How you met…
It was that age old love story of two ‘straight’ women meeting over Teams during a national pandemic! But when you know, you know. We had worked together since September 2020 but only ever communicated via Teams until we met in person in May 2021. We very quickly hit it off but it wasn’t until August 2021 that we realised we probably weren’t as ‘straight’ as we thought we were and our beautiful friendship was the start of an amazing love story.
The proposal…
We had planned a fabulous 2-week trip around Italy, hitting some amazing destinations. At the end of an incredible 4-day jaunt around Tuscany, we rounded it off with a beautiful (very quirky) stay in a rustic vineyard. What was “planned” (as far as Suzi was aware) to be a wine tasting session turned into an incredibly romantic proposal from Beki. Fortunately, it was filmed by some random, but lovely, Canadian women who were also staying there, although it features Suzi dropping the ‘F’ bomb a lot…!
Why we chose Dodmoor for our special day…
We got engaged on the 2nd July; we were travelling to Sorrento on the 3rd of July and by the 4th July we had contacted Mark to see if our preferred date was available. You guys had been the top of our list for quite some time, for your beautifully rustic venue that we couldn’t wait to visit when we got home. Everything about Dodmoor screamed a bit of us! Chilled, laid back, intimate, great space (wicked dance floor), fabulous bars and the potential to make it everything we wanted it to be! Plus you guys were amazing start to finish.
The vision and theme for the day…
Our theme was bright! Just pops of fabulous colour wherever possible! We wanted to include Italy in our theme along with anything that showed who we are and what we value most – our family, our friends and LOVE!
The outfits!
Well first of all, we both wanted to wear dresses, and did not want to know what the other was wearing, BUT were riddled with anxiety that we’d accidentally be twinning on the day! So we involved Suzi’s younger sister to be a spy in both camps. Luckily our tastes proved very different! Beki went for a beautiful lace number with a fitted bodice from Wed 4 Less (though weirdly it wasn’t actually that cheap!) Now Suzi, coming in at 6ft 1, had a lot of other length-related issues to deal with that almost sent her spiralling. However, after a trip with her mum and sisters, and some online research, Suzi found her dream dress – a long white gown with blouson sleeves and beautiful button details from…….. ASOS!!!! With a decent underskirt it was everything and more. Both of us were really happy with our choices, but both definitely had seen better days by the end of the night.
Food…
Continuing our love for Italy and a homage to the wonderful holiday the year before, we employed the services of Squisito for a full-on Italian sharing banquet. A range of Italian canapés were served after the ceremony. The tables were laden with antipasti and breads for starters followed by a wonderful beef ragù and a pesto pasta dish. We topped it off with gelato during the speeches. In the evening, the wonderful caterers of Dodmoor provided us with burgers and pork rolls. Delightful!
Our favourite part of the day…
This is an impossible question!
Every second of the day was perfect. From start to finish. We couldn’t possibly pick.
How Dodmoor as a venue stood out to us…
Dodmoor is simply beautiful, without being – or needing to be – overdressed. That was the main things for us – to have somewhere that was naturally gorgeous for us to putting our touches into. When we visited Dodmoor for the first time, it was not dressed at all, and yet it blew us away. When we visited for the second time for an open evening, we were stunned by its beauty at night. We knew we’d made exactly the right decision.
The plan/idea you felt really worked on
the day?
We couldn’t get a registrar for the day and one of our best friends, Richard, stepped in to conduct the ceremony. He was amazing and made the ceremony so perfect and comfortable and every bit about us and ours. We couldn’t have been happier.
He also managed to announce that our legal marriage had actually taken place 2 months before, much to the surprise of the guests! He then proceeded to get wonderfully drunk and became everyone’s favourite wedding guest.
The entertainment…
See above. Richard. Lol! No, to be honest, we only have awesome people in our lives. We just knew that everyone would connect and enjoy chatting and having a laugh with each other, and there’d be no entertainment needed. And we were right! We did have a photo booth and DJ in the evening but other than that it was just wonderful and loud and hilarious.
Where we felt our budget was well spent…
Obviously the main costs of venue, photographer, catering, clothing, and hair/ makeup were the biggies and we picked really well on all fronts. But please don’t judge us, a winning part of the Dodmoor experience was the amazing drinks packages. This made life so much easier and was very well-received by the guests! And us!
Personal touches that reflected us as a couple…
We were utterly spoilt by the most incredible artistic and creative talents of some of our nearest and dearest. Our wonderful friend Wyn painted the most incredible acrylic art that depicted our life together. Our niece drew up the order of the day in chalk pens. Our friend Jo made us the wooden order of the day (for our niece to do her thing), a photo board (which allowed us to show photos of our London Legal Wedding) and a card box that will give us a treasure trove for the rest of our lives. Our friend Alice made our wedding cake. AND our lovely friend Sam, who is starting out as a wedding content creator, caught our whole day in awesome snippets and shots that gave us instant reliving feels. See? Spoilt.
Suppliers we used and would recommend!
All of our suppliers were amazing but above all we would recommend:
The Kensington Photographer for such amazing photos and Mick was just fab to have on the day.
Squisito for delicious food and hearts of gold to make our wedding breakfast perfect.
Orange Blossom Florists for taking our non-existent brief of “bright and bold” and running with it and delivering the best flowers we could have asked for.
Sam AKA The Modern Day Bride for being a bundle of energy that everyone loved and for creating some amazing videos.
Our tip to other couples…
Remember, your day is all about you. Do what you want; invite who you love; party with the best music; and just basically: YOU DO YOU!!
A huge thank you to the beautiful Mrs and Mrs Austin-Brookes for sharing their lovely story and their fantastic, brightest, most fun wedding day!! Also a big shout-out to The Kensington Photographer for the fabulous photos.
コメント