Good morning dear reader, and how are you today? Whatever you're doing today and whatever you're up to right now, I hope this lovely wedding feature lifts your spirits a little and leaves you feeling that lovely warm feeling inside. Talia and Dominic tied the knot on Saturday 13th July – which also happened to be one of the hottest days of 2013.
I very much love these beautifully composed images – all shot on film by the very talented Victoria Phipps – though with a radiant bride in a very lovely dress and the stunning backdrop that is Fetcham Park of Surrey, it was never going to difficult to take such lovely photographs.
We're no strangers to Fetcham Park – it is one of Surrey's most glorious wedding venues, managed by our good friend Laura Caudery, who contributed a fascinating series on wedding venues that can be found within our wedding venue pages. Newlyweds, be absolutely sure to bookmark this useful feature on how to find your wedding venue and this no-nonsense feature on corkage fees and catering costs – the latter makes very interesting reading indeed.
Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Victoria Phipps
"Dominic and I met whilst both working for a company in London, but we didn’t start dating until a year after our first meeting; we became friends first. We had been together for three years when Dominic surprised me with a trip to Paris where he proposed. Neither of us wanted a long engagement and we were married seven months later."
"Given we only had six months to plan the wedding once we had found Fetcham Park House, we wanted to have a simple but elegant feel to our wedding day. Fetcham Park is so ornately and beautifully decorated we didn’t want to set up any theme of our own in competition with the house.
The colour purple featured throughout, this was initially due to the bridesmaids dresses, that were one of the first things to be purchased, setting the tone. We were keen to use seasonal flowers and thankfully purple flowers are in abundance in the summer months, so it worked out rather well."
Talia's dress was by Paloma Blanca and purchased from Grace of Westcott – her veil was from Country Bride in Dorking (no website).
"Our florist was the brilliant Jay Archer. We wanted to use seasonal flowers and herbs to add to the relaxed and natural feel to the day. Jay was brilliant at advising us on what would work.
We even had a trip to New Covent Garden Flower Market which was brilliant fun and very inspiring."
"We didn’t feel the need to have a very expensively decorated cake, so to keep in with the theme of the day we asked our florist, Jay Archer, to decorate it for us. The cake was from Waitrose."
"Fetcham Park is close to where I grew up in Dorking and it was the venue that we knew was perfect for us the moment we stepped inside. It is different from a hotel or barn conversion that many weddings are held at. We had 75 guests and that number is perfect for Fetcham Park. We loved he feel of the history of the house, and the gardens are wonderful for a summer wedding.
The inside is so ornate and beautifully decorated that it meant the worry of the 'great British weather' was taken out of the equation! As it turned out it was the hottest day of the year so the guests were able to roam around the gardens, but equally it wasn’t so big that you lost a sense of the wedding party."
"We didn't hire a professional wedding planner, however, Laura and Frances at Fetcham Park were fantastic at keeping us calm, coordinating our suppliers and offering much needed advise whenever it was asked for."
"My bridesmaids dresses were from Kaliko and purchased in Elys in Wimbledon. Each bridesmaid wore a different pair of nude shoes depending on the style they liked best – and these were purchased from Clarks, ASOS and Next.
They each also had a sash from the company Black Butterfly Clothing and ordered via Amazon, and a flower corsage pinned to the sash from Martine Wester and ordered via House of Fraser.
Each bridesmaid had a different piece of jewelry depending on their own individual style. These were a pair of earrings from Accessorize, pearl pins found on Ebay and a necklace which belonged to me."
"Our photographer was Victoria Phipps. I discovered Victoria via an advert for her website on Love My Dress. Dom and I were both very impressed with her website and especially the natural look of the photographs which did not feel overly staged.
We met Victoria and instantly really liked her. Her wedding package comes with an engagement shoot, and whilst we initially had some trepidation it turned out to be a lot of fun and well worth doing as we were very relaxed during our photos on the big day."
"Our caterers were Kalm Kitchen and they provided absolutely fantastic food that looked amazing and was served with great style. We have had so many compliments about the food and how great the staff were."
"Our first dance was to 'Slip of a Girl', by Duke Special as it has special meaning to us."
Words of Wedded Wisdom…
"As I only had six months from setting the wedding date, finding a wedding dress became quite stressful because I did not appreciate how long was required, that is, from the point of ordering the dress to the dress arriving in the store. Often I was told it was five months minimum, so it is never too early to start looking and I recommend that brides look as early as possible.
Also try all sorts of styles on because you will be surprised by what suits you the most! And worry about the right things at the right time; get all the big items in place first (catering, photographer, band) and then start on the detail.
Don’t be scared to delegate (to the groom!)"
Such a beautiful and indeed beautifully photographed day. I'd like to thank Talia and Dominic for sharing their wedding with us all today, and photographer Victoria Phipps too for once again allowing us to reproduce her beautiful film photography on Love My Dress.
Are you working with any particular colours or shades to help you style your wedding day? If you love the colours on this page, take a look at our purple and lilac pages – we also have a whole purple Pinterest Board that we also hope inspires you.
With much love,
Annabel
Photographer – Victoria Phipps
Venue – Fetcham Park, Surrey
Brides Dress – Paloma Blanca from Grace of Westcott
Veil/Headpiece – via Country Bride, Dorking (no website)
Brides Shoes – Clarks
Accessories – Earrings + bracelet by Chez Bec via notonthehighstreet.com
Grooms Suit – hired via Moss Bros + cufflinks via Highland Angel (notonthehighstreet.com)
Bridesmaids Dresses – Kaliko via Elys in Wimbledon
Flowers – Forist – Jay Archer
Cake – Waitrose
Entertainment – 'The Somebodys' hired via Ear Candy
Rings – Ingle and Rhode (engagement ring) + Swag
Catering Company – Kalm Kitchen
Hair and make-up Artist – Natasha Wiggins
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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.
