What an amazing weekend! The crazy scenes as our Lionesses won at Wembley are keeping us grinning today! Did you see the interviews? Seeing the joy on the players’ faces, hearing their hearts bursting with pride as they ran off from interviews and skidded across the pitch on their knees… WHAT A WEEKEND!!! We are SO happy today!!
Keeping the joy flowing strong on our screens, we’re thrilled to be sharing this elegant celebration for a beautiful bride and gorgeous groom at Mitton Hall, with True Love Optics behind the camera. We spotted Pash & Sean’s stunning Lancashire wedding on instagram a few weeks back and fell in love – and we’ve a feeling you will too!
Wedding photographer’s website
Robert from https://www.trueloveoptics.co.uk/
How did you choose your photographer?
By looking on a wedding planning app and the photographer’s portfolio. It was very important to us that the photos were authentic, natural and captured intimate moments without being forced.
Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!
We loved our photography. He really impressed us with how he handled guests and the quality of the photos. We didn’t notice most of the time that he was there (which is what we wanted) and he got all the shots we needed and shots we didn’t even know we wanted. He was very professional and assertive and definitely made us feel as though we didn’t have to worry about the photography element of the day as he knew exactly what we wanted and executed it perfectly.
What’s your fondest memory of your wedding?
After the ceremony, my husband and I had a brief ten minutes where we finally had a chance to speak after the madness of preparing for the wedding, getting married and walking down the confetti line. It was just us outside the venue and everything was so quiet. We shared some laughs as we both joked about how mad it is that we has actually managed to plan a wedding and it seemed like it was going half well! Our favourite wedding shot is from this moment.
If you had a videographer, tell us about them!
Jamie Shaw, Andromeda Video Production
A videographer was very important to us because our wedding was during Covid and we had families abroad who we wanted to share the key aspects of the wedding with. My husband was also doing a speech in my native language and it was just too funny to not capture that moment forever. And thinking long term we wanted something to be able to share with our children in the future in the same way other family members had shown us their videos.
Tell us about your venue – what made this place special for you?
The venue was just beautiful. It was quintessentially English but with a modern twist and we fell in love with it instantly. We knew it was fate as soon as we walked in.
Did you love wearing your outfits? How was your shopping experience, was it fun to find your wedding gear?
It was lots of fun! We wanted to keep the memories of our wedding and wedding planning within the town we were getting married and we ended up using local suppliers near Whalley. As we are based in south Manchester it meant every appointment for outfits was a little road trip and we absolutely loved it. Everyone was so nice and professional and it made the whole experience so much fun.
Did you hire a florist? Tell us about any floral amazingness 🙂
We used the flower shop in Clitheroe. They were amazing and my bouquet was definitely one of my favourite parts of the day. Parts of the arranging were during Covid lockdown so I had to explain my vision to the florist and she executed it beautifully.
As cake lovers here at English Wedding we’d LOVE to know who made your cake, and how delicious it was?
Zara’s cakes in prestwich made and delivered our cake and donut wall. We’re not usually cake people but we definitely had the most cake that day out of everyone else. It was delicious and we had multiple flavours.
Tell us about any special personal touches, or creative projects you made yourselves (we love that stuff!)
We hand wrote the names for the table plan (by we, it was mainly Sean). We had some guests take the tags home as they thought they were professionally made – it was a nice task for us as it made us really appreciate how many people were coming to celebrate with us and how much support we had all over the country. Those bits can sometimes be missed in the frenzy of prepping so it was nice to just sit down for a few hours and go through our guest list.
Did you have any wedding readings? What were they?
Touched by an Angel by Maya Angelou
Sonnet 116 – Shakespeare
What was your first dance song? Why did you choose it?
Neil young – harvest moon
We used to go to a quiz every Tuesday for three years and this would always be played by the quiz master and we fell in love with it and the meaning behind it was so powerful we couldn’t think of anything else more apt.
Favourite wedding suppliers
Our videographer, photographer and florist were fabulous.
Our wedding dress suppler – Lulu’s in Whalley were exceptional along with the legend bridal designs in Great Harwood who did the fittings.
I’m wondering this morning if any other weddings could ever rival the joy and celebration of an Indian wedding. There’s just so much going on, so much happiness and laughter. Today our blog is all about Guppi and Gan’s wedding weekend, which has me grinning from ear to ear at all the amaaazing moments. They chose award winning documentary wedding photographers York Place Studios to capture both days, and we invite you to grab a cuppa and scroll slowly… because this is a wedding with so much going on, all captured thoughtfully and beautifully.
The gorgeous pair had a traditional Hindu wedding at the Shri Venkateswara (Balaji) Temple in the West Midlands – an incredible place, inspired by and modelled on a temple in Tirupathi, South India. The wedding photography really does tell the story of the day in a way that ‘standard’ wedding pictures often don’t. This is the beauty of authentic documentary wedding photography, and York Place are one of the very, very best in the UK.
The following day, the guys changed into black tie for a breathtaking civil ceremony at Blenheim Palace in Oxford, with Guppi in a stunning Indian dress which sparkles in the sunshine.
Don’t miss the little flower girl trying (successfully!) to steal the show – she’s adorable! All of those emotional connections with loved ones are so very precious, it’s wonderful to see them all captured here. This is what weddings are all about, and I’ve LOVED scrolling through all the images from Guppi and Gan’s Indian wedding weekend.
For us that’s what weddings are all about: photographing people just being people, making memories not just photographs and trying to capture an essence of who our couples are in our candid, inimitable style. ~ Dom & Liam, London wedding photographers York Place Studios
We’re over the moon today to be sharing stunning images from beautiful Shloka Narang‘s wedding in Mumbai. When we first saw these pics we were smitten, and a peek at @Shloka’s insta and the lovely words she’d written about her wedding to Shiv grabbed our hearts and gave them an extra squeeze!
“After having to delay our huge Indian wedding four times due to the pandemic, Shiv and I decided to have an intimate 50 person affair to celebrate our love for each other and to do our Hindu wedding ceremony. Starting with a list of 800 and cutting down to 50 was a task in itself! We decided to do it in Mumbai, India, which is where I am from originally.”
I decided to go completely makeup-free to one of the events (Haldi) at our wedding. I have acne-prone skin and have struggled with acne as well as scarring for a lot of my adult life so this was a risk for me but I really wanted to be comfortable in my own skin.
The event was a ritual-based one, but I was still going to be heavily photographed and of course, all our guests were there but I was so happy I did this because I really wanted to look and feel myself during our wedding. It really proved to me that beauty is on the inside and real happiness radiates beyond any make up! What better event, as the significance of a haldi is to purify you and your soul before your wedding and to have your families good wishes and love showered upon you.
For the ceremony itself, Shiv and I broke tradition and actually saw each other before. Once he was dressed he came up to my room and saw me before I had my veil on and we were able to take some photos and spend time together. It was one of the best decisions we made. It really helped us both feel calmer before the actual ceremony and although we weren’t sure if it was going to take away from the moment that we would see each other at the ceremony, it actually made it all so much more special. I wore a custom made Manish Malhotra outfit for this, which was a dream to have made and to finally be able to wear. Note: I tried on my outfit only 5 days before our wedding due to the pandemic!!!
Our biggest takeaway from this whole experience is that a wedding is truly a celebration of you as a couple, so it should reflect the two of you and your values in every way!
Wedding photographer’s website
https://www.instagram.com/fourfoldpictures/
How did you choose your photographer?
Indian weddings have a lot of ceremonies involved, and since our wedding was incredibly intimate, we were looking for someone who could capture the essence and mood of the event. It was really important that our couple photographs were as beautiful as the candid imagery from the wedding.
Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!
Incredibly pleased. Our photographers really took the time to get to know us as a couple and the photos were a real reflection of us. They captured our candid moments so beautifully and more than just us they also captured our family so well. When we look at the photos we are filled with joy!
Tell us about your venue – what made this place special for you?
We chose to do it in a hotel in Mumbai. We wanted our guests to all stay at the venue as we had so many different ceremonies taking place and as it was mainly family, it was quite a lot of fun to all be together. The hotel was the JW Marriott Sahar, and they took fabulous care of us!
Did you love wearing your outfits? How was the dress / suit shopping experience?
Shiv and I had to plan our wedding remotely – we had initially planned a huge Indian wedding in Jaipur but due to the pandemic and countless delays. Shiv looked for his outfit completely remotely. He had identified the designer as it was someone he had worn before and worked with them virtually to choose a design. They sent it to us in London where he tried it on! For me, it was a little different. Indian wedding outfits are quite large and elaborate so getting it to London just for a trial was not going to be possible. I had worked with one the team of one of my favorite Indian designers, Manish Malhotra, to create something custom-made. Back in 2019, we identified the types of work I liked, the colour, the cut and from there the team created a beautiful custom-made lehnga. The only catch was that I wasn’t going to be able to try it on until I arrived in Mumbai. I tried my wedding outfit on for the first time a few days before our wedding! Luckily it was incredible, exactly what I had imagined and wanted. It just shows how important it is to go for a designer whose aesthetics match your own!
Mehendi. The Mehendi ceremony is where the bride and her female family members have henna applied to their hands in intricate patterns. Bridal henna is incredibly intricate and is done on the hands and the feet – mine took 5 hours to do! I did it in advance so I could truly enjoy the event.
Did you hire a wedding planner?
Our wedding planners are called The Design Company by Henna Arora – they are a couple, Henna and Ashish and they not only styled our big day but also handled the logistics. Indian weddings take place over a few days so there was a lot to plan! They made sure to create the most stunning scenes for every event – every event looked and felt different and had an amazing atmosphere! We genuinely couldn’t have done it without them! Not only were they an incredible support on that front, but they were also so supportive for Shiv and I, making us feel so special.
Tell us about any special personal touches, or creative projects you made yourselves
Since our wedding was very intimate we wanted to make sure that our guests felt that. We handwrote little welcome notes, as well as thank you notes for each of our guests that were then dropped off in their rooms for them along with a special little present. Shiv’s mother who is an illustrator actually designed these cards for us – the welcome note had a background of lotuses to represent India (our heritage, but also where I was born and brought up) and our thank you notes were with a background of tulips to represent Holland (where Shiv was born and brought up!)
Although our wedding was only 50 people, Shiv and I are planning something larger for the year, which is why we chose an Italian theme!
How did the pandemic affect your wedding plans? Do you have any advice to share with couples planning their weddings right now?
We got engaged in 2019 and were planning to have our wedding in 2020. It was such a difficult process to have to continuously delay our wedding (it was delayed perhaps 5 times!) not just from a logistic perspective but also an emotional one. What we both learned was that at some point, you have to let go of the stress and try to enjoy the moment. Things change so rapidly, and we had to just focus on what was in our control, and be flexible and open to making changes to still be able to create the day that we wanted.
An elegant English castle wedding done beautifully – this is a wonderful feature we’ve been so looking forward to sharing with you. Racheal and Jonathan married at Powderham Castle, overlooking the river Exe in glorious Devon. With three stunning dress changes, Rachael looks incredible every moment of their day – and Jonathan looks fantastic in a very elegant blue suit. (He told us he’s a quick shopper and was done in 15 minutes!)
They chose our friends at Evolve Photography in Devon to capture their day. Experienced, talented and exceptionally hardworking wedding photographers, Evolve delivered an amazing set of images which tell the story of this Devon wedding with oodles of grace and charm. Keep scrolling to see the full selection of photographs from Racheal and Jonathan’s day!
Wedding photographer’s website
How did you choose your photographer?
We both researched extensively online before choosing Mark as our photographer
Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!
Yes! Mark was fantastic from the outset and set our minds at ease , we couldn’t be happier with the finished results which have given us our lovely memories
Tell us about your venue – what made this place special for you?
Powderham Castle was special, it was where I proposed to Racheal as it’s somewhere we both love to visit, it has some unique rooms and the outside lighting in winter really added a distinct style to our photographs. The photos on the staircase are a particular highlight
Did you love wearing your outfits? How was the dress / suit shopping experience?
Racheal: My plan was to have 5 dress changes which is normal in the Ugandan culture, in the end we settled for 3 haha and this worked well with the timings throughout the day. Also, I went over budget for my main dress but it was so worth it I knew the dress was perfect when I saw it.
Jonathan: I am a decisive shopper! The first suit I tried on I knew it was the one for me and I was done in 15 minutes to be fair.
Did you hire a florist? Tell us about any floral amazingness
Yes we used 2 local florists in Exeter and also mixed our decorations with some artificial flowers as this helped with our budget
Did you hire a wedding planner?
No wedding planner, we both worked closely together and can’t thank Jonathan’s mum and sisters enough in particular who helped greatly including the wedding invitations and table planning
As cake lovers here at English Wedding we’d LOVE to know who made your cake, and how delicious it was?
We budgeted in this area so we could use a different caterer, Jonathan’s mother made an amazing tiered cake which was a hit!
Tell us about any special personal touches, or creative projects you made yourselves
We worked extensively in the table layouts and spent a number of months picking up different pieces to add to the decorations across the castle
Did you personalise your vows or have any wedding readings? What were they?
Yes we both wrote individual vows which we read to each other on the big day , it was a lovely surprise for both of us.
What was your first dance song? Why did you choose it?
We choose Lover (first dance remix ) by Taylor Swift
How did the pandemic affect your wedding plans? Do you have any advice to share with couples planning their weddings right now?
We were very fortunate: in October 2020 when we first met with Powderham we agreed on November 2021, We had it confirmed for the outset that if any rules or regulations were to change with guest numbers we would receive a certain percentage of all the costs refunded to us, thankfully the wedding went ahead with just over 100 people and we had no restrictions in place
Favourite wedding suppliers
Devon wedding photographers Evolve Photography are members of English Wedding
Web: https://evolvephoto.co.uk
A vibrant, relaxed micro wedding with just two witnesses – and all the fabulous details to make the day look amazing. Jade and Richard had to rethink their Nigerian wedding because of the pandemic, and downsized their plans to this intimate and romantic celebration of their love. With a gorgeous bride and groom, a stunning pixie dress and funky suit, summer meadow wildflowers and a home made cake, this is exciting and inspiring – the perfect little wedding. Special thanks to lovely Laura from Freeform Images for sharing her images with us today.
Wedding photographer’s website
Free form images Laura farmer https://www.freeformimages.co.uk
How did you choose your photographer?
She was recommended through the venue and we just absolutely loved the feedback on Laura’s previous work
Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!
Photos were absolutely dreamy. Laura was really fun and relaxed on the day and felt like a guest and friend more than a photographer
Tell us about your venue – what made this place special for you?
Beautiful venue at millbrook estate. Private and intimate for a relaxed wedding just us.
Did you love wearing your outfits? How was the dress / suit shopping experience?
Really relaxed experience we really didn’t have any stress at all, I felt amazing in my pixie dress. Richard chose his funky suit relatively easy and off we went 🙂
Did you hire a florist? Tell us about any floral amazingness
I did just for a bouquet for myself and two button holes. Flowers were amazing summer meadow wildflowers which really complimented the vibe of the day.
As cake lovers here at English Wedding we’d LOVE to know who made your cake, and how delicious it was?
I made my own cake 🙂 small and simple with two wooden characters and flags with nigerian prints
What was your first dance song? Why did you choose it?
Whitney Houston your love is my love – always a song we put on in the kitchen whilst cooking together
How did the pandemic affect your wedding plans? Do you have any advice to share with couples planning their weddings right now?
We initially were looking at a wedding with lots of guests which is traditional in Nigerian culture, however the pandemic made us reevaluate our plans and opened up the possibility of a more intimate day with just us which we were more fond of. We got engaged in Croyde the year before so returning to Devon to get married was just perfect. We got married and moved into our first purchased home in the same week
Millbrook Estate wedding suppliers
Venue website: https://www.millbrookcottages.co.uk
Photographer: Freeform Images
Dress: Asos
Flowers: Changing Blooms
Cufflinks: Badger and Brown
Afternoon tea: Justine Wood Food
