I can’t wait to get back to this wedding so I won’t wax lyrical about the gorgeous details or stunning reception shot by the very talented A J Williams.
What I will say is, I think it’s fast becoming one of my favourite ever weddings on Rock My Wedding!
Parisian Perfection
Scott and I were married at South Lodge Hotel in a little village called Lower Beeding in West Sussex on Friday 4th September 2009. The Hotel is beautifully grand with rolling hills that look out over the South Downs…
South Lodge is a large mansion and didn’t lend itself as a blank canvas so I didn’t want to busy it with overly using lots of colour. The scheme was simple and elegant and I even hired in my own ivory aisle runner (from Wedding Runner)and white chivari chairs (from Spaceworks Hire), as I didn’t want to use their tudor oak ones and red carpet!
I hired assorted storm lanterns from Stress Free Hire for the aisle and these were used later around the venue to create romance and glamour! I also purchased very sweet paper lanters from Cox & Cox, which were used outside at nighttime on the terrace creating a glow. Very affordable but effective too. We found large Chinese paper lanterns to release but due to windy conditions we were unable to let them go.
Details, Details, Details…
Our wedding was to be classic and elegant but contemporary and themed around Paris, our favourite city and where Scott proposed, but keeping some English traditions. We just wanted a wedding that was fun, memorable and full of laughter with some hints of glamour and sparkle!
The Parisian theme was highlighted throughout and our stationery by Rebekah Daley was truly beautiful. Rebekah created our menu’s and 3D place cards. Our invitations were created by Borrowed Blue Press and started our blue colour scheme from the off. Each enveloped was stamped with a small image of the Eiffel Tower as were the return rsvps!
I used a birdcage, which I found from Confetti for our guests generous pledges. This sat on a table with pictures of our parents on their wedding day – a surprise for both our Mum’s, which they truly loved. We have both sadly lost our Fathers. Our guest book was found at Oh So Cherished and I added my own satin blue ribbon. Our amazing toastmaster used an old Polaroid camera to capture our guests and these were inserted alongside their personal message.
Scott and I had some DIY Sundays’ and created our ‘going back over the years’ photograph collage out of mdf and some glue! We designed it in a heart shape, which was my Mum’s idea to work with all the LOVE on the day! Our guests loved laughing at the hideous 90’s hair do’s and shell suits! We also made our table plan out of reclaimed wood and created a large frame, which we painted white. We ran midnight blue satin ribbon through and attached handmade name cards held on by mini pegs – showing guests to their seats. The cards had images of the Eiffel Tower in the background with the guest name, table name and ‘eat, drink and be married’! The table names were all well-known French landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe and The Louvre which I made myself sourcing images from Google!
Fabulous floristry
I had a rather large section in my wedding file for flowers! I wanted somebody to realise my vision of a contemporary bold look but elegant too. A clean palette of different shades of white and ivory with foliage. Nancy of Blooming Perfect created my flowers. After researching the florist ‘greats’ I knew that Nancy could create the stunning ‘wow’ factor I wanted my guests to feel when they arrived at the wedding breakfast! I focused on this part of the day rather than the ceremony room. I had lots of large open carnation flower heads bulked together to give drama but keeping that simple look. They were in silver beakers set on the ceremony table. There were 2 bay trees outside the ceremony entrance which included large blousy rose heads. The aisle was lined with white rose petals. Each other chair pew had a ball of clustered carnation again. I wouldn’t normally choose carnations as a flower of choice but put together like this they look beautiful.
I had only lily of the valley for my bouquet which was my late Grandmother’s favourite flower and the scent is amazing. I also had a love of Liz Hurley’s flowers at her wedding, which were also Lily of the Valley and looked so chic! My bouquet was wrapped with French antique lace which my brother sourced from a French market on his business travels and adorned to this was an antique family brooch which was the reason behind my midnight blue and ivory colour scheme!
The Groom wore a Lily of the Valley buttonhole and the other groomsmen wore roses and foliage, as did our Mum’s. I didn’t choose for the BM’s to have bouquets like me, as again I wanted to move away from tradition. So I opted for pretty wrist corsages wrapped with midnight blue satin ribbon – they were cream and blue hydrangea.
I wanted the reception tables to create impact and look chic. I had both tall and shorter arrangements using silver bowls and candelabras – the candelabras had hanging crystals from them to create light and movement to the room and long tapered candles. Nancy used large hydrangea heads, roses, phileanopsis orchids, foliage and more – they were large bloom round heads and looked stunning – I was so sad to leave them the next day. We also had Bride and Groom chair backs of flowers to give detail and each place setting had a piece of blue French lavender which sat nicely with our Paris theme!
Again, rolling with my Paris theme I chose Laduree macaroons from Harrods for the ladies only. The first time I’d had these was when Scott took me to Paris and we sat at the Café Marly overlooking the Louvre – I knew this was what I wanted. I tied them with antique lace and tags again made from the $5 French Market. I had a stamp made which I used to stamp each tag with 5 French blessings and our wedding date on. They looked fab and were incredibly scrumptious!!
Fun photography, forever
A J Williams captured our day amazingly well. They came recommended to me by a friend who’d used them and they also have a Highly Commended award with a bridal magazine.
We met with 3 photographers and chose Aga and Jason (a husband and wife duo) for their ability to catch ‘in the moment’ shots and shoot reportage. The pictures they’d done for other weddings showed just beautiful images that were incredibly artful and inspiring. They are also great to have around on the day – they poke fun at each other and made us laugh and are very easygoing. I would always recommend having 2 photographers so they can capture as much as possible – it’s the unseen moments that seem to create the best pictures! Although I would say the more detail and individuality your wedding has the easier it makes their jobs – give them animation, laughter and humour and just have fun with them – you’d be amazed what they capture and those captured memories stay with you forever.
Dancing the night away…
Scott used to be a DJ and music as is food, is a passion of ours! We chose every single song for the day, which meant evenings and weekends in front of the Mac on iTunes downloading and opening old dusty CD’s! We created the music for our ceremony, drinks reception, wedding breakfast and DJ. However, our band, Hulagroove rocked the dancefloor intermittently with our DJ. They were amazing and our guests really loved having that live element – they were a 9-piece band with 4 fabulous female lead singers. Our DJ was DiscoFever and had played at the venue before.
We used our iPod for the music that was played on the lawn during our champagne and canapé reception and our wedding breakfast – ratpack, nina simone and ella fitzgerald and such like!
We weren’t too sure about doing a first dance – and I know Scott isn’t the best mover and shaker on the floor and he falls easily in to the category of hip wobbler when he’s had a couple of pints but that’s his lot! So no rendition of dirty dancing or Thriller for us!! However, I really wanted to have that magic moment with him – just us – on that floor in a world of our own. We had lots of songs that gave us special memories but none of them seemed suitable for a first dance. I fell in love with President Obama and the First Lady’s Inauguration dance so we chose At Last by Etta James – it’s created a new memory for us and always gives me goosebumps when I hear it. We practiced, a little bit, but come the day it didn’t really matter.
I would do my wedding again and again BUT I’d do it differently! There are so many choices out there, ideas, inspirations and themes you can choose! I would love to do another five weddings all with different themes and at different venues! It took us months and months to find South Lodge but eventually you have to go with your heart, however there will always be compromises along the way.
If I could give any advice I’d say don’t expect perfection! All my friends and family will tell you that I’m a control freak and a perfectionist through and through in all aspects of my life (think of Monica from Friends although I don’t hoover my hoover!). I definitely swung close to the Bridezilla category but mostly because of the demands I set myself and the bar of perfection I set so firmly high I found the extra pressure tough. Go with what you like, what you want and don’t let it be compromised by outside influences. It is YOUR day and you usually only do it once!
Enjoy every minute and even if like me your timeline plan (scheduled to the minute) doesn’t go to ‘plan’ don’t worry – you’re getting married and that’s what is most important. I would say though that if you are a perfectionist and able to, schedule in 20 minutes or so to go downstairs (I was able to do this as I was onsite the night before) and have a look over how the staff have set up – there might be a few things you’d like to change! Or have a trusted friend do it for you (or hire an on the day wedding planner). That way you’re not doing touch ups yourself when you’re supposed to be walking down the aisle!!
Oh and take a deep breath – I was incredibly nervous and emotional before my brother walked me down the aisle and wasn’t sure that I might not faint – but when I saw Scott and he took my hand I channeled all that nervous energy in to him as he was clearly a bit of a wreck himself – so much so I was busy straightening his pocket handkerchief instead of saying ‘I do’!
W-o-w.
I love Navy for a wedding. I’m obsessed with flowers. Details are my idea of blogging heaven. What a beautiful wedding.
Natalie and Scott, thank you so much for allowing me to linger over posting this, and sharing such a stunning day with us all. Congratulations from all of us here at Rock My Wedding.
Yours Truly,
Contra
xoxo
I love this wedding, I love the detail, the music, the personal touches that make it unique to them. Well done and congratulations on a truly special and creative Wedding, i just loved reading this xx
Ah what a wonder wedding, congratulations Natalie and husband for organising such a pretty, sophisticated day.
I hope my day is half as lovely as yours!
x x x
The second part is just as gorgeous if not more so – thanks for sharing such a sophisticated and lovely day!
Thank you all at RMW for showcasing our wedding day! It was such fun reminiscing over the photographs again (and again!) and writing up all the detail, which bought back wonderful memories! Our wedding was a dream come true and I’m so happy that people like it too – I hope RMW fans continue to enjoy the pics!
Natalie xx
(Bride and now old married lady!)
That dress and Natalie in it are just stunning. and I love the macaroons – what a fabulous touch. Congrats to you both – looks like you had a great day!
Lovely corsages, genius use of carnations, yummy macaroons but above all the chivari chairs. If we’re talking detail I think there could be a whole post on the delights of a good chair!
Absolutely AMAZING Wedding , thanks ever so much for sharing ! xxxI love your hair Natalie very beautiful and the dress, OMG !!!!!!!!! Tx