Goodness where do I start with this incredible couple and their fabulous wedding day? I have loved every single moment of our journey together. The lead up to and their wedding day was a sparkle in the middle of a year hit hard by Covid. Thank you James and Fi for being fabulous!
I first met James several years ago whilst working on a commercial filming project with Carlé & Moss. And I was then recommended to them both to be their wedding photographer by the lovely Andrea.
Fi is a Business Administrator for an IT company based near Gloucester and James is a Marketing and Communication Director for a global engineering group, so they are both busy people. However time stood still on this magical day in July this year for their families and friends to come together to celebrate this wonderful couple.
Their day was elegant and filled with love and laughter.
Here in their own words is the most beautiful and laughter filled Wedding Story of James and Fiona…
“James’ kit was traditional morning dress. Tailcoat, blue waistcoat, pinstripe trousers, a white shirt and a pink tie.”
Tell us about your wedding dress…?
“I nearly ended up with 2!
James and I had both seen it on the web and realising that it might sell out we both ordered it – a slight failure to communicate. Fortunately returning the surplus dress was very easy.
The colour was called Storm, I called it my brown dress, but you and Maddy decided it was Vintage Champagne and I quite liked that.
It was a simple slip dress with a cowl neckline and studded with silver crystals.”
“James proposed on the last day of our holiday in 2020. We went for dinner at our favourite restaurant and at the end of the meal James slid a ring box across the table saying “Please say yes, please say yes” closely followed by “Please don’t cry, please don’t cry”.”
“I hadn’t even started to think about that. All I had said was that I wouldn’t need a pantomime of bridesmaids and pages. Then a handmade congratulations card arrived from one of James’ nieces…
She had drawn James and me with a trail of bridesmaids and pages and just to hammer the point home she’d named them all – James’ nieces and nephews!
So we asked the little people on both sides of the family if they would actually like to take part and I ended up with 1 bridesmaid, 2 flower girls and 5 pages.
I still didn’t have a theme or even an idea of colours, but that got sorted for me when Ellie, my 12 year old bridesmaid turned up with a dress she’d bought for the job.
So we just went with blue and silver. It was a very good choice.”
“Get suppliers you can trust 100%. Ask for recommendations. We were so blessed with ours, it makes all the difference.”
Did everything go to plan?
“Of course not!
11 guests couldn’t make it from Europe.
The place cards arrived double sided and had to be redone.
We lost 2 guests due to Covid pinging shortly before, so had to redo the seating plan, then lost another 2 the night before, which meant moving people around, so the seating plan was still wrong!”
“It would have been impossible, but I wish that I’d know for certain that restrictions were being relaxed 5 days before the wedding. That would have been good to know.”
“Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros”
“We had been to a wedding there 4 years before and had been really impressed with the set-up and the quality of the food. The hotel had had a huge refurb since then and looked fantastic.”
The wedding Fi and James mention was the wedding of Fi’s daughter who can be seen on the third image down on this banner (below)!
“Hah! I decided to take care of the confetti so I ordered what I thought would be confetti cones, from Amazon.
What got delivered was 100 squares of craft paper and some sticky strips. So I made the cones and even decorated each one with a bow.
Some were wide cones and some were skinny ones, but it really didn’t matter. I ordered dried petals in blues, silver and yellow from the Real Flower Petal Confetti Company”
“That’s a tough one. There were too many!
I liked the moment that I arrived at the Stratton Suite to find everyone exactly where they should be followed by the very short moment of calm before walking down the aisle.
The actual ceremony went past in a blur, so it was great to have the film from the livestream to look at. Walking out newly married felt amazing, until James ran back to sort out the livestream laptop.
Prosecco and entertainment in the garden was fun and the weather was perfect.
I can’t miss out the speeches which we really done well.
Finally, the dancing. It had been so long since we’d been allowed to have a dance. I think you could say that we really went for it!”
“I’d been surfing for local photographers and had been really impressed with your photos.
Then Andrea recommended you, and of course James had worked with you before and had been really impressed with the results.
Also, Andrea said she was sure you could keep James in order so that sold it!”
“We started with asparagus and salmon tart followed by lamb rump and finished with a trio of desserts. A vegetarian version was also served.”
“We booked the hotel in September 2020 naively assuming things would be back to normal the following July. Because the Registrar’s Office weren’t taking bookings until January 2021, everything went on hold. Once we were able to book an Official on the day we wanted we went full steam ahead, booking suppliers from the end of February 2021.
So 10 months of planning, but because of Covid we just weren’t sure if we would even be allowed to have a wedding.”
“We were headed straight to the airport the following morning and went off to La Asomada in Lanzarote. We had a villa with a pool. The perfect retreat.”
“All of them! We had a semi naked three tier cake, vanilla at the top, chocolate in the middle and lemon on the bottom. It was decorated with fresh berries.”
Ceremony & Reception venue & catering: Stratton House Hotel & Spa
Photographer: Nikki & Charlotte for Nikki Kirk Photography
Flowers: Oops a Daisy
Dress: Diane von Furstenburg
Bridesmaid dresses: Monsoon
Groom’s outfit: Charles Tyrwitt
Cake: Sugar Rose Kitchen
Stationery: Tullulah Pig Ltd
Entertainment: Gloucestershire Magician, Bubbly Heaven, and Nitelife Entertainments
Favours: Arranged by Andrea Mason – a negroni kit featuring Siblings gin
Hair and beauty: Hair by Jeanette Faulkener of The Hair Lounge Bourton on the Water, makeup by Maddy Adler of Weddingpaint
Rings including engagement ring: All bridal jewellery from Monica Vinader. The engagement ring is a double band which crosses at the front in rose gold with microscopic diamonds and the wedding ring is a skinny rose gold band set with tiny diamonds