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Today’s wedding is the summer nuptials of Gary and Hollie, who were married at luxury hotel, Sundridge Park Manor in Bromley, Kent. The Grade I listed Manor is set in 6 acres of terraced gardens and has 23 en-suite rooms which have views of the gardens and golf course that surround it. Hollie and Gary first saw the venue on a TV programme and went to take a look and it’s no wonder they fell in love with it. It’s elegant charm was the perfect backdrop to Gary and Hollie’s Champagne and Ivory colour scheme. Here Hollie tells us how she began to plan their big day. Starting with the all important dress!
Hollie says “I felt like an absolute princess and I knew by my mum and friends reaction when I stepped out of the changing room that it was “the one”. It’s not every day you get to wear a princess dress! I accessorized it with High ivory sandals from Dune and stud earrings that were a gift from my Chief Bridesmaid. I also had a veil, hair slide and an ivory box clutch bag that my Chief Bridesmaid held on the day.
“We didn’t really need loads of decoration as the venue was absolutely beautiful – we let it speak for itself. Cinderella Dreams did our flowers and styling which was simple but really effective. I had a White Rose bouquet, with the three bridesmaids having smaller versions. The two flower girls had cute little wands. We also decorated the top table with Ivory Roses and “Mr & Mrs” wooden letters. The centerpieces were tall hurricane vases with candles and on the tables were disposable cameras and simple ivory name place cards. We had scratch cards in a wallet for the favours, which were colour co-ordinated and from eBay.
I got nearly all my ideas and inspiration from Google images! I had an idea of what I wanted and used the images alongside a few tweaks of my own. It was definitely less stress though having someone set up all the tables and arranging all the different style elements on the day – I would recommend it to every bride!
“Our photographer was James Grist. He had photographed our friends wedding and so we knew we wanted to have him.
For our wedding breakfast we had a hot buffet from the in house caterers, with a dessert table and cheese board for after. This was served with White and Red Wine on the tables but other drinks were available from the bar. Our wedding cake was a three square tier ivory cake with champagne ribbon around the bottom of each tier. The tiers looked like they were ‘floating’ and we had fresh white roses between each tier. A friend called Sian Howard made it. The three flavours were lemon, marble and chocolate. To kick off our evening entertainment my step dad, Barry Fox, sung our wedding song, Michael Buble’s Crazy Love. Our DJ Ben Phelps played the tunes, with Barry singing some more songs throughout the evening. It was a really fantastic party.”
Contact Book
Venue & Catering: Sundridge Park Manor
Brides Dress by: Allure Bridal from Orange Blossom in Blackfen
Flowers/Styling by: Cinderellas Dreams
Entertainment: Barry Fox (07984 465622)
Stationery: Made by the Bride from Pure Invitation
Groomsmen: Moss Bros
Bridesmaids: BHS
Wedding Photography and Images with thanks to James Grist Photography
Thanks to Hollie & Gary for sharing their day with us and massive congratulations.
Emma x
This week myself and Joanne got a sneak preview of a gorgeous new magazine hitting the wedding world this weekend.
Doily Days is the new FREE vintage inspired wedding mag from the team, yes you guessed it, behind vintage wedding stylists, Doily Days. Helen Ruff is the lovely editor of the new 56 pager, which is jam packed full of wedding gorgeousness including DIY top tips from Helen herself, as well as Roses All Over and articles from our fellow wedding bloggers, Ooh Mrs James and Festival Brides. There’s also a handmade real wedding for inspiration, features on venues and catering and much more, plus if that wasn’t enough there’s an amazing competition from Mr & Mrs Unique.
Grab yourself a FREE copy at the ‘Something Old’ wedding fair at the Corn Exchange in Brighton this Sunday (3rd March 12-5pm) or look out for it at a wedding fair near you in Kent very soon.
If you are on the search for your wedding photographer then this is one post you need to read. It’s a fantastic guest post by the very talented photographer, Rebecca Douglas, who is going to give you the low down on what you need to look for when booking your wedding photography.
She’s also got a fantastic offer for you at the end of the post so make sure you read on for more info. Over to you Rebecca.
Rebecca Douglas – In front of the camera for once!
”Hi Everyone, I hope that this quick tutorial will give you enough info to confidently pick your photographer but before we get onto us photographer types remember that to start with its all about you…
What do you want from your wedding photography?
Start by asking yourself some simple questions.
What’s your style? Do you like traditional, documentary, modern and edgy or retro and vintage?
What do you want captured on the day? Is it from arrival at the ceremony until the last dance, longer or less?
Do you want an album or DVD only with all of the images, or both?
What is your budget? Photography is the only lasting reminder of your day so think carefully about what have you budgeted. Is it realistic?

Let the Research Begin
Start by searching for photographers on Google and look at review websites, blogs and social media.
If you see a photographer you like what is your gut reaction to their images? Do you love, like or just think ok? You should LOVE LOVE LOVE!
Draw up a short list of possibles, then try pinning their images (Pinterest is a great research tool) and keep comparing. Contact them to see if they are free on your wedding date. It’s also a good chance to see what their speed of response is like. Are they efficient and good at getting back to you as the customer?
The Images
When you’ve done enough pinning take a good look at the photos and ask yourself the following questions:
Can you see yourself in the images? Are the key moments captured? Are the images sharp? Do the images look well lit? Do the people look comfortable and relaxed? Are the images taken from flattering angles? Hint: all the answers should be YES!
Meeting your Photographer
When you meet with the photographer have a checklist of questions that link to your list of priorities. It’s also important that you strike up an instant rapport and you’re happy that they are focused on you and your day.
The Essentials
Lastly you need to do a bit of admin! Make sure your photographer has public liability and public indemnity insurance as well as professional (full-frame cameras) and back up gear. Read their terms and condition carefully. Also check they have back up on and off site for images so they are not lost forever! It’s also helpful at this point to see what images you will get (how many and what resolution) and your rights to print and upload. It’s worth asking how they will use them and will they Photoshop and edit images, plus you need to find out how quickly you will get the images and/or albums after the wedding.
It’s really important too that you can see yourself smiling at your photographer for the whole of your wedding day and you are super comfortable with them. If so, the experience will be so much more enjoyable especially if you are a bit camera shy.
It’s also a great idea to have an engagement shoot to get comfortable as a couple in front of the camera and work with your photographer prior to the day. At the moment I’m offering a free engagement shoot to Wedding Dolls readers so click here for more info.
Good luck with your photographer and have a fantastic wedding day!”
Massive thanks Rebecca and if you’re just starting out on your wedding planning, we cover how to pick your suppliers in our workshop so take a look here for more info.
All images: Rebecca Douglas Photography
Fabulous photographer, Rebecca Douglas, is offering an exclusive Wedding Dolls offer for a free engagement shoot. Simply book your wedding photography with her in January or February 2013 to claim your engagement shoot.
At the Wedding Dolls we think engagement shoots are a must before your wedding so you can get to know your photographer and feel more relaxed with being ‘papped’ on your big day. Rebecca tells us “Engagement shoots are just wonderful fun! It gives you both time in front of the camera, at a favourite place where you can spend some relaxed time together. It will give you time to take a stroll with me, as your photographer, so we can get to know each other a bit more. I love to build you and your story, hobbies and interests into a shoot so if you fancy doing something to incorporate this, I’d love to hear your ideas”.
A great bonus of having an engagement shoot means you’ll have gorgeous images you can use for save the date cards, invites or signing boards, which the talented Rebecca can help you put together.
Her offer includes a 1-2 hour shoot, a Facebook gallery of a few sneak peeks to share with your friends and family, ten 8 x 6 inch professionally printed images of your favourite shots and an online gallery where you can buy more shots if you wish.
Simply mention this post when you contact her about your booking. Below are just some of her engagement shoots to give you an idea of what to expect.
Your photos also come beautifully packaged when they arrive – we just love the handmade little badges!
Copyright - All images: Rebecca Douglas
For more examples of Rebecca’s Wedding Photography check out some previous wedding blog posts: Great Barn Wedding and Kent Castle Dream
Hi All. On the blog today is the totally gorgeous wedding of Emma and Jon at Bradbourne House in East Malling, Kent.
Here Emma tells us how they found their wedding venue and the details of the day. Over to you Emma!
“Jon was playing cricket one year opposite Bradbourne House and loved it, then when we got engaged he said “I think there is a place you’ll love” and I did! It was a chance to have a manor house all to ourselves as we love history and it was our real life Downton Abbey! The main reception room is tiffany blue so we chose a very neutral colour scheme – it was very elegant and very English. We had 100 people during the day and another 50 came in the evening.
We had a Church Wedding Ceremony as I was brought up a Catholic and wanted to be married under god. The Catholic church service was made extra special by having the Trinity Boys Choir sing for us. Jon’s cousin used to conduct them so we knew we wanted them to be part of our day.
We had Juliette Harrison as our photographer and she was amazing. We wanted a supplier we got on with and work well together – it’s so important.
To take us to our reception we had replica classic cars – we couldn’t afford to break down on the motorway! We used Shirley Car Hire who were brilliant and we would highly recommend them.
Our guests travelled on a bus from the Red London Bus Company. We stocked it with Pimms and Beer to get the party started as soon as possible!
My wedding dress was by Enzoani. I loved his designs and all the silk he uses. I knew as soon as I saw the huge long train at the back that it was the dress for me. I was looking for a vintage dress that was fitted and not too over the top, but I didn’t feel ‘bride’ enough in some of them so I ended up going for a fuller dress than I expected.
My shoes were from the Rainbow Collection. I highly recommend them as they were so comfortable. I accessorised my dress with a beautiful pearl necklace my mum gave me as well as a surprise gift from Jon, a pair of antique drop pearl and diamond earrings. I completed my look with a long veil, by Richard Designs. It had tiny diamantes’ sewn into it so when I walked down the aisle I twinkled under the lights. I also had a vintage headband from Vintage Head Dresses.
Jon hired his top hat and tails from Moss Hire, he got a discount as his friend works in head office which was very handy! We were going to get the suits made but it was too expensive. We just made sure we checked in good time that the hire suits fitted well and weren’t worn in places. A good tip is to check everything over yourself (or get a bridesmaid to do it) because the boys will not check it all through!
I had three bridesmaids and they all wore high street dresses from Kaliko.
Jon is a graphic designer and therefore really creative. Jon designed our wedding brand and then made all our wedding invitations using a simple form of book binding and elegant wallpaper. They were fantastic but took absolutely forever! He designed a motif of a J & and E intertwined and that featured on all our stationery. We had a wax stamp made of our initials and stamped the back of every invitation we gave out – they looked stunning. We used the same look for the table plan and name settings. The table names were all named after Italian Painters as I love the renaissance period and we got engaged in Tuscany, Italy.
For the place cards I bought silver bables and used handmade paper from Cox & Cox, which I then wrote the guest names on. We had long tables for our reception and for the centre pieces I had candelabra, with the candles lit and lovely white flowers and greenery. In between was little silver gilt vases with three roses and scattered rose petals down the middle. It was amazing!
The overall look was so stunning that when Jon and I sat down at the top table and looked at what we’d created we were completely lost for words. I had tears in my eyes. All our hard work had paid off. We thought long and hard about our favours. My auntie died of cancer and my grandmother was diagnosed the same year as our wedding. We wanted to give a donation to Cancer Research rather than buy favours so we gave out pin badges, pink for the ladies & blue for the gentlemen. These pin badges were then put into black velvet pouches with a little tag Jon designed to say that we’d donated in honor of our wedding.
We had a mixture of roses and lillies as our wedding flowers as they are both so elegant and classic. Son Flowers did our church flowers which were absolutely beautiful. As I came down the aisle they were all I could smell. Our reception flowers were by Nicola from Florian Designs, she was such a lovely lady and the flowers were stunning.
We used Bradbourne House’s own designated caterers, Sanderson Catering. When guests arrived they were greeted with Champagne cocktails and lovely canapes whilst listening to a String Quartet.
For starters we had pan-roasted chicken and pancetta with seasonal salad leaves, finished with balsamic and olive oil. Then for main course was Scotch fillet of beef with roasted potatoes, seasonal veg, creamed courgettes and an enriched merlot jus. This was followed by a gorgeous dessert of sticky toffee pudding washed down with lots and lots of wine and champagne! Sanderson were really professional and excellent throughout. From the white glove service to the delicious food their style suited our theme perfectly.
Guests then had a piece of the four tier chocolate wedding cake which was designed by Purita Hyam Cakes.
To kick the evening off we did a choreographed dance to Nat King Cole’s, Love. We both love the track as it’s such a classic. In the evening we had DJ Rudy from Rock Box, at one point he was break dancing – top man! We partied until 12pm and then had a few drinks in our hotel bar when we got back, which was a lovely way to round off such a fantastic day.
Thanks to Emma and Jon for sharing their big day with us. And so do they have any final words of advice for our Bride and Groom’s to be?
“I would say just enjoy every minute of your wedding day. It’s sometimes it’s too easy to get sucked in by all the planning, the details and family politics to really remember why you are getting married. I wouldn’t change a thing about our wedding as it really all did go perfectly…..oh apart from the fact that we forgot to put a bottle opener on the bus for the beer!!!
One final piece of advice would be not to let suppliers give you the hard sell…make sure you try everything you want and pick companies you know you can work well with – it makes such a different to the day! “
Images by Juliette Harrison
Today we are really pleased to be sharing a fantastic vintage photoshoot at the very lovely Upnor Castle, Kent. The shoot was set up by Margate based photographer, Robert Marriott with the help of Maxine Gregory of Tea-licious and Sandra Andrews of Vintage Curves.
We just love the vintage dresses, the gorgeous red detailing and wow – that cake! Here are just some of our favourite shots but take a look at Robert’s blog for the full shoot. Enjoy!
Image Credits Robert Marriott - thanks Robert!
Photo Shoot Credits:
Stylist’s Stephanie Stanley, Lacey Biginton and Leanne MacPherson
Florists Mals Bespoke Bouquet, Flower Heaven and Helen Louise Jury.
Red Ruffle cake supplied by Francesca Pitcher, Cupcakes by Samantha Vanstone
Vehicles from Amandas Vintage Car Hire, Simply Stunning Cars and Retro Caravan Hire.
Today on the blog we are sharing with you the wedding of Chris and Katie, who got married back in May at Port Lympne. The lucky couple had lots of friends to help out and so we asked Katie to tell us about their big day.
Katie tells us “Port Lympne was the only venue we looked at and we fell in love with it. I had been there previously for work and thought it would be really different and unique to get married there. Erica at Port Lympne helped us so much and was brilliant.We had 72 guests for the daytime, with another 130 coming in the evening. We wanted quite a traditional wedding but with a few personal touches. We had a VIP safari trip as part of the wedding day so we all got on big safari trucks and spent an hour going round the park seeing the animals.
Our wedding photographer was Kerry Ann Duffy. I had heard about her through some friends and then when we looked on her website we knew she was our photographer!
My dress was from Brocades Bridal Studio in Sittingbourne. They were really helpful and had some beautiful pieces. As well as my dress I also bought there my veil, hairpiece, a necklace and earrings. I borrowed my sister’s bracelet for my ‘something borrowed’. My shoes were from BHS - they were comfortable enough to wear all day and all night!
Chris’ suit was hired from Slaters in Canterbury. It was grey with a white shirt and purple cravat. The bridesmaids dresses were also from Brocades and the flower girl dress was from Next.
We had a motor racing theme for the reception as Chris is a mad motor racing fan. For our table centres we had flowers in tyres instead of vases and our table names were the names of Formula 1 drivers. Our favours were Air Ambulance scratch cards as it’s a charity close to our hearts. For the children’s favours we got party bags from All About Party Bags which contained activity books, stickers, sweets and bubbles.
Our brilliant stationery was made by a friend of my sister, Tomarty, and included invitations, table names, table plan, post box and guest book. Joanna Tantum Floristry did our wedding flowers. We met up to discuss the flowers but I had no idea what to pick apart from the colour so we left it in her hands as we trusted her to do a beautiful job. I had no idea what they were going to look like until I saw them on the day but I was over the moon with them! My bouquet was a mixture of ivory and lilac roses, purple lisianthus and eucalyptus. There were also button holes for the men and corsages for the ladies as well as flowers for the tables. The wedding room didn’t really need much decorating as there are gorgeous animal murals all over the walls so we didn’t have flowers to decorate the room.
Our menu was by the in-house caterers and we gave our guests choices so we had starters of Pate, Garlic Mushrooms or Melon & Parma Ham followed by Salmon in chive sauce, Chicken in mushroom sauce or Romney Marsh Lamb. Dessert was Apple Pie, Chocolate fondue with strawberries or Lemon tart. It was all delicious! Throughout dinner we had some table magic by a friend who is a magician.
A friend also make our wedding cake – we had chocolate and vanilla cupcakes decorated with purple and ivory icing, with hearts and flowers as well a top layer of fruit cake. In the evening we had a big party and it was great to see people on the dance floor all night. Our first dance was to Elton John’s ‘Your Song’. We have just always loved the song and the words.We had a fantastic band,
Marylebone Jelly, who we had seen at some local events and knew we had to have them at our wedding – everyone love them!”
Katie planned her wedding in just under a year and says “accept help from friends and family where you can as it all helps and don’t worry about what other people want – it’s your day so have things as you want them!”
Thanks to the couple for sharing their day and big congrats from us! x
Today we can share with you the lovely spring May wedding of Kelly and Scott at Turkey Mill in Maidstone. Here we meet the bride and groom and get them to tell us all about the big day in all it’s detail. Kelly says “I fell in love with Turkey Mill straight away. It was everything that we were looking for. The grounds are amazing and our guests could walk round the gardens and find a little quiet spot throughout the day. We wanted a traditional wedding but very simple and relaxed. We had Emma Knapp Photography and as soon as we met Emma and started telling her about the kind of day we wanted I knew she was the right photographer for us”.
When it come to picking her dress from The Bridal Chest, Kelly told us “I always knew I would go for a fitted dress but when I put my one on I found myself smiling from ear to ear and I just knew it was the dress that I wanted. I had used Audrey Hepburn as my inspiration as I wanted something classic and simple - I loved how it was elegant and different with the one strap. I accessorised the dress with pearl detailed peep toe shoes and tiara from Confetti & Lace, a full length veil from The Bridal Chest and simple earrings and bracelet from Swarovski.
Scott wore an outfit from Bride and Groom which was a black morning jacket, grey striped trousers, waistcoat and a purple cravat. My daughter was a flower girl, her and the other younger bridesmaids dresses were from Debenhams and the two page boys, one my son, had outfits from John Lewis. The three adult bridesmaids had dresses from The Dessy Group.
My wedding bouquet included Freesia, Lisianthus, Delphinium, and Hydrangea tied with darkest purple satin ribbon and pearl pin detail. Creative Flowers arranged this along with the centrepieces for the reception tables including Fuscia pink freesia, pale pink lisianthus and dark purple delphinium. When I met them they were really helpful and advised us on the flowers that would work best for the look I wanted.
The main wedding colour was purple with touches of lilac and fuscia pink. Kelly says “I was very happy with the overall look and relieved that the colours and layout of the room had all come together. We named each table after the people most important to us, parents, brothers and sisters and our twins. We had cupcakes with our guests names on as place cards and had a lottery ticket for each guest as a favour. All our stationery was from Confetti.
Our caterers, aFORM, created our menu. We had Lobster Bisque with parsley croutons or Feta cheese, cherry tomatoes and red onion salad. Followed by Knuckle of Lamb served with red wine sauce or Confit of duck with thyme, rosemary and garlic served with plum ginger and rice wine sauce. All mains were served with parmentier potatoes, baton carrots, fine beans, cauliflower and baby corn.
The meal was completed with Chocolate Cube for the ladies and Lemon Cheesecake for the men. Our wedding cake was made for us by Kate Penfold of Sophisticakes.
We had always wanted a big party in the evening and danced to guitarist Nick Woods and our DJ. We found it very hard to choose a song that we both agreed on for our first dance but when we heard David Gray ‘Be Mine’ we knew it was the right song choice. Our reception finished at 12 but most people were staying at the Hilton so the party continued back at the hotel bar!”
Thanks so much to our couple for sharing their day with us and what final piece of advice would they give to others getting married?
“Make your wedding personal to you so that your friends and family feel a part of the big day with you and don’t worry about the small things. The day goes so quickly and it’s very hard to make time for one another as you have so many people to speak to and many different things going on but try and make sure you have some time alone as a couple throughout the day. I think some of those times on our day are my best memories.”
Congratulations to Kelly and Scott x
All images by Emma Knapp Photography
Sometimes a wedding comes along that just has so many gorgeous pics we can’t fit it all into one day. This wedding is one of those. For part one we’re sharing the wedding of Marika and James who got married in May at the Marquis of Alkham. Here Marika tells us about the planning of their big day.
“We searched for a long time to find the right venue. We found the Marquis restaurant in a cookery magazine, having no idea there was such a highly acclaimed restaurant so close to where we lived. As soon as we drove down the beautiful country road, we were hopeful and when we arrived, walked inside and were warmly greeted by Hannah Walton saying “sorry I don’t have a brochure made up, we don’t really churn out weddings…” we were sold! The more we saw, the more we loved it. It just felt right, we wanted somewhere really special for our 39 guests. Hannah is the wedding co-ordinator at the Marquis and without her help, all of our ideas would not have been able to become a fantastic reality. We had so much fun and we regard her as a friend now.
Sarah Kay, a friend’s sister, does floristry part-time. My bouquet was rustic and contemporary, with white lilacs, thistles, ranunculus roses, freesias, green hydrangeas and Columbian roses, which came through in my hair, the bridesmaid’s hair and the button holes as well.
I always wanted white lilacs as they hold fond childhood memories for me, hiding under a giant lilac tree in our front garden in Ireland. I love ranunculus roses and hydrangeas as well, this is one of the reasons I convinced James that May was a great time to get married. I had always imagined wedding photos in a bluebell wood.
I bought my dress from Signature Brides in Hythe and it was a beautiful lace strapless dress from Tia by Benjamin Roberts. I tried on many shapes and styles and had more or less chosen one. I tried on a few more and am so glad I did because that’s when I came across the Benjamin Roberts dress. I loved the simple style dress with the delicate lace detail – it made it so special. As soon as I tried it on, I walked out of the fitting room and said “uh oh, I am in a bit of a pickle now!” as the dress was more than I had anticipated in the budget, but it was worth it!
The shoes I wore were from Next for just £35. I bought two pairs and decided just before walking up the aisle which ones to wear! I had some very simple freshwater pearl earrings from eBay and a Columbian ivory rose in the side of my hair. My make up was by Emma Smisson at Bridal Beauty.
My sister was my bridesmaid and her dress was from Coast.
James bought his suit from Ventura at
Moss Bros. It was a brown/copper shade and he just chose what he felt most comfortable in.
We had a civil ceremony. We decided not to personalise vows because we have been together long enough for people to know how in love we are and no need to gush about it! We chose a reading called “the Art of a Good Marriage” that my childhood friend read wonderfully and it epitomized what we feel strongly about in our relationship that would carry through into our marriage.
We had a slideshow with the signing of the register during the ceremony. It was full of photos from when we were children, our first date, our holidays, our 10 year anniversary and pre wed shoot. If there wasn’t a dry eye after the ceremony, there certainly wasn’t after the photos which were accompanied with some sentimental songs. We then played an extended version of this throughout the evening by the bar for people to quietly sit and watch if their feet needed a rest from dancing.
After the ceremony we had photos in the church gardens and then everyone went down to the terrace for drinks, canapés and garden games which was a lot of fun.
We wanted to make sure that our guests got to meet everyone so we mixed the tables up for dinner and had a sharing menu. The starter was a ‘Kentish Antipasto’ which consisted of poached asparagus, rabbit rillette, pickled light Sussex eggs, cured beef, cheddar fondue and homemade bread sticks and chutney. The main course was a ‘Sunday Roast’ of beef topside, Yorkshire pudding with confit shallots, herb roast potatoes, crispy flank and watercress salad and seasonal vegetables. The feast was rounded off with a dessert of chocolate fondue, served with marshmallows, flapjack and tropical fruit. It was all washed down with Tenterden sparkling wine, a lot of gin and tonic and a tab behind the bar, which all the guests were very grateful for!
As place cards we had photos of each guest and put these through an app to create individual effects and then printed them out as Polaroid photos which everyone loved.James had three best men, his best friend, his brother and his oldest friend. All of them were asked to give a speech as we moved around after each course. We had so many comments about what a highlight that was and the speeches never got boring because they were all so varied! Rather than a traditional guest book, we had cards and marker pens and passed these around for everyone to leave messages on so that we could put our own book together and enjoy doing that afterwards.
At the reception we had white lilacs, ranunculus roses, lisianthus, eringium, pannicum, Columbian garden roses, avalanche roses, viburnum opulus and freesia’s. The flowers were placed either side of the altar and as centerpieces for the reception, where the arrangements were in small square glass vases that were spread out along the tables. It looked really beautiful!
In the evening we served mini bacon sandwiches and cheeseboards as well as a sweet table where guests could take home sweets in little Chinese takeaway boxes that we put pretty green ribbons on. James made the 7 tier cupcake tower which consisted of small and large cakes, which were all flavours of cocktail. The guests could choose from Strawberry Daquiri, Limoncello or Mojito. They were such a hit and looked fab next to the sweet buffet. There was also a traditional 2 tier fruit cake that the Marquis supplied in their package, for which we provided 2 cake toppers for.
For our first dance, we had a friend mix two records together. We chose Shania Twain’s ‘you’re still the one’ because it was very cheesy but the lyrics were also quite symbolic. It then went into a rendition of Sir Mix A Lot’s ‘Jump on It’ and the dance moves from the iconic ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ scene which seemed to go down with a lot of laughter! We then had a DJ from Discologic.
My mum presented us with a blank canvas that had one of the wedding invite pictures on it and all the guests took turns in signing it and leaving messages.
Fleur Challis and her husband Kevin were our wonderful photographers . We met Fleur through Hannah at the Marquis and we fell in love with her charm and lovely personality. She was so enthusiastic and excited, which made it a lot of fun to work with her. We met Kevin at the pre wedding shoot, and he was great fun as well. To have them both was such a treat and it brought a wonderful balance of posed photos as well as candid photos which captured the day perfectly. As they always say, a picture tells a 1000 words and the couple really did achieve everything we had hoped for. Photography is a big part of our lives and Fleur and Kevin really understood this and the essence of fun, happiness and love that comes through the photos is spot on!
Marika’s final words of advice as “don’t get too caught up in the day itself and remember that it is a celebration of the time you have spent together and the times you have ahead of you, it should be fun! Stay true to yourselves and what is important to you”.
Thanks to Marika and James for sharing their day with us and big congratulations to you both. Watch out for Part 2 when we’ll be sharing their photo booth shots.
I hope today’s post reaches everyone feeling very patriotic. I went to a Jubilee ball last night organised by super florist Rhoxan Hayes and her team of helpers. The marquee looked fantastic decked out in red, white and blue with brilliant homemade knitted bunting. Each table had to dress as an era from the Queen’s reign and ours was the 50′s. Luckily we did a vintage wear special on the blog last month! Whizz over to our Facebook page to see the pics!
This week on the blog started with our Fabulous Find of the week, Charlie loves Lucy, a wedding stationery company based in Kent and ran by super talented Claire Hawkes. Next up was a little peek around a lovely wedding venue in Sevenoaks, Dorton House, with a shoot by Nataliya at Akira Photography.
Then we were super excited to bring you a two-part wedding special of Phil and Billy’s English Country Garden Wedding. With gorgeous vintage elements and a Spring feel we absolutely loved working on this wedding as wedding planners. In Part 1 bride Phil takes us from wedding planning stages through to the Church ceremony. Then Part 2 takes you from the reception right up to the last dance.
Finally yesterday we gave you some essential wedding reading with our five favourite books based around getting married. Just perfect with a hangover and a cup of tea!
Happy Sunday x
Credits: Josh Spencer Photography for English Country Garden Wedding
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