Tall Johns House Wedding - Rosa & Tom

As a groom, imagine the morning of your wedding day being surrounded by your best mates, in your childhood home and then heading down to the local for a quick pint, looking forward to marrying your best friend and love of your life. It doesn't get much better than that! Hold the whole celebration in [Tall Johns House](https://talljohns.house/) in Wales and you're in for a pretty perfect day. Now that’s enough from me, let me hand over to Rosa & Tom to tell you a bit more about their wedding.

‘Tom grew up just down the road from the venue, we both love going to Wales to visit his family. It’s so beautiful, it was always going to be where we got married. When we first saw the venue, it was in the middle of the renovation with a digger in the middle of the barn and it was pouring with rain, but it just felt right. We had 130 guests and it took 18 months to plan.’_

How did you meet?

We met on Tinder back in Autumn 2014, our first date consisted of several G&Ts on a school night. From that day on we never looked back!

The proposal

We snowboard every year in Meribel, France. It’s a place that we love. We were on holiday with a group of friends, the weather was terrible, white-out snowstorms every day. There was a break in the clouds and a view of the valley appeared – Tom seized the opportunity to pop the question to the cheers of our friends just down the mountain. Turned out he had been carrying the ring around in a shopping bag all week, terrified he was going to drop it.

How did you allocate your budget?

We weren’t terribly organised with our budget, we knew that great food and a good party were priorities so that and the venue were our big spends

Where did you splurge and where did you save?

Our big spends were the food and venue. My dress was not a ‘real’ wedding dress so I made big savings there. Apart from the bouquets and hanging floral hoops we arranged the flowers ourselves which saved on the flower budget. My mum made the cake and friends and family brought homemade cakes and biscuits for dessert. I also spent about a year making pompoms which ended up everywhere!

How did you choose your photographer?

We found our photographer James on Instagram – Tom is a designer so was very picky about the editing styles people used, James was the only one he liked! I spoke to James on the phone and knew immediately that we would get on like a house on fire. I didn’t even bother getting any quotes from anyone else!

The dress

I bought my dress online from Sezane, they don’t traditionally make wedding dresses but I loved the dress. Lovely and simple, made from beautiful silk. I had it altered locally so it fitted like a glove. My shoes were my grandmother's, vintage cream suede, the most comfortable heels I’ve ever worn. I’d been planning to wear them at my wedding for nearly 10 years. My earrings were little mountain ranges that I found on Etsy – they matched the cufflinks my parents gave to Tom. I wore the necklace Tom gave me on the morning of the wedding, a beautiful delicate bee.

The suit and bridesmaids

The boys suits came from Slaters and the girls dresses were Phase Eight in the sale – the dresses were called Rosa, it was meant to be!

Theme or colour scheme?

Our themes were quite loose – we collected gin bottles for our flowers, everything was brightly coloured and where we could we had a mountain/ski theme. My mum collected retro ski wear for our homemade photo booth.

Flowers

My brief for Jo was bright coloured and seasonal and she definitely delivered!

Decoration

We had big hanging floral hoops in the barn, but otherwise, we just let its rustic feel be its own decoration. We strung multicoloured pompoms on gates and trees around the venue for a bright festival style vibe.

Food

Our food was made by the pub in the village where Tom grew up – The Castle. We had lots of dietary requirements for our guests and they did an amazing job. We had mezze style starters, followed by a traditional roast dinner. Pudding was homemade cakes as well as cheese and biscuits. For our evening snacks, we had mini fish and chips in cones, tasty!!

Wedding cake

My mum made a beautiful rustic style cake, topped with a border terrier just like our dog Pip.### EntertainmentVelvet Soul are a Welsh Funk & Soul band, they were excellent and kept the dance floor full all night. We saw in the small hours with a playlist made by my legendary brother in law – who also happens to be a DJ.

Who supplied the stationery?

Tom designed all our stationery including the seating plan, it really added the personal touch.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?

We had a friend's mum with our best man and our witnesses in St Davids straight after the wedding weekend. It was great to wind down with our friends for a few days. We then went to Devon to visit Tom’s Nan who was unable to travel for the wedding. We stayed in a gorgeous little tabernacle with a woodfired hot tub. In November we went on our proper honeymoon to New York – cocktails in The Rainbow Room with views of the Empire State were a highlight

Special moments

All of it! Everyone fell about laughing when I walked up the aisle telling Tom to ‘get your shit together Griffiths’ when he cried. My sister’s speech – she had all of the girls from the hen do stand up and take part in the speech Dead Poet Society style. It was so empowering. Ski shots and dancing all night.

Advice for other couples

Try not to be too fixed about what you think the day will be like, it will evolve as you plan things and even on the day. Just go with the flow and enjoy being with the people you love.

Biggest surprise

It sounds silly but what surprised us was how much we loved it all. We had never really intended to have a big wedding, it just turned out that way but it was wonderful to have so many people we love in one place.