Back on Friday last week, I featured some beautiful Anglo-Indian wedding inspiration which included a sneak preview of this very wedding you see featured before you now.
I feel so honoured to be sharing this wedding this morning. Regular followers may already know I'm a huge, huge fan of deaf photographer Ashton Jean Pierre. I adore his work and I adore the man himself – he is one of the very few people in this world able to relax me in front of the camera, and he is a true gentleman through and through – I would encourage anyone looking to book a wedding photographer to check Ashton's availability. Don't be deterred by the fact Ashton is deaf – this makes no difference to the quality of photography and service you will receive at all – Ashton's talent speaks for itself via his artistic work and these photographs are no exception.
This particular wedding celebrates the coming together of Indie and Greg on 29 June at The Ashes in Leek. I challenge anyone who doesn't love this wedding at first sight…
"I like to think of our wedding and multi-cultural, we had, Scottish and Indian culture all mixed together and that’s how we felt our wedding should be. We also had a pre-wedding party to cover all the cultural ceremonies and have a good old knees up before the wedding – this was brilliant as it meant our families met properly before the wedding.
We wanted to make sure everyone felt comfortable, included and all aspects of our lives were reflected. That’s why it was so important to have the ceilidh band, Bhangra, and Indian food…"
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Ashton Jean Pierre
"My lengha was from shop in Phagwara called ‘Deepaks’, my mom, sister, my best friend, Hattie who I’ve known since I was 11, travelled to the Punjab in India with me. Dress shopping in India is different from England, you’ve given a cup of tea, some food and then they just grab a load of clothes and lay them out before you.
This was the first shop we went to and within the first half an hour we’d decided the lengha and bridesmaids saris. I went to India with the idea of a traditional red lengha and came back with what we named a ‘greige’ lengha…."
"Bunty from Deepaks made sure the lengha and all the embroidery was completed in the 9 days we were there! Normally in Punjabi culture you are supposed to give a swatch of the colour to your husband to be so they know what colour to match to – I didn’t do this and it was so hard to keep it from Greg. Especially every time I mentioned incorporating grey into the wedding he rolled his eyes which just made me more nervous, on the day he liked it!
I got shown some really intricate lenghas with embroidery from head to toe and I knew I didn’t want that – when Bunty pulled the one out I saw the look on Hattie’s face and I knew it was something else. I loved the regal quality to it, I love all things old, and our flat is kitted out from top to bottom in pieces with history, so the maharajah feel for me felt spot on…"
"I got the tikka (headpiece) from Babe Pothe De Hatti in Phagwara, which translated, means 'Grandfathers Daughters House'. I chose a design and they created it for me with earrings to match!
I looked everywhere for shoes, finally I brought shoes from Hobbs, NW3 range – they didn’t match at all and I got disapproving looks but I loved them and I could stand in them, so I was sold. I also brought Vivienne Westwood’s Lady Dragon shoes for the evening’s dancing – I didn’t keep them on for very long though…"
"I wore bangles which my aunt and uncle put on me at the pre-wedding party as it’s an Indian tradition and of course mendhi on my feet and hands – it took two hours to put on and three hours to dry.
Ravita who applied the mendhi also hid Greg’s name in my hands. Traditionally, the groom has to find his name in the mendhi, and if he can’t then he has to buy his wife a present!
Greg spent ages as did everyone else trying to find it! I’m still waiting for my present though, ha!"
"Ashton took photos at a friends’ wedding and I pointed him out to Greg who hadn’t even noticed Ashton all day and we thought that was a good sign, I didn’t want an invasive in your face photographer with stilted shots and I loved his photos, so calm and beautiful.
When we met Ashton we just clicked as if we’d been friends for years – he really made us feel comfortable. Ashton is an inspiration to the deaf community, never letting his deafness stand in the way of his dreams; it will be a sad day when he moves to Australia!"
Agreed Indie, agreed! Readers – Ashton moves out to Australia mid-next year. Book him now for any UK based holidays that take place before then – before someone else books him!
"Andy from RSVP Candy did all the stationary – he was so patience with us, we nit picked over everything. All of the stationary was stunning – we have now framed our invitation and order of service…"
"Hiring a Tuk Tuk was another way we could pay tribute to India…"
"On the morning on the wedding my Grandma asked if the bridesmaids were wearing my lengha, thankfully not! The saris were also from Deepaks, we took the colour from the embroidery on my lengha and chose a embroidery for the border..."
"We wanted wild, bright and colourful flowers and found Sam of The Traditional Flower Company on the internet. I showed Greg some photos and he loved them. We went her gorgeous farm and brought with us our jugs and cups from Nkuku and we really wanted something that complimented them and our busy outfits. We also loved the smell of the flowers and all the different herbs.
Lenghas come with a chunni, mine was quite light in comparison but I still felt it was very heavy. I wore it for the ceremony and took it off and put it on my shoulder as soon as the ceremony finished…"
"We decided to have a really personal civil ceremony as neither of us are religious and one of my best friends wrote a series of haikus for us…"
"My best friend, Hattie, was in charge of cake duty – we weren’t too fussed about a cake but she insisted that we had to have a cake. We went to the Sutton Vintage Fair and we discovered Mrs Bou's Boutique Baking company and her delicious cupcakes and cakepops and we were sold.
We all wanted an Indian and Scottish themed cake and I’d seen henna cakes and really wanted them. Vikki sat down with us with plenty of tea and cake, and took us through her vision of tartan ribbon and henna cakes. We wanted some cupcakes for the kids, which they took before dinner ☺. We also had some sherry trifles in memory of Shirley who loved her trifle and her sherry..."
"My make-up artist was Elbie Van Eeden – she was the calm in the mad storm that took over my parents house on the morning of the wedding!"
"The Ashes, Endon Road, Leek, ST9 9AX, originally we thought of getting married in a Castle in Scotland as Greg is from Aberdeen, but most of our friends and family live in London or Birmingham where I am from, so we decided we’d do it the traditional way and get married where I’m from.
The venue is actually an hour drive away but Greg found it on the internet and fell in love with it and I thought it was more us than a Castle. So the whole family, and I mean everyone came to visit it and loved it, particularly the ladies toilets!"
"We hired Johals Catering – they do the best Indian food though! Greg made the trek to Southall in London with a suitcase to find bottles of Limca (Indian Lime Drink) and Thumbs Up (Indian Coca Cola) – the guests loved this as it’s really hard to find outside of India!"
"We hired Kilts from ‘The Highland Store’ in Russell Square for the Groomsmen – the Best Man wore ‘Scottish National’ and the rest of our friends decided to hire kilts and wore ‘Modern Robertson’…"
"We really wanted to blend the Scottish and Indian together, so we felt that the people were the decoration with the Saris and Kilts. But I still wanted to try my hand at DIY so when I went to India I went to a shop in Chandigarh called ‘Fab India’ and brought metres and metres of fabric all different colours and textures, Hattie’s mom, me and my mom made LOADS of bunting which we draped everywhere…"
"We had a BBQ at Secret Cloud House Holidays and stayed in their yurts all weekend – walking back in pitch black, a lengha and wellies was an experience.
Catherine of Secret Cloud House Holiday was a life saver – helping us with all the food and letting us have sixty guests roaming around her field, we did a mini sports day with our houses as most of the people who came to the wedding were our friends from school (myself and Greg went to the same school, I arrived when he left and thank god for that. I can’t imagine what he would have thought of my two stone heavier, buck teeth self!)"
Words of Wedded Wisdom…
"Don’t stress, I know it’s hard to say that in hindsight when it’s all done and dusted. One of the things I loved about our wedding was that my dad put the table plan up with masking tape, me and Greg spent weeks working out where everything will go and how to put up the table plan and on the day my dad just got a bit of masking tape. Shows the insignificance of it all, the most important thing on the day is the both of you. Don’t forget it’s a marriage not a wedding which is the outcome.
It sounds clichéd and I heard it enough times when we were planning, just step back and take a breather on the day, let it all soak in with your new husband. Being surrounded by everyone you love and sharing your day in my opinion feels amazing. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat, all the planning, stress and worries was absolutely worth it.
Finally, delegate!"
Oh my days! How all-round beautiful! That lengha, those shoes, Miss Bou's cakes!! Which is your favourite part? And do I have any more readers planning a wedding that infuses various cultural styles like this one?
Absolutely wonderful – huge congratulations Indi and Greg! And immense thanks also to photographer Ashton Jean Pierre.
So much love all,
Annabel
Photographer – Ashton Jean Pierre
Bride's Lengha + Chunni – Deepaks in Phagwara
Bride's Tikka headpiece – Babe Pothe De Hatti in Phagwara
Bride's shoes – Hobbs, NW3
Bride's accessories – Accessorize earrings
Groom – Milsom and Main – black watch kilt
Flowergirl Dresses – Marks and Spencers
Bridesmaids – Deepaks in Phagwara
Florist – The Traditional Flower Company
Cake – Boutique Baking
Transport – Nottingham Tuk Tuk Company
Catering Company – Johals Catering
Entertainment – Boy Chana + Bodgers Mate
Stationery – RSVP Candy
Hair and make-up Artist – Elbie Van Eeden
Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
