Neda & Jonny

Hands up who wants to be whisked off to an exotic location full of plam tree's and love? Well allow RMW to answer your prayers with this stunning destination wedding in Marrakesh. Full of vibrancy, exotic plants and traditional Moroccan vibes, the picturesque J'nane Tamsna venue sets the scene for lovely photographer storyett.com to marry her beau in a country the couple have such sentimental memories of. The images captured by Nordica Photography will make your heart swell, and luckily for us are brimming with lots of different angles of bride Neda's stunning Rue de Seine gown, which is totally knocking our socks off, as I'm sure it will yours too.

Proposal

Neda the Bride: A year before our wedding my husband Jonny surprised me by proposing to me in Marrakesh. I had no idea that he was going to be there - I was there on my own to photograph a couple who had eloped! This meant that Marrakesh already had a special place in our hearts, so when we decided to get married there it just felt right.

Wedding

Being a wedding photographer (storyett.com) means I see all sorts of different weddings, but we wanted to do something that truly represented us. For us, the words ‘magical’, ‘adventure’ and ‘intimate’ were our compass throughout the planning and decision making.

Location

We booked our venue and then followed by booking a three-month adventure in Africa before our big day. We literally planned our wedding over two months on our return! This meant we worked on the marriage we wanted and didn’t get to caught up in the planning or politics of it all - we did it our way.

Pre-Wedding Party

Two nights before we got married, we took our families for a meal at a camp in the desert called Scarabeo Camp. Here we rode camels, enjoyed the incredible scenery and sang songs around the camp fire until late eating fantastic meals. We had Persian-English-Swedish cultures mixing and we both felt so happy seeing our loved ones there. The Friday was the welcome pool party and it was just wonderful seeing how everyone got along and made new friends during the evening.

Venue

We got married in a beautiful location - Jnane Tamsna. It is like a paradise of palm trees and gardens just outside Marrakesh, a little oasis. We were able to take our guests to different corners of the grounds for different parts of our wedding which really added to the magic and added to the surprise and wow factor as they didn’t see it coming and the reason we choose this venue.

Colour Scheme

Our theme was green and gold - the colour of the ring that Jonny gave me especially customised for me from Alex Monroe, a green sapphire gold ring - and it felt perfect in the backdrop of the gardens.

Decor

The guest arrived to drink on another incredibly hot day and most got busy looking at the polaroids hanging around the area. We literally printed one image of all our guests and of those who couldn’t make it. They were funny pics which made us all giggle. The ceremony was right in the middle of the gardens, where we were surrounded by palms, fruit and olive trees where we were married by our siblings which was incredibly emotional. Our ceremony was hugely important to us, something we really wanted to be special not only to us but everyone there. We wrote our own vows and promises and I still feel emotional thinking about them. My sister sang as I walked down the aisle to how long will I love you (Ellie Goulding) which was really emotional and Jonny’s uncle played the guitar. As we were saying our promises the call to prayer started and we all giggled and I love that our videographer included that in our clip. We had Persian traditions around the ceremony area, crystallised sugar to represent a sweet life together and a veiled held above our heads where the mums sprinkled sugar above our heads to help us in our marriage and sweeten it up even more. I always wanted to have a door way by our ceremony, representing a new chapter and getting rustic Moroccans door was a bonus.

Entertainment

After the ceremony a wonderful three-piece traditional moroccan trio band played background music. They were incredibly talented and something we decided on only few days before. After the canapés our guests were surprised by a mobile musicians playing drums, trumpets and singing, having an upbeat celebration was a huge part of our day. This really brought the atmosphere from one of calm tranquillity to excitement as guests began to dance until dusk. When darkness fell, the band led all of the guests to the dinner table which took everyone’s breath away. A corridor of candles lit up a long, beautiful table that was adorned with candles, flowers, drums and tambourines we had made. We ate and drank and sang the night away until the performance of the night - three fire breathers who wowed (and at times worried!) the crowd. We really wanted our wedding to be abut celebrating, dancing and being upbeat and we really couldn’t have asked for a better day. The pool was lit with beautiful trays floating of petals and candles. We had over 2000 roses and incredibly amount of candles to get that atmospheric light. The owner of Jnane Tamsna really made each area of celebration totally unique and wonderful for us. I especially loved the moroccan carpets and lounge feel created by the dance floor. All that was left was to dance the night away in the shadow of the main house at Jnane until 7 am! It was the most incredible wedding, and we still get goosebumps thinking about it now.

Grooms Attire

Jonny went into Beggarsrun and tried lots of suits and decided the green double-breasted suited not only the venue but the green colour in my ring and our theme. He loved wearing it and I adore him for choosing something that is so him. The team there were incredibly helpful and turned things around in no time.

Flowers

We wanted to enhance what was already there by making it magic with lots of candles, roses and gold plates/runners etc. We also created tambourines so we had a musical fun themes throughout and the table was never really quiet : )

Food

Jnane tamsna took care of our food and created individual lamb tanginess made in individual furnaces in the garden and served! With cinnamon bark and it was divine!

Photographer

It was so important to us that we used suppliers we knew and loved during. When I was starting of in photography I went on a workshop Nordica Photography were holding and I kept in touch with the Nordica guys ever since. We were both delighted they could do our day. Jakob was hardly noticed and the moments he captured blew us away. A medley of emotion, moments we missed, artistic eye we adore and being a joy to have around. We really were speechless watching our slideshow and later getting our moments delivered, what a journey! We will forever be grateful that he was part of it. I still look at some of the moments and feeling grateful he captured what we missed, what we vaguely remember and adding more vivid moments to our day and getting us so emotional. What really helped during our 3-day celebration was how Jakob was so flexible, relaxed and just got on with things with very little info at times, a true professional. He also fitted so well with our family and friends, they loved him. He also drove back through a busy Moroccan city and made it to the hotel and for that he will especially be admired!

Videographer

In the same workshop I did with Nordica Photography I made friends with someone who was related to Matteo Castelluccia, a videographer. He introduced me through the wonders of social media and we kept in touch as I admired Matteo’s work. When we got us a date he was my first call to make sure he was free. I’m really struggling to put into words what he did for us with his wife and business partner. Their creativity and subtleness was so appreciated and the results breathtakingly wonderful. How on earth they managed to capture something even more beautiful than we remember I do not know. We are forever grateful to them and love their souls for being such wonderful people.

The Dress

When we returned from Africa in March I went for my dress fitting but it was not right and I was left feeling my custom from scratch wedding dress wasn’t for me. I panicky called my bridesmaid who promptly ordered me to call Leonie Claire and get my dream dress from her. They stocked the Morrisson dress from Rue De Seine Bridal which I had called head over heels for. We drove down together to Hove and asked and begged her to sell it to me on the spot and she did and this was few week’s before the wedding!!! Mantra for the wedding has really been everything is figure-outable. I danced until 7 am and loved being in my dress, couldn’t have had a better one.

The Hair

The day before the wedding I still was undecided about my hair and it had become a stress factor. I was totally surprised when my wonderful mother-in-law whisked me away and a group of my lovely family gifted me something borrowed, something new …one of those items was Jonny’s grandmother’s tiara she wore for her wedding 60 years ago! Needless to say I was so honoured by it and wore it on the big day! I’ve been obsessed with Ranjana Khan earrings and got mine second hand and still find excuse to wear them.

Stationery

Our incredibly hand made stationery was created by the ever so talented Rubana from Crimson Letters. An ever so talented and kind soul I knew I wanted her to do it and was so happy she could. She created something utterly special and different. Our family who joined us early had little invitation for the Starry Night at Scarab waiting for them in their rooms and other gifts and I know they all loved it.

The DJ

Our DJ absolutely ROCKED the dance floor, not only did he stay in touch with us and go through our spotify to get to know our music but he accommodated request for Iranian and Azerbaijani music to get relatives dancing to it. He was totally awesome and stayed until the last great leaving!