To end a quite frankly beautiful week here at Whimsical Wonderland Weddings, I am thrilled to be sharing Victoria and Stephen’s nuptials held on Saturday 24th June 2017 at Gaynes Park in Essex. The couple’s wedding story begins with a delightfully surprising family picnic proposal with their sweet daughter present. Their little girl also made for the most adorable flower girl, I love how involved she was in their day. As that’s what it’s all about isn’t it folks? Love, family and friends, plus a right jolly old celebration.
The party really was in full swing at Victoria and Stephen’s affair, with live music from the ceremony to the reception and a DJ to keep the dance floor full all night too. I also love how there were no bridesmaids but two maids of honour, such a lovely touch. The girls looked really pretty against the stylish bride and groom whose outfit choices I am loving.
Then there was the divine florals throughout, darling decorations, festoon lights draped in the barn and sweet rainbow meringues for guests to feast on. All in all a rather splendid day then. Many thanks to Kerrie Mitchell Photography for providing these wonderful images.
THE PROPOSAL | Stephen took a day off of work and said lets go for a picnic, he knew i would choose my favourite place… Mersea Island! My nan and grandad used to take me there always as a child for the summer holidays so I have lots of great memories there. So we went to a lovely spot on the beach at Cudmore Grove Country Park and after the picnic we went for a little walk along the sea wall, there was no one around just me, Stephen and our daughter, Isabella. Stephen stopped for a moment and started talking about us and how much I mean to him and then he produced the most beautiful ring and asked me to marry him!! I was so surprised, I had no idea!We had just renovated our house so I had no idea he was planning this! Of course I was over the moon and said YES!!! Our daughter Isabella was also so happy. Yes Stephen did ask my dad for permission, which I thought was lovely as my dad didn’t expect him to ask but thought it was very nice that he did.
THE VISION | Rustic/English country garden style. Pretty, happy, light and fun!
THE PLANNING PROCESS | The planning process was good, Thanks to Gaynes Park and our fantastic suppliers it was all plain sailing! Once we found our venue, Gaynes Park in Epping, Everything fell into place. We wanted to keep things quite natural and pretty to compliment our beautiful venue and the surroundings so with the help of our florist, Lily & May and the venue stylists, Mediterranean Occasions we achieved the style we were going for. We also wanted it to be fun and happy so we hired The Silver Trailer Photo Booth from Belle Studios and had meringue kisses as our favours from The Meringue Girls. We also had some great entertainment, Stacey Mccarthy and Colin Mcclean singing beautiful acoustic songs for our ceremony and reception drinks. Luke Burr, who is an amazingly talented singer and musician, sang during our wedding breakfast and throughout the evening getting everyone on the dancefloor and our fantastic DJ Krafty playing all the songs we love, keeping everyone entertained all night long.
BUDGET | We didn’t really have a budget, we just knew what we wanted and roughly how much things were going to cost and for us we felt that you only get married once so why not do everything that you want.
THE VENUE | Our venue was the beautiful Gaynes Park in Epping, modern rustic renovated barn with beautiful grounds full of flowers!
THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress was all lace, mermaid cut with a long train from Pronovias, Bond Street. Shoes were strappy nude shoes made to order with embossed ‘V ‘HEART’ S’ (our initials with a heart in between) from Jimmy Choo. Veil was a long plain veil from Pronovias. Two handmade diamanté hair pins made by Botias (my hair and make up lady Boe Wright). Earrings and wedding ring made by Lionel J Wiffen of Hatton Garden.
FINDING THE DRESS | I knew that I wanted lace and I had seen a few lace dresses by Pronovias that I liked so I went to their flagship store on New Bond Street and found my beautiful dress on my second visit.
GROOM’S ATTIRE | Stephen wore a navy three piece tailored suit, made to measure by Guard of London, Liverpool Street, a woven navy tie by T.M.Lewin, dark brown loafers by Gucci and a beautiful stainless steel and gold Rolex, that I got him as a wedding present. He had a solid gold wedding band by Lionel J Wiffen of Hatton Garden.
THE READINGS & MUSIC | We didn’t have any readings we had Stacey Maccarthy singing and Colin Mcclean playing the acoustic guitar. They sang a variety of songs from Eva Cassidy, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding and John Legend! I walked down the aisle to their rendition of ‘A thousand years’ by Christina Perri.
BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | We didn’t have bridesmaids, I had two maids of honour, my two best friends Stacie and Joanne and our beautiful 4 year old daughter, Isabella was our flower girl.
THE FLOWERS | Very pretty, pastel meadow style flowers by Lily & May.
THE CAKE | A four tiered naked cake (Victoria sponge and carrot cake) decorated with fresh fruit and flowers made by Frenchmade. We also had personalised meringue kisses with an edible disc on them with our initials and the date of our wedding as our favours and a tray of gorgeous chocolate brownies and pavlovas also by The Meringue Girls.
YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Our photographer was the wonderful Kerrie Mitchell!
THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We wanted it to be fun and happy so we hired The Silver Trailer Photo Booth from Belle Studios, which was outside the gather barn, our guests loved this! As for décor we went with the ‘less is more’ approach, Gaynes Park is such a beautiful venue and we wanted to choose things that would compliment the venue, so we kept it simple with some festoon lights and up lighters by the venue stylists, Mediterranean Occasions and beautiful pretty meadow style flowers in pastel colours with lots of green, blush pinks, white and pale blue and lilac by Lily & May, which went perfectly with the venue.
THE HONEYMOON | California road trip! (San Fran, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, Monterey, LA, San Diego and Laguna Beach!) Spending a few days at each stop with a mustang to take us there!
MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Our first dance, we couldn’t decide which song we wanted as we love both songs, Say you wont let go by James Arthur and Forever by Chris Brown so our amazingly talented singer, Luke Burr sang beautifully a mix of the two as he played the piano! Seeing my gorgeous husband’s proud face as I walked down the aisle and seeing our beautiful daughter as the most angelic little flower girl I have ever seen!
ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Do what you and your husband to be want to do, don’t try to please other people, you only get married once so do it how you want to!
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |
Photographer | Kerrie Mitchell Photography
Dress | Pronovias
Shoes | Jimmy Choo
Suits | Guards of London
Maids of honour dresses/shoes | Asos & Dune
Flower girl dress/shoes | Monsoon & Sophia Webster
Hair and make up | Botias tailored hair & make up
Maids of honour hair | Kayleigh Veale (The Brentwood Hairdresser)
Venue Stylists | Mediterranean Occasions Venue Stylists
Cake | Frenchmade London
Favours/brownies/pavlovas | Meringue Girls
Florist | Lily & May
Photo Booth | Belle Studio
Singers | Stacey Mccarthy & Colin Mcclean
Wedding breakfast/evening singer | Luke Burr
DJ | DJ Krafty
What did I tell you? Just so pretty!
Victoria and Stephen thanks so much to you both for sharing your wedding story with us xo Lou