Real Weddings Oxford: Megan and James’s stylish winter wedding

A dramatic setting in the heart of the city was the perfect location for this couple’s big day. Our WED2B Real Weddings Oxford feature reveals more:

Megan and James met in Oxford and their first date was at a restaurant in the city. “James proposed to me in Bruges,” says Megan. “We had been together for around three years at this point but I wasn’t expecting the proposal at all, maybe because we had booked the trip together. I was just looking forward to our Christmas break. James proposed on 20th December 2015 and got down on one knee. I just burst into tears and asked him if it was for real, before saying yes.”

Megan visited WED2B’s Camberley store in Surrey to look for her dress. “My store experience was great,” she says. “It was so relaxed and I didn’t feel pressured or rushed in any way. The staff were so helpful.”

Dream dress, dream name…

Her dream dress couldn’t have been more perfect as it was called Megan! “It was actually the first dress I tried on,” she says. “My mum had seen it on the website and asked me to try it on. It wasn’t the dress I was expecting to choose but I loved it. I gave the other dresses a chance but kept on coming back to Megan. I felt it was meant to be, especially with the name! The Camberley store only had a size 12 but I found a wonderful seamstress who fitted my dress amazingly for the day.” Megan also wore WED2B’s Skye hair pin and a feather bolero from House of Fraser.

Real Weddings Oxford: The perfect location

The couple married on the 16th December 2017 at Convocation House at The Bodleian Library in Oxford. “We chose it as we met in Oxford and we loved the beauty of the city,” says Megan. “The Bodleian Library is gorgeous and its architecture just seems to capture that Oxford feel. We knew as soon as we saw it that we wanted to get married there.”

The big day

“The most memorable moment of the day was when the doors opened and I saw James waiting for me at the end of the aisle,” says Megan. “The room was breathtaking. I think all of our guests were blown away by it. It looked especially beautiful as my Godmother had done all the floral arrangements, inside and out, as a wedding gift to us both."

My Dad walked me in to the instrumental version of ‘Somewhere only we know’ by Keane. He also gave a reading of I Carry Your Heart by E.E. Cummings, while James's Mum did a reading of He's Not Perfect, a poem by Bob Marley, and James's Godfather read Eskimo Love Song. We walked out of the ceremony to ‘I’m Feeling Good’ covered by Michael Buble.”

Food, glorious food

Straight after the ceremony guests enjoyed prosecco and canapés while taking in the beautiful surroundings before heading to The Perch, a country pub that sits on the edge of Port Meadow in Oxford. On arrival there were canapés and mulled cider before everyone sat down to a three-course country feast. There were three different starters and mains and platters of the dishes were placed on every table so that guests could help themselves. “The food was incredible and everyone was so impressed with the feast The Perch provided,” says Megan.

A stylish winter wonderland

The theme was a relaxed, magical winter wedding with navy and silver touches and simple white, green/grey flower displays. There were lace-edged hessian table runners and the centrepieces were gin bottles filled with flowers, to reflect the couple’s love of gin. “I also used silver pinecones as the name holders and hand wrote each name label in navy ink,” says Megan.

“For the favours I made batches of rhubarb, pink grapefruit and ginger gin that I bottled into little individual bottles. We also had lots of fairy lights around the venue to add to the magical winter feel and a Christmas tree in the marquee.” The wedding cake was a tower of delicious cheeses. Real Weddings oxford

If music be the food of love…

The couple’s first dance was to ‘All of Me’ by John Legend before everyone got down to the business of dancing the night away with the help of the fantastic band, The Deps.

“The most fun and entertaining part of the day was definitely our band,” says Megan. “We didn’t stop dancing until the band had to finish for the evening and neither did most of our guests!”

Photography: alexandrajane.co.uk

Did your wedding have the wow factor like our Real Weddings Oxford feature? If you would like to be a part of our real weddings feature send your favourite photo to info@wed2b.co.uk and we’ll be in touch!