Laleh & Rob
Photography by Claudia Rose CarterThis cute couple hired a wonderful house in the countryside, bought sandwiches and cakes from M&S, played badminton and croquet had a Garden Party with their closest friends and family. The decor, with its pops of colour, is a perfect compliment to the lush green of the countryside. Did someone say Garden Goals? We did!
Bride Laleh is wearing a Tatyana Merenyuk dress with gold shoes and jewellery kept very simple and is effortlessly stylish.
The Proposal
Laleh the Bride : Rob proposed during a weekend break in Copenhagen at the beautiful Botanical Gardens. It was delivered at the end of a long conversation about what we would do for our wedding ‘if we were to get married one day’. Neither of us being particular fans of being at the centre of attention, we agreed that eloping would be our preferred method but both being very close to our sizeable families we knew that this would never really be an option. A native wedding with all of our loved ones it would be and so came the question 'with all that in mind, will you marry me?' A much easier answer followed, ‘yes!’
On sharing the exciting news with my friends I declared that I would need all of their help ‘planning absolutely everything as I had never given such things thought and hadn’t a clue what to do’. Once I started though I could not stop and no one got to help very much at all. Even Rob. It would seem that I am a keen researcher and I put my new found passion to good use.
Rob’s brother had married the previous summer in a fantastic festival style wedding complete with beautiful bell tents, a big campfire and wonderful weather to boot. My sister had married in February at the stunning St Pancras Renaissance Hotel with a lavish evening soiree. Where did that leave us? Somewhere in the middle of those things we decided upon a beautiful but laid back late summer garden party.
The Venue
We were going to need a pretty special garden if we were going to have the perfect garden party reception. I found The Parsonage in Obersley near Worcester through Unique Home Stays. There were so many stunning houses to choose from but this home had some really special features including 12 acres of landscaped gardens and the most amazing topiary (not a sentence I ever thought I’d say). We booked the property for the whole week so that we could stay on with our families the following wedding, which might not be everyone's idea of the perfect honeymoon but with for us with everyone living far and wide it was perfect.
The Planning
We wanted to keep the costs low and to do things our way so we would be doing as much as we could ourselves and so the most extensive wedding planning excel sheet was born and I became one of Amazon and Ebay’s best customers. From pretty paper plates and slate serving boards to more fairy lights and paper lanterns than is necessary and reasonable, our home slowly began filling up with boxes. Glass jars were collected and picnic blankets sought out along with garden games galore. Rob put together hours and hours of music playlists, my brother who works in events would be responsible for providing us with sound and friends were the official decorating party.
The Dress
The search for my dress followed me on a summer holiday and I found the one I had been looking for at Love and Lace Bridal in San Diego. The gorgeous Tatyana Merenyuk gown was simple but beautiful and comfortable too (important if you’re going to be running around a large garden all day) and it made me smile as soon as I put it on.
The Food
Being a garden party, picnic food was the order of the day and so good old M&S had quite the order placed. Keeping the casual food theme going in the evening we dished up countless stone-baked pizzas. To say that we overdid it a bit would be an understatement but everyone was very well fed for the rest of the week.
The Flowers
With our wedding reception taking place in a big beautiful garden our need for flowers was small but the fabulously talented Hannah of Bride and Bloom provided us with the most glorious bridal bouquet, buttonholes and selection of flowers for tables. They were all absolutely perfect.
The Photographer
After putting all of this together we wanted to be sure to do the day justice and have it all captured beautifully. Rob is an Art Director at a magazine so if there was one thing that we definitely wanted to have a professional do it was the photography and boy would they have to be great. I found the simply divine Claudia Rose Carter on a ‘Top 10’ list of creative wedding photographers and we both instantly loved her work so were beyond thrilled when we booked with her. It was such a pleasure to have her with us on the day and despite being someone who hates having their photograph taken (think Chandler from friends) I would love to have any excuse to work with her again. She captured the day perfectly and we absolutely adore every single one of the pictures.
Hair and Makeup
With a fabulous photographer on board, a beautiful dress in the bag and of course the event of getting married itself I wanted to look my best. I’m not known for being a master of hair and makeup so was delighted to have the fantastic Helen Sutcliffe style my hair and the talented Elizabeth Hsieh give me a face that lasted all day. They were both so lovely that I wanted them to stay all day and can't thank them enough for making me feel beautiful on this special occasion.
Something Special
My crazy family gave a performance of one of our favourite songs from the childhood hit Bugsy Malone, You Give A Little Love It was a really lovely surprise and Claudia laid the track down for us on the slideshow of photographs that she sent us, it was such a brilliant and thoughtful touch and really added to the experience of seeing some of our snaps for the first time.
We had the absolute best time and want to do it all again... You can have a wedding party every year on your anniversary right?!
