Ellie + Phil at Potager Garden | May 2026
“...thank YOU for making the ceremony feel so calm and easy, it was exactly how we imagined it to be, just perfect really! ”
This wonderful wedding was relaxed, eco and bucolic vibes at Potager Garden in Cornwall, where all profits go back into the wonderful garden.
The heady, baking sunshine of the day made the garden absolutely pop - guests sipping cocktails, guests in hammocks, big floppy hats and the feeling of the best sort of Cornish day - however there are downsides to a sunny day too. The colourful, chatty, sharing platter lunch was in a greenhouse. The most gorgeous setting with ferns and flowers dipping over the tables, but no breeze or air conditioning to speak of. And neither of Ellie’s two outfits were heatwave-friendly. But they were jaw-droppingly COOL regardless.
Fantastic photos by friend of the couple Jonathan Cherry Studio
For her first outfit she’d painted a pair of white jeans with delicate lemons, shells and pink snakes (to name but a few). Ellie is a renowned handpoke tattoo artist and the wedding jeans were like she’d been given free-reign over an unadorned expanse of skin. How cool, I thought, bringing so much of herself to this day and the concept of being ‘bridal’.
And there were so many elements like that I’d probably struggle to list them. Phil is creative too and, between them, they’d handmade artwork all over the venue garden: quilted banners (“All my life I was a bride married to amazement”), painted and sewn wedding signs, and a towering crescent moon. Just for fun.
I felt as though I’d stepped into another world.
I knew it was going to be a glorious, unique day from our first conversation. Ellie and Phil already knew - a year or so ahead - some of the different ways they wanted to celebrate their marriage. In a first for me in the 100+ weddings I’ve officiated, they were planning a sort of ‘upside down’ day with the celebratory wedding breakfast - lunch - first before they said I do.
And the uniqueness didn’t end at the things we already had planned - like passing round cloth rather than rings to “warm”, and then having the parents and a couple of friends come forward to do a handfasting and pray for the couple.
I was stoked to be included, vanilla me!
No, there was a completely unplanned, impromptu moment and I feel like I handled it so well it’ll go down in my personal celebrancy hall of fame forever haha! Phil and Ellie always planned to walk into their woodland clearing ceremony together. Phil beginning with us, the guests, then walking to meet Ellie - in her second outfit of long-sleeved vintage silk - and return, which would take a few minutes. Just before this happened he asked me - nicely - if I would lead a meditation while everyone waited for their arrival. Not too woo-woo for the Christians among the guests, and not too religious for the hippy-types.
I said yes, immediately. Challenge accepted.
My husband told me afterwards that that would be his worst nightmare, in front of a crowd, given a last-minute, unplanned THING to lead everyone through. I absolutely relish in stuff like that. Not that I’d ever had this particular request before.
A perfectly topsy turvy order of the day with lunch before the ceremony
I got everyone to close their eyes, listen to the birds, feel the hint of a balmy breeze, and really relish in the anticipation of what was about to happen in that clearing. Of how much love, excitement and good will was present among everyone, and how we could channel that into celebrating Phil and Ellie. At least I think that was the gist of it, it’s a bit of an adrenaline blur!
I was trying to time the end of my guided meditation with the bride and groom’s arrival, stepping down the path and between the gently billowing banners, so by the end of the meditation it did become more of a comic “eyes closed still everyone, you’ll be pleased you’ve not opened them yet” situation.
When they - obediently, finally - opened their eyes, there were the bride and groom.
We enjoyed two readings, and from two actors: Dave (brother of the groom) and Izzy (sister of the bride). Dave’s reading felt particularly poignant, given we were surrounded by trees, our chairs half-sunken into soft, summer grass. He read How I Go Into the Woods by Mary Oliver:
Ordinarily I go to the woods alone,
with not a single friend,
for they are all smilers and talkers
and therefore unsuitable.
I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds
or hugging the old black oak tree.
I have my ways of praying,
as you no doubt have yours.
Besides, when I am alone
I can become invisible.
I can sit on the top of a dune
as motionless as an uprise of weeds,
until the foxes run by unconcerned.
I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.
If you have ever gone to the woods with me,
I must love you very much.
Everything felt thoughtful, homemade and steeped in meaning. I loved the fact this whole day felt so different to anything I’ve witnessed before. A real example of leaning into what makes you tick as a couple, and another reason to have a celebrant wedding: it can look however you want it to.
“So many people told us how great you were, and assumed that we must have known you for ages because you got across a real sense of ease and familiarity, which is just your natural talent for the job!! And the last minute meditation was so great, really appreciate that and you just rolling with any last min requests.”