An Intimate and Personal Ingatestone Hall Wedding

Eliz­a­beth and Paul had an ele­gant Eng­lish wed­ding with a light colour palette, pretty details and some spe­cial touches: a horse and car­riage, a string quar­tet and lots of lush pink roses! Elizabeth’s dress is the exquis­ite Cop­pelia by Ian Stu­art — she’s absolutely stun­ning. I’ll hand over to Eliz­a­beth for the wed­ding report and to wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Gary Roe­buck for all the lovely images of their Ingate­stone Hall wed­ding now. Enjoy the pretty! xxx

Eliz­a­beth and Paul’s Ingate­stone Hall wedding

The bride and groom: Eliz­a­beth Petchey and Paul Sowden

Who pro­posed, and how? Paul pro­posed on valen­tines day on the beach of Phi Phi island in Thai­land after a lovely can­dlelit din­ner on the beach.

Wed­ding venue: Ingate­stone Hall, Essex www.ingatestonehall.com

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher: Gary Roe­buck www.garyroebuck.co.uk

How would you describe your wed­ding style? Fem­i­nine but nat­ural with soft pinks, peaches and lots of green­ery. The cer­e­mony was lovely, we only had 50 guests so it was inti­mate and per­sonal. Read­ings included “Yes, I’ll Marry You” by Pam Ayres, brides­maid Amy Clay­ton did a fan­tas­tic ren­di­tion which added humour to the ceremony.

Eliz­a­beth wears Cop­pelia by Ian Stu­art, again very soft and nat­ural. Paul opted for black tails, a sil­ver waist­coast and peach cra­vat, with cane!

Wed­ding high­lights included every­one get­ting up and danc­ing to New York, New York in a cir­cle at the end of the night

Beau­ti­ful flow­ers were cre­ated by the Orchid Rooms, and all linen and chair cov­ers by Pre­mier Crew who were amazing.

For music and enter­tain­ment, there was a String Quar­tet from the Lon­don Ensem­ble and DJ Silversparks

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

Trot­ting through Ingate­stone high street in the horse and car­riage on the way to the venue, with every­one smil­ing and waving.

Eliz­a­beth and Paul’s wed­ding day advice

Try to limit the num­ber of sup­pli­ers you use, if pos­si­ble go through one main sup­plier such as Pre­mier Crew who will then rec­om­mend and man­age the other suppliers.

Don’t under­es­ti­mate the impor­tance of good pho­tos, the day goes so quickly and once it is all over it’s the pho­tos that bring back the mem­o­ries and are reminders of your spe­cial day.

Keep the speeches short, we lim­ited ours to a total of 30 mins and it seemed just right.

Ingate­stone Hall rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

Sur­rey Wed­ding Pho­tog­ra­pher Gary Roe­buck – his pho­tos don’t just cap­ture the events of the day, they cap­ture emo­tion and cre­ate works of art. Some of his most stun­ning pho­tos are taken on cloudy, even stormy days, we were blessed with sun but we knew that with Gary, what­ever the weather we would get fan­tas­tic photos.

Pre­mier Crew Hos­pi­tal­ity – for cater­ing and event man­age­ment – every­thing sup­plied and man­aged by Naomi was perfect

The Orchid Rooms – beau­ti­ful flow­ers, high quality

The Four Vint­ners – for drink on sale or return basis, deliv­ered and collected