What a fabulous couple and what a fabulous day as Stacey and Jess both went from Miss to Mrs. With family and friends flying in from Australia and across the UK to celebrate their marriage; it was a truly romantic day at the iconic Pittville Pump Room in Cheltenham.
I had such a lovely time getting to know Stacey and Jess and couldn’t wait for their wedding day. A small intimate winter wedding. Making the most of the stunning scenery in Pittville Park. So very different in season to their home country of Australia. Chilly but bright, with the rich colours of a British autumn still in abundance.
I asked Stacey and Jess to help me out with their wedding blog so that you can read their love story in their own words…
Q: So how did you two meet and when did you know that you had met your soul mate…?
A: We met in 2015 when Jess started working at AMF bowling on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. We had a rocky start where we didn’t particularly like one another! Then at our Christmas party, Jess sent Stacey a text message and the rest is history. When we started getting to know each other we realised we had similar interests, goals including moving to the UK. We got engaged after 6-7 months of officially dating. When you know you know!
Q: Who proposed? How, when, where? Was the timing/date significant in any way? Was it a surprise?
A: Jess proposed on the 20th of July 2016. I came home from work to see Jess nervously sitting at her desk where she glanced over at a chalk board. Written on it was ‘this might be crazy but you’re the one, will you marry me?’ along with with my engagement ring. An antique ring accompanied by flowers and a packet of Rolos! It’s hard to say no to that!
It was definitely a surprise and very unexpected. When I bought Jess’s engagement ring in September I proposed again. I set up candles in the garden with champagne and I asked her again – the rest is history…
Q: What attracted you to the Pittville Pump Room…?
A: We fell in love with Pittville Pump Room because of the architecture. It reminded us of the parliament building in Vienna, and as soon as we saw the building we knew that was the one. We also chose the wine cellar in the Kings Head in Cirencester for our reception. Its a unique room but was also intimate which was a nice contrast from the grandeur of the Pump Room.
Q: What music did you choose?
A: We choose a variation of oldies but goodies and more modern music that suit us. The song of the day was The Flowers in Duet, which we walked down the aisle together to. The reason we choose this song is because it is the song that is played when you walk on a British Airways flight. As we had heard that song on the start of many of our best adventures, we thought it was only fitting that it was what we walked into on our biggest adventure together with it.
Q: How did you both feel on the day?
A: On the day we had many emotions. To start we were quite nervous about the ceremony, mainly not falling while walking down the aisle and the stares from all the guests. However once the day got rolling those nerves quickly subsided and we were filled with love and happiness from each other and all our loved ones around us.
Q: What was the criteria and the process for choosing Me as your wedding photographer?
A: I told Jess we had to have you because you already had gay couples featured on your website, so we didn’t need what could be a possibly awkward conversation. You had also worked at the Pittville Pump Room a lot! And I liked your website it was easy to use and navigate. The fact that you’d won awards and are a brilliant photographer were just coincidence and lucky on our part!
Q: Where did you go? How long for? Who planned it? Did you enjoy it?
A: For our honeymoon, we went to Tallinn in Estonia for a week. We choose Tallinn as we love eastern European culture and wanted a place that we could be a cosy newlywed couple. We both planned elements of the honeymoon, with Jess organising a lovely champagne to be waiting for us when we arrived. We really loved Tallinn, we had an amazing time and would highly recommend visiting and eating as much Estonian food as you can.
Q: What bridal gowns did you wear?
A: Jess wore a dress by Jack Sullivan an Australian designer. She had chosen as it had a beautiful lace which looked like fallen leaves in autumn and the colour was a champagne celebrating the time of year and uniqueness of our day.
Stacey wore a dress by Oleg Cassini. The dress was our ‘borrowed’ part of our day from our dear friend Katie. This dress was chosen as it had a beautiful simplicity which was perfect complement to Stacey style and Jess’s chosen dress. Stacey also wore uniquely designed converse shoes, which had blue lining as our something blue and the date written on the back.
Q: How did you accessorise?
A: Both our accessories were pearl earrings, given as a present from Jess’s Mum. A slight variation of colours to suit our individual style and dresses.
Q: What was your style of bouquet/flowers used?
A: Our bouquets were from the wonderful Blooming Bears who were able to bring our vision to life. Our bouquets matched to each other with slight difference to suit our looks. Jess had more reds and berry. Stacey with more bridal vendela roses with both having all elements combined. The most special part of our bouquet was the addition of the Australian plant eucalyptus, which bought a part of home to our day.
Q: Were there any funny stories or unusual anecdotes from the day?
A: The most memorable funny moment, is when Stacey went to steal some of her cousin Isaac sticky toffee pudding. Leaning over the table to reach some. With the mountain of candles and massive amounts of hair spray, a part of her hair caught fire quite quickly. It made everybody, including Stacey giggle!
Q:Who made your day extra special?
A: The day was made extra special by the wonderful Isaac, Stacey’s cousin who looked after the guests getting to the venue. He was the bearer of the rings and made a very meaningful and memorable speech. He spoke about how our happiness made him believe in marriage.
Q: How did you entertain your guests?
A: We entertained our guests with the wonderful Clog & Pancake. We chose them as we had enjoyed many a Dutch pancakes on two of our specials dates and was very meaningful. The Clog & Pancake was a massive hit of the day and our guests are still talking about them today!
The decorative touches included in the day:
Colour Scheme: Berry and copper.
Favours: We had a chocolate coin that said for richer or poorer. Jess has an infamous budget and it was a play on that!
Table Plan: We had one long table as they’re weren’t many of us, we were in the middle with everyone around us
Centrepieces: We had flowers running along the table, with copper bottles that we made out of empty liquor bottles that we painted. There were many copper and candles scattered around the room and table.
Flowers: The Blooming Bears in Cheltenham provided our beautiful flowers. We had eucalyptus leaves for a touch of home with our bouquets slightly different from each other. Jess’s had more berry flowers and Stacey’s had more white and grey elements.
Cake: We didn’t have a cake! We did have dessert and cheese afterwards.
Place Names: We had white, berry, and copper name tags.
Venue Decor: We had a vintage world map suitcase for our cards, a Polaroid camera and a guest book. We also had a wooden frame with Polaroid’s of everywhere we had travelled to together.
Photographer: Nikki Kirk Photography / BOOK YOUR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY AT THE PITTVILLE PUMP ROOM
Venue(s): The Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham and The Kings Head, Cirencester
Bridal gowns: The Cotswold Frock Shop (Jess)
Hair & Make Up: Claire Bryce
Flowers: The Blooming Bears
Entertainment/Food: The Clog & Pancake