Real Wedding: Nathaniel and Tamara at Lillibrooke Manor, Maidenhead, Berkshire

Late this summer we co-ordinated Tamara and Nathaniel's wedding at St Lukes Church and Lillibrooke Manor in Maidenhead, Berkshire. These fantastic shots were captured by the incredibly artistic Jamie Thompson from Studio Rouge.

Tamara and Nathaniel had planned the perfect wedding, but wanted the peace of mind that the logistics were managed to ensure it became a reality on the day.
We met a year before their wedding and were in regular contact to provide supplier suggestions. Closer to their wedding we extensively discussed the day's arrangements. Following this meeting we produced a wedding day plan and a timings schedule, then spoke to and confirmed the details with all the suppliers.

Tamara paid great attention to detail with lots of special Zimbabwean touches that made their day meaningful, from the invitation design to the family wedding car, sourcing the national flower to relabelling the bottles of wine and the cake topper to the favours; there was a whole host of personal touches that made for an extra special day. During the week of the wedding we reviewed the final plans and timings together as well as collecting and storing all of their decoration items.

On the morning we decorated the church and Lillibrooke Manor, see the video of the set up here. Luckily we were equipped with our emergency kit with our ivory umbrella to hand when the rain came. We greeted all of the suppliers and supported their set up, organised the guests going to the buffet table, helped book taxis, stored the veil, moved garden games and liaised with the best man for announcements amongst many other things.

Being the point of contact on the wedding day ensured everything went smoothly and relieved the couple of any stress.

Wishing you both a wonderful married life together filled with much love and happiness x

Credits
Photography: Studio Rouge
Videographer: Capture the Day
String trio: Giardino Strings
Caterers: Complete Catering
DJ: Sound Bookings
Cake: Especially Delicious

Sneak Preview: Tamara & Nathaniel's Wedding at Lillibrooke Manor

Look out for more pictures and details from Tamara and Nathaniel's fantastic wedding coming soon!

Photo credit: www.studiorouge.co.uk

Related posts:

Behind the Scenes: Lillibrooke Manor Wedding

Real Wedding: Nik and Lisa at The Dairy, Waddesdon Manor

We have been looking forward to sharing the gorgeous pictures from Lisa and Nik’s wedding, they celebrated their marriage in May at The Dairy, Waddesdon Manor near Aylesbury. This stylish wedding was shot by Stuart Bebb photography. Stuart and his assistant captured photos from slightly different views which gave Lisa and Nik a wide variety of photos. Down to Earth Flowers did an unbelievable job with all of the floral arrangements.

Whilst the guests were making their way to The Dairy, Lisa and Nik had some romantic secluded shots taken in the vast grounds, the venue is pretty amazing with woodland areas and waterfalls.

Don’t the tables look pretty with these little vase name holders from Cox & Cox, they were accompanied with small bottles of Prada perfume for the girls favours and miniature bottles of Port for the guys. The band, Limited Edition, kept everyone dancing all night playing songs from Lady Gaga to Dianna Ross. We were so impressed we have already booked them for another clients wedding next summer.

Congratulations Lisa and Nik, thanks so much for letting us post your pretty day! www.sugarblossom.co.uk

Behind the Scenes: Lillibrooke Manor Wedding, Maidenhead

Yesterday we had the pleasure of co-ordinating Tamara and Nathaniel's wedding at St Lukes Church and Lillibrooke Manor in Maidenhead.

It was fantastic to work with them to help plan their day, they are a lovely couple and had so many wonderfully unique ideas to incorporate into their wedding.

This video shows a small part of Janet and I setting up in the morning. The day began with an hour of steaming open freeze dried peony heads- fiddly, but worth it when you can not rely on fresh ones being available, they looked beautiful on the arrival drink table.

We moved on to the church to sweep away debris blown in and move papers from the doorway, before organising the confetti, spare readings, reserved seats and order of services.

The next stop was displaying road signs to direct guests to the remote manor house, after our sat nav directed us the wrong way up a one way system on the first visit we decided this was a must!

We then ran through some checks with the catering company, resulting in a quick dash to buy the missing raspberries needed for the arrival drinks and locating the lost desserts still en-route from London.

Janet and I then unloaded the decorations we had been storing and set to work on decorating the barn with many items that reflected their personalities and Zimbabwean roots. This included scattering the national flower, Gloriosa, on the top table, name settings in elephant favours, an elephant cake topper, safari animal table names, table plan, guest book, card box, wine with personalised labels, gifts under the top table, child seating, toys and much more.

The DJ arrived early to build his equipment, after showing him the space we tested the back up music we had for the wedding breakfast and the first/second dance songs.

The courtyard was the next location to organise the garden games, throws, flowers, arrival drinks and the string trio, but moments before the Routemaster bus full of guests pulled up the rain started to fall so a quick turn around and the set up was duplicated inside the adjoining small barn.

This was all simply the preparation, look out for our next post on the wedding celebrations. We can not wait to share some of the photos with you and less wobbly professional video footage, including all of the great supplier details who all made the day so special.

Real Wedding: Simon & Lisa at The Elvetham

Simon and Lisa had a beautiful winter wedding at the Elvetham. Lisa looked absolutely stunning in her detailed lace dress and every bit the glowing bride. The venue was built in the late 1900’s and had the original ornate fireplaces lit all day to keep everyone warm, creating a cosy setting combined with the lighting from the scattered candles and candelabra. Lisa has spent two years planning her day and we developed a strong relationship ensuring everything ran smoothly. On the day we worked closely with the suppliers to meet timings and displayed all of her carefully considered details- from the seating chart for the ceremony, homemade cracker favours (instructions to make them here), gift wishing well, festive music in each room and much more leaving them to relax and have a fabulous day.

Photo credits:

1. SugarBlossom

2.www.theelvetham.co.uk

Colour Schemes and Details of Your Wedding

We recently stumbled upon http://www.tiethatbindsweddings.com/ and loved the way they share our passion for a consistent beautiful theme featuring in lots of unique ways throughout your wedding. All the images in this blog entry are from the delightfully talented Mekala from Tie That Binds, for this wedding they produced a range of stunning blue and yellow co-ordinated pieces. Firstly picking your theme and planning your wedding starts with the colours. Your colour scheme says a lot about you as a couple and gives you the chance to make a statement. However, as Mekala comments, don't be closed-minded about where to find your colour scheme. You can find inspiration in anything- from the location of your first date, to your great grandfathers favorite vintage tie. The biggest fad of the season is to skip a colour theme and go with an overall look instead! This look can be inspired by fashion, an era of time, a childhood story, or even a piece of fabric. These invitations were inspired by fabric purchased at £1 a metre! Dig around in your and your groom's history to find a theme that works best for you. In this wedding the colours were inspired by the groom's formal military uniform. The story of the couple surviving 4 years of being apart while he attended West Point Military Academy was a huge part of bringing the wedding together. This brings me to the next big part of planning a wedding: the details. As a frequent attendee of weddings, it's easy for them to blur together. White dress, flower girls, a big kiss, a dance, the end. Tie That Binds strive to find ways to make the wedding unique. For this wedding, the love story of the bride and groom was so significant that they crafted two books - one at each table.

The first book had his version of their love story, and another with hers. These books not only caused the tables to talk amongst themselves and trade books, but also gave those out-of-towners an inside view into how their romance came to be. These types of details were used throughout the rest of the wedding- on the napkins, sweet bags, a vintage pin, handcrafted jewelry gifts- each detail made the wedding unique to the couple and their love. Thank you Mekala for sharing these gorgeous images and the couples story with us. If you are looking for ideas on how to use your theme across your wedding day visit http://www.tiethatbindsweddings.com/ for some fantastic ideas- and the most important and best bit is that the Tie that Binds ship to the UK!

Picture credit: All images from the Tie That Binds, http://www.tiethatbindsweddings.com/

It's official: I’m married!

After being with Neil for twelve years it was finally my turn to be the bride, an exciting change from being at the wedding as a co-ordinator! We had a wonderful day, the months of meticulous planning paid off and everything was perfect- except the only thing I knew I could not control, the British weather! The morning featured heavy rain and the rolls of thunder added drama to the ceremony, but as soon as we stepped outside as husband and wife the sun started shining for us. It was fantastic to be able to have a team of reliable and talented suppliers, they all did such an amazing job and helped to make our special day so perfect. A huge thank you to you all:

• Venue: Englemere, Ascot http://www.englemere.co.uk/
• Photography: Breathe Pictures, http://www.breathepictures.com/
• Stationary: SGPD, http://www.stephengreendesign.co.uk/
• Music: Euphonic and Straight Eight, http://www.straighteight.co.uk/
• Videographer: Shaun Folds, http://www.beautifullifeuk.com/
• Menswear: http://www.stress3hire.com/
• Flowers: Longacres nursery, Bagshot
• Hair: Natalie Layhe
• Cake: Patricia Cox

Photo credits: All images from Neale James from Breathe Pictures. Make sure you get an amazing photographer. Neale is so talented! His work is original and creative, we don’t have enough nice things to say about him. He made us look our best and, even more importantly, he made us feel comfortable.

Real Wedding- Liz & Jack

We met Ed Clayton, www.edclaytonphotography.co.uk, last autumn at the wonderful L'Ortolan Wedding Fair and have been looking forward since then to sharing his work. It was certainly worth the wait and today we are pleased to showcase Liz and Jacks stunning wedding held in Godalming, Surrey. Although Ed also took these photos in colour, I particularly love the depth and beauty of these black and white shots:

Wedding Ceremony: All Saints Church, Witley, Godalming, Surrey

Reception Location: A marquee in the garden of the Bride's Parent's in Godalming, Surrey

Flowers: flowers at the reception arranged by Bride's Mother

Bride's Dress: Jenny Packham

Shoes: Prada

Groom's suit: Mohair suit from Richard James, Saville Row.

Real Wedding- Emma & Michael

Cara and Nye, from Lillian and Leonard Wedding Photography, captured the perfect images from Emma and Michael’s idyllic wedding in a remote location on the West coast of Scotland. Emma is a textiles designer based in Glasgow; her creativity is expressed in the fantastic details from the day- from chic graphics on the invites and place settings to celebratory tea towels as favours. If you are looking to inject some elegant glamour into your wedding stationary there are some gorgeous examples of her work on her website here. I hope you enjoy browsing the pictures from Lillian and Leonard as much as I did; the light, fresh and airy colours are so appealing…

Photography; Lillian and Leonard Wedding Photography

Graphic design; www.showpony.co.uk

Venue; Crear

Flowers; Mairi Ritchie Floral Design

Catering; The Smiddy Bistro

Music; Archie McAllister and band

All images are from www.lillianandleonard.com

Real Wedding- Alex & Craig

Sandra, from Divine Day Photography, has a natural talent at putting people at ease and the skill of capturing unscripted wedding moments as they happen. We love this wedding she took at the National Liberal Club in London, Alex and Craig’s chic city wedding is full of fun touches. This stunning venue is located in the heart of London with the gorgeous terrace overlooking the river Thames and Embankment Gardens.

These shots illustrate why Sandra has recently won an award from the Artistic Guild of Wedding Photography Journalism. Be sure to check out Divine Day’s website, for more of Alex and Craig’s lovely day!