Beckie The Bride: I knew I didn't want to look typically bridal but knew this was the only time in my life I could have a train on a dress so after searching for boho options I fell in love with the idea of having a two-piece outfit. My top was designer Lillian West & my skirt was Watters. I bought my skirt from Emma Elizabeth Bridal, the top from Ring O Roses Bridal. I wanted my rock chick past to shine through on the day so chose to have a black embroidered leather jacket from Zara to put on when chilly. I wanted to keep my jewellery at a minimum so I wore a thin silver chain choker from ASOS and my usual thumb ring I've worn since I was 16 along with two silver rings I received from my Grandma and Grandad for my 18th birthday. I chose to have a small silver leather bag to keep my lippy and sunglasses in, I am so glad Adam and I chose to wear sunglasses (mine were from ASOS), it really finished off our relaxed looks.
Adam and I decided on a green suit after looking at different coloured suits. Adam didn't want to be dressed in the standard black, blue or grey. Adam is well known for his fashion and choice of suits so he went to his friends at Suit Supply who helped him tailor his double breasted khaki suit. I was with him throughout the process and helped decide on the length of his trousers as Adam knew he wanted to have his ankles out so his look was more relaxed/cool. His tie, pocket handkerchief and shirt were all also from Suit Supply. Adam wore sunglasses from Tens and shoes from Russell and Bromley.
Adam and I are very fond of our families and our families history and have a very romanticised view on marriage as both sets of our parents have been together for years. We chose to get married at St Peters Church in West Molesey as that's where my parents were wed and I was christened. It's the oldest building in Molesey. Again, we stuck to our hearts and chose Imber Court in East Molesey as our reception venue as my Grandad was part of the Metropolitan police and that used to be their training ground plus my parents had their reception there 30 years ago. My Grandad has a memorial bench there and the wedding coordinator organised it to be placed outside the front door for me. We had access to two huge rooms meaning one for the bar and chill out zone, the other for dancing the night away.
Adam and I didn't want a colour theme, we hate anything too regimented so the only colour that resounded through was khaki green (Groomsmen's knitted ties, stems of my bouquets & Adam's suit). Everything else we chose because we liked the mash up of colours, none of our centre pieces on the tables matched, all bouquets were a mix of colours and we asked all our groomsmen to wear different coloured suits. We dressed the main room of our venue with ivory drapes and multicoloured pom poms/lanterns hanging from the centre to give it a festival feel. Cacti were a strong theme throughout, having them dotted around the rooms. We designed our own invites and order of services following the cacti theme.
My main request from Streets was that my flowers look as though I had picked them myself and that the bouquets would be oversized with long, different length stems. I almost wanted them to look like weeds, all mismatched. I didn't want a colour theme, but did want a fair amount of foliage. They added some orange into my bridesmaids bouquets which made them look different and I had 3 protea in mine. My flower crown was just as dreamy as I could ever have wanted it. Heavily flowered on one side & ivory to match my two piece dress. I ordered the Groomsmen's, FOTB, FOTG, MOTG, MOTB buttonholes from The Traditional Flower Company on Etsy. I wanted dried ones so people could keep them as a memento. For the centre pieces, seat decor, the flowered pale seating plan etc we called in the help of JJ's Harmony Event Hire, giving them the instructions to make them as mismatched as possible but containing real cacti. They also helped us source the rug covered hay bales we had in the bar area.
As mentioned previously, we had all our male groomsmen team dressed in different suits but we provided them with knitted khaki ties from ASOS. Adam's best man and identical twin Simon wore a badge I had made for him which stated "I'M NOT THE GROOM!" to try and save any embarrassing "congratulations"...unfortunately it didn't aha! People still thought he was Adam. The bridesmaid dresses were also from ASOS. I loved the nude colouring against the shimmer of the beading. They also had headbands on from ASOS too. Our ring-bearers all wore outfits from H&M, with my dog wearing the same bow tie as them too. They wore white converse on their feet and I had their chinos rolled up so their ankles showed just like Adams.
Nothing unusual as it was a church service but Adam did get his own name wrong calling himself by his Middle name and making everyone laugh.
We had booked the wonderfully talented Tony Roberts as our evening entertainment. He DJs and sings and we are still receiving compliments on his performance and voice to this day! One massive surprise was the fact Adam's identical twin Simon arranged for So Solid Crew to kick start our evening. Adam got to fulfil a dream of MCing to their music with Megaman. We had 250+ evening guests and it went OFF.
After deliberating about what food to choose we decided to go for what we love best and what we thought people wouldn't just push around their plates...sausages and mash! We had camembert with crusty bread to start too. We chose to not have a dessert as we had been to so many weddings where people leave the dessert so we served up our cake as dessert. Our cake was from Waitrose. Again, not being fans of things too "weddingy" we chose to have a 5-tier naked Victoria sponge cake scattered with berries. We displayed it on top of a big wine barrel near the top table.
The wonderfully talented Joanna Bongard Photography as I was recommended her by an old school friend who knew I was looking for someone who would take relaxed, unposed, cool piccies.
The incredible Costa Sister Productions did our video. It's everything we dreamed of and more!