Sandhurst Military Academy Marquee Wedding

Gorgeous Emily and Andrew know each other from school. They both had crushes on each other, but never got together. Luckily modern day technology stepped in and the pair reconnected over Tinder 10 years later! We love a good love story here at RMW, and truly believe that if it's meant to be, it will be! Which was clearly the case for Emily and Andy. Due to Andy's military background they married at Sandhurst Military Academy, on a glorious summers day, which meant they could have the open sided marquee wedding they'd dreamed of. The whole day is beautifully and thoughtfully styled, with the most incredible florals, decor and fashion choices. Enjoy lovely ones!

Sandhurst Military Academy Marquee Wedding

Emily & Andy: Our Wedding was held at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, on Saturday 14th July. The day couldn't have been more perfect, with a weather forecast more glorious than the mediterranean, a Royal venue filled with history, and a setting like something off Pinterest, it was all we dreamed of and much more and meant that we had all the ingredients for a special day right from the beginning. It was really important to Andrew to get married here so I went to look around while he was away on an operational tour in the Middle East. I immediately fell in love with the grounds and put the deposit down on the venue right away.

Ceremony In The Memorial Chapel

The Ceremony started at noon and was held at the beautiful Memorial Chapel. The ceremony included some very traditional hymns and Father John conducted the most beautiful service for us. Making the day extra special with his kind words and his efforts to make everybody feel a part of the ceremony.

The Marquee

The Champagne Reception was held on the grand steps of the Old College building allowing for some very dramatic group photographs. The rest of the day was held at the lake side in a beautiful wooden pole tent provided by the fantastic Abbas Marquees. The structure was so impressive and couldn’t be faulted in anyway. Abbas were most accommodating throughout the planning stages and allowed us to design the perfect structure for our day. The atmosphere was amazing outside by the lake, as people sitting on hay bales, benches and swings, basking in the sun, looking over the beautiful gardens, lake and grander of the famous white, pillared building.

Pronovias Wedding Dress

My dress was a traditional mikado satin Pronovias gown, with several bespoke additions added by myself, with the help of the clever seamstress (Lorna) at Knutsford Wedding Gallery. My detachable train was my favourite bit - it was classic and simple, with buttons all the way down adding lots elegance, yet the length gave it all the drama it needed! The beautiful Bridesmaids wore sumptuous satin gowns by Jarlo London which all the girls absolutely loved wearing, while the mother of the bride was in a stunning dress designed by Suzannah London. Not forgetting Groom Andrew looking so handsome in his military uniform, complimented by his fellow swordsman all in their stunning military uniforms too. One of our absolute favourite moment from our gorgeous day was when we walked out of the church through the Honour Guard formed by some of Andrew's closest military friends. We can't thank them enough for making that moment so magical for us!

The Photography

Not only is the building and the grounds in which the wedding was set grand and utterly timeless, but the grounds are picture perfect too, beautifully portrayed in all the wonderful captures by Peter Hughes Photography. My pictures wow me every time I look at them and every photo captures the true essence of the day, the emotions, the laughter and the beauty. Peter’s unique style and approach to the photography was exactly what we were looking for and Peter and Arran (assistant photographer) made sure that the photographs took place without interrupting the flow of the day. They put us at ease and captured so many magical moments. Nothing was too much trouble and they were actually the very last two people to leave in the early hours of the morning, staying right until the end, ensuring they didn’t miss a single second of our day. Our only regret was not having a videographer, I didn’t think it was something I’d be bothered about having, but now it’s all over we’d love to watch back every second of the greatest day of our lives and although I remember, I would love to re-listen to our vows.

The Flowers

In order to work well with the elegant, military navy worn by Andrew and his Honour Guard, we decided to go for a predominately neutral colour scheme with bridesmaids wearing nude dresses and the ribbons on the bouquets matching this. However, we wanted the colours of our flowers to spark joy and feel summery, so asked for beautiful pop’s of colour throughout all our blooms. Who couldn’t fall heard over heels with the floral boho style blooms that were simply everywhere, from the table decor, to the hanging planks from the celling of the marquee, to the stunning creation adorning the arch of the doorway, along with a bloom filled bar that brought the beauty from outside in, giving our wedding a PIN-tastic feel! The flowers were the real wow factor of our wedding decor. Jenni was so helpful in terms of helping us build florals that fitted in with our wishes and helping us work to our budget, we could not thank her or recommend her highly enough. Jenni even made my floral crown to help soften the formality of the military vibes and keep my dream of a boho feel alive. My favourite bit of all though was my bouquet of dreams in neutrals, pinks, corals, purples and blues - just Wow - it truly was a work of art! I spoke of my love of wild flowers, boho feels and explained I wanted rustic meets English country garden, with pop’s of bright pinks, purples and blues and Jenni Bloom took care of the rest. She got it spot on!! I have never seen flowers arrangements so beautiful, ever! Jenni is clearly amazing when it comes to creating that something special, I felt as thought she took my vision from my mind and she put together exactly what I wanted.

The Entertainment

A good wedding demands great entertainment, and we had plenty. We had a brilliant String quartet called Ealing String Quartet performing during the Wedding Breakfast. They were amazing, playing modern songs by bands such as Coldplay, Clean bandit and Oasis, which sounded epic on strings! They even played our favourite song, Africa by Toto. Our evening entertainment consisted of Truly Medley Deeply (who made an appearance on Britain's Got Talent a few years back). They blew each and everyone of our guests away, pleasing all age groups, young and old, with their unique talents to keep the party going all night long! They were so impressive that some of our guests have booked them for their up and coming weddings! The band and the catering staff commented on how they’d never seen the dance floor stay so busy at a wedding before, with so many party animals in one room - but we only have TDM to thank for this as it was them who kept us and all our guests raving on the dance floor all night long.

Advice

We (Andrew and I) planned everything ourselves! We’ve joked that there should be a qualification that comes at the end of successfully planning your own wedding. Although stressful at times, we enjoyed most of the planning and it was so rewarding on the day to see how smoothly everything ran thanks to our thorough organisation skills. We felt so proud of all we’d achieved. My only advice for any bride & groom would be to make lists, lists and more lists, that way you won't forget anything! And share the workload equally - pull your weight Grooms! A huge thank you to all our friends and family who worked tiresomely the day before the wedding to get everything set up so beautifully, hanging bunting everywhere, lanterns and fairy lights from the trees and even managing to tie the swing up in the tree for us (which despite been made out of a cheap Ikea shelf, somehow withstood the day without any guests causing its collapse!) One of our favourite personal touches was our wedding favours - a donation to ‘Help for Heros.’ We felt that this was the perfect wedding favour given our surroundings and all our guests loved it too.

The Food

As with all weddings at The Royal Military Academy, the academy’s own caters must be used. However, these caterers are used to huge VIP events, therefore it was no surprise that the food was five star standard, and was served with military precision. From the canapés, to the wedding breakfast and finalising the evening with a BBQ outside in the beautiful sunset, all the food was delicious. Chris, our master of ceremonies in particular did an outstanding job on the day, ensuring everything kept to time, with such a high standard of service it was hard to forget you were at a Royal venue. Graham, the events manager was amazing every step of the way too and the whole team were so attentive and made sure our day went perfectly, so a huge thank you to all of them.