English Wedding Ideas

I love these photos of this happily married couple, Laura and Leigh from Southampton. It was great chatting to Laura about their special day, how they met, honeymoon and top tips for getting married- she clearly had a fantastic day and loved organising her wedding (no wonder that she has now decided to do that as a job!)

The background
Leigh and Laura have know each other since they were 2 years old and they attended the same playgroup which was run by their mothers. They have pictures at Leigh’s 5th birthday party with her perspective in-laws.
Laura took Leigh to Rome for his birthday Feb 16th, but arrived in Rome on Valentines Day. Unbeknown to her, Leigh had contacted the hotel and arranged to have 12 long stem red roses on arrival and he proceeded to propose down on one knee on Valentines evening. Ahhh sweet!

Although the couple have known of each other for 25 years before marrying, they were not friends or enemies at school.

The wedding day
Laura wore a Sophia Tolli 2 piece outfit and bright orange shoes to match the wedding theme. The wedding ceremony took place in the elegant Romsey Abbey in front of 150 guests.

The location had a special meaning as Leigh’s parents had got married there 38 years before hand. Following the exchanging of wedding vows, Leigh and Laura then had the wedding blessed.

After the service guests were greeted at Romsey Town Hall with a specially designed ‘House of Payne’ cocktail. Following the drinks reception guests moved upstairs to the wedding breakfast on one of 4 family named banquet tables.

The food for the wedding breakfast was a surprise with either organic farmed fish and chips or awarding winning Uptons of Bassett Sausage and chips served with the traditional accompaniment of Champagne.

Dessert was a make your own ice cream, with each guest being served a bowl of New Forest Ice cream and on the tables were sprinkles, flakes and syrup- wow that sounds amazing! Looks like the cake was a tower of cheeses – I love alternate choices for wedding cakes, such as cupcakes, brownies and cheese.

The Wedding Party
Leigh’s best friend Paul Nelson was Bestman, Laura’s sister and oldest friend were bridesmaids. The bridesmaids worn promo style dresses from Monsoon. Leigh’s brother Ian led the ushers with Peter Nobbs as well. Both sets of parents were also present and Laura was given away by her proud father.

The Honeymoon
Two days after the wedding Leigh and Laura set off on an American adventures. First flying into San Francisco, walking over the golden gate bridge and visiting Alcatraz. Then flying into Las Vegas, taking the helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon and on Laura’s birthday Leigh had arranged a surprise meal at Stratosphere’s Top of the World restaurant, 800 ft above the strip that revolves 360 degrees (there seems to be a recurring theme here of Leigh being very good at organising surprises). Following Las Vegas they flew into Miami and drove down the Florida Keys spending some much needed relaxing time in Islamorada and Key West before returning to Miami,

What was the best bit of advice you received?
“Set aside some time in the day for the bride, groom and immediate family to be together to enjoy the day. On arriving at the reception venue we went into an anti room with the immediate bridal party and enjoyed a bottle of champagne together, lots of hugs and congratulations”

What is you best wedding tip?
“Hire a wedding planner to run the day at the very least. This is especially important if you are not having your wedding in one location as it normally falls onto the mother of the bride or groom, best man or chief bridesmaid to make sure that everything is running to time. This is a lot of pressure and means that they cannot simply enjoy the day”

Best memories of the day?
“Drawing along side Leigh at the alter, as the Bestman had not let him turn around so he had not yet seen me. When he finally did he had the best smile and look on his face and the service was magical”

Any funny stories?
“I (Laura) arrived at the Abbey 5 minutes early, only to find that most of the wedding guests including mother of the bride and bridesmaids, were in the local hostelry enjoying a chilled glass of something to calm their nerves. I was then overtaken by wedding guests entering the Abbey as she waited in the car!!”

Having had such a successful wedding Laura and Leigh decided to set up a bespoke wedding planning consultancy, Myriad Genii . Check out their site as there is lots of info on there and even a competition to win a ‘kick start your wedding plans’ session.