Charlotte & Alex’s unique and eclectic marquee wedding, with Simon Biffen Photography

Published by Claire Gould on

Morning beautiful! Ah – isn’t it lovely to have an extra day of weekend though? We’ve just basically been outside the whole time, away from humans and exploring nature. It’s been bliss! How about you? I’ve been thinking about wedding blogging – sometimes it just feels like pure, blissful escapism. I hope you get a flavour of that from reading the blog too! Looking at beautiful weddings all day is an absolute joy and today’s takes stunning to a whole new level! Charlotte and Alex are gorgeous, and their day is just amazing from start to finish – you’re going to LOVE this!

With love,

Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (3)

 

I also have a bit of a love for pineapples so there was literally pineapples everywhere from our wedding invites, to the bottom of my shoes (Aquazurra), to my flowers and the copious amount of decorations!!

Wedding photographer’s website

https://simonbiffenphotography.co.uk/

How did you choose your photographer?

My best friend had Simon at her wedding and he was awesome. We loved his style and also how comfortable he made us feel when he was taking photos.

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

Yes we were so so pleased!! On the day he was amazing, as was the second photographer that he brought along (Emil Boczek www.emilboczek.com). Simon’s relaxed, laid back approach was perfect for us as we didn’t want anything too stiff and wanted the photos to be really natural and authentically capture the best parts of the day!

Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (31)

Tell us about your venue – what made this place special for you?

We had a marquee in one of our family homes. We decided on this so that we could truly make the wedding feel like it represented us as a couple and it gave us the ability to be able to decorate and plan the venue exactly as we wanted and it really was amazing! A true tropical, tiki, pineapple filled party venue!!

We hired a G Wagon as our wedding car which we loved! One of the ushers drove my dad and I to the ceremony and then my husband and I drove ourselves back to the venue after the ceremony which was so fun!

Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (2)

Did you love wearing your outfits? How was the dress / suit shopping experience?

We love love loved our outfits!

My dress came from Halo and Wren and was by a designer called Marquise from Australia. The bridal boutique was just incredible, as was Jemma the owner, and i instantly felt comfortable the minute i stepped in! It was the first shop i went to and was just full of beautiful and more alternative dress options as opposed to traditional which just wasn’t me.
My brother-in-law has his own tailoring brand called Joseph Darcy so all of the suits were tailor made by him! We went with black tie and the boys all looked so smart and chic and the quality of the suits were amazing!

Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (36)

Did you hire a florist? Tell us about any floral amazingness

Yes, we used Sorcha Herbert flowers and i was absolutely blown away! To go with our tropical theme, we wanted big palm leaves, pineapples and all things tropical and Sorcha really went over and above – they were insane!! She even used succulents for the table decorations which really just brought everything together – I couldn’t have been more pleased!

As cake lovers here at English Wedding we’d LOVE to know who made your cake, and how delicious it was?

We did a couple of different things when it came to something sweet. We’re a big lover of doughnuts so we had a krispy kreme doughnut wall which went down a treat! We then had the most beautiful cake made by The Indulgent Sugar Plum which was a two tiered, artistic, watercolour design. We did have a slight mare that the cake collapsed due to it being a little too hot in the marquee – but part of it was able to be saved and it still looked beautiful and was tasty when we cut it the following day – we were having too much fun to stop and cut it on our actual wedding day!!

Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (32)

Tell us about any special personal touches, or creative projects you made yourselves

For our favours and name table settings I ordered mini nutella jars. I managed to track down someone on etsy who made mini personalised name nutella stickers so we ordered those and one Sunday put them all together and they looked fab! Went down well with the cookies and ice cream for our dessert!
We also collected all of our decorative pots, vases, signs, plants in the year leading up to the big day which made it all the more special when we pulled it all together!

Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (19)

Did you personalise your vows or have any wedding readings? What were they?

We actually got officially married the week before our wedding (without anyone but our parents knowing!) as we weren’t able to get officially married at our ceremony venue. We didn’t want to get married in a church, so it was tough finding a venue for just an hour’s hire, but we ended up hiring a really pretty village hall which we decorated with perspex ghost chairs, giant tassel balloons and had an amazing celebrant called Amanda Alexander who we wrote our vows alongside which made it feel more special together with our friends and family!
We had 2 readings, one called ‘He’s not perfect’ and one which described the true meaning of friendship which two of our closest friends read for us and we loved!

What was your first dance song? Why did you choose it?

Our first dance wasn’t a traditional type of dance as we’re not the romantic type…we went for Bruno Mars – 24k Magic and then got everyone on for a proper party!
We had the most incredible band called The White Keys – we literally danced all night with them – they do an amazing mix of traditional more modern music and come out into the crowd and dance with you as they perform! Our DJ was also super cool and played amazing RnB, garage and club music! Nothing too cheesy for us!!

Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (29)

Favourite wedding suppliers

Photographer – Simon Biffen Photography
Second Photographer – Emil Boczek
Wedding Planner – Love Lydia
Celebrant – Amanda Alexander
Marquee – WA Carr & Son
Balloons – Bubblegum Balloons
Flowers – Sorcha Herbert
Cake – The Indulgent Sugar Plum
Make-up – Georgia Shults
Hair – Sophie Collins (Clipso)
Dress – Marquise from Halo and Wren
Suits – Joseph Darcy
Caterers – Anna’s Kitchen
Band – The White Keys
DJ – Marcus Anthony
Neon light photo booth – Vowed and Amazed

Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (1)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (4)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (5)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (6)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (7)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (8)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (9)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (10)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (11)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (12)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (13)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (14)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (15)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (16)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (17)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (18)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (20)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (21)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (22)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (23)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (24)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (25)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (26)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (27)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (28)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (30)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (33)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (34)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (35)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (37)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (38)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (39)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (40)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (41)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (42)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (43)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (44)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (45)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (46)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (47)
Super elegant and sophisticated black tie wedding in Hertfordshire, photographer credit Simon Biffen Photography (48)


Claire Gould

Claire spends her days writing - either in beautiful calligraphy or online. She lives on the edge of the English Lake District only minutes away from the beach, where she loves to escape and unwind. Claire's calligraphy can be found at www.byMoonandTide.com. Claire launched the English Wedding Blog in November 2009 - it's been a top 10 UK wedding blog ever since, with a regional focus we hope you LOVE.

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