a half years.

The wedding venue was Charis’ family home in the Herefordshire countryside in the UK. Picking the venue was easy – the couple wanted a classic English Country Garden wedding and Charis’s family home in Herefordshire has gorgeous grounds and plenty of space. Also, they loved the idea that they could keep reliving the day every time they go back and walk around the garden.

Charis and Daniel wanted to make everything super personalised so a private venue gave them the opportunity to work with whichever suppliers they loved.

“The run up to the wedding was such a special time because we and our bridal party were able to stay with my family for the weeks(s) up to the big day which really elongated the happiness and memories.

We held a very intimate legal church ceremony the day before in the tiny 13th century church at the edge of our family’s land. It was meant to be very low-key and we went for a rehearsal dinner afterwards at Glewstone Court where the groomsmen stayed and we had our bridal suite. It has ended up being one of our favorite parts. It helped with nerves and emotion so on Saturday we could really just relax and enjoy.”

“My family has several pet peacocks who live in the gardens where we got married. They came to watch what was going on during the ceremony and even walked in the way of our bridesmaid and groomsmen who walked down the aisle in front of me! There was an amazing moment when our vicar asked our guests if they would support us in our life together, as everyone loudly proclaimed “We Will” the peacocks were startled by the noise and started screeching in agreement – everyone burst out laughing which is a very happy memory.”

As for the concept/vision of the wedding, the couple are quite traditional and liked the idea of a classic day but modernized made a bit more city slick (they live in London) and ultra personalised.

“A dress code of morning dress was an obvious traditional choice for us. And pearls featured a lot throughout, I always wear pearls so it made sense to continue this – we gifted our bridesmaids Christian Dior Pearl earrings with a gold CD on them (also for Charis & Dan).”

“We went for a classic green and white colour palette with neutrals and (thanks to Jessie) evolving to a darker green more exotic after party in line with our love of Jazz and reminiscent of the emerald green dress I wore when we got engaged. But the white felt beautifully simple so the groomsmen wore ivory waistcoats, we bought the bridesmaid dresses all in pale ivory and gave them White Company pyjamas for the day-of prep to keep everything cohesive and pure.”

“We wanted the ceremony to be outside and really intimate. The style and feel we went for was luxurious but understated but with a lot of amazing flowers as I love them, we chose Lily of the Valley as our wedding flower in a nod to the timeless and traditional and jasmine for the heady scent to highlight the slight twist we wanted to put on things!”

“Food was also a big focus for us. We love going out for meals and spending time together enjoying good food and wine. So we wanted a caterer that could produce a stunning tasting menu with accompanying wine flight.”

Sunday was a relaxed garden party day full of amusement and happiness. Looking at these guys, we ask to roll on Summer!

“The main thing for us is we wanted every element of the day to feel special across all the senses but timeless and smart with a hint of fashion. I loved changing my makeup/ hair/ jewellery and accessories to go with each look. All the details made it exciting for me, such as the magnolia flower hidden in my lily of the valley cape/veil (as a tribute to my late mum), the C&D emblem on my Dior bracelet etc. I ended up having 4 amazing outfits.”

“For the rehearsal dinner of any tiny intimate church ceremony on the first day I wore a caped Pronovias ivory tuxedo suit with Louboutin limited edition ‘So Kate’ style heels in white python and Christian Dior pearl and gold earrings. Dan wore a double-breasted ivory jacket with a Hermes tie my Dad had given him for Christmas previously.”

“I had two looks for the main wedding day on Saturday. To walk down the aisle and the drinks reception I went for a very classic, simple and showstopping Caroline Castigliano Mikado gown (I knew it was my dress straight away!) with a classic French Lace veil changing into a bespoke more fitted, corseted Philippa Lepley fishtail with an incredible pearl and beaded cape in place of a veil.

Dan had a bespoke suit made from Favourbrook with a bespoke waistcoat that was ivory to match the groomsmen but with a sage green trim for extra detail and to stand out and to mirror the overall colour palette. He wore Church’s shoes, a vintage Green Hermes tie and a Jaeger-Le-Coultre watch I gifted him on the morning of the wedding. We focused on details like his new initials embroidered on the shirt, beautiful gold and green enamel cufflinks and a jade tie pin.”

“Finally for Sunday, which was a relaxed garden party vibe with lots of food trucks I chose a Needle and Thread dress with beautiful pastel colour details. I ADORE shoes so I had to have amazing shoes. I had a classic pearl pair of Jimmy Choos for my first dress on the day then changed to an incredible pair of limited 20 year anniversary Choos covered in Swarovski crystals – they were amazing. The sparkliest shoes you have ever seen! My jewellery was a combination of family pieces, Christian Dior jewellery with a nod to our C & D initials and a beautiful Bvlgari bracelet Dan gifted me on the morning of our wedding. I gifted him a Jaeger Le Coultre watch that I knew he loved.”

“We both wore Byredo Black Saffron scent, we wanted a new scent that was androgenous so it would always remind us of the day and came across it shopping in Harrods, I wanted Dior Lilly of the Valley originally to tie everything together but it didn’t suit me once on my skin.”

“My bridesmaids were all stunning in ivory Ghost dresses style Salma, we were looking for the same colour in different styles but in the end all 5 bridesmaids chose Salma – we loved that it was worn by a James Bond girl in Spectre! For a modern sleek take on flowers in their hair we added various sized pearls to their up-dos from The Bobby Pin. Rosie Cerosio makeup did all our makeup and made everyone look glam but natural. After many trials I was delighted to find her, she really listened to what I wanted and more than delivered. I’ve hired her since for any event where I need my makeup done!”

“We personalised so much: the napkins had our initials embroidered, the invitation suite had an illustration of the family home used as our venue, our favours were individual little poems for each of our guests telling of special memories and thanks – this has been repeatedly cited as one of the most unusual and special parts by our guests – it took a lot of time but was so worth it puja. My mum sadly passed away several years ago so the incredible team at Philippa Lepley designed and embroidered a beaded magnolia hidden into my Lily of the Valley cape, almost everything was bespoke – we had a menu booklet explaining all the menu and choices inspired by our most loved restaurants and dishes. The tomatoes served on a grazing cart during the canape reception were even from my Dad’s greenhouse. We incorporated my favourite flowers, and wrote our own vows together which we memorized so we could focus on each other rather than reading from paper! We even served Harrods still and sparkling water as a nod to one of our more extravagant weekend activities of strolling through the foodhall and trying the different restaurants. Maple, our dog was a must have there and even had her own matching fresh floral collar in the day and a glitzy pearl one for the evening!”

Sustainability was also important to the couple, they are passionate about it. Moreover, Charis works in sustainable finance, so Social Pantry, their caterer and Studio Sorores who are both very focused on this really fed into that. They had touches throughout, sourced all the food locally, had a zero waste amuse bouche, one of their gifts to the groomsmen were vintage Hermes ties in coordinating shades of green and they gifted the flowers afterwards to neighbors and locals around the village to enjoy afterwards!

The cake was 4 different tiers of 4 flavours including carrot cake and Herefordshire honey and rose and raspberry. The couple included a jazz Trio as part of their musical suppliers and had an amazing DJ and live sax act from ALR to finish off the party which ended with guests and suppliers all dancing until 2am – the first big wedding for them all since covid made the atmosphere so electric! The list of personalisation goes on!

What Charis advices

“What we’d love to advise is ENJOY everything you can. At the end of the day lots of details and changes don’t matter – a wedding should help bring the two of you together ready for your married life together so enjoy the engagement and planning its such a happy but short time in the grand scheme of your life together.

We invited our bridesmaids and groomsmen to a party with our cocktail vendor (Déjà vu) to choose and name the cocktails together we held a wine tasting night with my family voting on favourite options and took Dan’s family to our catering tasting (with Social Pantry) – making sure to really create happy memories and excitement as part of the planning journey. This helped us feel less upset by the postponement due to covid too we just decided to be positive and just enjoy the ride.”

“Keep to any traditions that you like and resonate with you but don’t be afraid to not follow any that don’t suit or fit you as a couple or your day! As a modern couple who also love romance and tradition we really stuck with this – I wore a veil for the marriage blessing ceremony in front of our guests on the Saturday – very traditionally I wore it over my face as I made my way down the aisle – it was a last minute decision because we hadn’t been keen on the origins of the father of the bride presenting the bride to her husband as a possession but I loved the drama and mystery of it. In the end I decided that the origins didn’t matter because I knew that wasn’t the way we were marrying and doesn’t represent our relationship!”

“Make all the decisions for you two alone! If you try to make everyone else happy you will end up compromising on what’s perfect for you. We were both clear from the beginning that we were totally open and happy to discuss ideas and opinions with family and friends’, but the end decision was ours alone. This means you can personalize things as much as you want to suit you and feel very intimate.”

“We were given such great advice once that you should invite the people you see in your future and not your past. This is the most amazing mantra and worked so well for us – everyone there was genuinely so special to us both and will be in our lives for years to come.”

A couple of comments about suppliers from Charis:

“Katie Julia (photographer): We chose Katie Julia originally because her work is timeless and beautiful but still romantic and natural – very fine art classical style which we adored.

I can’t recommend her enough she was amazing – we are thrilled with the results but also she was such an angel keeping us excited after postponing with her positive energy and happy personality – she’s become a dear friend since the wedding, a very special lady. She also made everyone look beautiful!”

“Studio Sorores: Having a planner was essential for us and We were SO happy to have found Jessie from Studio Sorores.

1. We wanted to be able to relax and enjoy the day without having to deal with any issues

2. Having the wedding at home brought up loads of additional challenges we didn’t know how to manage – from hiring in a backup generator to all the chairs and cutlery

3. Although we had a good idea of a lot of the details and wanted to be really involved, we wanted to find someone who could elevate our imagined designs and ideas – which Jessie absolutely delivered on in spades.

It turned out to be an even more successful decision once we realized we had to postpone due to Covid. At this point Jessie was incredible, dealing with all the difficulty and managed to get us every single supplier for the postponed date! Studio Sorores also did our flowers and it was what I was pickiest about. But they delivered above and beyond what I had asked for! The round ceremony stage and aisle flowers were probably a highlight but also the afterparty installation above the bar looked incredible!”

“JB Marquees: JB Marquees were amazing. They did the most incredible 3D visualisations to help design the space and were so flexible – we could literally have and do whatever we wanted. We chose to have two totally separate spaces – the wedding meal was in a light bright, glass section with a canopy of greenery above our heads then we later revealed a moodier after party area with star ceiling, a bespoke gold dance floor, round bar and green velvet lounging areas – inspired by our love of Jazz clubs. The luxury loos were also the best marquee bathrooms we have ever seen! The structure was even more impressive once it actually went up – so imposing and tall, it looked like a permanent structure. My Dad was particularly pleased that after take down there were NO marks on the grass and after pacing the area he only found one rogue peg!

Philip White (videographer): Philip White is SO talented – we cried at every one of the videos in his portfolio even though we didn’t know the people. He was so great on the day, even giving my dad a bit of a pep talk! The finished film is unbelievable like a movie trailer – so epic and true to the day.”