Boat shed meets the brief for this couple’s relaxed intimate wedding

Sarah and Johny struggled when choosing their relaxed intimate wedding venue.

“We were torn between a countryside wedding near to where we both grew up, or a more industrial style wedding in London where we live,” explains Sarah. “The Cherwell Boathouse in Oxford was perfect, as not only was it geographically in the middle, it fit boths our styles.”

The venue is set on the river, but the celebration space is a brick room where they store boats in winter. “We got married at Oxford Town Hall in the centre of the city, and guests met at the pub opposite,” recalls the bride.

They married on September 7, 2018 nine months after Johny proposed, plenty of time to plan, says the bride. “One of our favourite parts of wedding planning was spending nights in creating different themed playlists for each part of the day, including sixties classics for the bus journey and reggae during the barbecue meal,” recalls Sarah.

Photos courtesy of Claudia Rose Carter Photography.

The couple married in the Old Library part of Oxford Hall.

Johny proposed to Sarah after a big New Year’s Eve. “There we were on New Year’s Day, together in our tiny flat, only slightly hungover, in scruffy clothes with delicious food and he asked me to marry him,” recalls Sarah.

“The venue was split between three spaces; a marquee on top overlooking the river with the boathouse below, which was an empty brick room with a car, then an area outside by the river,” says Sarah.

The couple honeymooned for two weeks through Italy.

The boathouse space was “rough and ready”, says Sara, so they decorated it with lots of gold foil curtains and a pink neon sign.