Chantel & Andrew’s chic, modern and timeless wedding at Devonshire Terrace, with Carla Thomas Photography

Published by Claire Gould on July 2, 2020July 2, 2020

I’m over the moon to be sharing this stunning wedding with you today. Chantel is just gorgeous; Andrew is as handsome as can be… and when these two are together their love just shines!! I adore Chantel’s dress (and the nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat story behind it), the elegant and modern styling and the joy that runs through this beautiful day. Huge thanks to lovely Carla Thomas Photography, whose images are absolute perfection. She gets a fantastic review from our happy couple – and a glowing recommendation from me too! I hope you love today’s wedding as much as I do.

With love,

Wedding photographer’s website

Carlathomasphoto.com

How did you choose your photographer?

I met Carla at the Excel Wedding show where I was able to go through her portfolios and get a sense of her company and how she worked in general. Her work looked amazing and she made me feel at ease straight away which was a big thing for me and the deciding factor. I then went home and discussed this with Andrew who was able to get a sense of Carla’s work through the booklets and literature she had given me and he also was in agreement that her work looked great.

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

Our pictures came out really well, beautiful! We will cherish them for a life time. Carla and her partner did not only put us at ease on our special day but Carla went on to ensure we were happy with the end product. She gave us time to choose the photo album we wanted, the pictures we wanted guests to see and the ones we wanted to keep private. Carla even gave us complimentary ‘thank you’ cards for our guests and it still fills me with joy to see the cards on most of our family and friends’ mantelpieces.

Videographer details if applicable – and any thoughts for other couples about having a wedding video?

chris@classicvideo.info

So happy we managed to capture our day in this way also. We have taken much pleasure in watching the whole day back and filling in the gaps. A wedding day is such an exciting but overwhelming day so it is great to be able to sit back and watch it back in the comfort of your own home. Our videographer Chris was great, half the time we didn’t even know he was right there filming so it didn’t feel intrusive and was exciting to see the outcome.

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

Our ceremony took place at Christ Spitalfields Church and our venue was at Devonshire Terrace.
This venue was really special as it firstly just felt like the right choice as soon as we saw it. Secondly, it suited us perfectly as it is bang in the City of London close to where we live but also quite hidden away and scenic. So we felt like we got the best of two worlds.

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

Andrew knew exactly what he wanted so this was pretty much quick and easy.
I was somewhat the same, I fell in love with the first dress I saw in the first shop I went to so had to cancel all other viewings. The owner of the shop and his staff made it such a great experience initially and had all the knowledge as the shop had been open for 20 years… but sadly in a plot twist the shop owner did a runner to the USA, leaving bailiffs to clear out the shop of all wedding dresses and suits. He didn’t inform his staff who some had been working for him for 20 years and found themselves unemployed. Fortunately, these women were amazing and contacted every bride to be to explain the situation. I got the call on my 30th birthday and was devastated. In the end it turned out well and all was sorted with the manufacturers but boy was it a stressful time! I still cannot believe that such a “charming” man who had this shop in Essex for 20 years would do it to so many brides and grooms to be! We never got a refund for Andrew’s suit but luckily it was only for hire and therefore much less pricier than my dress.

My second dress of the day was harder to come by but once I found it I was very happy with it.

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

We did and the outcome was great but a little stressful and chaotic getting there. She was a very talented florist and decorator but unfortunately was not very good at the business side of things and left us on tenterhooks till the very end!

Did you hire a wedding planner?

We had an in house planner who was brilliant and is now freelancing (Rhianon Cobb) she was amazing, the sort of planner you need in your life and then we used an events management team who went on to get everything and everyone in place. They were absolutely brilliant and I dont know what we would have done without them (http://www.mteventsmgmt.com) Abigail was my planner and she was absolutely brilliant too and professional. From mteventsmgmt we also hired our MC MrTandoh and our DJ, DJ Darkozy. Doing it this way was great as it all synched well together.

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

Dollydewdrops.co.uk

Our cake was delicious, the cake tasting was fun and Lizzie was able to capture exactly what we wanted. It was very hassle free and she was very professional.

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

We had a gospel choir for our church ceremony (Gospel Touch). They were very talented and creative and managed to recreate/resemble our songs of choice (http://gtchoir.com/media/).
We also wanted to capture our different cultural backgrounds so had Scottish pipers to bring us into the wedding venue and had african dancers later in evening.