Sometimes you see a wedding and it reminds you of what actually they are all about, family, friends, tradition, love and for this Bournemouth couple, faith. No over the top details, no novelty moustaches, no pretentious concepts just pure, unadulterated declarations of love and commitment. I think it is all to easy for brides and grooms to get caught up in the small details and ultimately lose track of what the day means to them and so I wanted to let this wedding speak for itself. Oh, and there is a gorgeous dress to ogle at :)
Here are the beautiful pictures by their photographer Tom Redman and the details by the bride herself in her own words...
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We got married on the 30th December at Lansdowne Baptist church in Bournemouth. Lansdowne is our family church and our family have been members there for nearly forty years. My Mum and Dad got married there nearly 30 years ago and my brother Alex and his lovely wife Arielle got married at the same church in July 2010.
We had a tea after the service for everyone who was kind enough to attend ceremony.
Following the tea we made our way to the De Vere Royal Bath Hotel for our Champagne Reception and Wedding Breakfast. As a child I had always seen the big white Royal Bath sitting proudly by the sea and wanted to have my wedding reception there. The hotel was also special to us as Pete proposed to me at the top of the Royal Bath in the Admiral’s Cabin over looking the sea.
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| The bridesmaids wore gold dresses with ivory marabou stoles. Pete and the groomsman wore morning suits and I wore a fitted lace dress with a full train. The dress fitted like a glove and the sillouette was great in the photos. During the wedding photos I had to loosen the dress slightly as it was so snug. The only real glitch on the day was Just as I was about to walk down the aisle my dress strap snapped! The ceremony was delayed for a few moments as everyone tried to find a safety pin, my Dad had a spare pin in his buttonhole so we used that and my Auntie, who was the head bridesmaid, managed to secure the strap. |
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As our wedding was during the Christmas period, our theme was gold, ivory and green. We chose the colours so we would co-ordinate with any colours in the church and the Royal Bath.
Maria from Simply Flowers, created our flower arrangements.
My Bouquet and the bridesmaid’s bouquets contained white orchards (my Grandmas favourite flower) and ivory roses.
The church was beautifully decorated with Ivy and ivory ribbon. At the Royal Bath in the Garden Suite, the tables had big candleabras lit with ivy and roses.
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My most memorable moment was walking down the aisle and seeing Pete. I had my eyes fixed on him. To my left, I saw my sisters Charlotte 12 And Victoria 8 crying, at that moment I couldn’t stop myself from crying.
The ceremony was very moving. Pete and I are Christians and we wanted our marriage service to be an expression of our love and our Faith. |
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Our wedding cake was interesting. I had decided months before I was going to have a 5 tier cake just like my Grandparents cake and I was going to make it. My mum and I had decided to make the a fruit cake so it could be made in advance.
My sisters, mum and I made the 5 cakes plus 2 spare and 7 hours later they were finished.
They looked and tasted wonderful. Every month I fed the cakes with brandy, and eventually I put the marzipan on the cakes and left them to dry out a bit.
When the day came to ice the cake we noticed they were still extremely moist. Apparently we had added too much brandy and the fruit cakes were more like Christmas pudding!
A few days before the wedding I remember my Aunt and Cousin valiantly tried to salvage the mess. After careful consideration and a very funny 2 hours, we decided to nip to Marks and Spencer’s and buy some cakes. As it was Christmas eve there wasn’t much left but we bought three finest iced fruit cakes and two very glamorous Dundee cakes. Odd as it sounds they looked great. Maria, our florist, did an amazing job decorating the cakes and stand with ivy and ivory flowers.
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The Christmas decorations at the Royal Bath were very grand and created a wonderful ambiance..
On the tables we had Christmas bath bombs and small votives with candles as favours which made the room smell beautiful.. |
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The Royal Bath had a new Chef and everyone loved the food, it was superb and the evening party was in the De Vere Suite Ballroom.
The whole evening was quite magical and there was a very special moment when we came down the grand staircase and Charlotte my sister surprised us by singing in front of the 200 guests ‘You raise me up’. We had a DJ who was brilliant too and during the night he projected our wedding photos and then took photos of the guests and put them up on the screen for everyone to see. The evening guests had a buffet, champagne toast and a candy shop, which we created from old candle jars my dad had been saving just for the occasion. |
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The only advice I would give to other brides is not to get too caught up in the details and expect perfection. Inevitably something will go wrong and its OK, my dress strap broke twice, I had no cake 3 days before the wedding but I wouldn’t change anything from our wedding day.
It was a wonderful, magical day that we enjoyed with each other and all the people we love.
Ah, what wise words to end a beautiful wedding, thank you to the bride and groom for allowing us to share their special day and of course to Tom Redman for letting us use his images.
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