Inside a wedding planner’s wedding…
Whenever I visit clients it is inevitable that I am asked ‘what would you do, what did your wedding look like’, so this post is dedicated to my wedding, which was traditional in many ways, but with little hidden twists to keep our guests entertained throughout the day.
As you can probably imagine, being a planner myself, the pressure was on from the moment we announced our engagement! With less than 12 months between the engagement and the wedding day there was lots to organise and guests it seemed had very high expectations of what they imagined our day was going to contain, and I was in my organising element!
We married in May because I wanted to have fresh peonies within our wedding flowers (this was the only time my inner ‘Bridezilla’ made an appearance!). Our colour palette evolved and was originally based on the bridesmaids dresses however 4 months before the wedding we needed to find alternative dresses to the original ones chosen and with 14 days left to the wedding day, due to a clerical error at the manufacturer’s, the dresses were still in a shipping container on their way from Australia! Our final colour palette contained antique golds, rich creams and soft vintage pinks. We had no particular theme, but we definitely fell into the ‘high end elegant’ category.
We married in our village church, as we both held strong beliefs that this was right for each of us. Our church service was followed by a marquee reception at the gorgeous Barrington Hall in Cambridgeshire.
Whilst my Groom was happy to have a traditional wedding car, I wanted something that was just a little different and was lucky enough to have former wedding clients that run a luxury wedding car business (the brilliant Elliot at Cambridge Wedding Cars), so I had the car of my dreams; a gleaming black Maserati – perhaps not to every bride’s taste, but one that definitely reflects my personality and style… and the guests definitely heard when I had arrived at the church!
The gorgeous Emma and Ian from Ian Scott Photography were our photographers, and I am privileged to have used them many times previously for clients’ weddings. Everybody felt super relaxed on the day (having the pre-wedding shoot was also a life saver when you have a Groom who doesn’t like having his photo taken!). Emma and Ian have such warm, friendly personalities who always manage to put even the most camera-shy guests at ease.
My dress was an original couture gown from Angelina Colarusso which really did take my Groom’s breath away when he saw me walking down the aisle.
Our flowers, by Petals or Peals, combined soft pink and white peonies, white hydrangeas, sweet avalanche and mentha roses. As our church was very small and stunning in its own right, we kept the pew ends minimal with hydrangea heads with ribbons tied into bows to match the ribbon of the stationery.
Arriving at the reception, guests were greeted by the very lovely Rebecca Warner playing her harp while waiting staff served a selection of cocktails (Hendricks Royales and Roseberry’s) along with rosé champagne with delicious traditional canapés. We made sure that the focus was on our guests never having empty glasses or feeling hungry! (This may have contributed to one guest breaking her wrist before the dancing started!).
The wedding breakfast threw the guests a curve ball as we served them a 3-course Thai meal which was hosted within a marquee decorated with pea lights and soft pink lighting; we also lit the grounds so that the house and focal trees were lit up after nightfall creating a great atmosphere.
To give our tables that little something extra, we hired crystal gold rimmed glasses and gold beaded glass charger plates to create a more opulent feel to our tables. Another kooky idea was giving each guest a vintage tea cup which we placed the handmade macarons that were our favours.
Vanessa and Dominic trailer from Jonathan Grose on Vimeo.
In the evening our guests were treated to street food from the brilliant Jay at Guerrilla Kitchen who served three different types or rice buns cooked to order for guests from their street van parked outside the marquee.
Our cake drew many comments from guests as they entered the marquee and came from the very talented Nadia at Pretty Tasty Cakes who also handmade the delicious macarons in such heavenly flavours as ‘strawberry and vanilla’ and ‘pistachio’ (many of the guests were seen stealing other guests’ macarons as they were too delicious!)
The evening entertainment began with a curtain reveal with us standing in the middle of the dance floor ready for our first dance in front of our awesome 5ft illuminated aluminium ‘LOVE’ letters.
Our first dance was sung by the brilliant Andy Wilsher, who learnt our first dance (How Long Will I Love You) especially for us, and then went on to perform an hour of live Rat Pack songs before handing over the evening to Jason Coles of the 3D Disco Company, who DJ’d until the end of the night… or, right up until the point where my brother took over the decks and took us down memory lane, as my brother and I used to be Wedding DJ’s many years ago!
Hopefully, you can see from the video above (thanks to the talented Jonathan from Cloud 9 Wedding Films) that we had the most amazing day. No detail went unmissed (right down to the baskets of emergency items for our guests’ use in the toilets!).
We hope you enjoy looking through the photos of our day and look forward to sharing our passion for all things Wedding with you very soon.
Love,
V & D
x
