A Beautifully Traditional London Wedding

Don’t miss the first dance towards the end of the blog post, and do click to view Neale’s wed­ding photofilm after you’ve seen all the images. You’ll love it!

Thank you to James and Rachel for shar­ing such a lovely wed­ding report with us all today! Con­grat­u­la­tions to you both. Claire xxx

A beau­ti­ful, ele­gant Lon­don wed­ding blog: James and Rachel

Wed­ding venue:

The his­toric Tem­ple Church for the mar­riage cer­e­mony fol­low­ing by the wed­ding break­fast at the adja­cent Hon­ourable Soci­ety of the Inner Tem­ple, London.

Wed­ding photographer:

Neale James, Breathe Pic­tures. Cap­tured the story of the day per­fectly and gave us an unob­tru­sive, friendly and per­sonal ser­vice. Fan­tas­tic images and the stills film is incred­i­ble. We’ve watched it over and over and it still brings all the emo­tion back!

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

Tra­di­tional, clas­si­cal.

Rachel wore a Sassi Hol­ford bespoke Zara dress.

James wore an Austin Reed grey silk tail­coat, match­ing waist­coat and trousers with pow­der blue ruche and match­ing pocket square.

Who pro­posed, and how?

We were plan­ning a hol­i­day to Rhodes, Greece. I (the groom) con­tacted the hotel before­hand to inform them in the hope the hotel would offer us an upgrade, and that they did – a lovely pri­vate villa away from the masses. I pre­tended of course I had noth­ing to do with it, so Rachel had appar­ently told her­self early on this would NOT be the hol­i­day on which I would pop the ques­tion as many other pre­vi­ous hol­i­days and been and gone appar­ently with some mea­sure of dis­ap­point­ment (long suf­fer­ing ladies out there will appar­ently under­stand!). To dis­pel any fur­ther hopes of an engage­ment ring, I didn’t pro­pose until three days in to the hol­i­day, when I ordered a bot­tle of cham­pagne via room ser­vice and on the bal­cony dur­ing the evening sun­set asked Rachel to marry me. As will now be obvi­ous, she said yes — phew!

The wed­ding ceremony:

Reli­gious or civil? Reli­gious, Church of England.

Which read­ings did you choose? 1 Corinthian’s 13, Extract from Cap­tain Corelli’s Man­dolin by Louis de Bernieres

Wed­ding venue styling and details:

The style of wed­ding was guided by the his­toric sur­round­ings of the Hon­ourable Soci­ety of the Inner Tem­ple. The rooms are clas­si­cally fur­nished, so we tried to fol­low that clas­si­cal and ele­gant theme. We went with sim­ple tall glass vases with ivory flow­ers on each table in the Main Hall and can­dle­light to blend with high ceil­ings and oak panelling.

What were your wed­ding highlights?

The high­lights of the recep­tion for us were the speeches – but the high­light for oth­ers was pos­si­bly the first dance! Six under cover dance lessons later, and a proper “strictly” rou­tine prac­ticed and per­fected (well almost!) no one could quite believe their eyes (a mix­ture of rap­tur­ous applause from the fam­ily friends and Rachel’s mates and much amuse­ment and leg-pulling from James’)

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

• Church entrance music: Zadok the Priest, Han­del sung by choir of sixteen.
• Church ser­vice hymns: Praise Him. Lord of all hope­ful­ness. Guide me O thou Great Redeemer.
• Church exit music: Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Handel.
• Recep­tion music: DJ

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

The Tem­ple Church and the mar­riage cer­e­mony was our most mem­o­rable part of the day. The Tem­ple Singers and musi­cians were out of this world – we think the whole con­gre­ga­tion had goose bumps, let alone us! We will never for­get how we felt dur­ing the entrance music, Zadok the Priest, and the first sound of the six­teen strong choir as Rachel walked down the aisle. And given the Welsh con­tin­gent the rous­ing ren­di­tion of Guide me O thou Great Redeemer (“Bread of Heaven”) was also pretty mem­o­rable! We will also never for­get the Mas­ter of the Temple’s address and of course the kiss the bride moment.

Wed­ding day advice:

In this coun­try, plan for bad weather. That way you won’t be dis­ap­pointed if it’s bad, but unex­pect­edly happy if it’s good. Also take a time-out together just the two of you dur­ing the day to stop and enjoy the moment. The day passes so quickly just make sure to soak it in and don’t worry about the lit­tle details any­more!

Rec­om­mended Lon­don wed­ding suppliers:

Pho­tog­ra­pher: Neale James Wed­ding Pho­tog­ra­pher http://www.nealejames.com/

Florist: Karen Wool­ven Flo­ral Designs, http://www.kwfloraldesign.co.uk/

Dress: Sassi Hold­ford, http://www.sassiholdford.com

DJ: Gum­ball Events, http://www.gumballevents.com/

Church Order of Ser­vice, menu cards, table names and table plan: Diverse Printer & Design, http://www.diverseprint-design.co.uk/

Thank you cards: Pin­hole Press, http://pinholepress.com/

James and Rachel | Wed­ding Photofilm from Neale James on Vimeo.