Our Wedding - Friday 6th May 2016
For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to get married on the 6th May.
When the venue that my fiancé and I loved had that date avaliable only 8 months after we got engaged, it was meant to be.
Neither of us wanted a long enagement so it was perfect. They only thing I would say is 8 months is not a lot of time to plan! Having never had anything to do with wedding planning before I couldn't believe how long things take! Like 5 months to order a wedding dress for example. But it is definitely possible to do though and I couldn't have waited a month longer, I was so excited to finally get married!!
The Venue
We browsed about 20 odd venues online but once we went to visit Hengrave Hall in Suffolk we knew it was where we would get married. It is a stunning tudor manor house in the english coutnryside with beaituful gardens and a church where we could get married onsite. The three main ladies there, Hannah, Shona and Catriona were amazing and made our wedding day flow so seamlessly.
The Ceremony
We both wanted to be married in church and the St John Lateran at Hengrave Hall was ideal. It was intimate and made our service feel very personal. Our minister Debbie Borda was fantastic, and meeting with her a few times to chat meant she actually knew us and it made our service even more special. We had readings read by my Uncle Jonathan and Maxine a close family friend.
I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted in a dress before I had even tried one on. This made things a bit trickier, but I actually found my dress at the National Wedding show in London. I went with my Mum and Mother-in-law in September 2015 and having only been engaged 3 weeks at this point they just wanted to see me in a wedding dress so I tried a few on for fun. My actual dress was the 6th I tried on, and was all of the things I had hoped for. Sweetheart neckline, lace appliquéd all over, tight in at the waist, a big full skirt, a pretty belt, buttons down the back and lace around the bottom hem. I instantly loved it and didn't want to take it off even though it was 5pm and the show was closing! After the show we realised that only one bridal shop in a town has the right to a certain designer. Luckily the one that I have driven past many times and looked longingly in the window thinking 'I hope I get my wedding dress from there' was that very place. Grace and Lace in Colchester found my dress after I had tried on a few others and nothing was living up to that dress from the show. When I tried it on again (this time in my actual size!) I was sold and said yes to the dress. My dress was by Sottero & Midgeley and is called Noreen.
The Groom
I always liked the idea of keeping things traditional so was lucky that my groom felt the same and wanted to wear a traditional morning suit. We hired the mens suits from Moss Bros and chose the Royal Ascot black jackets, grey striped trousers paired with light grey double breasted waistcoats. The pale pink ties and pockets squares were from the Saville Row Company and I (painstakingly) folded all of the pocket squares!
The Bridesmaids
I thought about lots of colours for bridesmaids dresses but in the end decided to go for my favourite colour. A dark pinky purple described by Dessy as Wild berry. We tried a fair few dresses but this one suited all of my bridesmaids and was still pretty but classy. I love the style and think they looked stunning. Their Harlow shoes from Rainbow Club were dyed to match the dress perfectly. So gorgeous!
The Flowers
As you may already know if you know me, I love flowers and knew that my wedding ones would probably be the most important ones even. I decided to have a mixture of colours. Pinks, whites, purples and lilacs. I said to our florists that the theme was to be almost like an English country garden. But luckily they understood and I think the flowers were absolutely stunning. Especially my bouquet. I have also known for the past 20 something years that I wanted fresh flowers in my hair on my wedding day. This started when I was a bridesmaid for my auntie and had such an incredible day. So many people commented that they loved my floral crown. I love that it was different.
The lovely ladies that we chose to do our flowers were Jo & Jen from Interior Floral Design. My maid of honour actually recommended them to me and I am so thankful she did. They were so great during our consultation meetings and really listened to what I liked. They created just what I had imagined in my head. As well as being so professional and calm on the day.
The Photography
I looked at a few photographers before deciding on Justine Ferrari. I liked her previous work and she had done a few weddings at Hengrave Hall before which gave me confidence that she would know the site and good places for photographs. We have so many beautiful shots from the day I am very grateful especially as both my husband and I don't particularly like being in front of the camera!!
The Video
We weren't sure about having a wedding video in the beginning. But fortunately my Mum convinced me that it was a good idea. That and my bridesmaid Laura showed me her wedding video (where I was a bridesmaid!) and I couldn't even remember her having a videographer!! He was that discreet! So I booked the same person she had! Steve Hood did a fab job at capturing our day and editing it all together for the final cut. I love watching it back as there is something special about seeing the actual day, my beautiful dress swishing around and my husbands speech which was so moving and brilliant.
You can watch our video here: https://vimeo.com/165985673
The Music
We both love swing music and decided that a jazz trio on the terrace during our drinks reception would be qutie fun. We booked the Matt Hodges Jazz Trio after listening to their demo music. I could even hear the music at the end of the garden while we were doing all our photographs. It just put me in such a relaxed mood and made it a great afternoon in the sunshine.
The Cake
We always knew who we wanted to make our wedding cake. A family friend makes fabulous cakes as a hobby but as everyone keeps telling her she really must do it as her job as she is so so talented! The design was inspired by the famous superhero surprise wedding cake. Both Sam and I loved the simplicity of it and that it was very traditional being all white. It was 4 tiers high and massive! Three of the layers were lemon, Victoria sponge and fruit cake and the fourth was actually a faux one! The cake was honestly the best tasting wedding cake I have ever tried. Thank you so much for our amazing cake Katie!!
First Dance
Sam and I are both avid Strictly come dancing fans and I used to ballet dance. I had been trying to get Sam to go ballroom dancing lessons with me for years and when his parents got us a set of wedding dance lessons at the Karen Hardy (from strictly!) dance studios for christmas I was thrilled. We settled on the song "A thousand years" by Christina Perri for our first dance, which turns out is a Viennese Waltz. Our teacher Nicole later told us this is one of the most difficult dances to learn as a first time ballroomer. Oopsy. But we tried really hard and had such a fun time learning to dance together. I would highly recommend the school and having some lessons together. I hope we will continue with some more ballroom lessons in years to come.
The Day
It's taken me so long to finish this post that our first wedding anniversary was last month! Can't believe it! The weather was no where near as good as it was last year on the 6th May though!
Mrs Ali xxxx
When the venue that my fiancé and I loved had that date avaliable only 8 months after we got engaged, it was meant to be.
Neither of us wanted a long enagement so it was perfect. They only thing I would say is 8 months is not a lot of time to plan! Having never had anything to do with wedding planning before I couldn't believe how long things take! Like 5 months to order a wedding dress for example. But it is definitely possible to do though and I couldn't have waited a month longer, I was so excited to finally get married!!
The Venue
We browsed about 20 odd venues online but once we went to visit Hengrave Hall in Suffolk we knew it was where we would get married. It is a stunning tudor manor house in the english coutnryside with beaituful gardens and a church where we could get married onsite. The three main ladies there, Hannah, Shona and Catriona were amazing and made our wedding day flow so seamlessly.
The Ceremony
We both wanted to be married in church and the St John Lateran at Hengrave Hall was ideal. It was intimate and made our service feel very personal. Our minister Debbie Borda was fantastic, and meeting with her a few times to chat meant she actually knew us and it made our service even more special. We had readings read by my Uncle Jonathan and Maxine a close family friend.
The Bride
The Groom
I always liked the idea of keeping things traditional so was lucky that my groom felt the same and wanted to wear a traditional morning suit. We hired the mens suits from Moss Bros and chose the Royal Ascot black jackets, grey striped trousers paired with light grey double breasted waistcoats. The pale pink ties and pockets squares were from the Saville Row Company and I (painstakingly) folded all of the pocket squares!
The Bridesmaids
I thought about lots of colours for bridesmaids dresses but in the end decided to go for my favourite colour. A dark pinky purple described by Dessy as Wild berry. We tried a fair few dresses but this one suited all of my bridesmaids and was still pretty but classy. I love the style and think they looked stunning. Their Harlow shoes from Rainbow Club were dyed to match the dress perfectly. So gorgeous!
The Flowers
As you may already know if you know me, I love flowers and knew that my wedding ones would probably be the most important ones even. I decided to have a mixture of colours. Pinks, whites, purples and lilacs. I said to our florists that the theme was to be almost like an English country garden. But luckily they understood and I think the flowers were absolutely stunning. Especially my bouquet. I have also known for the past 20 something years that I wanted fresh flowers in my hair on my wedding day. This started when I was a bridesmaid for my auntie and had such an incredible day. So many people commented that they loved my floral crown. I love that it was different.
The lovely ladies that we chose to do our flowers were Jo & Jen from Interior Floral Design. My maid of honour actually recommended them to me and I am so thankful she did. They were so great during our consultation meetings and really listened to what I liked. They created just what I had imagined in my head. As well as being so professional and calm on the day.
The Photography
I looked at a few photographers before deciding on Justine Ferrari. I liked her previous work and she had done a few weddings at Hengrave Hall before which gave me confidence that she would know the site and good places for photographs. We have so many beautiful shots from the day I am very grateful especially as both my husband and I don't particularly like being in front of the camera!!
The Video
We weren't sure about having a wedding video in the beginning. But fortunately my Mum convinced me that it was a good idea. That and my bridesmaid Laura showed me her wedding video (where I was a bridesmaid!) and I couldn't even remember her having a videographer!! He was that discreet! So I booked the same person she had! Steve Hood did a fab job at capturing our day and editing it all together for the final cut. I love watching it back as there is something special about seeing the actual day, my beautiful dress swishing around and my husbands speech which was so moving and brilliant.
You can watch our video here: https://vimeo.com/165985673
The Music
We both love swing music and decided that a jazz trio on the terrace during our drinks reception would be qutie fun. We booked the Matt Hodges Jazz Trio after listening to their demo music. I could even hear the music at the end of the garden while we were doing all our photographs. It just put me in such a relaxed mood and made it a great afternoon in the sunshine.
We decided to have a DJ in the evening, mainly because it meant the disco room would be more spacious as a band would have taken up a lot of room in there. We went with the recommended supply Dreamwaves and they did a great job and everyone was on the dance floor all evening. Mainly me twirling in my princess dress!
We always knew who we wanted to make our wedding cake. A family friend makes fabulous cakes as a hobby but as everyone keeps telling her she really must do it as her job as she is so so talented! The design was inspired by the famous superhero surprise wedding cake. Both Sam and I loved the simplicity of it and that it was very traditional being all white. It was 4 tiers high and massive! Three of the layers were lemon, Victoria sponge and fruit cake and the fourth was actually a faux one! The cake was honestly the best tasting wedding cake I have ever tried. Thank you so much for our amazing cake Katie!!
First Dance
Sam and I are both avid Strictly come dancing fans and I used to ballet dance. I had been trying to get Sam to go ballroom dancing lessons with me for years and when his parents got us a set of wedding dance lessons at the Karen Hardy (from strictly!) dance studios for christmas I was thrilled. We settled on the song "A thousand years" by Christina Perri for our first dance, which turns out is a Viennese Waltz. Our teacher Nicole later told us this is one of the most difficult dances to learn as a first time ballroomer. Oopsy. But we tried really hard and had such a fun time learning to dance together. I would highly recommend the school and having some lessons together. I hope we will continue with some more ballroom lessons in years to come.
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| My ballroom wedding shoes with the lucky silver sixpence |
The Day
It was honestly the best day of my life. Everything came together just as I had hoped (and planned!). It was worth all the organising and thought.
It's taken me so long to finish this post that our first wedding anniversary was last month! Can't believe it! The weather was no where near as good as it was last year on the 6th May though!
Mrs Ali xxxx
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