Leanne & Charlie’s beautiful and eclectic Babington House wedding, with MIKI Studios

Published by Claire Gould on July 7, 2020July 7, 2020

Hey there beautiful! I have a gorgeous wedding to share with you today – Leanne & Charlie’s day is elegant and sophisticated, full of contemporary styling touches and with so much love and laughter you can almost taste the atmosphere. It’s a stunner – and captured brilliantly by our lovely friends, UK and destination wedding photographers MIKI Studios. Leanne is incredible in a Halfpenny dress, while Charlie looks amazing in a tailor made suit by John Lancaster at VSmono. I’m thrilled to be able to share Leanne & Charlie’s wedding video as well as their photos with you today – it’s also by MIKI Studios, who get a glowing review from the VERY happy couple!

Wedding video by London wedding videographer MIKI Studios

Wedding photographer’s website:

We had London wedding photographer MIKI Studios

How did you choose your photographer?

We met Mick and Ash at our of our friend’s weddings the year before and totally fell in love with their work. It was so different, quirky and captured the essence of the day. We were pretty set of what we wanted for our big day and knew they could deliver.

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

MIKI Studios are the best in the market without a doubt. From the very beginning, they were attentive, caring and it was clear they had a huge passion for detail. On the day it was like having two extra gusts as they fit in so well, and even to this day (nearly a year later) they continue to make us feel loved and appreciated. Every picture captured true emotion and fun exactly what we wanted, and the video is a dream. We genuinely don’t think the day would be the same without them, they felt like friends and we will treasure those pictures and film for life.

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

It was just the most phenomenal experience ever, there were a lot of happy tears. It took many hours to climb down from the ceiling from all the emotion.

Wedding venue:

Babington House, Somerset, UK – We wanted something relaxed, cool and different, we were also keen for everyone to stay together so this was the perfect venue. We actually only looked at this venue and fell in love with it as soon as we saw it. As they are part of the Soho Group, they are not primarily a wedding venue, so only take weddings on Thursdays. Becky Kingston-wood who worked at Babington was an absolute dream to work with, she took all the stress out of the day and was super friendly throughout.

Can you describe your wedding in fewer than 10 words?

The best party with the most special people!

Your wedding style or theme:

The theme to the whole day was for it to be relaxed, fun yet as personal as possible. We didn’t want to be bound by rules/traditions, and there were no real set colour schemes, just eclectic yet contemporary and meticulous attention to detail.

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

Mainly recommendations from friends and family and from previous weddings we had been guests at.What’s your top tip for saving money?
Don’t feel pressured to have anything you don’t want or don’t need. There is no laws or regulations that say your wedding should follow a certain flow or have a certain look. There are many ways that we saved money because we didn’t value it – cake for example.

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

MIKI Studios…..! By far the best investment and worth every penny! We have photos and film which will make us smile forever!

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

This was all done by the bride herself.

Did you fall in love with your wedding dress?

This was actually Leanne’s second dress, she had her first custom made by a very talented designer in Doncaster (closer to Leanne’s home), however very close to the day Leanne realised the dress wasn’t right and one of her bridesmaids put her in touch with Kate (halfpenny) in the off chance she could make something in time (10 days out from the wedding). Leanne went to meet the team at Halfpenny and they were incredibly professional and helpful and made the dress in under a week.

Wedding dress designer and bridal boutique:

Halfpenny

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

Charlie bought Leanne a Debeers diamond necklace to open on the morning of the wedding (it was a surprise). This was to matcher her engagement and wedding ring which were also from Debeers.
Shoes – 2 x Aquazzurra shoes, one for the day and one for the evening! https://www.aquazzura.com/en. ????? All bridesmaids wore their own shoes but were told to be ‘extra’. This included shoes by Jimmy Choos, Gucci, Gianvito Rossi, Valentino and Stuart Weizmann
Veil – The Wedding Gallery https://www.the-weddinggallery.com/

And what did the groom wear?

John Lancaster at VSMono www.vsmono.com
The groom changed into an evening outfit also tailor-made by John Lancaster at VSmono
All groomsmen and best men wore blue suits from French Connection with green knitted ties.

Beautiful bridesmaids: what did your best girls wear?

All different designs and colours but all from Ghost

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

Makeup – Emily Cox www.ohsomakeup.co.uk
Hair – One of my bridesmaid’s Mums Kathryn O’Hara

Describe your wedding flowers. Who arranged them for you?

Babington House recommended we use Flowers by Passion, and as they had worked with the venue lots of times we felt comfortable they would be able to achieve what we wanted. We didn’t want masses of flowers but wanted to go for a more relaxed foliage look, they also created a 2mx2m bespoke screen for the ceremony which included phoenix palms, leatherleaf, asparagus fern and fan-shaped palm leaves, this was then placed behind the bride and groom during the wedding breakfast.
The bride’s bouquet was utterly divine and was a floor-length!

General styling – did your venue need much decoration?

We used the names and logos of our favourite restaurants for each tale, and we also added fairylights around the tree by the burger truck outside as well as fire pits next to the seating.
For the midnight snacks, we chose Honest Burger to come and set up their food truck outside the venue. Honest Burgers are a client of charlie so again a personal touch!

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

Nothing ‘made’ but lots of personal touches..
Brides sister sang Des’ree kissing you (as she also walked down the aisle)
Celebrant – We used the bride’s other sister Gemma Stanley and groomsman Richard Willcox, Charlie and Leanne wrote their own ceremony as they wanted it to be personal and relaxed. We got legally married in a registry office in London a few weeks before the day (only witnesses came to this wedding).
Leanne and Charlie wrote the vows themselves, they took inspiration from other weddings they visited and endless hours of researching online. The ceremony lasted 25 mins long.
Please see extract below ….
Leanne & Charlie have chosen today to commission a piece of Art as a symbolic gift to one another to celebrate their love for each other. This piece is by the famous artist Ben Eine, who was asked to make this, especially for today.
Art means a lot to both of them and Charlie got his love of art from his sister Louise, and throughout their time together Charlie & Leanne have spent time learning, enjoying and creating art together.

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

We decided to go against the cake in the end but had espresso martinis for everyone after dinner and a room full of cheese later on.

Entertainment: any musical recommendations, surprises or treats?

We chose Duke as the groom had seen them play a few times on his ski season (many years previous), they are hugely talented beat boxers and played two sets either side of a specific DJ we hired.
We also had a Parisian DJ Herve Siard to mix our first dance for us, as well as play a special 30 min set. We also used Stylish Entertainment to play into the small hours of the night (post-Duke).
Espresso martini’s mentioned above