I have to say i really enjoyed Autumn this year… the light, the weather, the colours, it was just beautiful. And so I’m really excited to share this beautiful October wedding of Maike and Adam.

Maike and Adam wanted a relaxed informal wedding, which i must say was oh so chic. I adore Maike’s beautiful beaded vintage wedding dress, and those bright orange roses… simply gorgeous.

Thanks so much to the amazing Birmingham based wedding photogapher, Daffodil Waves Photography for sharing her gorgeous images today…

Names…. Maike and Adam

Wedding Date…. 14 October 2011

The Proposal…. Valentine’s Day 2010, Adam had planned it for some time and I had absolutely no idea whatsoever! He had picked Valentine’s as we had our very first date on Valentine’s 2007 (very ambitious!!). I nearly ruined the day by catching a horrendous bout of flu and spending the week before the day in bed feeling awful. In the morning of the 14th I opened my present: a lovely card with tickets for the Lion King Matinee and dinner at an amazing Thai restaurant in Soho. I was completely thrilled – up until he suggested a nice walk after breakfast. Considering that I still didn’t feel great and we had a typical British February day (wet, gloomy, foggy), I wasn’t overly impressed. We took a walk by the river when Adam suddenly stopped and said “I have to ask you a question” – dropped on one knee and whizzed a box with the most beautiful ring out and asked me to marry him. It took me all of a second to say yes! We then walked home with idiotic grins on our faces, called our parents and then spent the rest of the day celebrating at the Lion King, the restaurant and a couple of bars with too much champagne.  A perfect day.

The Vision for the day…. We both wanted a fairly relaxed day, with friends and family, enjoying ourselves and nothing too formal.

The Planning process…. I found planning pretty fun and not stressful at all. I think partially because we had so much time and because we didn’t really put ourselves under too much pressure. Adam sat me down the day after the proposal to draw up a guest list and we had set a date and picked the venue within 6 weeks. Everything else fell into place on the way and we luckily mostly agreed on what we wanted (disregarding Adam’s very helpful suggestions of name badges for the guests and a Michael Jackson impersonator to shake people’s hands…)

Budget…. We never set a proper budget, we just thought carefully what we could afford and what was important to us – for example we didn’t have a special car as it just didn’t matter to us and I did my own hair and make-up which I much preferred! On the other hand we ended up having a free bar.

The Venue… The Belvedere, Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park. We have lived near the park for years and I have always loved it there. It was the first – and only – venue we looked at. The staff there were incredibly helpful and we just fell in love with it at first sight so booked it there and then. Luckily, they also had a date free during the time we were hoping for. And the park is particularly beautiful in autumn.

The Dress + Accessories….. My dress was from the Vintage Wedding Dress Company in Bloomsbury.  My headband was a ridiculously lucky find on the high street. The shoes, I found online after a very long search online – they were called Gatsby so I just couldn’t resist! My earring were borrowed from my mum and I made the bracelet myself. It gave me the chance to wear my dad’s cross which I normally always have on a necklace.

Finding the dress…. I had never really thought of what dress I would like if I got married but once I got engaged, I knew right away that a normal wedding dress wasn’t for me. I booked an appointment during Christmas 201 0 so my mum could come with me at the Vintage Wedding Dress Company as their dresses were pretty much what I was hoping for. The environment was absolutely lovely and the dresses were amazing. I tried on three in total and when I put on mine, I was pretty sure this was it. It was a beautiful 1930 dress, covered in beads and it fitted like a glove. Even though my mum would have probably preferred me in a slightly more traditional dress she said right away that it was just “me”. I put a deposit down and took my best friend to see it about two weeks later and she loved it, too. I felt incredibly comfortable all through the day and loved the way it sparkled in the sun.

Groom’s attire… Adam had actually bought a beautiful suit the year before at Moss which was perfect with a new ivory shirt and matching tie – and he looked incredibly handsome in it!

The Readings + Music…. Having a harpist was probably the one luxury I really wanted – and it was completely justified! Rebeca was fantastic before and during the day. I picked a slow version of Rhianna’s “Umbrella” to walk down the aisle, Disney’s “Bella Notte” (from Lady and the Tramp) and “When you wish upon a star” (from Pinocchio) for signing the register and Adam choose Sting’s “Fields of Gold” as exit music. Neither of us wanted too many or too soppy readings so we settled on “I Promise” by Dorothy R. Colgan. Adam’s younger sister Georgina read it out beautiful. Our first dance – and that was after all the one thing Adam choose and was adamant about: Elton John’s “The way you look tonight”.

Beautiful bridesmaids….. I didn’t pick bridesmaids as such, however, my best friend Andrea was my “Best Woman” and her little boy was our flower-boy! Andrea together with my lovely friend Jo also organised my amazing Hen Do!

The Flowers… Were provided by Jane Hearsum who was recommended to us by Pembroke Lodge. I wanted something rather simple but striking in colour. We had already chosen lanterns as table centres, surrounded by rose petals in burnt orange and cream with crystals scattered around them. For my own bouquet I picked just roses in burnt orange, the buttonholes for the men were cream, with the exception of Adam’s, which matched my flowers.

The Cake… We both take our cake quite serious and we wanted cake that reflected our taste, too. We knew right away that we wanted several flavours and quickly agreed on chocolate (Adam’s favourite), carrot (my favourite) and coffee (which we both love). The incredibly talented Amanda from Soupcon made our beautiful cake which not only tasted incredible but also looked absolutely stunning!

Your Photographer…. I spent quite some time looking at photographer’s websites and when I stumbled over Nicola at Daffodil Waves I was pretty sure she was the one for us. I’m a keen photographer myself and Nicola’s ability to find little moments of beauty during the day was exactly what I was hoping to find! When we met up, it was like meeting an old friend. Her photos of the day are even better than we could have hoped for any everyone commented on how lovely she and her assistant Katie were on the day.

The Details + Decor…. I am quite fussy when it comes to decorations and details but luckily the wonderful staff at Pembroke Lodge were incredibly helpful. I made the order of the day/order of service in English and German myself over some painstaking long afternoons and evenings after work, as well as the name cards and the favours. We picked cartoons for the table names as we both still love watching them and I used those graphics for the name cards as well. Instead of the more traditional favours, we decided to give money to two charities close to our heart: Cancer Research in memory of my dad who passed away three years ago and the RSPCA as we both love animals (we have a spoilt rotten cat and more or less accidentally got a puppy shortly before the wedding, too). Each guest got a trolley token from one of the charities with a little note (again in German and English) explaining our decision and a Mr & Mrs rock sweet.
I had also prepared some goodie bags for the children – we had 6 gorgeous little ones and we wanted to make sure they wouldn’t get too bored. The bags included a picture book, bubbles, rice crackers (in case of allergies), fingerpuppets, some crayons and I  made a little drawing booklet for each of them.
For our cake topper I surprised Adam with some adorable little figurines, made to look like us and our cat, Elvis (we didn’t have the puppy yet when I ordered them!).
My stepmother-in-law prepared our lovely Wishing Well, which had been going around the family for the past few weddings and we had a birdcage for guests to post their comments on the day on postcards we had left out.
We didn’t want a band or DJ in the evening so we each picked about 4 hours worth of our favourite songs for the night and played them via Spotify on my IPhone over the AV system.

The Honeymoon…. Was just amazing! We went to Cuba as we wanted somewhere warm, different, interesting and beautiful.
We had one night in Havana (even though we were too tired on arrival to enjoy our first night there!) and 6 nights in Varadero at the Royal Hicacos. It was an absolutely beautiful spot, incredibly relaxing and we felt thoroughly spoilt. We also took the chance to explore the surroundings and visit some attractions like old steam trains and a sugar plantation. Plus I got to swim with Dolphins!!
It’s a country with a rich and interesting culture and people are incredibly friendly.

Memorable moments… Waking up in the morning of the wedding to beautiful sunshine, Walking down the aisle with my brother (after stressing out the venue and registrar by arriving 20 minutes early – how un-bridal!), The great speeches (my mum who moved me to tears, Adam, his dad and his Best Man Paul – who all did an amazing job), One of my adorable little nieces boogy-ing on the dance floor in her dotted pyjamas (she is just over 1 year old) until the end, Waking up next morning in our house next to my husband :D

Advice for other couples… Relax, enjoy every minute, accept you cannot control everything (like an evening guest turning up for the day!) and don’t compare yourself to other couples and weddings – it’s not a competition!!

Credit where credit’s due….

Photography: Nicola at Daffodil Waves http://www.daffodilwaves.co.uk/
Venue: Pembroke Lodge http://www.pembroke-lodge.co.uk/ (whose website really doesn’t do them justice!!)
Flowers: Jane at Hearsum Flowers http://www.hearsumflowers.com/
Harpist: Rebeca Jones http://www.rebecajones.co.uk/
Chaircovers: Host with Style http://www.hostwithstyle.co.uk/
Cake: Amanda at Soupcon http://www.soupconfood.co.uk/
Cake Topper: Kathy Bocchino at knottingwood, Etsy http://www.etsy.com/people/peanutbutterbandit
My dress: Vintage Wedding Dress Company: http://www.thevintageweddingdresscompany.com/
Adam’s suit: http://www.moss.co.uk/
Table decorations: Wilkinsons (for the lanterns) and Pollen Petal http://www.pollenpetals.co.uk/ for the dried petals
Most of our stationary (invites and thank you cards) I got via Vistaprint http://www.vistaprint.co.uk
I also got a lot of stuff from Ebay: ribbons, the crystals etc

Thanks so much to Maike and Adam for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today… and for being the first couple on the new look {www} :-))) xoxo

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