the wedding

Updated: Oct 10, 2018

TRUE LOVE ALWAYS FINDS ITS WAY

21st July 2018

Grab yo' selves a cuppa ladies and gentleman, its a long one. There's nothing short about wedding planning hun, trust me.

Wedding planning can be a little overwhelming at times, especially when you have lots of people asking you a gazillion questions, like: “When do you want to get married? Where are you going to get married? Will you be having Children soon? Can I bring my new love-interest along with me; we met on Tinder and had our first date last week and I would just LOVE for him to be my plus-one? Have you thought about what dress you want?” I mean, CAN I LIVE!?

So allow me to give you some words of advise: please enjoy being engaged and ignore all of the people with all of the questions. You and your new fiance need to enjoy being engaged and soak up those special moments where it’s just the two of you with no big-day-stress. The planning WILL begin, the big day WILL come before you know it, and you’ll be longing for those engagement moments like those nostalgic days where choosing which school shoes you want for September is your biggest worry in life…

So, where do I begin, you ask? Where do you even start with planning the most amazing event of your life? Firstly, I would recommend getting a guest list together, which will determine the size of your venue. Once you've completed that (very fun / completely ruthless) task, the hunt for the venue of all venues begins....

The Venue

- CASTELLO DI VINCIGLIATA -

Our reception venue was located just outside of Florence in a small, gorgeous town called Fiesole. The venue was called Castello Di Vincigliata and I’m quite sure it’s the most magical venue outside of the Disney Castle. It had everything we wanted: a medieval feel (minus the torture-chamber, of course) with a romantic modern twist, think: ‘Romeo & Juliet meets 2018 Instagrammable-vibes’. When we walked in for the first time, we just knew it was The One. In fact, we didn't even bother looking anywhere else. If you know, you know, y’know?! As soon as we walked into the courtyard area I started to cry, if that’s not a sign, then child, I don’t know WHAT is. I couldn't believe this venue existed, it was perfect beyond my wildest dreams. Lior, who is the events manager at the venue, showed us around. She was incredibly helpful and provided us with lots of contact details for: florists, caterers, transport, lighting, sound, fireworks and even pop-up cocktail bars. The whole process started to make sense and things started falling into place. When we walked in on the big day, the place had COMPLETELY transformed.

The Church

- CHIESA DI OGNISSANTI -

Once we had booked the reception venue, it was time to find a church, because although a fabulous party is fun-an’-all, the actual marriage part is *probably* just as important... We knew just the one. Ognissanti Church was first choice on our list; we managed to find this through instagram (obvs. Because WHERE ELSE would you find things in 2018?) and other blogs. We headed straight there after viewing the venue and by chance, that date - our date - was available! We booked it there and then. My husband and I both come from religious families; we really felt that God was on our side on this trip! If Ariana Grande needs any more proof that God Is A Woman, then here it is, honey-child.

The Caterers

- GUIDI LENCI -

We used Guidi Lenci and our contact was the wonderful Judy. She was amazing, right from the very start. In our initial meeting we discussed the Canape menu, arrival drinks, different food options, staff attire, and midnight snacks. But the thing that excited me the most was picking out the table cloths, cutlery and under plates.

You’re probably thinking WOW Sarah, you really need to get out more, but I like what I like, OK! This really set our colour scheme off and we worked backwards from here. Sounds crazy right, basing your whole wedding theme on a table cloth and knives and forks, but for us, it just worked (cue the ‘Be Our Guest’ Beauty & The Beast performance AND song. Thanks). I decided to go for pinky/peach tablecloths layered with gorgeous gold cutlery and glassware.

I couldn’t have wished for a better catering company. The food was delicious and the staff were incredibly efficient. In fact, as soon as I arrived I had a waiter follow me around with fresh water and champagne whilst I was having photos taken. Sigh, if only this could be all of life.

The Entertainment

- ALMA PROJECT -

For our entertainment, we used Alma Project, and our contact was Filippo. They covered: the lighting, sound (which involved speakers, microphone, DJ equipment etc) and the entertainment. Having our welcome drinks and canapes in the garden, we wanted the atmosphere to feel like a garden party, so we chose to have a Dixie Band to play on arrival. They walked around the grounds playing 1930s style music, it was spectacular.

For the courtyard, we organised 500 candles to be lit around the top section of the castle, as well as candles on the tables. We wanted to keep the lighting very warm and romantic to compliment the candles; we chose to have spotlights on three layers of the courtyard to highlight the castle’s beauty once the sun had set.

sax all night lonG

- ALMA PROJECT -

To get the party started, we’d booked a saxophonist, and my goodness, was he amazing. I think this was one of my most favorite parts of our wedding. He played along with everything, even the garage and R&B Music! If you're thinking about booking one for your wedding, DO IT! They’re worth every penny.

The DJ

- DJ DAN -

We flew our amazing DJ in, who plays at my bar on Friday nights (Instagram: no1_djd). He was absolutely incredible. We wanted to make sure he got everyone dancing, and that he did, the dance floor was packed all night long. Well done Daniel.

The Photographer

- SALLY ROSE -

I couldn't have booked anyone better. I flew her out from London and she was worth every single penny. Professional, organised and most of all she made me feel very relaxed and confident. Before the wedding, I created a 'shared album' with her (via my iphone. God bless technology) where I’d saved the kind of shots and style that I wanted to achieve. After running my Instagram blog for 2 years, I am very particular with the style of photography that I like. I am not very keen on posy, traditional shots. I wanted the images to be effortless, but still capture the love and stunning scenery. It’s more than fair to say that she nailed it, one million times over.

It was also very important to me that we managed to capture all of the special moments and finer details. I knew on the day that I would be very busy and there may be things that I would miss. So looking back on the images, it means so much to me that Sally captured everything.

Videographer

- WILL WARR -

I was always set on the idea of having a videographer. Even if I had to remortgage my house. I was NOT missing out on this. If you can’t be extra on your wedding day - when can you be? Your wedding day passes by at the blink of an eye, so to be able to watch the day back (over and over again, which is normal right? Asking for a friend...), was invaluable, so I couldn't miss the option of having a videographer. My good friend, Ruth Rose, who is a celebrity and fashion photographer, mentioned how amazing Will was. I had crossed paths with Will a few years back - when I styled Jamie Laing for the Candy Kittens shoot - and his work was outstanding. In fact, you can’t get better than this guy.

We booked him in a year before the wedding, which I highly recommend as he gets booked up super fast. To be honest, I didn’t really need to give Will any direction, I left my complete faith in his hands. One thing I knew I definitely wanted was a drone; our venue was located (pretty much) at the top of a mountain and was surrounded by the most stunning trees. I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity of capturing this.

As soon as Will arrived on the day I felt instantly comfortable around him. He very politely introduced himself to us and then got on with it straightaway. He had some great suggestions, everything was super chilled and we hardly noticed that he was there - he was completely unobtrusive and blended in to the day.

One moment in particular stands out - where my husband and I were standing up on the terrace of the castle - and suddenly we saw a drone fly over us. For me, this felt like such a magical moment; Will was capturing moments and feelings, not just video.

- WE ARE KEEPING THE VIDEO PRIVATE AT THE MO -

I would also like to mention, that one of our guests, as a wedding gift, created a video for us. And my goodness was it awesome! We received the footage two days after the wedding and we were blown away. Thank you so much for the most wonderful gift.

Flowers

- FLOWERS LIVING -

We went with Flowers Living and our contact was with Marta. She was just amazing, there was nothing she couldn't do in the way of floral. We had a meeting in her showroom a few months before the wedding, where she displayed the centerpiece that I had visualized. As soon as I walked in I screamed (yes, extra extra, read all about it…) It was absolutely perfect and was even more beautiful than I could have imagined.

Our table flowers are what blew me away the most. Again, I wanted to do something a little different than your average vase (because life is about so much more than just an average vase, Susan). At first, I was quite set on having a candelabra centerpiece. However, once I started looking into things - I found that the typical options just weren’t quite tall enough; they created a block in the middle of the table, meaning that guests wouldn’t actually be able to see each other; and whilst this would have worked for a lazy table plan involving seating people together who hated each other… that wasn’t quite the vibe we were going for… Marta suggested having a tall gold frame to get around this issue, so I let her work her magic, and work her magic she did. As the legendary Iris Apfel (aka style-confucius) would say: more is more and less is a bore. And lady, I couldn’t agree with you more.

I wanted to keep my bouquet simple - as the top of my dress was quite busy. They were perfect, and smelt absolutely incredible.

For my Bridesmaids I went for a pop of peach, as well as simple flower crowns, they looked so beautiful.

For the church, we added a white carpet which I felt was really needed, as the paintings and flooring were very dark in the church, so it brought the place to life and (appropriately) channelled more wedding-chic than funeral-chic, always a good thing for a weds’

For the flowers, we decided to use lots of eucalyptus and foliage, channeling that lush, green indoor-outdoor feel.

We were lucky enough to be able to bring the altar flowers to the venue after the service; I would recommend asking your florist, whilst planning, if they can do this, otherwise you only get to look at them for the church service, which is no fun, no fun at all. We reused the flowers at the entrance of the courtyard. If the florist says no, then I give you full permission to get all “HUNNY, HOLD MY EARRINGS”

The Drinks

- MERCURY EVENTS -

Our bar traveled all the way from Rome for us (move over Antony and Cleopatra, there are new divas in town). We used Mercury Events and they were fantastic! We chose the 'Vintage Bar' as this went best with the venue. Being an owner of a cocktail bar - the cocktails HAD to be nothing less than perfect.

The Cake

- GUIDI LENCI -

We wanted to go against tradition with our cake, so Judy from Guidi Lenci suggested the option of having the cake made right in front of us (and our guests)! Yaassss Kween. A ‘live’ wedding cake, as it were. There were a choice of flavours but we went with the millefoglie, with its mouthwatering layers of puff pastry and cream, topped with berries and powdered sugar. It really was such a special touch to the day, and a friendly contribution to everyone’s waistlines.