Wedding Blog UK ~ Wedding Ideas ~ Before The Big Day: Esther Bissessar

After all the excitement of the Wedding Blog Awards, I completely failed to publish the second half of Jo and Luke's incredible wedding. And you've got to see these amazing pictures, as they're chock-a-block with wedding inspiration. Jo chose a beautiful garden theme, which fitted perfectly with their Friars Court wedding venue. The owner is clearly some sort of wedding decoration genius, as he's created a wonderful romantic world of swinging lanterns and vintage props. There's so many stealworthy ideas, it's hard to pick my favourite, but....{deep breath}....I love the swinging white lanterns, the 14 real, blossoming cherry trees lining the marquee, the tables named after flowers, the mossy logs, the memory table {complete with budget-savvy Waitrose cake}, and the wooden LOVE hearts hanging off the water bottles. Don't miss Jo's answers to the Before the Big Day Bride's Questionnaire, they're full of wedding inspiration, and take a look at their wedding photographer, Lily Sawyer's website - she's a serious talent!

We got married in Alvescot Church on 27th April 2013 near where I grew up. For the reception, we wanted something near to the church, and we were fortunate enough to find the most incredible venue available in the next village. Friars Court is an old country manor, and we held our reception in the gardens and the garden room.

We also had a marquee on the old tennis courts. We wanted to make the most of being in the countryside - particularly for our friends from London. I wanted it to be an extension of my childhood - of which I have such happy memories.

There's nothing I like more than a traditional English themed wedding with tonnes of stealworthy ideas, and Karolina and James' big day ticks both of those boxes in style! Inspired by her collection of vintage English china, Karolina incorporated similar floral patterns and soft pastels into her wedding colour scheme. Soft creams, pinks, champagne and peaches were reflected in the vintage garden flowers, including out-of-season peonies sourced from Colombia! Both bride and groom got super-involved with the planning of their wedding, and personalised every wedding detail to reflect their personalities. To list just a few of my favourites - they had a traditional London Routemaster bus, a Scottish piper, an old red postbox for cards, gingerbread-men candles, and a commemorative plate for guests to sign. Karolina also sourced vintage 1920s jewellery to team with her amazing Maggie Sottero wedding gown - I love her elegant wedding style. Huge thanks to Lily Sawyer and Esther Bissessar for these stunning wedding photographs, and to Karolina for filling in the Before the Big Day Bride's Questionnaire. Don't miss her innovative way of keeping her wedding flowers within budget - it's a genius idea!

We got married on the 28th April 2012 in St.James Church in Strawberry Hill, followed by a reception at Richmond Hill Hotel in Richmond. We chose the church as it was my local church and I have a really good relationship with the priest. We chose the Richmond Hill Hotel because of its stunning river views and excellent level of service, coupled with a splendid ballroom which matched our expectations of an elegant urban wedding.

I was specifically keen to appoint a flower consultant rather than a florist with a shop to avoid paying overheads, and to keep costs to a minimum. I did a google search of flower consultants in the Twickenham area and discovered a wonderful lady - Vanessa of Love Wedding Flowers. We had a consultation meeting where I shared my love for peonies, and all vintage looking flowers. We decided my bouquet would be 15 stems of pale pink peonies wrapped in a satin ribbon - very simple, elegant and understated. - sadly due to the cold weather in April last year there were no peonies on the market just yet but Vanessa managed to secure them {from Columbia!!} via the New Covent Garden Flower Market.

My dress was from Pronuptia in Hatton Garden designed by Maggie Sottero. The bolero and veil were from Pronovias in Bond Street.

When choosing my wedding dress, I had to factor in the changeable weather in April, while I looked for a vintage lace look. The traditional boob tube dress doesn't suit my shape, so I opted for a creative cover up - an off-the-shoulder vintage lace cathedral length bolero from Pronovias and a matching lace veil. This tied in with the vintage look and feel I wanted for my wedding day.

I also had a genuine 1920s art deco brooch which I adapted myself into a hair clip. This sat above my hair, which was styled into a loose French chignon under the lace veil. I teamed this with a vintage art-deco bracelet.

The name of the Maggie Sottero dress model was Ursula - it was a complete surprise when I found out the name of the chosen dress as my mum's name is Ursula - so it really was fate in choosing it!!

My engagement ring is Edwardian in style hence the choice of the antique looking accessories. I had kitten-heel white satin shoes from Pink by Paradox with a diamonte clasp on the side - they have a special range which is double padded for comfort, and they passed the test on the day!

I had no bridesmaids, but my two flower girls wore white tulle floaty corsage dresses from Monsoon Kids with pale pink boleros to match. They also had pink daisy chains on their heads, and held pink flower pomanders.

Vanessa of Love Wedding Flowers decorated the church pews with just a simple pale rose head and ivory ribbon - the aisle was very narrow and hence anything more elaborate would have been ripped off the pews by my dress!! We also had a stunning peach and rose arrangement with peonies at the altar - a very loose arrangement, nothing overdone. The flowers gave the wedding the vintage touch and Vanessa was just exceptional, I would highly recommend her to any discerning bride. The service she provided on the day in terms of set-up, etc, was second to none.

We had an opera singer perform some timeless operatic arias during the church ceremony. This took the stress away from worrying if the guests will sing and what it will sound like! It also added some classic serenity to the service. Writing the church order of service and keeping with a vintage sepia look was a massive task - we chose all the readings and arias ourselves, and I translated the order of service into Polish as well for my family members so they didn't feel left out! We also had an English and Polish reader doing two versions of the readings during the service which worked very well and made it an international event!

My husband hired a suit from Moss Bros - the Ascot morning suit. His tie and waistcoat where both in ivory and very plain with no patterns. As I didn't introduce any specific colour palette to the wedding, the ushers had cream waistcoats and ties which were only a shade darker to the groom's. They all had pale pink vintage roses in the buttonholes. The groom had a more elaborate white buttonhole made of a white rose and freesia.

In keeping with our vintage English wedding theme, we had a traditional London Routemaster Bus and served Kentish sparkling wine on board during the journey, from the Garden of England. A Scottish piper piped the guests in and despite the pouring rain, it was indeed, the best day of our lives!

Our wedding photographer was the ultra talented Lily Sawyer. We met Lily through word of mouth recommendation and boy we were blown away!! She has a keen eye for creativity and manages to capture those priceless moments and expressions with ease. We met with Lily at our venue to talk about the style of photography we liked, and progressed to having a fun filled engagement shoot - this was mostly for James' benefit, as he's never felt comfortable posing in front of the camera. The result of the engagement shoot was simply amazing and Lily made us feel very much at ease.

On the wedding day Lily provided an exceptional service, coupled with a few little surprise extras which were really unexpected, and which added value to the whole day. She set up a laptop with the church photos and screened them at the evening do, and small postcards with a photo of James and I were laid out for our guests with info on where to purchase prints.

Lily worked tirelessly throughout the whole day and her attention to detail, commitment and level of service provided was truly exceptional. We will without doubt use Lily again in the future - we're thrilled to find a photographer we like, so we can take her on our life journey with us! The quality of the finished photos and album was premium, and well worth the investment while still remaining very competitive.

The inspiration for our wedding was my vintage floral English china which I have collected for over a year. I love all the floral patterns and soft pastel colours which I tried to incorporate as part of our colour scheme. Soft creams, pinks, champagne and peach colours were reflected in the vintage garden flowers on the tables - peonies, sweet peas, garden roses, hyacinths, all surrounded by romantic hurricane lamps.

Our wedding was full of little personalised details - our feeling was that without these touches it could be anyone's big day. I tried to get both of our personalities shine through on the day. To list just a few of our wedding details, we had Polish and Scottish coasters in the bar, a seating plan displayed in vintage frames, an 80's music disco, tables named after French wine regions, an old red postbox for cards, vintage swirly lollipops for the kids, and a fun commemorative plate to sign for the guests.

We love all things classic, Kentish, French, oldy-worldy and quirky so all these little details really personalised our wedding beautifully - our friends and family who know us well saw us both in each of these fun details.

By far the biggest DIY project was collecting the china which involved hours of searching for the perfect cup, saucer and side plate in charity shops, antique and flee markets - in keeping with the relaxed vintage theme, all 3 were mismatched creating a fun effect on the tables. I have single handedly laid these out on the tables the day before our wedding. I now occasionally rent the sets out to friends for vintage tea parties!

We chose gingerbread men candles and retro lollipops as favours, which worked well with the china, and reflected our fun, child-like personalities! We used wicker hearts to decorate the back of the bride and groom chairs, and little sweet trees in the bar area.

Planning our wedding was a very enjoyable process planned with military precision! It was very much a joint effort - the man has to have mini-projects of his own too! We designed a spreadsheet with absolutely everything we could think of incl the dress, rings , postage, honeymoon, guest transport etc. Many brides don't do a spreadsheet of TOTAL wedding costs and nasty surprises creep up - this is the only way to set and control your budget.

My advice to brides would be not to worry about the weather - it poured all day on our wedding day and it honestly didn't change the fact that we had the best day! We did have to make some small changes on the day to the order of things and timings because of the rain so always have a back up plan in case that happens but don't stress about it. You will only have eyes for each other on the day anyway and nothing will spoil it! I also asked my now husband to turn around when I was walking down the aisle and to look at me! I wanted the man I love to see me in full splendor on my dad's arm and I knew that one look at him would take away all my nerves - and it did! Finally, enjoy every minute of it as it all goes by so very fast!!

We chose a four tier, white wedding cake decorated with floral blossoms to match the lace on my bolero and veil. It was in four different flavours - banana, passionfruit, lemon and Victoria sponge with cream and jam - all made by The Cake Parlour in Wimbledon, who are well known for their exceptional vintage creations.

Extra Wedding Credits
Dress Alterations - Dominika Zasada
Designer wedding rings - Bobby White
Hair and Make-Up - Beauty Call
DJ - Jon Saunders
Chair Covers - Beautiful Chairs

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