An English Wedding at Lympne Castle in Kent

This wed­ding is very spe­cial because it’s so per­sonal to the bride and groom. Tamara’s mom made both of her wed­ding dresses, as well as her lace jacket and the red acces­sories for the men. Tamara made her wed­ding sta­tionery, and favorite moments include the wed­ding read­ings and speeches — all in all, two days to remem­ber for all the right reasons.

I’m delighted to be shar­ing images by the lovely Kent wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Aaron Tom­masi with you today. Do have a look at Aaron’s own blog of this wed­ding — he men­tions that Tamara and Joseph insisted he join them as a guest for the wed­ding buf­fet as well, which is such a lovely thing to do. Thank you to Aaron, and to such a fan­tas­tic bride and groom for shar­ing this wed­ding with us today! Enjoy! Claire xxx

A very per­sonal wed­ding at Lympne Cas­tle in Kent

Tamara and Joseph’s wed­ding story:

Wed­ding venue: The 13th Cen­tury Lympne Cas­tle in Kent. The site, with its com­mand­ing views, has been strate­gi­cally impor­tant since Roman times. The cas­tle itself, parts of which date to the 13th cen­tury, has wit­nessed inva­sion by the Danes and the Nor­mans and was for­merly home to the Archdea­con of Can­ter­bury and was once occu­pied by Thomas à Becket.

We had recep­tion drinks in the west wing meet­ing and greet­ing our guests. We then had our din­ner and speeches in the mar­quee then after­wards in the Great Hall for the recep­tion. The whole cas­tle was stun­ning from dri­ving down the great dri­ve­way to the danc­ing in the Great Hall. The views were breath­tak­ing, look­ing over the coast and see­ing France.

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher: Aaron Tom­masi — he was absolutely incred­i­ble, he cap­tured our wed­ding week­end in such a way our album tells our story.

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

Our wed­ding was over two days as we had a Church of Eng­land cer­e­mony on the Fri­day and a Catholic bless­ing on the Sat­ur­day. Both were very tra­di­tional and per­sonal to us.

A lit­tle about the wed­ding ceremony

On the Fri­day we were mar­ried in a 15th cen­tury church in Lympne. It was very per­sonal as my mother read and so did a dear friend of mine. I was piped in to Amaz­ing Grace arm in arm with my Father wear­ing his kilt. The whole church was filled with bright colours and men and kilts. After the cer­e­mony myself and my newly hus­band were piped out.

Which read­ings did you choose? Tobit and Corinthi­ans 13

Tell us a lit­tle about your wed­ding venue styling and details:

Our style was tra­di­tional with all the fam­ily invited. The venue pro­vided a pic­turesque set­ting that accom­mo­dated fan­tas­tic food and ser­vice. I wanted it to be very per­sonal, this is why I made the invites, table dec­o­ra­tions and my mother designed and made the dresses and acces­sories. The whole week­end was incred­i­ble as it catered for both sides of the fam­i­lies. The Scot­tish touches of the piper, kilts, Quaich and Scot­tish music made the wed­ding very fam­ily ori­en­tated and personal.

Invi­ta­tions and recep­tion stationery:

I made the recep­tion sta­tionery myself as well as the invi­ta­tions. I kept them in theme with the red and white. The table dec­o­ra­tions were dif­fer­ent cas­tles and their names. As half of the guests were Scot­tish the tables were named after Scot­tish and Eng­lish cas­tles. We had fish bowls with float­ing red ger­beras match­ing the bou­quets and but­ton holes. We did have M&Ms made with our names and date of our wed­ding on for the guests to have. The favour boxes con­tained choco­lates and a ger­bera on top. Under­neath the lid there was a photo of us both taken by Aaron Tom­masi on our pre-wedding shoot. Each of the table name cards was hand made in Amer­ica. They held a sin­gle red ger­bera with a sin­gle pearl on them.

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

Dar­ren Show, he was the wed­ding singer who sung our first dance ‘Stuck on You’ by Lionel Richie. He sang music from the 1950s right up to date, dur­ing his breaks there was a disco. We fin­ished with our clas­sic fam­ily dance Loch Lomond where every­one was up.

What did you wear?

Both of my wed­ding dresses were designed and made by my mother. My wed­ding dress had a 5 meter train with large flower pick­ups. The lace on the bodice was bought from Amer­ica. My sec­ond wed­ding dress worn on the Sat­ur­day was inspired by Audrey Hep­burn. My mom made the lace jacket with pearl but­tons down the back.
I wore a neck­lace that has been in my fam­ily for nearly 100 years, it was gold with a ruby in the mid­dle.
My shoes were Ben­jamin Adams cov­ered in Swarovski Crystals.

My hus­band wore a tails suit with black and white shoes; he has a cream waist coat and a red cra­vat in the day, later in the evening he changed in to a red waist band and bow tie. His han­kie was embroi­dered with his ini­tials JW and his cra­vat was embroi­dered with T and J. All the red acces­sories matched the brides­maids. These were all made by my mum.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

My mom wrote a poem for me that she read dur­ing the speeches. This brought a tear to everyone’s eyes. Also the speeches made by my dad as this was off the cuff and per­sonal. My husband’s speech was emo­tional and heartfelt.

Wed­ding day advice:

Enjoy every minute — it is your day.

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

Pho­tog­ra­pher: Aaron Tom­masi http://aarontommasi.com/
Wed­ding singer: Dar­ren Show http://darrenshow.co.uk/
Piper: Rochester Pipers
Venue: Lympne Cas­tle www.lympnecastle.co.uk
Toast Mas­ter: Peter Thomp­son
Florist: Wig­more Florists www.wigmoreflorist.co.uk
Cars: Odds car hire http://oddscarhire.co.uk/