Louise and Mark’s Hot Summer Wedding With Lots of Lovely Yellow. By Justin Bailey

Happy Monday and welcome to the first full week back after the Christmas break! If this is your first day back at work then welcome, I hope today isn’t too much of a struggle for you! To counteract this cold winter weather I have a gorgeous summer wedding for you today, where the weather was a whopping 32 Degrees! Yes in the UK! More of that again this summer please weather Gods if you are listening!  It’s a gorgeous wedding with lots of my favourite colour yellow to add even more summer sunshine to the day, a gorgeous Jenny Packham dress, wonderful DIY touches and the most gorgeous venue! Thanks to Justin Bailey for the stunning photos.

‘It was very special and was amazing to see so many people you care about from different aspects of your life come together in the same room just for you!’

Mark and Louise were married on the 19th of July, at Gaynes Park, Epping. ‘We fell in love with Gaynes Park straight away. From the moment you walk into their grounds you know you are entering somewhere special. It’s the perfect place to make such an important commitment to each other. We had 60 guests and the wedding took 18 months to plan.’

How they met
We’ve been together 10 years. We were introduced by mutual friends. Mark asked me if he could buy me a drink and I drunkenly said ‘as long as you’re not a gooner’. Sadly, he was an Arsenal fan (I support Spurs) but he won me over with his granddad dance moves!

The proposal
We were in Kos on holiday. It was our 8th anniversary while we were there so I bought him some golf lessons as the voucher was easy to pack. When I gave him the gift that morning he apologised and said he didn’t bring anything out for me as we were away. That evening he proposed in a lovely Greek restaurant overlooking the sea with lots of little fairy lights. He had hidden the ring in a sock in his trainer for a whole week as he knew I wouldn’t go near them!!

How did you allocate your budget?
We just worked out how much we could realistically save each month and roughly when we wanted to get married and tried to keep within that figure

How did you choose your photographer?
I was always going to be high maintenance when it came to the photographer as I have worked in the newspaper industry picture editing for many years. I looked at two books before we met Justin Bailey. Before we met him, I knew I liked his style from his website. Mark was quite happy for me to make the decision since I knew more about photography than him, but as we left his house Mark and I both agreed that we loved his portfolio but also warmed instantly to him and his calming persona. We had a lot of fun with him on the day and made us feel at ease which comes through in our final images.

The dress
I wore ‘Eden’ by Jenny Packham. My shoes were bought by my sister from Dune and my Jenny Packham headdress was kindly leant to me by my friend Emily at work as my ‘something borrowed’

The suit and bridesmaids
Mark’s suit & best man’s suit were from Hugh Harris in Surrey. We bought the ushers suits from Debenhams/shirts from TM Lewin. Bridesmaids were Kelsey Rose, bought at Teokath of Canterbury.

Theme or colour scheme
We didn’t really have a theme, but there were hints of blue gingham and buttercup yellow throughout (on invites/bridesmaids bouquets/ushers shirts etc)

Decoration
We had some cool mason jars which we used to serve fresh lemonade and Pimms for pre reception drinks. We also had a lovely twinkly backdrop behind the top table.

Flowers
My bouquet consisted of lots of favourites such as fresia, roses, lavender, cornflower, daisies. The Bridesmaids had crespedia, gypsophillia & Daisies.

Food
The catering team at Gaynes Park are amazing! We had the most delicious scotch egg to start, followed by rib-eye steak with hazelnut oil. We had a trio of deserts; bread and butter pudding, shortbread with cream & Berries & a chocolate brownie with popping candy!

Cake
We had a naked cake with four different flavours – Lemoncello, victoria sponge, chocolate fudge & coconut (we LOVE our cake!)

Entertainment
Lovelight entertainment provided the music in the evening. Justin also had a photobooth.

Buy or DIY your Stationery?
I made all our stationary/table plan. I lived in Hobbycraft and used pinterest for a year looking for inspiration!

Personal or handmade touches
We had a lot of handmade items and personal touches to decorate the venue:
• My father in law helped make an American style letter box for our cards that I coated in glitter along with anyone who came near it!
• I designed a canvas with a lovely quote.
• We had a retro Roberts radio to symbolise our surname and had a vintage typewriter with a note to our guests thanking them for joining us.
• Our centrepiece vases were made of rustic bark with our initials carved into them.

Special moments or highlights
The whole day went better than we could have ever wished for. We found it hilarious when the registrar accidentally got my name wrong during the service! We were overwhelmed at how many people we cared about made such an effort to join us (family travelled from Ireland & Canada) and the fact that some people came as strangers and left (very merrily) as friends was a lovely sight.
It was also lovely at the end of the night when we got back to our honeymoon cottage to find that the lovely staff at Gaynes Park had squirrelled away some of the evening buffet for us to enjoy as a midnight snack! A lovely touch.

Biggest surprise
The weather! It was 32degrees which we didn’t foresee for over here!

Advice for other couples
Just enjoy it and make sure it’s the day you want. Yes there will be hiccups along the way but they’ll seem silly when you look back at what is actually a great time. I think there is a lot of pressure on couples to cater for everyone and please certain individuals, but as long as you have a good time the guests will too.

Supplier Shout Outs:

• Venue – Gaynes Park:  www.gaynespark.co.uk
• Photographer – Justin Bailey: www.justin-bailey.co.uk
• Florist –  lilyandmay.co.uk
• Videographer – http://rideoutfilms.com
• Bridal dress shop – www.teokath.co.uk/canterbury_home.html
• Suit – www.hughharrisshop.co.uk
• Hire and styling –www.vintagestylehire.co.uk/Vintage_Style_Hire/Home.html
• Cakes – www.cakesbycynthia.co.uk

For more information on Justin’s work go to:

www.justin-bailey.co.uk
www.justin-bailey.co.uk/blog/
FACEBOOK
@JBailey_Photo