Emily & Matt's Beautiful Autumnal Cotswold's Wedding

Today, we celebrate Emily and Matt's Autumnal black-tie wedding, held at the picturesque Rectory Hotel in the heart of the Cotswolds. Read on as the bride relives the magic of their day, filled with personal touches and glorious autumnal sunshine, and opens her little black book of suppliers.

The gorgeous notes that our friends and families left with their generous presents. It was so much fun getting the notifications when a gift was bought from our gift list, and that personal note made it even more special.

We loved the fixed option that was available exclusively with The Wedding Present Company. We didn't feel comfortable with guests pouring love into choosing a gift and then it not being fulfilled. 

Yes! It's so wonderful, like Christmas but way, way better. It feels like the real beginning of our marriage together and the start of our future together. 

We both completely love Le Creuset, and we are also very excited to have picks from Issy Granger, Pooky and Oka. Not to mention our Sophie Conran for Portmeirion crockery set!

We got engaged in August 2021 in Brighton, at the Artist Residence Hotel. Matt and I have been together for a long time, so he was still determined to surprise me when he asked. I'm admittedly pretty difficult to surprise... He had booked us a couple of staycations: the second of which was at a very expensive, lovely hotel in The Cotswolds. I was confident he would ask then. He caught me off guard and asked me in our pyjamas at 8am with our morning coffee in Brighton a few weekends' before. He took our dog Frank out for a morning walk along the seafront just beforehand, practised what he would say on Frank and then calmly returned and presented my dream, dream ring. Matt was determined for his proposal to be reflective of our favourite, everyday moments together and it was perfect. We immediately went and got more coffee on the beach and called our parents.

For the theme of the wedding, we wanted to go Black Tie. Refined, autumnal vibes matched with a relaxed and intimate atmosphere that just felt very, very us. 

I am very lucky to work at Bridebook, the UK's number 1 wedding planning app, so I had lots of tips and pointers! We stumbled across our venue on the way to The Cotswolds trip! We had lunch at The Rectory and fell in love. Our other suppliers I found on Bridebook, Instagram and TikTok.

The Rectory Hotel, The Cotswolds. It was perfect - full of Cotswolds charm and allowed us to have all aspects of our celebration in one place.

Bespoke Jesus Peiro from Miss Bush Bridal. I wore white silk Manolo Blahniks and a cathedral-length, simple, slim veil from Clover London. I wore a silk headband from MaxMara Bridal.

Later, I changed into a super fun Jane & Tash number after our first dance, and then into some white high-top Converse for proper dancing, with a silk hair bow from Gigi & Olive.

Juta Zorubiene did my hair, and Jennifer Oliver did my makeup.

Our Caterer was The Rectory Hotel. We are HUGE foodies so having good food was very important. Our cake from The Vanilla Pod Bakery was completely outstanding and even had a gluten-free layer for me!

We served Crémant for our reception and toasts instead of Champagne as we prefer it. We had Puglian wine with our meal as we were going to Puglia on our honeymoon the next day.

Emily Rose Hamilton was our photographer and Baxter and Ted was our videographer. We also had a fantastic artist Aaron Jacob Jones (Event Illustrator) who did live portraits of our guests. Alongside this, we also had a Waterfall Photobooth which was so much fun and a no-regret, last minute decision! We also had an Audio Guestbook to remember all the memories at our wedding.

Clique band from Entertainment Nation. We had our first dance to L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole.

I planned the wedding myself, but we also had the BRILLIANT Georgina Rose Events as our on the day coordinator.

Getting ready to walk down the aisle with my bridesmaids and dad. I'll never forget that. Walking into our wedding breakfast with napkins flying and just feeling like we were in a dream. Our entire ceremony, it was so personal. We wrote our own vows, which was so special. Breakfast the next day in the hotel feeling so loved and on cloud nine. Getting our photo preview a few days later by the pool in Puglia and feeling SO lucky!

Someone said to me during our planning that your wedding is the best party you will ever go to with your friends, your family, and your choices. Try to keep hold of that and if you're able to, do things your way. My favourite thing our guests said to us on the day was that it felt SO Emily and Matt, and that was just the best compliment.

Gift List: The Wedding Present Company, Planning: Bridebook, Photographer: Emily Rose Hamilton, Bridal Fashion: Miss Bush Bridal, Jane and Tash, Clover, MaxMara, Gigi & Olive, Manolo Blahnik, Grooms Fashion: Suit Supply, Moss Bros, Loake, Bridesmaids: ASOS, Hair & Makeup: Juta Zorubiene, Jennifer Oliver, Videographer: Baxter and Ted, Coodinator: Georgia Rose Events, Stationery: Papier, Strawberry Sorbet, Florist: Ellie Frances Flowers, Artist: Event illustrator, Catering: The Rectory Hotel, Vanilla Pod Bakery, Photobooth: Waterfall Photobooth, Guest Book: Audio Guest Book