Real Life Weddings at Fanhams Hall

Tinder! Jay started our first conversation with “lets write a story, five words each at a time”. We made each other laugh and knew there was something special there straight away.

The day we bought our house, we collected the keys and went straight there. I was so excited about opening our front door for the first time. But Jay stopped me, told me he wanted to savour the moment, said lots of nice things about loving me that I can’t remember because my brain was going “He’s doing it! He’s doing it!”. Then he said “But I don’t want to live in sin”. He got down on one knee, opened a ring box containing a keyring for the house and asked me to marry him. I’m not sure I even managed to get a yes out I was crying so much.

Its age. Given that it’s such an old building, it’s been kept beautifully. The garden is my particular favourite. I’m still a little heartbroken it rained, and we didn’t get to have our ceremony outside. But it didn’t matter. Our day was perfect.

Jay’s very into maps and has made a career out of it. We’ve both also worked in many theatres over the years. So, our decorations were map themed and our table names were theatres. It was subtle, but really represented us.

I tried on so many dresses! Most of which I did alone as my work schedule never matched up to my bridesmaids. I hunted the internet for a particular designer and found some places in and around London that had some of their pieces. After about four months of looking, Jay drove me to Clementine Bridal in Westerham. I tried on several dresses, each one not looking as great on me as they did online and I was getting a little more saddened with each upzipping. Then I tried on the Honey… and I felt the most unbelievable relief. I cried, I sent photos to my mum and sister, they cried! I paid and the church a few doors down started ringing its bells. They rang whilst I walked down the road, cradling the dress in my arms. I saw Jay and the relief on his face at the fact I was holding a dress was wonderful. The bells kept going as we drove off.

The first thing I regret was trying to save money and not having an official Rembo alternator take my dress up and in. The person who did do it didn’t do an amazing job and I only realised the day before they had cut the ribbons that tie my train up. So, I spent the whole day having to pick my dress up when walking around. The second, is not wearing my shoes with my dress and walking around a bit beforehand. I had embellished sandals and they seriously tore the bottom of my dress to bits. I was tripping over all day.

Jay’s face mostly. It all flashed by so quickly. I just remember being incredibly happy.

We decided really last minute we wanted a Motown band. I’ve always dreamed about having one at my wedding and we finally threw caution to the wind! They really made our night special.

Also, as Jay is Jewish, we had our brilliant DJ play what should have been 10 minutes of Jewish wedding music so we could do the traditional Jewish dancing. But our sneaky DJ looped the last song ten times. We were all so confused but proudly kept dancing… even though we could hardly breath! That was a hilarious surprise Jay and I will never forget.

Plan in advance and don’t leave everything to the last minute like we did! Remember that the planning bit can be stressful, but all the little things you think will matter really don’t on the day.

When the day comes, make sure to take your partner to a corner of the room and just look at your wedding, your family and friends, the décor, the food, listen to the music and laughter for at least one whole minute. Really take it in.

Photographer - Expression Photography
Flowers & Styling @haloblossom
Outfits @rembostyling
DJ - Otis Wolf
Band @flocollective