My Wedding Suppliers

I gave you a run down on my big day yesterday so today I'm going to tell you all about the venues and suppliers!

Ok, starting with the most important thing – my dress!!

The dress I wore was ‘Colette’ by Rosetta Nicolini from Berketex brides, which at the time was located near Trafalgar Square (it has now moved to just off Oxford Street now). Now please excuse the photos but they’re the only ones I have of my dress at the moment.

My favourite colour is pink!! I love everything pink and girly so there was no doubt in my mind when it came to choosing the colour of my bridesmaid dresses!! Now, looking back at these I do feel that maybe I could have chosen a slightly less vibrant shade of pink but they certainly make a statement! My Husband, his Best Men (He had 3!!) and Ushers all wore Kilts. The Ushers and my Dad wore Black Watch tartan and my Husband and Best Men wore Irish National Tartan.  Again, this is just an amateur photo of the bridal party (my bridesmaids will probably batter me for putting this up) but I promise I am working on the uploading of the professional pics now (well not NOW but when you are reading this I will be I promise!) The bridesmaid and flower girl dresses were all from Debenhams and I just can't recommend them enough! They were so helpful! I can actually say the same for Moss Bros too which is where the guys all hired their Kilts….

My actual service took place in St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, London.

I attended this church every Sunday up until I got married and moved to Oxfordshire (then Surrey and now I’m in Essex!! My husband is in the Army hence all the travelling!)

We got our cars from a company recommended by London Bride and Groom. I’m sure it was actually run by them too but really can’t be 100% certain. Anyway, the drivers were so lovely and made you feel so special! As I got out of my car at the Church, my driver said to me ‘Oh isn’t that a lovely dress. It’s a Maggie Sottero isn’t it – I can spot one of those a mile off’. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he was wrong after making the effort to say something so sweet bless him! (again I apologise for the pic!) …..

Our stationery was from a company called Lollipop Designs. They were so pretty and were a great hit with our guests too as they included a map and an RSVP. Now I know these come as pretty much standard in most invitations today but they were a novelty back then. God I am making this sound ancient but I have come to realise that the years since your wedding should really be measured in dog years in terms of how styles change as things revolve VERY quickly in the industry! I would love to show you a picture but Lollipop no longer do wedding invitations (which is a real shame!). I have just asked Terri (the lovely bridesmaid!) if she can send me a picture as surely she will still have one! I do have one myself but it’s up in the loft and there is no way, never ever EVER that I can go up there and the husband is out. Am I alone with Loft phobia??? ANYWAY, back on track I will add a picture of the invite tomorrow!

Our reception venue was the lovely Conrad Hotel, Chelsea Harbour and it was just beautiful. I wasn’t really sure about having it in a hotel but when I was shown the reception room I was won over! It overlooked a marina and was so romantic. When we got engaged we were quite torn between getting married in the UK or abroad and this venue kind of gave us the best of both worlds I think. It was very easy to forget we were in central London!

Our photographer was the lovely Nikole Ramsay – www.nikoleramsay.com. She was brilliant!! I can’t wait to share some photos with you. I am very shy and really don’t like having my photo taken so choosing the photographer was quite a big deal – at one point I was even considering not having one at all. I knew I wouldn’t feel very comfortable posing for lots of photos so we went for a reportage style and I loved the result! It captured the day perfectly and we have an amazing magazine album too. I really can’t recommend Nikole enough.

For someone who doesn’t like having their photo taken I went into full on panic mode when my Mum and Dad decided that it might be a nice idea to have the wedding filmed – THREE WEEKS before the wedding! I luckily found a lovely couple who were available at such short notice and were very reasonably priced too. They were called WOW! but again, I don’t think they are in business anymore sadly! This was such a good idea as it captured a lot of the day that I wasn’t able to see and again, you wouldn’t have known these guys were there!

I can now say that in hindsight, choosing the right photographer/videographer is probably one of the biggest and most important decisions you’ll make when planning your wedding. Both are most likely to be with you from the start of your preparations in the morning right through to your first dance so you really want to make sure you choose someone that you feel comfortable with!  They will also be providing you with your lasting memories of the day too so it is worth spending time researching and meeting with photographers /videographers and looking through samples of their work before you make your final decision. I consider the money spent on my photographer/videographer to be the best money spent!

Our favours were little silver pails filled with pink Jelly beans (and they had labels with our names and wedding date on) and a lottery ticket in a pink envelope which also doubled as our guests name cards too.

Ooooh! One more thing – A Guest Book!! Don’t forget to get one of these! I ordered mine through www.carolmillerdesigns.co.uk and it was fab! They are personalised and mine came in a box so still looks good as new. It’s full of lovely messages and another great keepsake!

Well that’s it – I won’t bore you with anymore today!! Thank you for reading this and for all the lovely comments about the blog! I was so nervous on Monday when I first posted but you have all been so lovely that I actually look forward to posting now!

If anyone wants any further information on anything mentioned today then please do not hesitate to email me myweddingwonderland@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks again for reading!

Emma xx