A Farm Wedding And A Bride With Dreadlocks – Sarita & James

Today’s tattooed bride Sarita with gorgeous dreadlocks decided to wear a stunning Phase Eight dress when she married James. They got married at Dorset venue Lower Stockbridge Farm and even had their dog Irwin there for the day. Photos are by the awesome Jason Williams Photography.

I met James in my first day in a new job, thought hubba hubba! We became friends for around 6 months (he had a girlfriend) but they split up. He came round for a haircut (I used to live in South Africa at a monkey sanctuary where I somehow became the hairdresser amongst the volunteers!) and after 2 bottles of wine, chatting and playing the guitar till around midnight, met up the following night for a few drinks, and been together ever since… Almost 3 years now.

We’re both pretty laid back and informal, the venue was perfect for us as soon as we saw it. It was held in an unassuming barn that had a wow factor when you walked in with gorgeous beams, fairy lights dotted all over the place and subtle lighting that changed from purple to deep red to green, was just such a lovely feature, the venue was nothing grand or pretentious, and we found an awesome reggae band who just made the evening perfect. As a surprise for James I’d arranged for his dog Irwin, to be the ring-bearer, so I think having Irwin around the place not only felt completely normal to us, but completely made James’s day, and didn’t seem at all odd to any of our guests!

A lot of the decor was done the day before… I put together the table pieces, decorated the tables and made the table plan (which was probably my favourite bit). I found old photos of James and me trying to match our ages, so from when we were a baby to around 8 dotted around the table plan, just something a bit funny for people to see as they were looking for their names. We still have the plan in our bedroom. (We plan on framing it and having it on our wall for the rest of our lives together!)

At first I thought about going for a sleeved look just to look a bit more bridal I suppose? I couldn’t find any styles I liked with sleeves, but then realised everyone knows I have tattoos so there’s no point covering up! I’d like to think the elegance of my dress took a lot of the focus off my tattoos, especially due to the fact my arm is an extremely slow sleeve in progress, so at a very rubbish stage right now, and so despite having bare arms and loving all my other tattoos, I actually didn’t want to draw too much attention to my incomplete outer arm tattoo. But I actually think it all came together pretty well.

The highlight of the day was definitely walking down the aisle and seeing James for the first time. Without hesitation, it the most amazing day of my life. It still feels like it was yesterday and wish it happened every year! BEST. DAY. EVER!!!

My tips for those planning their own wedding – Something will go wrong, but rest assured none of the guests ever know, which is all that matters. I wont say don’t stress, as I don’t believe it’s possible for a bride to not stress! But just know it’ll be the most amazing day of your life. I was dreading walking down the aisle and have everyone stare, but turned out I LOVED it!! My biggest advice is get someone you know/trust to film the key parts of the day – we got our ceremony and speeches filmed, and my brother in law filmed various bits of guests chatting and just chilling after the ceremony, and I watch these back way more than I thought I would. And to be able to watch the ceremony back is just such a special thing we’ll cherish forever. Oh and a final bit of advice….don’t stay up until 2am the eve of your wedding drinking red wine. I think I was so relieved all the planning was over and I was about to be married, I just wanted to celebrate!! I did and my head regretted it all day…..but was still the best day of my life!!

How chilled out was Sarita and James’ wedding?! Thank you to them both and to Jason Williams Photography for sharing their day with Marry Me Ink. Be sure to leave them some love!