A New Year’s Eve Wedding with a Surprise Gospel Choir!

The venue is the very beau­ti­ful Lympne Cas­tle (pre­vi­ously fea­tured here with Tamara and Joseph’s wed­ding), where Katie and Simon were mar­ried in a beau­ti­ful civil cer­e­mony in the west draw­ing room, in front of a bay win­dow look­ing out over the south east coast. It sounds so per­fect, doesn’t it?

The best part of this wed­ding blog fea­ture is this lovely advice from the bride and groom: “Remem­ber that all that really mat­ters is the two of you and the love you have for one another” — isn’t that beautiful?

Con­grat­u­la­tions to the happy cou­ple, and my thanks to Katie and Simon as well as to Tony for shar­ing such a beau­ti­ful wed­ding on the blog today. The wed­ding report is about half way down the blog post… Enjoy! Claire xxx

Katie and Simon’s vin­tage inspired, ele­gant New Year’s Eve wedding

Wed­ding report: by Katie and Simon

The wed­ding venue: Lympne Cas­tle, Hythe, Kent
Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher: Tony Gameiro

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

Vin­tage and elegant

Wed­ding readings

A read­ing selected by the bride’s brother ‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kinder­garten’ by Robert Fulghum

Invi­ta­tions and recep­tion stationery

hand­made invi­ta­tions, brown pock­et­fold invites with printed inserts,decorated with small pearl attach­ments and sealed with a red ‘S & K’ wax seal to com­pli­ment the medieval cas­tle setting

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

Band ‘Super­fruit’ who sang acoustic as Katie walked down the aisle to Sha­nia Twain ‘From this moment’. Acoustic set through­out the drinks recep­tion and then (a suprise for Katie from Simon) Croy­don SDA gospel choir singing to the guests as they were seated for the wed­ding break­fast. All of the guests clapped and sung along to ‘Oh Happy Day’ whilst Simon and Katie took to the floor for their ‘unof­fi­cial’ first dance to ‘Isn’t she lovely’

What did you wear?

Katie wore an ivory princess gown from Bro­cades Bridal and Simon wore a dark brown French con­nec­tion suit. The watch Simon wore was a wed­ding gift from Katie. Katie’s veil was also from Bro­cades Bridal, shoes from Faith and a garter hand­made by a friend. The ear­rings Katie wore belonged to her late nan and the bracelet was a Christ­mas gift from Simon.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

Simon — open­ing his wed­ding gift of a brown leather TAG watch

Katie — receiv­ing a com­mis­sioned paint­ing from an artist that Simon had con­tacted espe­cially. We had seen the work of Ingrid Boot whilst in New Zealand when trav­el­ling around the world in 2011 together. Simon had con­tacted her and asked her to pro­duce an exclu­sive piece for Katie which she enti­tled ‘The Per­fect Day’. The paint­ing was per­son­alised with Katie’s wed­ding shoes, flow­ers and the name of the song they had cho­sen for their first dance

Katie – Fol­low­ing the brides­maids down the aisle to meet Simon, a beau­ti­ful cer­e­mony and finally hear­ing the words ‘you may kiss your bride’

Simon — the look on Katie’s face as she realised Simon had man­aged to get her a gospel choir and keep it a secret!

Wed­ding day advice:

Make sure every­thing is organ­ised the day before where pos­si­ble so you can relax and enjoy as much as pos­si­ble on the day. Remem­ber that all that really mat­ters is the two of you and the love you have for one another – Try and take in every moment as it goes far too quickly!

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

• Pho­tog­ra­pher – Tony Gameiro
• Flair Make Up Artist – Hay­ley Wood
• Venue – Lympne Cas­tle
• Cake– Tasha’s Tasty Treats
• Dress – Bro­cades Bridal
• Rings – Bliss Rings