A Colourful (red and Purple!) Wedding in Kent

Steph and Dave have shared a fan­tas­tic wed­ding report with us. They chose pho­tog­ra­pher Andrew Billing­ton to doc­u­ment their day — and he did so beau­ti­fully. Enjoy the blaze of lush colours; the mag­i­cal moments and most of all, the hon­est and gor­geous laugh­ter of bride Steph. She’s just stunning!

Enjoy!

Steph and Dave’s wed­ding in Kent

Who pro­posed, and how?

Dave pro­posed to Steph while on a week­end away to Wind­sor. We had gone to one of our favorite restau­rants, Cafe Rouge, and come back to our hotel room where Dave got down on one knee and popped the ques­tion with Steph’s Gran’s ring which he had man­aged to get from Steph’s fam­ily in secret. It was a total sur­prise and after sev­eral sec­onds of com­plete shock Steph said yes!

What did you wear?

Bride: An ivory Blue by Enzoani gown named Dal­las, with Clear Azure shoes

Groom: A light gray suit with a pur­ple cra­vat and ivory & pur­ple detailed waist­coat.

Wed­ding venue: Winter’s Barns, Can­ter­bury Kent

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher: Andrew Billing­ton

How would you describe your wed­ding style? Colour­ful, fun and personal

The wed­ding cer­e­mony: St Martin’s Church, Herne, Kent

Reli­gious or civil? Religious

Which read­ings did you choose? Cap­tain Corelli’s Man­dolin, Song of Solomon 2.10–13 and another which has no name!

What were your wed­ding highlights?

The entire day was fan­tas­tic, but prob­a­bly our wed­ding dance, our cater­ing (Scott Anderson’s) and being able to share the day with all our friends and fam­ily– they came from all over the place, some as far away as Barbados!

Wed­ding day advice

If you want to make your wed­ding per­sonal and do DIY things it’s a won­der­ful touch but make sure you plan plenty of time, I would have been very stressed if I hadn’t! Also if you have a vision for your day, don’t let any­one try and change your mind. We knew what we wanted and although some peo­ple were unsure to begin with by the end every­one felt we had cre­ated an incred­i­ble wedding!

Wed­ding venue styling and details

Mod­ern barn feel­ing, with fairy lights. Our theme was trav­el­ling which we had with the tables named after every­where we have been together. Pur­ple and red was the color theme we had going through the décor.

For favours we had Kinder Eggs wrapped in red and pur­ple mate­r­ial and for place names I hand painted small glass bot­tles with a mes­sage inside to each per­son giv­ing them the mean­ing of their name. We also had a quiz for the tables to fill out so every­one could get to know each other bet­ter and the table that won received two bot­tles of champagne.

Wed­ding music and enter­tain­ment: We had the band, the Dukes of Havoc play.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments

We bought a load of glow bands and light up bal­loons and had a rave hour with the music!

Steph & Dave’s rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

Andrew Billing­ton for Pho­tog­ra­phy — Thanks to Andy we have so many gor­geous pic­tures of our beau­ti­ful day, he is gen­uine and truly gifted at what he does. http://documentary-wedding.com/

Scott Anderson’s for cater­ing — The best, fan­tas­tic food and an amaz­ing ser­vice. Dave and I even had our own wait­ress to make sure we had canapés, drinks and a hot pork bap in the evening. http://www.chefscottanderson.co.uk/

Flow­er­Art (Michelle) for our flow­ers — She is absolutely fan­tas­tic and so cre­ative, she loved that our color scheme was so unusual and just ran with it. http://www.flowerart-uk.com/weddings.php

Bridal Gallery (Broad­stairs) for my wed­ding dress — Jean is a fan­tas­tic seam­stress and so help­ful, fun and kind. I wouldn’t have trusted any­one else! http://www.bridal-gallery.co.uk/