Rachel and Phil’s Music Loving Full of Colour West Sussex Wedding by Photography By Soven

Todays wedding is a real treat, bursting with colour from the flowers to the paper lanterns to the table decoration it really is a feast for the eyes. Rachel and Phil wanted to incorporate their love of music into their day, so they chose different music themes to work with their bright and beautiful multi-coloured colour scheme. Taking on festival influences mixed with lots of personal touches, this wedding really is a pure delight. I just love the cake table, the pizza van, the light up letters, it all looks amazing. And the laughter, so much laughter, what a fun filled wedding to be a guest at! Big thanks to Photography By Soven for capturing the day for us.

Genuinely the happiest day of our lives. To celebrate your love with all of the most important people in your life present is more special than you ever imagine.

Rachel and Phil were married on 21st July 2019 at Farbridge, Chichester in West Sussex. ‘It is a Stunning venue but most importantly, on our first viewing, it was very much a case of them asking us “What do you want from your wedding? We will do it” whereas other venues were more like “This is what we offer”. We had 115 guests in the day with an extra 10 in the evening and it took 15 months to plan.’

How they met
Phil went to senior school with Rachel’s brother Ben and despite knowing each other, we first spoke properly at a flat-warming party he had. Been together 8 years at time of getting married (now 9)

The proposal
We love doing Escape Rooms, so one Saturday that Rachel was out, Phil set up an ‘Enter the Room’ challenge at their flat for when she got home. She had to crack a challenge about various dates of our relationship to get into the flat, then had to pick out pictures of us from a collection to enter the lounge, where Phil was ready with the final ‘question’!

How did you allocate your budget?
Used guidelines we had found online and had a detailed budget spreadsheet given to us by a close friend who recently got married. This really helped. The biggest outlays were the venue and catering.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We went big on the food and everyone still talks about it! We saved by making sure we didn’t do things just for the sake of it because “that’s what you do for a wedding”. So, we had no cake for example as we didn’t care about that, just had a few cupcakes instead. Our initial band choice from another friend’s wedding cost a fortune, so we found a great different band and saw them play at a pub before booking them, that was great. We also set budgets on clothing that we felt were reasonable but not crazy.

How did you choose your photographer?
Knew Soven from a networking group and loved his photos ever since the beginning. It was a no-brainer. Also, knowing him already meant we felt we could trust him completely.

The dress
Dress and veil from White Leaf Boutique in Brighton. Earrings were a present from grandmother. Bracelet from Carrie Elizabeth. Shoes from a high street shop (can’t remember which!)

The suit and bridesmaids
Suit was made by Robert Hardy Suits, bridesmaid dresses from Monsoon and Dorothy Perkins

Theme or colour scheme
The theme was “colourful!”. So we had lots of bright colours – yellows, pinks, green, blues, oranges.

Flowers
Flowers from Roots Creative Floristry – focus on wild flowers and again, a huge mix of colours

Decoration
Big, colourful lanterns in the main barn (a nod to a visit to Hoi An, Vietnam), colourful lights outside, light up ‘Mr & Mrs C’ sign

Food 
Canapes: Catch of the day taco, smoked red pepper salsa, lime crema, Mozzarella and sun blushed tomato arancini, pesto dip. Burnt ends, English muffins, miso butter, Salted turnip, crushed peas and roasted garlic, pomegranate.
Starter: Flat breads topped with falafel, homous, tzatziki, barrel aged feta, beetroot chutney, olive tapenade, tabbouleh, and tahini dressing
Main (served to the tables for sharing): Salmon marinated with tamarind, lemongrass and lime, caramelised sweet chilli sauce Chicken malagueta (Brazilian chilli and garlic rub), tomato, mango and mint salsa Braised smoked lamb shoulder, sticky braising sauce, parsley chilli and mint dressing
Dessert: Lemon meringue cheesecake, lemon and orange parfait, lemon, candy, tuille, snow, curd and wafer

Wedding Cake 
A range of cupcakes – chocolate, red velvet, vanilla

Entertainment
The DEPs band – acoustic set, band and DJ. Garden games on the lawn.

Who supplied the stationery?
Advanced Print, Coulsdon

Where did you go on your honeymoon
Went to Tanzania and Zanzibar for 2 weeks (safari and beach) in September 2019. Epic!

Personal touches
Themed a lot around our love of music – table names were favourite song names, everyone got festival-style wristbands, everyone got colourful badges for Royal Marsden charity in memory of Phil’s Mother. Wrote our own vows. Unique first dance song of Above and Beyond – A Thing Called Love.

Special moments
Genuinely the happiest day of our lives. The ceremony was really magical and special. Food was unbelievable. Dancing the night away was so fun. Phil did a surprise performance of 21 Seconds by So Solid Crew!

Advice for other couples
Focus on what you want from a wedding. You can spend as little or as much as you want on anything, but think about what you actually, truly want. Don’t spend money or have things just because that’s what you have in a wedding.
Also, the best advice we received was make sure to put a few moments in the timeline of the day where the two of you take time for just yourselves. By booking this time in (e.g. straight after the ceremony, when everyone went in to get seated for the meal), we got to reflect on how special the day was and what it meant for us.

Biggest surprise
Phil’s ‘21 Seconds’ rendition no-one knew about and went down a treat! As a couple, the biggest surprise was honestly how happy we were all day. We thought we might be more emotional, or it not be as good as people say, but it was just the BEST day. Smiled non-stop.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Venue: Farbridge
• Band: The DEPs
• Photography: Photography By Soven
• Videographer: Newlywed Films 
• Rings: Goldfinger 
• Groom Suit: Robert Hardy Suits
• Groomsmen Suits: MossBros Hire 
• Wedding Dress: White Leaf Boutique
• Decoration: Stress Free Hire 
• Decoration: Strobe Events
• Evening Food: Tin Roof 
• Flowers: Roots Creative Floristry 
• Hair: Cindy Arpesella
• Makeup: Blue Vanilla Beauty 

For more information about Soven’s work go to

www.amatya.co.uk / www.amatya.co.uk/farbridge-wedding-photography / [email protected] / +447961410413 / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / PINTEREST / TWITTER

I’m a Surrey Wedding Photographer capturing heartfelt and beautiful photographs of extraordinary couples around the world. I capture all the moments and emotions of the wedding celebrations in an unobtrusive style, and my friendly and relaxed approach means the couple can spend more time with their weddings with their friend and family.