I do love a winter wedding. Seeing how couples incorporate lights and candles, and the bare branches and evergreen foliage we celebrate through the darker months – it makes weddings a little more special with all those wonderful styling touches. And then, of course, there’s the opportunity for incredible lighting in your photos.
Connie and Lewis knew they had to choose the right photographers for their day, and they loved our friends and Devon wedding photographers Younger Photography from day one. Keep reading to see the review they gave us in their English Wedding interview below!
Connie’s dress was important to her, having worked in the bridal industry for five years. She chose a stunning Pronovias wedding dress from The Wedding Company in Plympton, which looks incredible – she’s such a beautiful bride. Lewis is ever so handsome in a three piece tweed suit, perfect for a winter wedding.
The venue is Trevenna Barns in Cornwall – a wonderful space which looks magical, filled with strings of fairy lights! We’re thrilled to be able to share their day on English Wedding, and we hope you love it too!
Wedding photographer’s website
https://www.youngerphotography.com/
How did you choose your photographer?
Younger Photography have an incredibly respected reputation, and we knew as soon as we were engaged that we had to have them! There was no question that we would choose anyone but them, their style of photography was everything we wanted.
Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!
Andrew and Agnieszka simply blew us away on our wedding day – they put us at ease and made us feel so comfortable. They felt like friends and guests rather than suppliers, making sure that we were getting the photos we asked for and kept the day flowing smoothly. Neither of us are particularly natural when having our photo taken, but Andrew and Agnieszka are both so endearing and approachable, making us laugh and smile the entire day.
Tell us about your venue – what made this place special for you?
We were married at Trevenna, in St Neot, Cornwall. Not only is the venue beautiful, but it was an experience for the entire weekend as 40 of our closest family and friends stayed with us in the stunning accommodation available on site. The views from the venue are gorgeous, with brilliant photo opportunities. Also, the food at Trevenna is incredible, locally sourced and delicious which was so important to us, as we knew our guests would want great food as a lasting memory of the weekend.
Did you love wearing your outfits? How was the dress / suit shopping experience?
Connie spent 5 years working in the bridal industry, so she had an exact idea of the dress she would wear for the day. Her vision came to life with a dress by Pronovias from The Wedding Company in Plympton, however the process was made slightly more complicated when Covid delayed the wedding and our daughter was born in March 2021! After a few alterations, the dress was perfect again. Lewis also knew exactly what he wanted to wear – a gorgeous three piece tweed suit from The Grooms Room in Plympton with silver accessories to match the theme of the wedding.
Did you hire a florist? Tell us about any floral amazingness
Hannah Burnett Floristry created the flowers for our wedding. We wanted to embrace the time of year, with a nod to Christmas and she captured that perfectly. The bridal bouquet contained gorgeous foliage, and included orchids, succulents and pine cones, matching the button holes. Our centre pieces were tall glass vases with eucalyptus, pampas, foliage and pussy willow and were stunning.
As cake lovers here at English Wedding we’d LOVE to know who made your cake, and how delicious it was?
We chose not to have a wedding cake, and instead created our own mince pie tower – seven tiers of mince pies with a big bowl of fresh local clotted cream for our guests to enjoy! It went down a storm, everyone loved it and tucked in to mince pies all evening.
Tell us about any special personal touches, or creative projects you made yourselves
We really wanted to embrace small Christmassy touches to create an experience for our guests. Each guest had a personalised Christmas bauble with their name on, which doubled up as their place card but also a memento of the day that they could take home and put on their Christmas tree, so every year they would remember our wedding. Connie hand made each of the baubles for our guests. We also had Christmas crackers designed to fit our silver theme, and the guests loved playing with the traditional Christmas cracker gifts found inside! Each of our guests chairs were dressed with ivory hoods with a candy cane popped inside.
We also created our own confetti with flowers that had grown in Lewis’ parents’ garden which we had dried and put into personalised bags for each of our guests.
Did you personalise your vows or have any wedding readings? What were they?
Connie’s 12 year old brother read a beautiful poem during our ceremony – People Need People by Benjamin Zephaniah. It’s a lovely reading emphasising why we need our friends, family and loved ones, and was the perfect fit for our ceremony.
What was your first dance song? Why did you choose it?
Our first dance song was A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay. The lyrics mean a lot to us, but also the song is perfect for dancing so all of our friends joined us on the dance floor after a minute or so of us dancing just the two of us – not something we’re particularly good at!!
How did the pandemic affect your wedding plans? Do you have any advice to share with couples planning their weddings right now?
Like many couples, this was our third wedding date and third time lucky getting down that aisle! Covid delayed our plans for a year, and actually we replanned our wedding completely differently to how we had initially intended – the pandemic and having our daughter changed our perspective on many things and we realised what was important to us. We had lost loved ones in the last year who should have been at our wedding, so we didn’t want to delay any longer – we wanted to finally be husband and wife and celebrate that with our close family and friends. It’s very difficult planning a wedding at the moment, especially with the ever changing rules and guidelines. Our advice would be to remember what it is important and why you’re getting married in the first place – things might not turn out exactly as planned, but you will always have your memories of your wedding day.
Favourite wedding suppliers
Florist – https://hannahburnettflorist.co.uk/
Photographer – https://www.youngerphotography.com/
Venue – https://www.trevenna.co.uk/
Dress – Pronovias – from The Wedding Company https://the-wedding-company.co.uk/
Photobooth & 360 Camera – https://www.westcountryphotobooths.co.uk/
Suits – The Grooms Room
Makeup – Emmie Green Make Up Artist
Hair – Lisa Sheldon Wedding Hair
Younger Photography is a member of the English Wedding Blog
Web: https://www.youngerphotography.com
As we come to the end of the year, we have some of our most beautiful weddings to share with you. I’ve been excited to publish Chris and Sarah’s day – the romance and love are just amazing, and the images that capture their day are outstanding. This is a London wedding which will stick in my mind for a long time to come for so many reasons. I really do hope you love it too. 
“The biggest part of our wedding was having our 4 month old son, Stanley, with us. When we planned our wedding we had no idea we would actually be parents on our wedding day. We found out on the day we should have originally been getting married that I was pregnant. Getting married a few months after having a baby was a challenge but we feel so blessed that he was there on our wedding day.”
Wedding photographer’s website
Cambridge wedding photographer Damien Vickers
www.damienvickersphotography.co.uk
How did you choose your photographer?
Damien’s photographs stood out as his has a very unique style when it comes to the colours and vibrancy of the images he creates. We also loved the natural style of his photographs. He captures the real events of the day.
Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!
Damien not only took amazing photos but his experience and knowledge of weddings helped our day run so smoothly. He was so professional but also made you feel like he was one of your close friends. He made having photographs taken feel natural and really fun. Our house is now full of his amazing images.
Wedding illustrator – a wonderful surprise!
We had an illustrator Aaron Jacob Jones (I booked him as a surprise for Chris on the wedding morning). I wanted something different and wanted to have an image we could display alongside our photos and look at every day. Aaron also painted our guests at our reception venue so they had something to take home and remember our special day. His work is outstanding.
https://weddingillustrator.co.uk/
Tell us about your venue – what made this place special for you?
Our wedding ceremony was at Hackney Town Hall. Until the birth of our son Stan, we lived in East London and passed it everyday, even before I met Chris I always said it was where I would love to get married and luck for me Chris loved it too. It was refurbished a few years ago and is simply stunning inside with beautiful Art Deco touches. Our reception was at the Lamb Tavern in Leadenhall market in the city of London. I had walked past the market a few times and thought it was beautiful (it also feature on Harry Potter). The pub has so much character and charm, with multiple rooms and Old Toms bar in the basement that is perfect for the wedding disco. The market is covered is beautifully painted which created a fantastic outside space which was also covered (although we got married in August it rained on our wedding day.
We were really lucky that these were the only venues we actually looked at and they just suited our style so well we didn’t look anywhere else.
Did you love wearing your outfits? How was the dress / suit shopping experience?
My dress was from an Australian designer, Madi Lane. I used an amazing wedding boutique in Hale (I’m a northern girl originally) called Pretty White Dress who had so many amazing dresses. I loved the lace design and the fit of my dress although it was a really tough decision to make.
Chris’ suit was made to measure from the Grooms Room in Colchester. It is navy blue with a slight pink check. Chris doesn’t often wear suits but he looked so handsome on our wedding day.
Did you hire a florist? Tell us about any floral amazingness
We didn’t hire a florist. I made my bouquet and the bridesmaids bouquets and pinholes myself from artificial flowers. I spent a year collecting stems I really loved (lots of roses and eucalyptus and ivy) and then after many an hour of Pinterest research I just went for it. I was really pleased with the outcome.
Did you hire a wedding planner?
We didn’t hire a wedding planner as I love organising myself. As we were impacted by Covid and had to move our original wedding date this took a lot of communication with all our venues and suppliers but everyone was so helpful and we were able to have the day we originally planned for.
As cake lovers here at English Wedding we’d LOVE to know who made your cake, and how delicious it was?
We are a little obsessed with the M&S Colin the caterpillar. Originally we had planned to purchase their bride and groom cakes but unfortunately they were discontinued in the March before our wedding. However we just put our creative hats on and purchased their giant Colin and Connie cakes instead (which serve 40 people each). My mum made a tiny veil and top hat for the cakes and we add on spare flowers from my bouquet. It even featured a baby caterpillar with a top hat to represent our son.
Tell us about any special personal touches, or creative projects you made yourselves
As well as our cake and flowers we decorated our pub venue ourselves. Again my mum was amazing at sewing meters and meters of lace bunting to hang around the pub.
Did you personalise your vows or have any wedding readings? What were they?
We had two wedding readings but they were both a surprise so I can’t remember the actual names of them.
What was your first dance song? Why did you choose it?
Our first dance was to Elton John’s, Your Song. We had both grown up with his music and the lyrics of this fitted so well for us.
How did the pandemic affect your wedding plans? Do you have any advice to share with couples planning their weddings right now?
The pandemic postponed our wedding by a year. This was a little stressful when trying to rebook venues. Sending out a second set of handmade wedding invites is less fun than the first time!
My advice would be try and give your wedding party jobs to do on the day of you don’t have a wedding planner. I found it really hard to give up this control but I couldn’t be the bride and do many of the little jobs on the day. Once all the prep is done, enjoy the day and try and not stress. Sometimes everything doesn’t go exactly to plan but these things usually just make the day better and more memorable. It rained when we had our photos taken but the effect of the rain looked amazing (a credit to our photographer Damien) and we just rocked an umbrella.
Favourite wedding suppliers
https://www.damienvickersphotography.co.uk
https://weddingillustrator.co.uk/
https://www.lambtavernleadenhall.com
https://www.prettywhitedress.net
https://www.thegroomsroomessex.co.uk
Mitch Matthews – DJ https://www.mitchmatthews.co.uk/
