Doors open at three
Marleigh Lane, Gloucestershire GL7 4QD. Parking sits behind the walled garden, five minutes on foot.
Ask for directionsTogether with our families
Amara and Ellis
Fernwater Orangery, Gloucestershire. A glasshouse ceremony, supper under the vines, and dancing until the lamps go out.
Scroll for the details
The glasshouse is booked. The clock is already running.
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Saturday 13 March 2027, four fifteen in the afternoon
Add to your calendarYou are invited
Come for the vows, stay for the long supper
Everything you need in one place. If a detail is missing, write to us and we will sort it out the same week.
Vows at four fifteen
Inside the glasshouse, seated in the round. Doors close at ten past so the room stays quiet for the readings.
Read the order of the daySupper, then dancing
One long table under the vines, a string trio at eight, and a late kitchen for anyone still standing at midnight.
Tell us your menu choiceThe two of us
A botanist and a bookbinder
The bride
Amara Vance
Botanist, slow gardener, keeper of a notebook full of seed names nobody else can read. She grew half the plants that will be in the room that afternoon.
Six years, one small flat, two cities, and a very patient dog named Juniper.
The groom
Ellis Rourke
Bookbinder by trade, cook by insistence. He proposed with a hand stitched album that had every page still empty, which was rather the point.
Six years, four moments
How we ended up here
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May2021
A greenhouse and a broken umbrella
We met in the temperate house at Kew, sheltering from a downpour neither of us had dressed for. Amara named nine plants in a row. Ellis pretended to already know them.
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Oct2022
Forty two boxes, one lift out of service
The flat in Bristol had bad light and a good balcony. Within a month the balcony held twenty three pots, and the neighbour started leaving notes asking for cuttings.
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Jun2025
An empty book, on purpose
He spent four months binding it and thirty seconds asking. She said yes before he finished the sentence, which he still brings up at dinner parties.
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Mar2027
The glasshouse at Fernwater
We booked it the same afternoon we saw it, mostly because the light at five o clock made the whole room look like the inside of a lantern.
Frames we kept
Two summers of practice photos
Taken on the days we were only visiting. Tap any frame to open it larger, then swipe or use the arrow keys.
Replies close 20 January 2027
After that the caterer stops answering our emails.
Reserve a seat
Tell us you are coming
One reply per guest please, so the place cards match the chairs.
The people beside us
Our favourite troublemakers
Drag or swipe
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Maid of honour
Noor Haddad
Met Amara in a seed bank queue in 2016 and never left.
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Best man
Teodor Brandt
Shared a workshop bench with Ellis for nine years. Speech already too long.
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Bridesmaid
Priya Sandhu
Will be the one holding the flowers, the phone and the plasters.
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Usher
Callum Reyes
Knows the venue better than the venue does. Ask him for the shortcut.
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Bridesmaid
Hanne Vestergaard
Flew in from Aarhus for the dress fittings and stayed for the cake tasting.
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Groomsman
Idris Okonjo
Taught Ellis to cook the one dish he still makes properly.
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Flower keeper
Wren Ashby
Six years old, entirely in charge of the petals, and aware of it.
Order of the day
Saturday, hour by hour
3:00 pmDoors and garden drinks
Arrive whenever suits you between three and four. There is elderflower, something stronger, and a wall of shade if the afternoon turns bright.
4:15 pmThe ceremony
Twenty five minutes, seated in the round inside the glasshouse. Two readings, one of them by Juniper's owner rather than Juniper.
5:00 pmPhotographs and a slow hour
Group photographs on the south lawn, then a long unhurried hour with music, canapes and the run of the walled garden.
7:00 pmSupper at the long table
One table, sixty seats, four courses. Speeches land between the main and the pudding so nobody has to wait on an empty plate.
9:30 pmLamps low, music up
The string trio hands over to the band at half nine. The late kitchen opens at eleven and the last car leaves at one.
Getting there
Fernwater Orangery
Marleigh Lane, Gloucestershire GL7 4QD
Ask us for directions- ParkingFree, behind the walled garden. Five minutes on foot along a lit path.
- By trainKemble station, then a twenty minute taxi. We can share a car list.
- Staying overMarleigh Inn, nine rooms held until 1 February under our surname.
Kind words
From the people who saw it coming
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They argued about a fern for three weeks and then bought two. That is the entire relationship, and it works beautifully.
Noor HaddadMaid of honour
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Ellis rebuilt my grandmother's prayer book and refused payment. Amara sent seeds instead. I have never met two people so hard to thank.
Marta OyelaranNeighbour, Bristol
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I have hosted four hundred weddings here. This is the first couple who asked about the soil before the seating plan.
Gerald FinchHead gardener, Fernwater
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They made every detail feel effortless. We never had to ask twice, and the whole day felt completely ours.
Michael HayesNeighbour, Bristol
Journal
Notes from the planning
Short pieces we write when something is worth remembering. Roughly one a month, occasionally two when the caterer visits.
Why every guest is going home with seeds
We wanted a favour that would still exist in five years. Two hundred paper packets later, here is what went into each one and how to keep them alive past week three.
Read the post
Write to us
Questions are welcome, all of them
Trains, rooms, dietary needs, plus ones, or whether the dog is invited. He is.
- The venueFernwater Orangery, Marleigh Lane, Gloucestershire GL7 4QD
- Reply byWednesday, 20 January 2027
- On the dayRosalind Ainsley, our planner, on site from one o clock