It brings me great pleasure to share this wedding with you today. Bride Lucy wears a gown by one of my favourite independent designers in the UK, the very lovely and super talented Dana Bolton. I love Dana's designs and her ability to create precisely the vision a bride has in her head, even if she can't articulate that vision very well – Dana just seems to know. It's a little bit of designer magic going on, I swear!
Lucy, a fashion retail manager in Covent Garden married Tamer, who assists in running a family restaurant in London. They tied the knot, Christmas style, on 28 December last year at Great Fosters in Surrey.
"We initially wanted a new year wedding but it was practically impossible to book anywhere or organise, so then we turned our attention to the idea of a Christmas and winter wonderland wedding. Tamer is half Scottish and half Egyptian – he has a very big family and wanted them all there – he also very much wanted to represent his Scottish roots. The venue, Great Fosters, was styled like a winter wonderland – and we added birch trees, lanterns, fairy lights and rose petals to the ceremony room to add to the ambience."
Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Indigo Images
“The story of how we met is nothing too glam – we actually met on a night out – I saw him looking at me from a distance, he approached, I acted disinterested (hehe) he was promoting an event he had organised so I went along, then went along to a few more. Tamer is the only person who has ever made me nervous and clumsy and lost for words. The people that know me, only know me as loud and extremely confident and excellent at starting conversations. There is never any awkward silence with me! That was until I met Tamer and I couldn't even look at him.
We were what you'd call a hot mess! Tamer is Egyptian so when I went travelling around the world for 6 months and ended in Egypt, I asked him advice and ideas of where to visit which struck up conversation. When I arrived home a few weeks later, he finally built up the courage to ask me out."
"I was concerned at how little the conversation would flow but to my surprise, we literally didn't stop talking the entire evening. It was so natural and we had so much fun. After it taking us about a year and a half to even arrange a date, things built from there and on September 16th (one and a half years after our first date) I decided to raise some money for the charity 'teenage cancer trust' and arranged to do a skydive (alone). I tried to convince Tamer to partake but he wasn't having any of it! A few friends and family came to watch and Tamer was looking very nervous and acting very strange. I put it down to (luckily for him) that he was nervous for my safety. He arranged for filming to take place so as I jumped out at 13,000 feet! I gradually looked down, and the instructor (who was fully in the loop) directed me to this field and kept pointing to this one white speck on the grass. As we grew closer, the white speck was in fact a HUGE white banner displaying 'will you marry me?' The skydive instructors comment was "well it isn't for me love!"
One year later exactly (16th Sept) we married Islamically in the mosque (Tamer is a practising Muslim). It was very small and intimate then just a few months later, we had the big wedding – and here we are!”
“We booked our venue, Great Fosters in Surrey, because it has such charm and character. I searched for hours and hours and called up about 50 venues – this was the only one we visited, and we knew from the moment we drove down the gorgeous driveway that we would marry here."
“My dress was by independent designer, Dana Bolton, and was an entirely bespoke creation. I saw an old Vogue magazine shoot of the wedding of Ralph Lauren's son to Lauren Bush and loved the dress and the veil so used that dress as my inspiration. I spent months emailing bespoke wedding designers and visiting bridal stores but was never happy with any of them – most brides Mums and Maids of Honour would shed a tear when their daughter is trying on dresses – mine were just like 'no, this is NOT the one'!"
"I found Dana after a few weeks of searching. When I visited her in the cutest little workshop, she was totally amazing. She sketched some ideas and totally grasped what I wanted, she put her own touches to it and made what I would say was a work of art. She thought about the comfort and the materials thoroughly and got it exactly right. I LOVE her!”
“I had nine bridesmaids, they all had floor length dresses that were made by a Topshop designer and they all wore red leather pointed court shoes from the limited edition ‘Black’ range at Dune.All of the bridesmaids had antique gold drop earrings with small crystals and matching bracelet – both from Accessorize."
“Our photographer was John Nassari at Indigo Images. He took me forever to find – it’s difficult to find a photographer to do the traditional family shots as well as the 'caught in the moment' natural shots as well as the more 'arty' style shots – and I didn't want cheese at all. John was ridiculously professional and understood exactly what I wanted!"
“I had an antique-style gold and crystal head band from Accessorize. Again, after traipsing through hundred of vintage shops around London, I found my head band at a train station in Accessorize!”
“My Dad walked me down the aisle to the sound of the traditional wedding march, played on the harp. We wrote our own vows, that neither of us had shared with anyone. It was very special and there were a lot of tears!”
“We had a three tier white cake created by Melanie The Cake Artist. The icing was made to look like snow and there were small fur cones on each level. At the top we had characters made of ourselves. The groom is bent on one knee making a snow ball and the bride is stood up with a snowball having just hit her head! We also had made 135 edible caricatures of every single guest as favours – we spent hours liaising and sending photos and descriptions of everyone. She was so helpful.
The cake was vanilla and raspberry and was absolutely delicious!”
“Everything was perfect – from the getting ready and seeing the girls and my mum all together, to seeing my niece and nephew (Jack and Daisy) all beautiful in their cutest little outfits walking down the aisle, to seeing my amazing husband at the end of the aisle looking like the most handsome man I have ever seen, to the horrendous attempt at water lanterns which were supposed to float down the river and be really picturesque, most of which either sank or caught fire – it was hilarious and it was the, which my stomach ached for about an hour after it was so funny, to dancing all night until my Jimmy Choos were killing me!”
Words of Wedded Wisdom…
“Many people told me, you actually don't spend any time with your husband on your wedding day as you get separated a lot trying to mingle – we took that advice and made sure we shared every memory together, we rarely separated.
Tamer is Muslim so neither of us drink alcohol. However we did have alcohol at the wedding for our guests as my family paid for the bar so we didn't use our money to pay for it. I think that with us both not drinking alcohol, we captured every moment and have every memory forever – nothing forgotten!"
Congratulations to you Lucy and Tamar, thank you so much for allowing us to share your beautiful day. I adored the sentiment that because you didn't drink at the wedding that you got to recall it in all its wonderfulness. I too am a non drinker having chosen to turn my back on alcohol to embrace a much healthier life style 8 months ago now. My husband also rarely drinks. I was thinking only yesterday – it's amazing once you become a non-drinker how incredibly over-rated alcohol suddenly seems. It's a funny culture we live in when it's so engrained within our psyche to just assume we need alcohol to enjoy ourselves and get in to the spirit of an event like a wedding. Interesting!
Huge thanks also to photographer John Nassari of Indigo Images for sharing his work and to the very lovely Dana Bolton for putting Lucy and I in touch.
Are any of you planning your own winter wonderland wedding celebrations? I'd love to hear from you if so.
Love Annabel
Photographer – Indigo Images
Venue + Catering – Great Fosters in Surrey
Brides Dress + Veil – Dana Bolton
Brides Shoes – Jimmy Choo
Bride's accessories – water pearl earrings (gift) +
Grooms Suit – Black Watch Tartan
Bridesmaids – bespoke designs created by a Topshop designer
Flowergirl + Page boy – John Lewis
Florist – Essential wedding hire
Cake – The Cake Artist
Entertainment – DJ Signature sounds
Rings – Hatton Garden
Stationery – All The Little Details
Make-up Artist – Nina Haliamalias
Hair Stylist – In Love With Make-up
Follow Love My Dress® on Google+
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.
