Elegance and Glamour — a Real Wedding at Blenheim Palace

Rahele and Michalis used their cul­tural back­grounds to inspire their wed­ding day. I love the Per­sian tra­di­tion of dip­ping pinky fin­gers into honey to share! — watch out for the photo and read Rahele’s expla­na­tion in her wed­ding report about half way down this blog feature.

The images are all from Wed­dings by Nicola & Glen — Oxford­shire based wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers who’ve recently had a wed­ding fea­tured on Style Me Pretty! I think they’re fab­u­lous and I’m sure you’ll agree! They’ve very kindly taken the time to write an intro­duc­tion to today’s wed­ding blog for us. Enjoy! Claire xxx

A wed­ding at Blenheim Palace — intro­duc­tion by Nicola & Glen

Rahele & Michalis’s wed­ding was a sea­sonal inspi­ra­tion with the red berry color scheme adding blushes of warmth and depth to this glam­orous win­ter wed­ding held at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.

The berry colours & actual berries were in all the flow­ers for the day (kindly made by Rahele’s friend Tracey Hold­ing), Rahele’s lip & nail colour, and both her sis­ter (Maid of Hon­our) & mother’s out­fit on the day and the favours of tra­di­tional sugar coated almonds.

Another friend of Rahele, Rosie Clowser, also made the choco­late cake for them. Both bride & groom got ready at hotel Mal­mai­son, orig­i­nally the city of Oxford’s old his­toric jail house.

The wed­ding recep­tion was held at the Orangery at the mag­nif­i­cent Blenheim Palace, per­fect for the cold weather as splen­did views of the beau­ti­ful Ital­ian gar­dens could be enjoyed from inside look­ing through the ele­gant room’s huge arched win­dows. The cer­e­mony itself was in The Marl­bor­ough Room, a dou­ble vaulted ceil­ing ris­ing to the full height of the Palace.

Despite the cold & time of year the spec­tac­u­lar Palace and grounds made a breath­tak­ing set­ting for their wed­ding. Guests came from far and wide as Rahele is Per­sian and grew up in Swe­den and Michalis hails from Greece. The two fused ele­ments of their Greek & Per­sian her­itage through­out the event to pay homage to both cultures.

The offi­cial pro­ceed­ings started with a dou­ble cer­e­mony, a civil cer­e­mony fol­lowed by a tra­di­tional Greek ortho­dox ser­vice. Dur­ing the recep­tion Per­sian tra­di­tions were upheld by hav­ing a table of wed­ding favours for all the guests bedecked with var­i­ous items of sym­bolic impor­tance. One of these is the cup of honey where the bride and groom each dip a pinky fin­ger in the honey and feed it to one another to sweeten life for their future together.

Wed­ding report: Rahele and Michalis at Blenheim Palace

Wed­ding venue: Blenheim Palace, Oxford
Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher: Wed­dings by Nicola & Glen

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

Glam­orous, Tra­di­tional and stylish

A lit­tle about the wed­ding ceremony:

Cel­e­brat­ing in the Marl­bor­ough Room at Blenheim palace we had two cer­e­monies one tra­di­tional Greek Ortho­dox and a Civil Cer­e­mony. The flower girls play­ing harp in the background.

Which read­ings did you choose?

‘I love you’ by Mir­ti­o­tissa and ‘Bless­ing for a Mar­riage’ by James Dil­lot Freeman

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

Blenheim Palace is a glam­orous and styl­ish venue full of style and well thought of. We had mini favours which con­sisted of 5 almonds in each bag. Table dec­o­ra­tions were bur­gundy color calla lilies in a high vase with a float­ing can­dle on the top.

Invi­ta­tions and recep­tion stationery:

Made by the Bride and Groom.

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

Fusion Enter­tain­ment with a mix­ture of Per­sian, Greek and Swedish music

What did you wear?

I wore a stun­ning gown with lovely detail­ing on the straps and front, com­pli­mented by a blusher style veil, both designed by The Wed­ding Square in Swe­den. My shoes were from Pink and my jew­ellery from Crislu.

Michalis was wear­ing a Lin­coln Morn­ing Suit from Moss Bros, and cuf­flinks by Hermes

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

All day really but the most enjoy­able was our first dance, the Entrance of the Bride at the cer­e­mony room and the buggy trip around the grounds with Glen and Nicola for our pic­tures. To hon­our my Per­sian her­itage as bride and groom we each dipped one pinky fin­ger in a cup of honey to feed to one another as is tra­di­tion. The mean­ing of the honey is to sweeten life for the couple’s future together.

Wed­ding day advice:

Stay calm and col­lected, make sure you def­i­nitely eat and drink your expen­sive food (as I didn’t eat any­thing), take time to talk to all your guests as much as you can, dance all the time (make sure you have soft insoles in your shoes, brides), take pic­tures with all your guests and enjoy as much as you can! This day is all about you and your hus­band and noth­ing else matters!

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

• Wed­ding Square– Sweden
• Moss Bros
• Crislu jew­ellery
• Tracy Hold­ing for Flowers
• Rosie at ‘the­cake­maker’ for the cake.

• Recep­tion Venue: Blenheim Palace blenheimpalace.com
• DJ: Fusion Enter­tain­ments fusionentertainments.com
• Shoes: Para­dox Lon­don Pink paradoxlondon.com
• Jew­ellery: Her­mes hermes.com and Crislu crislu.com
• Tuxedo and Mens Attire: Moss Bross moss.co.uk
• Pre Cer­e­mony Loca­tion: Mal­mai­son Hotel malmaison.com