Good morning lovelies! Can I remind all of you lovely suppliers about our January HALF PRICE sale – we’re offering 50% off all Tier 1 and 2 advertising packages on the blog if you join in January, saving you up to £60 for the year. As well as a listing in our UK wedding supplier Directory you could also claim 3 home page features on the blog throughout the year to really raise your brand profile! If that sounds good to you, get in touch! We’re enjoying a little winter glow today, with a vibrant and warm colour palette of burgundy and plum for beautiful Wendy and Rich’s Eastington Park wedding, captured by our lovely friend and Gloucestershire wedding photographer Martin Dabek Photography.

Wedding photographer’s website:

https://martindabek.com

How did you choose your photographer?

We choose our wedding photographer after seeing his name on some pictures on Pinterest that I loved the look of. I was researching winter weddings at Eastington Park as I wanted a photographer that had shot at the venue before, and that’s when I came across Martin. It was difficult because I knew what I wanted, so I ruled out other photographers for little things. But in the end we were so pleased as the pictures we have are incredible, such a lovely guy and is so helpful not only leading up to the wedding but after the pictures are completed too.

Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!

Yes of course, Martin was so lovely and interacted with our guests, we got a lot of comments of how kind and talented he was. He knew exactly was he was doing when he came to winter wedding photos, timings etc from our very first meet with him.
Our pictures are just incredible, we are over the moon with them and would highly recommend Martin Dabek.
He was professional from the get go, and is still helping us now with designing our albums and favourites.
He also filmed all our speeches too as we wanted them unedited from start to finish.

Tell us about the moment you saw your wedding photos for the first time?

We were absolutely blown away, we loved them all and one of our first thoughts was how are we going to pick for our album and prints to put on our wall, we wanted them all! I cried at some of them too, he caught everything, all the laughs, cries and embarrassing dance moves. Very talented, chilled and experienced.

Discover more from Eastington Park wedding photographer Martin Dabek:

 

Can you describe your wedding in fewer than 10 words?

The most amazing magical day I could ever imagine.

Your wedding style or theme:

Winter wedding- we first booked November and obvsiouly had inside/back up plans in case it was raining. Our day turned out insane, we had a hard frost in the morning and was winter sun all day- made epic photos as you can see. Over the moon, our favourite time of year.

Where did you find your suppliers? (Blogs, magazines, recommendations?)

Online, Blogs, recommendations, Pinterest, Instagram.

What’s your top tip for saving money?

Budget yourself to a certain amount of spending money per month, and do not go over.. for anything! Haha it is totally worth all the hard work on the day, when every little detail is noticed by you and your guests.

… and which elements of your wedding are you glad you spent more on?

All of it, every detail we had we are glad for, it all looked exactly how we imagined, and we got comments about everything.

Where did you buy or source your wedding stationery – or was making it a labour of love?

Our invitations were made by someone on eBay. The only other stationery we had were personalised napkins that we used elite invite, that I found on instagram and loved.

Did you fall in love with your wedding dress?

I tried on 9 dresses in total from 2 shops, I knew I loved my dress when I put it on, I carried on with the other dresses I picked but always came back to mine. It was everything to me.
I bought my veil from a boutique in Trowbridge, Wiltshire called ‘The Wedding Boutique’
I also want to mention- I have since donated my wedding dress to ‘Gift Of A Wedding’ they are a UK charity that gift free weddings to people with terminal or life shortening illnesses- such a special charity, and very close to our hearts.

Wedding dress designer and bridal boutique:

Anna Sorrano
From ‘Wed 2 Be’

Tell us about your accessories: jewellery, shoes and anything else!

My jewellery and hair piece was from Debenhams, I really wanted something elegant and not too much, it was perfect.
For shoes I wanted something comfortable and again quite simple, I wore short block white heels from boohoo.
I also had a pair of jewelled sandals from Kurt Geiger from the evening, as I knew my feet would start hurting from heels and wanted to stay comfortable all night.

And what did the groom wear?

Groom wore a 3 piece suit from Skopes, we bought our ties and squares from Moss Bros as they had the perfect match for our bridesmaid dresses.
We got cuff links and tie clips personalised as gifts for the groomsman on Etsy. (Amazing for personalised wedding gifts and accessories)

Beautiful bridesmaids: what did your best girls wear?

My bridesmaids wore burgundy/plum floor length dresses with lace detail at the top. Dresses were from AX Paris.
They also all wore beaded hair clips that we ordered from Amazon.

Hair and make-up – did you DIY or hire a professional?

We hired a make up artist – Lauren Jamie MUA, she is super lovely and so good at what she does. Me and my sister went for a trial and she was so professional and lovely throughout. She left a lot of time in case it was needed and actually managed to do the makeup for one of my bridesmaids that originally didn’t want it done, but changed her mind on the morning. We were all so happy with it, it lasted all day and I had so many compliments.
Our hair was done by Kirsty from Desire Hair, she was also so lovely from start to finish, I had 2 trials as I changed my mind a month before the wedding, she stayed on the morning of the wedding so I could have professional photos with and without my veil. They were both so chilled and worked really well with each other and our photographer and videographer. They also gave my sister and sister in law touch ups before as one was our florist and other was part of the set up of the venue.

Describe your wedding flowers. Who arranged them for you? (florist details would be lovely please)

My florist was my now sister in law- Amanda Pratten- also bridesmaid, she used to have her own flower shop and has only recently sold up. The flowers were insane, they looked amazing at Eastington and just fitted so well with out winter wedding. I let her do her thing as she is so talented and they ended up looking more than we could have ever imagined.

General styling – did your venue need much decoration?

The venue is very fresh, open and airy so not many decorations were needed, we dressed the beautiful staircase, fireplaces and side boards with flowers and our own decorations/ stationery.

Crafts and makes – tell us about any homemade elements of your wedding… did you enjoy them?

We had vinyl stickers made for our welcome sign and table plan that we stuck to our own mirrors ourselves, I knew what I wanted and once it was completed it looked so insane. We were over the moon with them- ordered from Etsy.
Me and my bridesmaids also decorated our jars for around our centrepieces and on our sweet table with lace, we recycling the jars from another wedding.
My sister made our wedding favour cards- they were a donation to a charity who helped look after our Dad, who lost his life to cancer. We donated on behalf of the guests.
My friend also made a photo tree that we had as a decoration in one of the chill rooms. All photos of me and my husband from the last 10 years. So special.

The wedding cake: what kind of cake did you choose and why?

We had a 4 tier cake- strawberry and cream, chocolate, carrot and lemon, we had my sisters friend make our wedding cake and chose a buttercream finish. She is so good at making cakes, we were so happy and it tasted amazing!!!

Entertainment: any musical recommendations, surprises or treats?

Our DJ was Neil Carter from dizzy feet. He was brilliant. He was so friendly and approachable and kept our guests on the dance floor all night. Such a pleasure to have on our wedding evening.

Words of wisdom: share your best piece of advice for other couples:

Enjoy every second! I’m so organised and am a bit OCD, but on the day, I didn’t really worry at all, the wedding manager at Eastington was so good and took care of everything. Just take in every minute and stay as laid back as you can. Enjoy every second, it goes so quick!

What’s the best thing about being married?

Sharing my husband’s name, and reminiscing memories from our magical day.

Favourite supplier web links for other brides and grooms:

Obviously our photographer https://martindabek.com
https://www.centrepieceweddingfilms.co.uk
https://www.desirehairdressing.com
https://laurenjamiemakeupartist.com
https://www.thebathmagician.co.uk (He was amazing!!)
https://dizzyfeet.co.uk
http://berry-blue.co.uk
https://www.eliteinvite.com