What a wedding, what a couple!
For those of you that follow my social media and blog you will undoubtedly recognise Rachel as she is my muse. She has modelled for me on so many occasions yet this time it was for real. It was her wedding day to the lovely Jamie. A true gent, someone who is perfect for her, her Mr Right. I am so glad they found each other.
If you’d like to see to see the work Rachel and I have created together so far check out this blog post: Me & My Muse
So rather than me tell you about their wedding, here’s what Rachel had to say in her own words…
We met at work, I am the receptionist at a car dealership in Stratford Upon Avon. I started my new job in July 2015 Jamie then got the job as a Car Sales Executive 2 months later. Jamie walked into the dealership on his first day and I fell in love with him as soon as our eyes met. I knew he was the one! We took it slow at first and became good friends, talking about what we wanted to do with our lives and we soon realised how similar and how much in common we had with each other! Jamie never failed to make me laugh, he says my eyes and my smile won him over from the very beginning, and he couldn’t imagine life without me! He had to have me as his wife! He’s still a big softie now and so romantic!
We were together for just a year before Jamie proposed
We went away on our first holiday together in December 2016 to Fuerteventura. We had moved into our first apartment in Stratford that summer and we loved being together. We hopped on a plane really excited for our first holiday and the first night he took me to a secluded area of the rocky beach at sunset and got down on one knee. He asked me to make him the happiest man in the world and become Mrs Peace? I was so thrilled and emotional and said yes through tears! It was a beautiful and romantic moment.
Check out Rachel’s and Jamie’s engagement shoot!
We wanted somewhere that was very intimate, and romantic. Warwick House was only the second venue we had seen and we fell in love as soon as we walked through its doors! It’s such a beautiful building and although it’s been modified inside it’s still very characteristic with its low ceilings and fascinating history that surrounds it.
Our favours were handmade by us! We bought some miniature bottles and filled them with our favourite shot- Tequila!! We had handmade stickers that said “we tied the knot now take a shot” and tied little burgundy bows around them. They were very cute, very personal and very popular with our guests!!
Our centrepieces were beautiful silver candelabras supplied by our venue, they really had a romantic feel for our reception, which is exactly what we wanted! Our beautiful flowers were also really romantic with deep claret roses, red lilies and small pink roses all tied in with our colour scheme.
My bridal bouquet was slightly trailing with Amaranthas a beautiful red trailing flower that I just love. Our flowers were completely perfect for our day.
Jamie’s mum made our amazing cake, 4 tiers of beautiful rich fruit (first layer) and chocolate ganache (3 layers) she very intricately cut out little hearts both in white and burgundy icing and placed them around each layer! It was very popular and very delicious!
We had a guest book and a guest heart frame that our guests could write little messages on and drop them into the frame- this now has pride of place on our living room wall! It’s a lovely keepsake! We had mini glass hearts scattered on every table that we bought online they said “Mr and Mrs Peace 11.02.18” and they were a lovely alternative to the scatter crystals you can buy, everybody loved them!
My beautiful dress was from Brides of Solihull. It was a fishtail design with heavy lace, off the shoulder (Bardot style) with 3/4 length sleeves. My dress was everything I’d dreamt of. It was the first dress of 4 I tried on in that shop, I knew it was the one as no others compared to it! I customised with a cathedral length veil, trimmed in lace and little crystals dotted all along the edge. I bought my beautiful tiara months before my dress! It was by Ivory and Co. With a very regal feel, so sparkly and pretty it completed the look I was going for. A little sparkly belt finished my dress and with the added sparkle I felt amazing in my dress I was so upset when I had to take it off at the end of the day! And that’s exactly how you want to feel in your wedding dress!!
Jamie and his groomsmen all wore the same charcoal grey, 3 piece suit and tails. Jamie was adamant they all look the same and they made a handsome bunch!! Jamie had 3 groomsmen as well as his best man. Our dads and my nephew all wore burgundy cravats and pocket squares. I thought the suits were completely perfect! All from Moss Bros, I was certain I could fully trust Jamie to pick great suits and I wasn’t wrong!
My Maid of Honour I have known since college and my 2 flowers girls – my little sister and niece! My MoH wore a stunning lace and chiffon burgundy dress and my flower girls wore ivory lace dresses finished with a ivory belt that had a burgundy flower corsage all from Monsoon! They looked beautiful and the lace on their dresses tied in nicely with my lace dress too. Choosing the dresses wasn’t a hard choice we knew exactly what look we wanted and achieved it by shopping online! We even managed to get the flower girls dresses in the sale! We were shopping savvy!!
We had the in house DJ at Warwick House to get the party started. The dance floor may have been small but that didn’t stop our guests! They were on the dance floor all night long!
Our first dance song was by Kodaline- The One which is a very special song to us. We think the lyrics really resonate with us and we loved dancing to it on our big day. I walked down the aisle to a beautiful piano and cello version of Cristina Perri’s A Thousand Years. I chose this after spending hours looking at ‘aisle songs’ and just stumbling across this was completely perfect! It’s such a lovely piece of music and still brings tears to my eyes when I listen to it and probably always will!
We had planned our big day for a year and when it finally came around we were so excited if a little nervous we couldn’t wait to start the next chapter of our lives as husband and wife! Jamie was a little nervous in the morning, my dad was our messenger sending texts back and forth saying how much we loved each other and couldn’t wait to make it down the aisle etc! This was really sweet and comforting and soon the nerves started to melt away for both of us! I had my mum and bridesmaids with me all morning as well as my amazing hair and makeup artist Jodi Croft Face Perfect. Jodi was absolutely fantastic. She went above and beyond on the day with my fussy little flower girls! She poured the adults a glass of champagne to calm our nerves, she laughed and joked with us and even arranged some sandwiches for us all! I am so grateful to have had Jodi’s calming influence but also her fun personality shone. And my hair and makeup as well as my bridesmaids and my mums were amazing and stayed put all day long!!
And then my amazing photographer friend Nikki Kirk!! Nikki and I have worked together for many years. As the photographer on my first fashion photo shoot we soon became good friends! I’ve modelled for Nikki in lots of shoots so I knew she was perfect, talented and committed to getting our wedding photography just right!! Nikki is incredible at what she does and as soon as she walked through the door of my dressing room on my big day I knew everything’s was going to be alright because she would make sure of it!! Nikki has such a indescribable presence, her talent and fun, bubbly personality go hand in hand to having the best photographer experience imaginable!!
We are on our honeymoon right now as I type! Sat by the pool of our gorgeous 5 star resort in Riviera Mexico, we have booked for 2 weeks away and it couldn’t be more perfect! We are loving every minute, it’s so nice to wait a little while before your honeymoon ( we waited 7 weeks) it’s a lovely break and something else to look forward too after the excitement of the wedding has started to die down.
My advice to future brides is simply-Relax! Try not to stress, as the biggest worrier in the world I should take my own advice from time to time! I didn’t have too much to stress about as I gave myself plenty of Time!! Plan and organise yourself and the rest will all fall into place!
Make sure you take some time to yourselves on the day! The day goes so fast, make sure to enjoy every moment before you know it the day is over!! Jamie and I took 5 minutes throughout our reception to just stand with each other and watch everyone enjoy themselves and also steal a kiss and a cuddle. These were the best moments! Just enjoy yourselves!!
I can’t stress the importance of surrounding yourself with good suppliers, do your research! Have a clear idea and vision of your day and go with the supplier that will give you your vision and make it a reality!
When it comes to the most important aspect of your day, which is capturing those moments and memories that you will treasure forever it is so worth spending a little bit more!! Photographs are the one thing that capture your special moments, I will treasure my photographs for the rest of my life, they are special and you want them done right!! Nikki knew exactly how to capture each and every moment that you may miss throughout your day! She has exceeded our expectations with our photos, they not only made us emotional but our guests too! Some have said after looking at the photos of our day they felt that they were back there in that moment and that is so special! That’s what good photography and also videography can do!! We can’t thank Nikki Kirk enough for giving us those memories that will last a lifetime.
