Marianne & Neil

I feel I have to warn you in advance, that this morning's wedding contains the prettiest, pinkest rose bouquet that I have ever seen. There is also the most exquisite Jenny Packham dress, Jimmy Choo shoes and the sweetest flower girls I've seen. Get your pinning fingers at the ready folks. There are balloons and cupcakes, dessert tables and gypsophila, men in dashing blue suits and beautiful beachy portrait shots. I am in love. I think Marianne sums it up best when she says that she didn't have a theme per se just that everything ended up being 'pretty' and it is. Gloriously, wholeheartedly and unashamedly pretty.

The Venue

Marianne The Bride: Newton Hall was everything we had in mind and more for the venue for our wedding. We went to have a look around on one of their open days and fell in love with it. It offered everything; from eclectic to romantic to rustic. Each area of the hall offered such a completely different theme. The Glass House where we held our ceremony had gorgeous soft stone and floral features. The Main hall with its striking navy blue walls and feature fireplaces was a modern funky place for canapés and cocktails then the Garden Suite with beautiful panoramic views and wooden touches made for a very pretty, relaxed wedding breakfast. One of our favourite parts of the day was escaping to the beautiful nearby beach just the two of us (plus a few special people to capture it!) It was a beautiful evening and it was lovely to just stop for a little while and take it all in.

The Dress

I spent a long time deciding on my dress. To me it was such an important part of the day so I wanted to make sure that it was just right. I absolutely adore Jenny Packham and tried on a few of her dresses. I fell in love with Willow as soon as I saw it. Every aspect of it was different and so beautiful – just like the venue. I tried on many other dresses but I couldn’t stop thinking about Willow and knew that was the one I wanted Neil to see me and marry me in.

Colour Scheme

I chose a vintage lavender as the colour for my bridesmaids and featured tones of lavender, ivory and pink with a dot of silver throughout the decor. Lots of people would ask what the ‘theme’ was and throughout the planning process we didn’t ever really have one. If I was to describe it, I would probably use the word ‘pretty’. Everything was just that with a little bit of modern or rustic tied in depending on where in the venue it was positioned. The Finishing Touch Company were great in helping me to find the perfect pieces to style the wedding. One thing I especially loved was our Order of the Day board by Katie Sue Designs. I had it made in lavender and framed in mercury silver which looked really beautiful. It’s something we will keep as a lovely memoir! We had illuminated letters by Coco Luminaire. They looked stunning against the glass and exposed stone and were a real talking point.

Flowers

Helen from Bels was recommended to me by Newton Hall. I spent a lot of time looking at her work online and was in awe of how stunning it all was. We met and discussed the look we wanted to achieve and I explained that it was important to me that the flowers tied everything together. I can honestly say that I spent 14 months before the wedding being so excited to see what Helen would create for us. I was absolutely thrilled with the flowers on the day. The soft pinks and ivories complemented the dresses perfectly as well as Neil’s navy blue suit. The guests tables had a full arrangement in tall and short pearlescent vases with a mix of mercury silver tea-lights around the base and the top table had around 25 vases and tea-lights with floral arrangements spread along the edge.

Ceremony

For us, the ceremony was our absolute favourite part of the day. The string quartet played ‘I’m Kissing You’ from Romeo and Juliet as I walked down the aisle with my dad, Laurence. I saw Neil looking up at me as we walked down and he was so emotional. It was really moving. We had two readings and wrote our own vows. We tried to make the ceremony as personal as we could with words and music that really meant a lot to us. It was so special and was everything we wanted it to be.

Photographer and Videographers

We knew we wanted to use Katy Melling as our photographer as we’d looked around for a long time and adored the way she uses light. She recommended Mischa & James as videographers and when we looked at their portfolio we knew that they would be perfect. They were just starting out and were keen to hear our ideas and thoughts to make sure everything was perfect. We are absolutely thrilled with the photographs that we’ve received from Katy and the videos we’ve received from Mischa & James. They have captured the day perfectly and are moments that we’ll always treasure. We’d had the idea of doing Simply the Best as something a bit different and are so glad we did it – its’ great to have a mix of organic and fun.