Something Blue Something Beautiful……part 2

There is a certain softness, a certain ethereal quality to the wedding of Nicola and Johnnny captured by Binky Nixon – it literally gives me goosebumps.

And I think these may be some of the loveliest couple shots I have seen. EVER.

The Handsome Groom

Johnny had his suit custom made at Anthony’s in Billericay. It was gorgeous. He went for charcoal grey and a lighter grey tie. The lining of the jacket was the same colour as the bridesmaid’s dresses, which was a nice touch.

His shoes were by Paul Smith and he now swears he’ll never buy anyone else’s shoes from now on!

Chosing Choo’s

I wore Jimmy Choo shoes. Kind of a gold/silver mix, peep-toe, with a raised platform at the front. They were extremely high but because of the platform they were actually pretty comfy. I didn’t take them off until 11.30pm, which I reckon was quite good going.

To be honest I’m not hugely into designer labels, and if I’d found shoes I’d liked in Monsoon or Dune I would have got them. But I refused to wear ivory satin and there wasn’t anything much in the way of alternatives at that time of year…plus Johnny was with me when I saw them and told me I had to get them…so I treated myself!

An Absolute Diamond

Ah, Our photographer was Binky Nixon. She was an absolute diamond. Binky has such a lovely, easy going manner and is a remarkably talented lady. Her photographs are stunning. When we met I knew immediately that I wanted her to take our snaps.

Layers Of Fabulousness

A lady called Penny Youngs from Colchester has made cakes for our family since we were kids. Her cakes are so beautiful and absolutely delicious. She’ll make pretty much anything you like. I didn’t want anything too over the top.

We went for a layer of fruit-cake, a layer of chocolate and a layer of Madeira. It was fab. She also made cup-cakes for us for the drinks reception…but unfortunately I never got to see any of them as they were wolfed down by the guests in the space of about 5 minutes….

Plan B

We have experienced a number of dodgy wedding bands in recent years and didn’t know whether or not to risk getting one or not. I stumbled upon Function Central (a band/DJ agency) on the internet. Two of the agents, Alistair and Mike, were really helpful and recommended a few bands who sounded infinitely better than any of the other bands we’d heard on the internet.

We went for a band called Plan B. They play a lot of funk/soul/rock- they’re very versatile. Our dance-floor was full from start to finish and we had so many positive comments from our guests. We’d highly recommend them. They were so professional and the agency don’t try to rip you off either.

Personalised Sweetness

We didn’t really have favours – 200 guests remember!! We did have bowls of sweets on the tables that were personalised to each table (e.g jelly brains for the mental health workers)

It’s The Thought That Counts

In the marquee we had a canopy of fairy lights, bunting made up of photographs of many of our loved ones, a ‘tree’ made of silver branches with lots of sweet silver decorations hanging from them; we had a few different sorts of table decoration, including cream lanterns, silver hanging lanterns, small buckets of blue flowers and square vases of hyacinths. I got most of the decorations on ebay or from sainsbury’s.

The amount of thought that went into them was ridiculous; a tea-party on arrival, consisting cream teas, cup-cakes, marshmallows etc.; our table plan was made by mum and Jayne, my bridesmaid. Mum used a gorgeous silver picture frame. It had lots of little artificial grape hyacinths stuck to it. I loved it.

On arrival our guests were given a choice of champagne or bottles of beer- the beer went down a storm. More than 300 bottles were drunk in the space of about 15 minutes!; we had lots of sets of flower fairy lights around the house (tied around banisters and along fireplaces) which looked very effective at night; we also had these lovely cream luminaries outside, which can look really magical when your guests leave at the end of the night.

Come Away With Me

Norah Jones, Come away with me was our first dance song. A bit of a cheesy number but it means a lot to us as I used to play it non-stop when we first met

Now usually this is that part where I say a Big Thank you……

But actually the Bride wanted to say one too

“A great big thank you to Binky, Lauren, Nicola & all the Parklands’ staff, Maria & Videohouse productions, Marion, Adele, Father Hugh (what a lovely, funny man!), Penny, Plan B & Mike/ Alistair at Function Central, Essex DJs, Bag Lady Designs, and everyone else who helped to make our day so special!!!”

They clearly had the greatest day ever.

Brilliant.

Big Beautiful Love

Charlotte xxx