GEMMA AND VICTORIA'S CYCLAMEN PURPLE WINDSOR WEDDING

TELL US THE STORY OF HOW YOU MET

“You’ve Got Mail”, just how Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox met, we met online. Although with much faster internet speeds and no dial up tones! We met on a gay dating website, chatted for a few weeks before making the decision to meet up. We met up for dinner at a local Caribbean restaurant & the rest was history!

NOW ABOUT THE BIG DAY! WHAT WAS THE THEME AND INSPIRATION? HOW DID THE DAY LOOK LIKE? DID YOU STYLE IT YOURSELF?

Our wedding was very much planned round the main venue, The Guild Hall in Windsor. This has special associations for Vickie’s family as her Great Grandfather was the Mayor of Windsor in 1968 & her sister also got married there.

Once we had the main venue booked everything else fell into place. One of our favourite local pubs to Windsor, The George, was the perfect place to have our Wedding reception. It had a little barn for the reception and a private outside area with a Teepee! On top of being a very convenient location to The Guild Hall, the food is amazing so we knew we would have a fabulous meal.

Our wedding theme was based on our favourite colour, purple and Vickie’s favourite flower, Cyclamens. The table centre pieces, Bridesmaid dresses & table decorations were all based on these. The rest of the décor was based on a rustic feel as the barn is quite rustic.

All of the decorations were either made by us or by family members.

LET’S GIVE THE SUPPLIERS A LITTLE LOVE! TELL US ABOUT YOUR CHOICES AND INSPIRATIONS

We kept the day simple, so we didn’t have many suppliers.

We had a lot of help from family members in making decorations, but I would like to give some love to Sarah Black @ Make It so Creations, also a dear friend. She made some amazing geeky props for our photo booth & made decorations for our top table

Our photographer, Ragdoll Photography, was recommended to us by The Guild Hall and I am so grateful that they did. She was brilliant! From the very first email all the way up to meeting her on our day she put us at ease & was so helpful. Her previous reviews described her as a photography Ninja, and I can now say I completely agree!

For my outfit, I knew I had to have something bespoke. There was no way I was going to be wearing a dress! After some google searches, I found Felicity! She is the owner & dressmaker at Felicity Westmacott Bespoke Dressmakers. Felicity was more than excited to be making a wedding outfit that wasn’t a dress! I met with Felicity with some basic ideas which flourished into the wonderful outfit that I wore. She guided me when I wasn’t sure what I wanted & helped me to design my perfect outfit!

Vickie on the other hand was all about the dress. After visiting quite a few dressmakers, she was recommended by a friend to Isabella Grace Bridal. After the previous failed trips to find a dress, she wasn’t very hopeful but to her surprise she found the perfect dress which made her feel like a million dollars.

Our hair and makeup were done by the amazing team at Gill McInally MUA.

Our rings were bespoke made by Richard at RTFJ Jewellery.

Our last lot of supplier love goes to Kristy from Adorable Crafts. Kristy made our amazing cake topper for us. This was planned separately between us so we didn’t give away what we were each wearing. It was a lovely surprise to see it sat on top of our cake when we entered the reception.

FLOWERS, DECORATIONS, DID YOU DO ANY DIY?

As we were trying to stick to a budget, all of our decorations were made by us or family members. A lot was done by Gemma’s Mum, Sue, who was amazing help with everything

CAKE

Our cake was made by Gemma’s Mum, Sue, who is a cake maker in her spare time – Smiffies Cakes. We had a 3-layer tiered cake; fruit cake (Vickie’s fav), lemon and raspberry (Gemma’s fav) and Salted caramel. All 3 layers were covered in fondant & had little cake paws running up the cake.

On top of the cake stood our amazing cake topper by Adorable Crafts. The topper was little figures of us with our Doodle sat in front. We also had our 3 cats sat at the bottom of the cake which is why the paws run up the cake.

ENTERTAINMENT

We had a DJ which was recommended to us by The George, however not much time was spent inside as it was a gloriously sunny day & everyone loved the garden/Teepee!

WOULD YOU HAVE ANY PIECE OF ADVICE FOR COUPLES PLANNING THEIR WEDDING?

I have 3 pieces of advice:

Its stressful planning a wedding but try to get as many people involved as possible. It will lighten the load
Plan the day for you. We made the mistake of trying to keep everyone else happy and it didn’t work in the end! We had to do what was right for us
Make sure you take lots of photos of EVERYONE! It’s surprising how quickly the day goes and how many people you don’t get to talk to

Oh, actually I have 4 and I think this is the most important. Once everyone has left the wedding ceremony, take a moment for just the 2 of you before you get rushed into photos etc. Apart from marrying my best friend, I think this was the best bit of the day. Just us and an extortionate amount of happiness!

SUPPLIERS

Ceremony Venue: The Guildhall, Windsor
Reception venue: The George, Wraysbury
Photography: Ragdoll Photography
Dress 1: Felicity Westmacott Bespoke Dressmaker
Dress 2: Isabella Grace Bridal
Bridemaids’ outfits: Sexy Her
Shoes: Rainbow Club
Hair and Make Up: Gill Mcinally MUA & Team
Decorations: Made us & family members
Stationery: Made by us
Cake: Made by Sue Smith aka Gemma’s Mum aka Smiffies Cakes
Wedding rings: RTFJ Jewellery
Photo booth: Myselfie
Photobooth props & head table decorations: Make It So Creations