A gorgeous summer wedding with colourful, vibrant flowers and lovely styling touches – all made by our stunning couple Hannah and Zak and their families. The venue is wonderful: a vineyard estate in North Somerset – Aldwick Estate has two beautifully converted barns and views of the rolling Mendip hills. Glorious images by Aldwick Estate wedding photographer Martin Dabek, who we’re proud to say is an English Wedding member.

Your wedding day will probably be the only the day the two of you will have where everyone you love is all together, so enjoy it as much as you can and don’t worry about anything, and that’s what we did, and we had the best day of our lives.

Wedding photographer’s website

Martin Dabek, Bristol wedding photographer

https://martindabek.com/

How did you choose your photographer?

We browsed through the wedding photos shown on our venue’s website (Aldwick Estate), and we found one of Martin’s photos on there which we loved, we then explored his website and invited him to meet us, we loved his style and his friendly natural approach to photography.

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

Yes! Martin was amazing. He was so creative, friendly and he was a joy to be with on the day. Martin was so approachable and relaxed, it made us feel relaxed and we really enjoyed each and every moment.

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

Hayley Lemm – a family friend of ours who shot Hannah’s sisters wedding which we loved. We can’t thank her enough, her video is everything we dreamed of, so professional and heartwarming and she was brilliant. We would recommend anyone to have a wedding video, it’s such a lovely thing for us to watch back and really captures the day.

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

Aldwick Estate was everything we wanted. Amazing scenery, really friendly wedding team, accommodation on site for our immediate family, exclusive just for us on the day. It has a beautiful ceremony room, cosy fun bar and a modern rustic reception room, with a vineyard on site!

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

Hannah: It was such a special experience going shopping for my dress. I tried on 36 dresses in the end and just knew my one was the one as soon as I put it on. I felt amazing wearing it on the day and it really made me feel confident.

Zak: Loved it. For me, my three brothers, my three best friends and both dads to all look the part and matching was amazing. The fit of the Moss Bros suit were perfect.

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

Hannah’s mum was our florist! She had help from a friend who owns a flower shop. The night before the wedding, both mums and friends all helped to make the bouquets and flower arrangements for the tables, we went for a multicoloured scheme which brought it all to life!

Did you hire a wedding planner?

We didn’t, but Sarah from Aldwick Estate was so helpful to help us plan so much of our day, so we really didn’t have to do too much!

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

Again, Hannah’s mum did! She did a three layered cake: lemon drizzle (using a Mary Berry recipe), chocolate and beetroot (surprisingly good combo) and carrot cake (Zak’s favourite). The cake was so good and looked so great the staff at Aldwick were convinced it was a professional’s!

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

We both wrote a personalised note to each guest, to thank them for any help they did on the day, for what great friends and family they are and for how much we were looking forward to celebrating the day with them, especially after our wedding was postponed three times! Our table numbers had photos of us from the corresponding years on them – our friends and family had a good laugh reminiscing about these times.

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

We didn’t have any personalised vows but we had three wedding readings. They were: 1) He Never Leaves the Seat Up, 2) The Velveteen Rabbit and 3) Us Two (Winnie the Pooh) – each was read beautifully and were very touching – definitely recommend having readings!

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

A Million Dreams – Pink (The Greatest Showman).

Soon after we got engaged we loved listening to the Greatest Showman, and we picked a song that was perfect as my nickname for Hannah is ‘dream’.

How did the pandemic affect your wedding plans? Do you have any advice to share with couples planning their weddings right now?

We were initially due to get married on 4 April 2020, so with just over 2 weeks to go it got cancelled. It was heartbreaking. But we had each other and our friends and family to get through it. We then moved to 24 July 2020, then 2 April 2021 and finally on 24 July 2021 we did it! Our advice would be: If you have found the perfect venue and have the perfect wedding in mind then do all you can to wait for it to happen, the date isn’t as important, what’s important is making sure you have the wedding you want.

Favourite wedding suppliers

Videographer – Hayley Lemm
Photographer – Martin Dabek

Hair & Make up – White Rabbit – Gemma was so lovely and reassuring despite having to get 6 bridesmaids and me ready on the day! I absolutely loved mine and the bridesmaids’ hair and makeup and it really stayed all day. My only specification for the hair was a plait for everyone and the individual styles really complimented the overall feel for our wedding. Couldn’t recommend her enough.

DJ & games – Kieran Clarke – provided so many amazing inflatable games, which we really entertain all guests and the kids especially! So much fun having activities too.

Harpist – Scarlett Smith – amazing. So friendly and an expert. She learnt a song especially for Hannah’s entrance (Zak’s a big Crystal Palace fan and she composed their anthem for Hannah to walk down the aisle).