Inside a 900-Year-Old Jane Austen Hampshire Church Wedding Where the Getaway Car Was a Vintage Tractor

Welcome to Real Wedding Inspiration, where we collect and curate beautiful wedding stories. We invite Wedding Present Company couples to share favourite moments from their special day — and we have stunning photos of every last detail. 

Jess and Ben's day moved from a traditional church ceremony to the open-air colour of a marquee wedding reception strung with festoon lights on her parents' lawn. Dahlias in blush and peach filled the reception tables.

Jess, head of talent and commercial at SheerLuxe's sister company BLUSH Talent MGMT, always knew what she wanted for the day. "I was never worried about finding a wedding venue because I'd always wanted to do it at the local church and then have a marquee reception at my mum and dad's house," she says. 

Jess shares how she and Ben brought their Hampshire wedding to life. Expect a church with its own Jane Austen connection, a custom Emma Beaumont wedding dress, a florist brief built around the idea of "dancing flowers," a vintage tractor exit, and favourite picks from their wedding registry with The Wedding Present Company.

Ben proposed in December 2023, on their ninth anniversary, during a trip to The Pig at Harlyn Bay in Cornwall. "He'd booked a really nice room, so I kind of had an inkling," says Jess. "We ended up going for a walk, and he got down on one knee on a scenic cliff edge next to the lighthouse. It was perfect."

The ring came with its own history attached. "Ben designed my ring with Sophie Breitmeyer, who's based in Notting Hill," Jess explains. The engagement ring was a round old European cut diamond, claw-set into a platinum, wishbone-style collet. "The diamond used to belong to my grandmother, and Ben did have a bit of guidance from my sister-in-law, whose ring Sophie also designed," she adds.

In keeping with British wedding traditions, the couple had their banns read on three Sundays in the months leading up to the wedding. "It felt really romantic because it's been happening for centuries," Jess says.

Bringing their own unique ceremony ideas to the day, Jess and Ben opted for modern wedding readings over more traditional ones. "Naturally, a religious ceremony feels quite serious. It's the main event, but I liked how it felt as though there were two very distinct parts to the day," she says. "We had someone read Dolly Alderton's Everything I Know About Love speech, and a couple of poems. It was a nice opportunity for us to involve friends in the ceremony who weren't necessarily bridesmaids, groomsmen or family."

Though the church holds 120, Jess and Ben squeezed in 165 guests. "It felt very atmospheric, joyful and happy. Everyone was there to celebrate love," she adds. Afterwards, a vintage Massey Ferguson tractor was waiting outside. Jess and Ben climbed into the trailer, and Ben's twin brother drove them back to her parents' house, where the marquee, all sailcloth peaks and hanging string lights, was waiting among the trees for the reception to begin. 

"Ben and I were living in Amsterdam when we got engaged, so we set up our wedding gift list through a virtual appointment with The Wedding Present Company," Jess says. "We had a call with one of the Wedding List Advisors who walked us through the process and showed us how to put together our perfect list. It also worked well for us that everything could be stored in a warehouse, so that it was ready to be delivered to our home in the UK when we eventually moved back from Amsterdam. We loved the variety of choice, and also the ability to add items outside of what was listed on the website."

What the couple also valued about their wedding registry was the flexibility to spend the guest contributions over time rather than all at once. "I think it's worth mentioning that we love that you don't have to spend all the money in one go," she reflects. "We recently moved into a new house and found a piece of furniture on The Wedding Present Company which was a perfect fit for a space in our new home, so we have recently used the remaining money from our gift list account to buy that piece of furniture, and we love it."

"Not only are Emma's dresses beautiful, but the three-hour drives to Knutsford are some of my most cherished memories from the whole planning process," Jess says. "Emma just got it. She saw the vision, drew up a sketch, and I just thought, that's exactly what I want." Jess adds that Emma was also really open to making changes along the way. The design evolved as they went: a straight waistband became a dipped hem, and the sleeves lost some of their original volume. "It was great to have that creative freedom and come out with a dress that was perfectly made just for me," she says.

Jess wore a long veil for the walk into church, deliberately choosing something that would feel serious in the moment, then swapped it for an oversized scrunchie for the reception. "A lot of people have said it gave ballerina vibes, which I loved," she says. She finished the look with Loeffler Randall shoes, Completedworks earrings and a Sophie Whitelaw gold necklace.

"We used the same hair and make-up artist, Ausra Ruksene, who did my sister-in-law's wedding, and she was amazing," Jess says. "I knew I wanted my hair back off my face, but she convinced me to do a high, as opposed to a low, bun, and I'm really glad she did. I wanted the focus to be on the dress, not on the hair." Make-up stayed neutral and natural, which Jess says has never looked better on her.

"My bridesmaids weren't given specific dresses to wear, only a colour palette to work within," Jess says. "They chose so well from brands like Rixo, Kitri and Reformation." The bridal party came back with pieces in shades of pink and coral that ranged from soft florals to ruffled tiers, finished with espadrille wedges for comfort through a long day on grass.

Much of what filled the church that afternoon was repurposed for the marquee later that evening, cut down into tiny bud vases that ran the length of the reception tables alongside Jess's bouquet and the flowers carried by her bridesmaids. "Ethereal is probably the best word to describe it," Jess says. "I was always clear about having lots of colour. I wanted it to feel joyful." Dahlias, garden roses, cosmos and sweet peas came together in blush, dusty pink and peach, trailing from Jess's bouquet in loose ribbon and echoed in the smaller posies scattered between candlelight on the tables.

Two Many Cooks, who work closely with Emily Jones Events wedding planner, handled the food, and Jess and Ben used the brief to keep things exactly as they liked them, nothing more elaborate than it needed to be. "I didn't want our drinks reception to feel too formal, so we served things like Aperol Spritz and Timothy Taylor's Landlord beer in kegs. We also had crémant instead of champagne," Jess says. "We're not fussy. We like meat, potatoes and two veg, which is exactly what we had," she continues: beef and mash with peas and broccoli, followed by chocolate brownie. "You don't have to overcomplicate it," she notes. "We also had a company called The Drunken Jockeys come in to make our cocktails afterwards, and a friend made our wedding cake." 

"Our band, Truly Medley Deeply, were such professionals," Jess says. They played live for most of the night, opening with Jess and Ben's first dance song, "Walk of Life" by Dire Straits, before building a set list around the couple's favourite genres and a handful of specific requests from guests. "They did a one-hour set followed by an hour of playlist and so on until the end of the night. Things wrapped up about 1am," says Jess. 

"We used The Curries as our photographers," says Jess, going on to highlight the importance of having a brief call with the team to go through the list of questions to ask photographers. "My worst nightmare is being on camera, so having a 15-minute posing session was never something I was going to be comfortable with. Luckily, they were so good about it and took the photos really quickly. I also loved how many photos they got of our guests, so when we look back on the day years from now, we'll be able to remember everyone who was there." 

The couple then had Clementine Cusack as their wedding videographer to capture the day. "I've watched that video so many times already," Jess admits. 

Jess's advice comes from experience: don't let suppliers upsell you into things you don't actually want. "We had people play music during the reception drinks, but looking back, I'm not sure it was necessary," she says. "If your gut feeling is telling you that you don't need something, you probably don't."

She's equally relaxed about the suppliers you don't manage to book. "If you have your heart set on a specific supplier and they're not available, it's not the end of the world. There are hundreds of good ones, and you'll find something just as good, if not better," she says. Looking back on the handful of suppliers who weren't free for her date, she adds, "There were people we missed out on, and I remember being gutted at the time, but in hindsight it didn't matter."

Wedding Planner: Emily Jones Events, Caterer: Two Many Cooks, Ring Designer: Sophie Breitmeyer, Wedding Dress: Emma Beaumont, Bridal Shoes: Loeffler Randall, Earrings: Completedworks, Necklace: Sophie Whitelaw, Hair & Make-Up: Ausra Ruksene, Bridesmaids' Dresses: Rixo, Kitri, Reformation, Florist: I Think That You Are Magic, Stationery: Isobel Lynam & Just Lissy Designs, Cocktails: The Drunken Jockeys, Band: Truly Medley Deeply, Photographer: The Curries, Videographer: Clementine Cusack

Special thank you to Jess & Ben for giving us permission to share their gorgeous wedding photos. If you would like to join them and be featured on The Wedding Present Company too, submit your wedding below

The Wedding Present Company is a bespoke wedding gift list experience; couples come to us seeking the extraordinary. We offer a tailored and completely personalised wedding registry experience free of charge. Our team goes above and beyond to help you create a wedding list that is unique to both of you and full of items that you will love and use for a lifetime.