A Beautiful Quintessentially English Real Wedding

Welcome to the beautiful Wedding of Kelly and Simon. An utterly amazing, quintessentially English and very classically styled country Wedding.  I hope you enjoy their photographs and story as much as I did...

Simon and I met on a skiing trip in St Anton. There were 15 of us in a chalet and my girlfriend had told him I was a good skier so of we pootled up the mountains. 4 months later he proposed.  I absolutely loved organising my wedding especially trying to think outside the box to create a day that not only I loved but everyone else enjoyed too. I wanted something very quintessentially English and timeless, with a little twist. Luckily, my husband is an events organiser so I had an expert on hand at all times. Keeping within a budget was the hardest challenge, as always we went crazily over but looking back it was worth every penny.

I wanted my bridesmaids in a classic look that fitted with the venue and overall theme of our Wedding so I went for navy halterneck dresses with a cream sash. They were from Dessy Design who's website has so much choice, making it a very easy process.

Our photographer, Barrie Downie, is a friend of my sister in law who works for Goodwood House (a wedding venue down in Chichester) and he was recently listed as one of the top ten wedding photographers in the UK. Barrie is astonishing. I like to call him the 'rock and roll' of wedding photographers.

My dress was from Caroline Castigliano. Her shop in Knightsbridge is beautiful. It was in fact the last place I had booked an appointment but I had the most wonderful experience. Sipping champagne and being a real girl,  I tried on every style but when I put on mine I just felt fantastic. It was like wearing tissue paper and allowed me freedom to really bust some grooves on the dance floor. I felt it was important to stick to usual style so that I didn't look back in years and think "oh my goodness, what am I wearing?". My only negative was that I found the sales assistants in the shop a little too pushy, when in fact the dresses really do sell themselves!

The whole day was just absolutely awesome. The most memorable parts of the day for me were the Ceremony, the speeches and the three waiters. The three waiters were just outrageous and added that little extra surprise for all of our guests. No one, but Simon and I, knew we were going to have them so it really was a surprise for everyone. During the day we had a string quartet and then in the evening we had a fabulous disco with a Bongo player.

My friend is a tombstone maker and so Simon and I collected 220 stones of which he chiseled everyone's names into as their place settings and their favour.

The food was fabulous and part of the reason we liked the venue was because they have a reputation for excellence.I loved that each table had a mix of Eton mess and sticky toffee pudding for dessert as we both loved these desserts so people were digging in to each others.

 

Kelly's Three Top Tips:

1.  Wear your wedding shoes in before your big day.

2.  Create the best version of yourself and stay true to our own style. Do not false it up.

3.  Plan your Wedding Ceremony and Reception with your own tastes and don't give in to the ideas of your family and friend's.

Suppliers: 

Photographer - Barrie Downie / Wedding Dress - Caroline Castigliano / Shoes - Gina / Flowers - Julia knights / Bridesmaid Dresses - Dessy Design / Cake - Zoe Clark cakes / Hair piece from Blackburn bridal couture / Venue - Woburn Abbey