We love hearing from Before the Big Day brides! Lovely Sarah discovered her wedding photographer,
PhotoMadly, via
Before the Big Day, and I'm thrilled to now feature her beautiful wedding to Sam. With a wedding reception at historic
Inner Temple and a Persian ceremony, this stunning big day is packed full of delicious wedding details. Sarah chose a peach and yellow colour theme for her wedding flowers, and carried the natural theme through to her {DIY'd} wedding invitations and wildflower seed wedding favours. Vintage wedding details included handmade place-markers, and the personalised memory table, decorated with Sarah and Sam's parents' wedding pictures and a vintage suitcase. With Sarah's exquisite Manuel Mota wedding gown,
a naked wedding cake, and amazing deserts, this is definitely one of my favourite weddings of the year! If you'd like to submit your wedding to Before the Big Day, please do
contact me.
I always thought my dream wedding dress would be made of white lace with ¾ sleeves! However when I tried a dress like that, it didn’t catch my eyes. I tried a few different styles and ended up with a dress totally different from my imagination! I tried a champagne satin gown designed by Manuel Mota, from Pronovias 2012 Collection.
It was the only dress that increased my heart-rate and felt absolutely unique and special wearing it. However to make sure that was the best choice, I went to a few other designer shops in London and Paris, but in the end I went back to my original choice.
Our florists were the lovely Simon and Victoria from Euphoric Flowers. I chose peach and yellow as the colour theme for my bouquet, which beautifully matched my champagne wedding dress. The tuberose released an amazing scent around me all day and evening! Sam and the ushers had matching buttonholes with yellow craspedia added.
My mum handmade my veil! Sewing has always been a hobby for her and she is great at it. I told her what style of veil I want and despite being in another country, she purchased the fabric and made a beautiful veil for me, with small sparkles towards the hem.
Finding the right suit for Sam wasn't too easy. In our search, we heard there was a guy called Ian who was 'the master of suits' based in Reiss Oxford Circus, who could potentially help with a made-to-measure suit! We found him, and he was indeed the master of suits! He helped Sam to design his three-piece suit from the scratch - from the material and colour to the lining, buttons and so many other details - Sam chose everything. He looked fabulous on our wedding day!
I was so lucky to find my shoes which were not only the right heel size and comfortable, but also had the exact colour and details as my dress. I found them in Dune in Covent Garden. Sam's shoes were from the same shop!
We celebrated our wedding on Sunday 23 September at Honourable Society of the Inner Temple in London. Inner Temple is a beautiful historical venue in the heart of London with a three-acre garden overlooking the Thames, a 12th Century church, and lots of different halls and rooms you can use for different parts of your celebration.
Sam's dad is a barrister and his family had a long term relationship with Inner Temple - having celebrated many big events in the Hall. Meanwhile, I loved the Englishness of the venue and I was sure my Iranian friends and family would love to experience the Britishness of the venue for our wedding!
Having a Persian ceremony meant our wedding was always going to be glamorous and full of details, so we didn’t need to worry too much about having a particular wedding theme. Plus we wanted the beautiful backdrop of Inner Temple to shine through.
Sam and I met for the first time at the birthday dinner of a mutual friend in a bar and restaurant in Camden in May 2009. We happened to sit next to each other and had a long chat about politics, languages, animals and ourselves.
Sam's plan for proposing didn't go exactly as expected! In November 2011 he took me out for dinner in a cute French restaurant in Hampstead, where we had lots of nostalgic memories of our early relationship, but according to him, the right moment never arrived to ask the big question that night! The following morning, I was still in bed, when Sam brought me a ring, went on his knee and said he couldn’t wait for another special occasion.
Rather than the traditional wedding photography, I wanted a more modern approach into my wedding photos. I did a lot of research and came across Erika from Photomadly through Before The Big Day. Her photos were very creative but in the meantime very natural and didn't feel commercial. Erika had a lovely personality and very pleasant to work with. She suggested a free engagement shoot to give us a chance to practice how to work together, before the big day! You can see our engagement photos via her blog.
There were days that I enjoyed planning our wedding, but there were moments of frustration and feeling this is all crazy and too much! I spent six months on the whole thing, from the day we decided on the venue and date, and I don't think I could manage to spend even one more day on it!
My advice is, don’t let your passion and interest for any aspect of your wedding become an obsession for you! Do your research, but also be able to make a decision and tick it off your list. I didn't delegate enough and I was left with too much responsibility up to the actual day, so please delegate to your friends and family as much as possible. Finally be happy and relaxed on the day, even if it rains all day - what matters the most is the celebration of your marriage with all your loved ones, which is overwhelmingly incredible.
We had lots of DIY wedding projects. We welcomed our guests with a memory table of our parents' wedding photos, some pictures from our childhood, a hand-made guest book and a vintage luggage full of fresh flowers. I also created the order of ceremony, which explained what is the history of Persian ceremony the symbolism. I used a template from Vistaprint and added Persian poems and our engagement photos.
I designed our wedding stationary, using a simple floral template from an online printing company {Vistaprint}, which we then decorated with lace and sheer ribbons to give them a bit of a glamour and a vintage look. My mum {who lives abroad} managed to visit me for a few days in London, and we made the cards together. She also helped me with other important decisions I couldn't make without my mum!
We had lots of DIY wedding projects. I made all the table names out of luggage tags, glamorised with lace ribbons and vintage buttons, with our guests’ names in both English and Persian to highlight our multicultural celebration. I also made the table names, using stamps and images of the cities Sam and I visited or wanted to visit. Sam did most of the seating plans and put a lot of care and attention on how to mix and match the guests for everyone to have a great time and enjoy a nice chat over dinner.
To go with the natural theme of the wedding, I ordered personalised flower seed packages for our guests to take home and grow in their gardens, in memory of our wedding. I chose the seeds from Wildflower Favours, and ordered three different styles of packaging - all natural and vintage looking.
I discovered Euphoric Flowers via a wedding magazine, and Simon and Victoria worked closely with me, with lots of patience and experience. In the end the flowers were better than I imagined! I chose bright and colourful centrepieces and a vintage suitcase of flowers on the memory table, plus displays for the ceremony room and entrance hall.
In my wedding research I came across images of natural wedding cakes {cakes without icing} and absolutely loved the idea. Finding the cake-maker was allocated to Sam’s to-do-list and he did a great job finding the Abigail Bloom Cake Company. We had a 3 tier natural cake, with different flavours for each tier. It looked beautiful, with butter cream and raspberry conserve between each layer, and tasted absolutely gorgeous.
Persian weddings normally have a charming cake cutting ceremony, when the knife is handed to the bride and groom, by their female cousins and friends, after lots of dancing!
{Wedding Credits}
Videographer: Karl and Nicole from
Moment Media
Make-up Artist:
Maryam Jensen
Hair stylist:
Kassandra Rizzuto
Event Manager: Vicky Portinari
Music: String Quartet at the reception and DJ for the party - contacts by request
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