(this is a repost as I accidentally deleted it - sorry!)
We Made It - we finally had our 'big' wedding! (In this case, 'big' means more than 12 guests as that's all we had last year during our ceremony-only wedding/minimony) I'm so excited to write this blog post that I'm writing it before we get our small handful of sneak peek photos back from our photographer, so the photos in this blog post aren't professional but they're still so pretty! Just like last year, we have apparently surrounded ourselves with some incredibly talented people behind the camera, because we have been given some absolutely gorgeous guest photos!
I'm not sure where to start so I'm just going to start writing and see where it goes! I'm going to cover everything from our favourite moments, my planning tips, and some notes on sequel weddings as I now feel incredibly knowledgeable on them.
The Planning Process
The first thing we did when we found out that we wouldn't be able to have our entire wedding on one day last year, was begin looking for a new venue, (we actually did want to go back to Pembroke Lodge but they don't do reception-only weddings, we would've had to do the whole day again which would've fallen way outside of our budget), we looked at a few and our favourite ended up being Riverside Marquee in Maidenhead. It was absolutely beautiful as you'll see from the photos later, and once we had that, we could start thinking about decor and the general vibe that we wanted for this wedding. We'd decided quite early on that we wanted the two days to feel very separate to each other as we were new to marriage at our first wedding, but by this point, we'd been married for a year, grown and changed together so much, and we wanted the photos to reflect that, so we went for a completely different atmosphere. We had a different photography and videography team so that the photos would be different stylistically, I bought a second wedding dress which was sleeker and sexier, and started planning to have my hair up instead of down, with a very glam evening make up look featuring sunset eyes and red lipstick, which was very different to my princess ballgown dress and natural, softer make up look from last year.
I will be leaving all of our vendors 100 star reviews as soon as we have the professional photos back to give them, so I won't say too much here, but I will say that Melissa Wood from Storme Hair and Makeup was an absolute dream - I was very lucky to have her, we have so much in common and I instantly felt like we'd become best friends the first time I met her during my trial, and she brought so much joy into our day. The exact same sentiment can be said for our photographer, Bek from Weddings by Bek, she was the loveliest person, and was incredibly friendly and accommodating of my requests (when I'd waited an entire 1042 days for our wedding, let's just say that I asked a lot of her, but she didn't complain or make me feel bad about it once), the same goes for Jessi who was our videographer for the evening.
This might be surprising to read, but considering the covid related wedding boom which really hit the wedding industry hard, we actually walked into our first wedding with our reception venue and photography/videography team already booked, which definitely lifted some of the stress coming out of that wedding knowing that I still had an entire second wedding to plan immediately afterwards. If you are having a sequel wedding, and you know that you're doing this from the get go, I really recommend being organised otherwise things book up really quickly and that can be quite upsetting if you aren't able to hire who you'd like to - the only vendor that I had approached that I couldn't get due to them being entirely booked up was a live painter for the night, but I got everything else that I envisioned by planning so far in advance!
One of my favourite pieces of decor was actually the very first thing that I bought for this wedding last year, which was our The Aireys neon light from lovestruckhk on Etsy - I can't wait for it to double as home decor when we have a bigger apartment, because I think neon signs are definitely not just for weddings. I knew it was something I wanted from the start, but my only worry was not knowing how to hang it, so when our florist from last year announced, (follow your vendors on Instagram, it helps!), that she was launching a floral moonarch which could be used for neon lights, I knew instantly that we had our solution, especially as it would be the only source of florals in this wedding, it was pretty special since Elena also did all of our florals last year. I absolutely loved it and we opted for the pink/white colour option as it tied in with the Taylor Swift Lover era part of our theme. Oh, yes, that was a part of our theme.
The Taylor Swift Elements of our Wedding
We had a mixed theme in that it was half celestial and half Taylor Swift's Lover era, and I thoroughly enjoyed incorporating elements of both during the planning of it.
The celestial elements are easier to spot in the photos (cake charms, cake topper, invites, my accessories, signage, my nails) than the Swiftie references, so here are all of the ways we incorporated that side of me into the wedding.
We had a glitter bar run by Toni from Glamavan, as much like myself, we know Taylor loves her glitter. As a vegetarian who has used only cruelty free make up for many years now, it was also super important to me that all of the glitter was bio-degradable, and it took me quite a long time to find this during my search so I was beyond thrilled when I found Toni. She was an absolute gem on the night, and so many guests said that it was one of their favourite parts as they hadn't seen a glitter bar at a wedding before, which I loved! I also loved that it gave the wedding real festival vibes which I think we've all been missing for the past two years, so as soon as I got the idea, I knew I had to go for it.
My bridesmaids were given disposable cameras to use during the wedding as we know Taylor loves a polaroid, and they were also gifted mirrorball cocktail cups as their thank you gift from me this year. The polaroid cameras weren't all completely used up by the end of the wedding which I actually love as it means that we've taken them out with us every day since the wedding, so the rolls will go from our wedding to us just being us on a normal week or two, doing life together. I love that. I had an actual mirrorball which I wanted to be placed on one of the tables as decor, but it went missing during the actual wedding which is no big deal in the grand scheme of it, things happen! Speaking of my bridesmaids, my incredible bridesmaid and one of my closest friends for 9 years was one of our vendors this year as she made our wedding cake. She used celestial cake charms that I found on Etsy, (full vendor list below), and designed a truly beautiful two-tiered red velvet cake decorated using the Lover colours. It was the prettiest, and most delicious cake I've ever seen in my life and we could not be more grateful to Jade for it. Jade and I also asked my photographer to take a photo of our matching Taylor Swift tattoos, (which also happen to be celestial as they're inspired by the lyric 'love you to the moon and to saturn' from her song Seven, and I'm so excited to see those photos!) This is also why I wore my absolute favourite necklace ever which features a saturn and moon design from constellationcouk. I wear it everyday anyway and I couldn't see any feasible way of throwing a celestial wedding without it!
Stephen and I chose to be the only ones to give speeches at this wedding as we figured our nearest and dearest would be pretty speeched out since we had asked quite a few people to speak last year, at multiple different points in the wedding. Each of my speeches for my bridesmaids had a Taylor Swift reference in them, and I really enjoyed that a few people came up to me to tell me that they spotted them all during the wedding, mission accomplished!
I also had my nails painted the same shade of blue as Stephen's suit, which is also the same colour that I associate with 1989 Taylor. In terms of signage, our sparkler exit sign said Sparks Fly, referencing one of her songs from the Speak Now album, and we had napkins and a portable photo frame which said 'Best Day', referencing her song from Fearless album. Our wax seals that we used for our invitations were also quite Folklore-esque which I loved. Finally, I bought two pairs of white/pink sunglasses for the photobooth which reminded me of the sunglasses Taylor wears in the 1989 promo photos.
If you're a Swiftie and you noticed any or all of this, please let me know as I definitely worked super hard on it. ♡
Favourite Moments
We booked dj2k for all of our DJ, dancefloor and photobooth needs for our first wedding, but had to cancel due to not being allowed to have a reception. I was so worried that they would be booked up by the time we'd settled on a venue for our reception, so I was thrilled when they said they were available and we could just keep our exact same package - they were the only vendor we'd booked that we didn't get to use the first time, so we were incredibly excited to finally meet them and have them at our wedding. They were absolutely incredible, played so many fun songs using both our suggested songs which we requested, and used what they could gather of our music taste/the ages of the guests at our wedding to put together an amazing playlist. We were handed a USB at the end of the night with all of the digital copies of all of the photos taken in the photobooth so that we could give them to guests, and they also created a photobook for us with signatures from our guests next to their photo strips, which is something I actually didn't know they were going to do and it's such a treasured item to have, I'm so grateful for it. I love how much fun our guests had using the booth!
Alex was an amazing DJ, and we had a lot of fun having our official first dance. We danced to Speechless by Dan and Shay which was featured during our walk back down the aisle during the confetti throw last year, but we loved it so much that we thought that we'd give it more of a place in the wedding this time. We had a semi-choreographed first dance which we started blocking out about two weeks before the wedding, and because we were already married this time and didn't do the traditional sleeping apart the night before thing, (I really loved that we got to spend the whole day together until he left to get ready so we wouldn't see each other before our first look - I'm now a huge advocate for getting ready together/spending some of the day together), we actually finished practising on the very day of the wedding as our bnb was big enough for us to properly block all of the lifts, which we couldn't do at our flat. Alex also made sure to include Pavement Ends by Little Big Town in our playlist which was one of the songs I wrote in the 'bride wants to dance to' section of his form, and I'm so glad he did play it because there is now a video of me line dancing in a wedding dress. Iconic. We ended the night having a private last dance while our guests were preparing for our sparkler exit outside, which was an idea I found on wedding TikTok during planning and I loved it so much! Our private last dance wasn't entirely private which is a shame, but that's probably partially due to our venue co-ordinator not showing up at all the entire night so a lot of things weren't as perfectly organised as they should've been and it could've really taken down our wedding if it wasn't for my bridesmaids, particularly Beth, being absolutely incredible. If I have one tip about all of this, then it's please, please make sure that you've met your venue co-ordinator long before the day/the day before, so that you make sure you trust them to show up. Our wedding was still perfect because my chosen family are perfect, and I'm very lucky for that.
One of the best things about having a sequel wedding is that you get to incorporate more ideas you hadn't thought of the first time, one of these included a pick & mix stand which was the element of wedding planning that Stephen was in charge of, and we had so much fun picking out the sweets together, ensuring that there were enough vegetarian/vegan/plant based options - it was another part of the wedding that guests told me they loved, which is so nice to hear! I had a lot of fun buying cute sweet bags and napkins for it.
I mentioned it above, but another thing that we added into our sequel wedding which we hadn't originally planned last year was a first look before all of our guests arrived, and it was honestly so sweet and so much fun. I'm so excited to see the professional photos from that, it was such a sweet moment and it was such an emotional thing to do right before we walked into the wedding that we'd waited 1000+ days for which had changed shape so, so many times during the planning of it. It was a real 'we did it' moment, and it was lovely.
We also managed to do a shot of sambuca together for our videographer to capture as because it was an evening reception this time, shots were a bit more acceptable! We also played a game of Mr&Mrs during our evening, and we used DIY paddles for this by gluing polaroids of ourselves to lollipop sticks so that our guests could join in with us when we held up each other's shoes in response to questions, it was so fun and such an easy and affordable thing to add into your wedding - I highly recommend it!
Tips and Warnings
As mentioned above, there were quite a few things on my photo list, so I put a photography box together for Bek, so that everything was in one place and I could just hand it to her when she arrived at our bnb. I put in things like our wedding rings in our cute ring box, my wedding shoes, Stephen's cufflinks, bowtie and buttonhole, my hair accessories and jewellery, my perfume, our invites and envelopes, and our wax seals. You can put anything in here that you would like captured as a memory of all of the little, special things in your wedding!
Our bnb had a really cute pink sofa in the reception area which I suggested to Bek as a place that she could lay everything out on for the photos and she agreed - we also took some photos of me in my dress on the pink sofa, and I think all of those photos will be so adorable, I'm excited to see them!
I set up a Facebook album and assigned all of our guests, (that use FB), as contributors of the album so that they could upload everything they captured on their phones during the evening, and we could download them from one place - and all guests could download each other's photos too, it took a lot of the responsibility of this away from us as the couple and I think it's a great idea. There are some apps that do this too if you don't have a lot of guests on FB - I think Hitched has one, and there are a few others that I researched too!
Warning. It FLIES BY. One wedding day is on average 10-12 hours, and everyone warns couples that those fly by, so you can imagine just how quickly a mere 4 hour reception flew by - I knew that it wasn't a long duration of time, but the amount of shock I was in when our DJ announced last call at the bar was intense. I know everyone says it, but prepare yourself for that. I wish I could do the whole thing over again, and I'm almost glad that Bek has a 14 week timeline for the return of all of our wedding media, because it means that we get to live in this moment a bit longer, every time we get a sneak peek photo or a trailer of our wedding video.
So listen, I loved wearing my mermaid tail wedding dress this time around because the train was absolutely beautiful and you don't always get that with a ballgown, BUT take this from me because nobody told me this, even when it's bustled, you still have to hold it up a little to avoid falling over it, and it's not fun not being able to be hands-free at all, so if I did it again, I feel like I would've made my choice on either a ballgown and a dress with a train for the ceremony, and then worn a short tea dress or cute jumpsuit for the reception!
Finally, and I'm writing about this one last on purpose because it is completely to each their own and I will never ever judge someone for how much their wedding costs, just like I'd like to think nobody would judge me for the choices that I made. I saved for years, and planned for years and everyone deserves to spend their money how they choose to - but - it is expensive having a sequel wedding. It's two venues, two catering bills, two drink bills, two wedding dresses, (if you want that), two sets of alterations, two photography/videography bills. Almost everything is paid for twice, and while it is spaced out over a year, it's still expensive. We did everything on a strict budget this time, and it was still a drain on the bank account so just something to keep in mind if you are planning on having a sequel wedding!
I absolutely loved all three of our weddings (ceremony, legal, reception) and had the best time planning all of them ever since we got engaged in 2019, but I'm very excited to decide what I'm going to do with all of this free space in my brain now that I can fill it with other things, and also spend some time treating ourselves now that all of our money isn't pre-reserved for a wedding, for the first time in three years. Also, hit me up if anyone wants any help with wedding planning or has questions, or just wants a really fancy birthday celebration, because I know all the best in the biz now!
Vendor List
DJ/dancefloor/photobooth - dj2k - @dj2kevents
moonarch/florals - Harmony Event Decorations - @harmony.eventdecorations
make up and hair - Melissa Wood - @melissawood_hair.makeup
wedding dress - Style D2679 by Essense of Australia, bought from Butterfly Bridal Boutique, altered by Kate's Alterations, @essenseofaustralia, @butterflybridalboutique, @kates_alterations
venue - Riverside Marquee @riversidemarquee
wedding cake - my wonderful bridesmaid, Jade - Pretty and Prim Bakes - @prettyandprimbakes
photographer and videographer - Weddings by Bek and Jessi Zou, @weddingsbybek, @jessizoufilm
glitter van - Glamavan - @glamavanglitter
signage and ring boxes - Mallys Crafts - @mallyscrafts
stationery and let sparks fly sign - Ivy and Gold Company on etsy - @ivyandgoldcompany
wax seals - Keth Studio on etsy - @kethstudioo
cake topper - Tilly Bean Bespoke on etsy - @tillybeanbespoke
cake charms - Suzanne Oddy Design on etsy - @suzanneoddydesign
wedding earrings - The Celestial Heaven on etsy - @thecelestialheaven_
wedding necklace - Constellation Co uk on etsy - @constallationcouk
neon light - Lovestruckhk on etsy
hair clips - Bebeto by ozlem on etsy
wedding shoes and clutch - Quiz Clothing - @quizclothing
vow books - Silver Bee Ceremonies - @silverbeeceremonies
dessert table kit/napkins/best day ever frame/photobooth props/sweet favour bags/sweets stand - Ginger Ray - @gingerrayuk
relationship timeline sign - Foilux - @foilux
sparklers - Sparklers.co.uk - @sparklers.co.uk
photobooth sunglasses - Team Hen - @teamhen
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