Nadya & Bobby

There's nothing quite like a sweet pastel wedding from Sarah-Jane Ethan Photography to brighten up your Monday morning. Delicious hues, a dreamy barn setting and the most adorable couple ever. Add a bespoke bridal gown of dreams (have you seen the cowl back yet? Insert multiple heart eye emoji's here), and Spring blooms that will make you weak at the knees, and you have the ultimate recipe for a wedding day full of love and laughter. Can I just also say hello adorable flower girls and page boys, who so very nearly stole the show, and hello naked wedding cake laden with fruit; where can we get a slice?

Dress

Nadya the Bride : I wanted something simple, elegant and relaxed to wear for my wedding. After much searching in wedding dress boutiques, less than six months before the wedding I hadn’t yet managed to find the perfect dress, although I had found lots of aspects of dresses that I loved. A friend introduced me to dress designer Victoria Holt from Fred & Ginger Bridal Design, who immediately understood the look I was after and knew how to make it a reality. I really enjoyed the process of working with Victoria and her pattern cutter Tim to create my dream wedding dress – the cowl back was my favourite feature and it was so comfortable on the day.

Groom

Bobby decided early on that he wanted to wear a navy lounge suit rather than a morning suit. The question was then where to get the suit and whether to go single or double breasted. He spoke to a few tailors in London but was most impressed by Mullen and Mullen who are based in York but who come to London frequently. They did a great job advising on colour and style and then in putting the suit together. Bobby decided on double-breasted which we thought was great and helped him to stand out on the day.

Venue

Finding a wedding venue was probably the most challenging aspect of wedding planning for us! I am originally from Kent and Bobby is from Surrey, so we centred our search around the South East. Our venue had to tick a certain number of boxes: we knew we weren’t having a church wedding, so it had to be licensed for ceremonies. We also didn’t want a marquee, so were ideally looking for a barn but with a pretty outdoor area. It turns out it was quite difficult to find all these things in one venue! Loseley Park had it all and had the added advantage of a rainy day option (you can have the drinks reception in the house) as well as being near Bobby’s parents.

Colour scheme / Decor

We didn’t have a colour scheme and the only decoration beyond the flowers was a gorgeous fairy light canopy in the barn by Party Lights.

Flowers

We wanted seasonal flowers without too much structure. Because we were getting married in May, it was possible to have homegrown British flowers. Jenn’s style was absolutely perfect and we gave her ultimate freedom to decide which flowers to include and how best to style the barn. She did a brilliant job and I would highly recommend her for anyone who is keen to use seasonal flowers.

Wedding Party Fashion

Because we wanted a relaxed day, we didn’t want anything too formal for our wedding party. The bridesmaids wore different styles of floaty, knee-length dresses in pale blues / greens and the ushers wore their own navy suits and ties by Thomas Pink. The flower girls were in simple white dresses and the page boys in chinos and navy waistcoats – they all looked adorable! All the girls wore flowers in their hair.

Ceremony

We had a civil ceremony with two readings from our close friends, one by Mark Twain and one by Philip Pullman from ‘The Amber Spyglass’. Music is very important to us and we tried to embed it in the ceremony as much as possible. This began with me walking down the aisle to ‘Into My Arms’ by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. We wanted as many of our friends and family to be involved in the day as possible, and fortunately we have some pretty talented friends: while we signed the register, our bridesmaid Eleanor Freedman sang ‘Be My Baby’ by The Ronettes with backing vocals from our friends and family and supported on the piano by my cousin Huw Morgan and our close friend Charlie Spencer on saxophone. The congregation also sang Be Thou My Vision and Stand by Me. In between the songs, our friend Ned Younger spoke about our relationship and what the day meant to us. We thought this bit of the ceremony worked really well as we wanted something a little bit more personal than just the civil ceremony on its own. We exited the barn to ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ by Stevie Wonder.

Entertainment

As we had a lengthy drinks reception, we wanted to have some music to create a fun atmosphere. A family friend of ours plays in the jazz band, the Andy Bennett Quartet, who kindly agreed to perform. They were fantastic and their set was the perfect accompaniment to a glass of champagne (or several). We both love Motown music and so were on the hunt from an early stage for a Motown band. OJ’s Soul Band fitted the bill perfectly and did a fabulous job on the night, starting immediately with our first dance “Ain’t no mountain high enough”. The dance floor was packed all night!

Food

Caper and Berry are the exclusive catering supplier for Loseley Park and were absolutely fantastic from start to finish. We had great fun choosing our menu for the wedding breakfast and it lived right up to expectations on the day itself: charred fillet of smocked mackerel with beetroot, horseradish and balsamic dressing to start; rolled shoulder of Surrey lamb for main and an incredible chocolate and salted caramel & hazelnut tart to finish. The canapes were also delicious, as was the end of night cheese board (which was despatched at quite some pace).

Photographer

We had the wonderful Sarah-Jane Ethan capture the day. We didn’t want our photos to be too formal and we wanted someone who would capture the wonderful light of a spring day. SJ was perfect for this, we absolutely loved her photos and she was wonderfully relaxed, friendly and unobtrusive on the day. We would highly recommend her and are still enjoying going through our very many photos.

Videographer

We chose CaptureMedia as our videographer having seen their super wedding video of some friends of ours. They are based in Norfolk but Michael was happy to come down to Surrey for the day. We loved his footage and are so happy that we captured the day on film so we’re able to relive all the best bits.