Stacey and Akosa's Fun and Colourful Isle of Wight Wedding by Jessica at Babb Photo

Today we are heading off to Cowes for this Fabulous Isle of Wight wedding from the lovely Jessica at Babb Photo. Stacey and Akosa wanted bright and vibrant colours for their wedding and with a lot of help from their friends and family they did this and mixed in a fun tropical theme. With a hand-made dress, the cake made by a friend, flowers arranged by another friend, and the table arrangements made by yet another friend, this wedding truly is a handmade, DIY extravaganza! Full of big smiles and lots of laughter, this wedding is bound to leave you feeling like sunshine has been shining down on you.

Our wedding was a fun and colourful day. It was full of laughter, eating, drinking and dancing with all of our favourite people!

Stacey and Akosa's Fun and Colourful Isle of Wight Wedding by Jessica at Babb Photo

Stacey and Akosa were married on the 3rd June 2016 with a ceremony at St Mary’s Church followed by a reception at Northwood House; both in Cowes, Isle of Wight. ‘We had a traditional Nigerian wedding in London, so we thought it would be nice to have the church wedding on the Isle of Wight, where I grew up. We chose West Cowes as everything was so close together and we wanted it to be easy for guests to get from one place to another. We also hoped that people would enjoy having a long weekend away. We loved St Mary’s Church and were so lucky that our reception venue, Northwood House, was so close by. The staff at Northwood House were so flexible and accommodating, which was great as it helped our day to be exactly as we had wanted it to be. We had 140 guests and the wedding took about a year to plan.’

How they met
We met on the dating website, e-harmony in February 2013 and we instantly hit it off.

The Proposal
Akosa proposed 2 years after we met, during a holiday to Porto in Portugal. He had booked a table at a beautiful restaurant which was built into the side of the cliff, the views were incredible. He proposed as the sun was setting – it was perfect and very romantic.

How did you allocate your budget?
We had a total budget from the beginning and once all of the bigger costs had been spent, we knew what we had left for the decoration, outfits and all of the other details.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We were keen to use a good quality caterer and photographer, so we were happy to spend a bigger part of our budget on both. We were incredibly lucky to have so many talented members of our family and friends to help out, so this helped us to save a lot and also made the day more special to us.

Why did you choose your photographer?
One of my bridesmaids had seen Babb photo on a wedding blog and sent me the link when she knew that we were looking for our photographer. We had a look and loved the style of the photos. We loved having both of our photographers at the wedding and could not have been happier with our photos.

The Dress
I was so happy when my Aunt offered to make my dress for me. She is incredibly talented and it made it feel really special.

The Suit and Bridesmaids
Akosa’s suits were from T.M. Lewin and the bridesmaids dresses were from Warehouse. We liked the contrast of the blue of the suits and the coral of the dresses.

Theme or colour scheme
Our colour theme changed a lot when we first started thinking about our day, but we knew from the start that we wanted bright and vibrant colours.

Flowers
My friend, Kirsty arranged all of the flowers for the day, which was incredible seeing as she was 7 months pregnant at the time! We wanted brightly coloured flowers, and we were so pleased with our arrangements of Peonies, Protea, Celosia and Spray Roses. They really added to the fun feel of the day.

Decoration
Close friends made the Ferrero Rocher pineapple centerpieces, which were also our favours and were a fun addition to the tables. One of these friends also hand painted the place names, which tied together the colourful/tropical theme! We used brightly coloured ribbons and foliage around the venue. Mandy at Finishing Touches was so helpful and supplied the crates for the table names, bottles for the flowers, tablecloths, napkins and lots more!

Food
We love canapes, so made sure that there were plenty to go around. Our caterers were great and helped us to create a menu that we thought would be enjoyed by all of our family and friends. We had lamb shoulder with a Moroccan twist, with lots of sharing salads, dips and flat bread.

Wedding Cake
Another friend, Harriet, made our red velvet wedding cake which was delicious and received so many compliments. We loved the way that she used flowers from our bouquets to decorate it with.

Entertainment
Jules Nelson, who is based on the Isle of Wight played the guitar and sang during our drinks reception – he created a perfect atmosphere for the start of the reception. We hired a wedding caricaturist, Guy Carter who was a huge hit. Our guests loved taking home drawings of themselves. We had The Magic Tones band play during the evening reception. They were fantastic and kept everyone on the dance floor all night!

Stationery
All of the stationary was home-made.

Personal Touches
We did lots of the decoration ourselves and so many of our friends and family contributed that it felt like there were lots of personal touches.

Special Moments or Highlights
The day was full of special moments, we loved having so much fun with our family and friends. However, we loved the speeches and it was really special having our friends and my brother reading during the ceremony. One of my bridesmaids sang and played the piano during the service, which was beautiful.

Advice for other couples
We would definitely recommend that you take up any offers of help from friends and family. So many people have talents and they love to help and be part of your day. Our day was so special because we had the best team of talented loved ones around us and we can not thank them enough!

Biggest Surprise
Everyone told us how the day would fly by, but it was still a surprise when the end of the night came so quickly!