Inside: A Magical Festival Wedding At Fforest

From a dating app match that revealed years of near-misses at the same university to a seaside proposal outside a beloved Whitstable pub, step inside Rosy and Aidan’s magical, festival-style wedding at Fforest.

The story so far

We met back in 2017 – we matched on an app without knowing we went to the same university. We had lived on the same road, and Aidan had worked in Jesters, the famous Southampton dive which I used to go to regularly, so no doubt he had served me at some point over the years. We met up in the magic garden in Battersea one Sunday and then didn’t go more than a few days without seeing each other ever since.

Poor Aidan carried an engagement ring around Mexico without that working out (after a series of unfortunate events), so the weekend after we got back he took me to Whitstable (a place we love), where we sat outside the Old Neptune pub with plastic cups of wine and he got down on one knee. It’s a gold Art Deco-style ring with an emerald-cut diamond, shouldered by two baguettes either side. It was designed and made by Jessie Harris.

Venue

We got married at Fforest. We fell in love with Fforest because of the vibe; it really has a magical atmosphere – it’s so special. We have been back since being married and still find it as magical as ever. fforest were so flexible with all our ideas, and we really love there are so many different spaces so you can really take guests on a journey.

We got married in the quarry; which is a dramatic slate back drop. We wanted a real festival feel with our friends around us, and Fforest really fulfilled that dream. It has a little onsite pub (Y Bwthyn), which meant it was sold at first sight when Aidan saw it.

We had a pizza and pub quiz night the evening before, hosted by our good friend Joe Kettle, and had friends / family back-to-back on the Decks (Josh, George & Ben). We also had a BBQ breakfast the day after to help cure sore heads. Fforest also has a cold plunge and sauna, and spaces to wild swim.

Fashion

My dress was made by Lisa Lyons Montgomery. She was so wonderful to work with. I wanted a plain white fabric but big 80s puffy sleeves, a square neckline, an A-line skirt, a corseted top and a big detachable bow on my lower back – and Lisa delivered exactly that. She also made me a replica mini dress for the evening change.

My something blue was a tiny little blue bear pin that my second cousin made for me, which was pinned into the inside of my dress.

The shoes I wore on the day were Gucci and my evening party shoes were Miu Miu. Aidan’s suit was from Tailor Made London/ shoes were from Duke & Dexter/ accessories included a Gucci tie & Gucci cufflinks.

Jewellery

I wore a vintage gold snake-chain necklace and small gold hoops with pearls from Astrid & Miyu, with my usual gold stacked earrings. I also had Celine sunglasses and a white pearl Shrimps bag. In the evening I changed my earrings to a pink crystal drop Jennifer Beyr pair to go with my Miu Miu shoes, and my bridesmaid (luckily make-up artist friend) Faye put lots of micro Swarovski crystals across my eyes.

Bridal party

We had bridesmaids in all different vibrant coloured dresses to go with the colourful feel of the rest of the wedding. They were from all different places – from Sister Jane to independent Etsy tailors to Georgia Hardinge.

The groomsmen all wore green linen suits from Suit Direct then tailored individually.

The flower girls were in white dresses with a bow at the back like mine, paired with little leopard print shoes.

The page boys wore dusty green jersey co-ords, orange bandana neckerchiefs, and little beige Birkenstock mules. We made our page boys “Ring Security”; they had earpieces and took their job very seriously – people were even getting ID’d by them for donuts.

We bought the groomsmen all engraved hip flasks and silk pocket squares.

We bought the bridesmaids embroidered bags, a piece of Murano glass (a vase etc.) the same colour as the dress they chose, and a scented candle in the same scent we had burning on the wedding day.

Tablescape

Luckily my mum (Jane Le Bon) is a visual merchandiser. She works for museums and galleries but also styles stately homes at Christmas, so she helped us a lot.

We had different coloured glassware, vases and candles, lots of disco balls – we wanted a party feel rather than anything too formal; after all, it was a celebration of our love for each other. Like many, we love Glastonbury – it’s where Aidan first told me he loved me, so we used all the stage names for our table names, with the family in the Healing Fields and our naughty friends in the South Eastern Corner.

All our wedding stationery fell into the same theme with vibrant colours and line sketches by my talented artist cousin (Tallulah Le Bon) and graphic designer brother (Louis Le Bon). Tallulah also painted our table plan.

Aidan has always worked in the beer industry, so we had our own beer brewed by Anspach & Hobday, “The Disco Ball & Chain”, the label being designed by our friend Ty Cochrane. We had personalised matches and playing cards as favours too, as we love a holiday rummi championship.

We had our ceremony flowers created by Green and Wild Flowers, they were beautiful. My mum and Aunty Yasmin did the table and cedar barn flowers, which were stunning. We picked them all up the day prior before driving down to Wales from Covent Garden Flower Market.

Food & drinks

For our drinks reception we had champagne and beer (of course). Wedding beer from Anspach & Hobday. Then beer from other breweries in Aidan’s career, Brick Brewery, Villages Brewery, Two Tribes & Camden Town Brewery. We then had pub snacks from Serious Pig, bags of crisps and oysters from Atlantic Edge Oysters (a nod to our engagement location, Whitstable).

We love the food at Fforest and we went for a menu of a burrata starter, main of BBQ’d Welsh hogget, potatoes and salads, with lots of wine, beer & cocktails.Post dinner we went outside for Mr Whippy Ice cream truck for dessert. There were donuts from local bakery CRWST, cheese from Caws Cenarth, espresso martinis and margaritas.

Entertainment

My bridal party walked down the aisle to Fleetwood Mac – You Make Loving Fun.

I walked down the aisle to a family band situation – my wonderful cousins (Song Bird Sound – Amber, Saffron, Tallulah Le Bon, Benji Compston Le Bon) plus my brother Tom Le Bon singing Harvest Moon by Neil Young. They also sang The Beach Boys – God Only Knows in the ceremony.

Our band (Brother From Another) played an unplugged version of Gerry Rafferty – Right Down the Line when we signed the register, and we exited to Hall & Oates – You Make My Dreams Come True.

We made our entrance to the wedding breakfast to Hooked on a Feeling by Bjorn Skifs & Blue Swede.

Our first dance was Bob Marley – Is This Love?, as we had one of our favourite ever dates at his house in Jamaica when on holiday there.

During the party we had a set from the same family band from the ceremony (song bird sound + Tom Le Bon & Felix Archer, with my dad on the Harmonica/Sax). They covered Sum 41 in too deep as it’s the first album Aidan & I both bought, they also slipped in Sweet home Alabama, Senorita (Justin Timberlake) & The Jean gene (Bowie).

Beauty regime & wellness

Make-up artist was one of my dearest friends and bridesmaids, Faye Bluff MUA.My hair was done by Keiron Justin Fowles, we went from a twisted low relaxed bun to my hair down and tousled.

I swear by the Dr Dennis Gross peel wipes – I used them the night before (even after more drinks than I had planned!) to still wake up with an exfoliated glow.

Honeymoon

We mini-mooned in Sardinia and honeymooned travelling Japan.

Advice

The time spent alone together are the bits you’ll remember clearly so make time! Get married somewhere you can revisit / stay as it makes a special treat going back. We can stay at Fforest all year round but also they have events, feast weekends and collabs with restaurants so we can make even more memories there.

We went back for a quiet weekend to soak up the sun for the last summer feast and plan to return again this summer with some of our best friends. As our friendship group grows with more and more kids we also can’t wait to take them too! We love catching up with all those who looked after us in the lead up to and on our special day and the Tucker-Lynch family who own Fforest!