Inside: A Stylish Wedding In The Surrey Hills The Wedding Edition

The Story

We met on Hinge, for me, it was love at first sight. James is a set designer for film and so wanted to re-create a ‘movie moment’ for our engagement, he is a hopeless romantic. My sister was in on the surprise, she tricked me one night to going to hers to collect a parcel (she lives next door). There was no parcel but I could hear me and James’s song playing in the distance, clothes and makeup were left out for me and a path was lit by candles and different songs to follow. It led me to the top of our garden. He was waiting surrounded by candles and fairy lights. He had designed the ring with John at Susan Clarke’s in Richmond. The evening was utterly incredible.

Venue

James had done the engagement, but the wedding, that was down to me. It was finally my time to create a magical wedding and awesome party to celebrate finding each other. We had an intimate wedding at Chelsea Old Town Hall followed by drinks and canapes at the Phene. The Friday before the marquee wedding, we had an alfresco dinner with the bridal party. The marquee wedding the day after was at my parents’ home in the Surrey Hills. The day after we hosted a sports day, with woodfired pizzas, an Ice Cream Van and Aperol.

Fashion

I knew I would end up with an outfit from Miss Bush. I have catered there over the years and have always loved the team. I fell head over heels for my Chelsea outfit. For me it was about feeling comfortable and fabulous.

Bridal Party

The bridesmaids suits were from LK Bennett, I loved them. When I asked them to be bridesmaids, I bought pearl hanging earrings from GiGi and Olive, they all wore them on the day.

Tablescape

The tableware was BIG for me, I spend my life showing couples options and laying them on the day. I gave James 2 options when it came to the ‘theme’ 1. All the Colours 2. Classic Green and White. He went for the second and I ran with it. I used all the lovely suppliers I get the pleasure of working with regularly. Couvert provided all the glassware and cutlery, Maison Margaux did the chinaware, Just4Linen did the napkins and tablecloths, my mother hand wrote the menus and the flowers were by the amazing Alex at Jasmine and Jerusalem.

Food & Drink

It was all about the guest experience for me, I wanted people to be well fed, well-watered and feel really looked after by the Two Many Cooks team. I sat down with our head chef to create the menu. We wanted the food to be crowd pleasers, authentic to us as a couple and what actually works for mass catering. We are all about there being plenty of food.

We went for Albury Sparkling to welcome guests into the reception, this is our closest vineyard. We then had the incredible Drunken Jockeys serving up delicious cocktails throughout the evening.

Entertainment

Instead of having hymns at the ceremony as we are not religious, to start we had ‘I’m a Believer’ By the Monkees followed by our own ‘Love Actually’ moment where one of my very talented bridesmaids sang and a Brass Band surprised our guests by joining in after the first verse. For our first dance we wanted something that would get the crowd going, we went for ‘From Now On’ from the Greatest Showman.

Beauty Regime & Wellness

I had the amazing Carolanne Armstrong doing my hair on both weddings. I did my own makeup, I know how I like it. I went for monthly massages in the run up to the wedding and 2 facials, it was the best. I always suggest massages and taking time for yourself in the run up so it was my time to take my own advice.

Favourite Wedding Gifts

We went for ‘Honeymoon Experiences’ as our wedding gifts, it was amazing and we got to thank people for allowing us to create memories. Our favourite gift was going to a rug company in Turkey, learning about the craft and purchasing one for our home.

Honeymoon

We went to for two weeks, we wanted to get straight to the beach. We started at OKU on the Island of Kos, then to the Amanruya in Bodrum. We booked in an experience a day and just enjoyed being the two of us.