A Justin Alexander Bride + Her Glamorous, Jewel-Toned, Black Tie Wedding at Pelham House

What a month it has been, non-stop action with our new venture, LMD Collective, and as October comes to a close and we enter the countdown to the end of the year, I’m reminded how privileged we are to share so many beautiful weddings through Love My Dress.

I’ve often wondered what a task it must be for a wedding photographer to plan their own wedding. Professional wedding photographer Samantha did the most beautiful job working with her husband Owen to plan their Friday 14th June wedding at Pelham House in Lewes, East Sussex.

“We didn’t want to go crazy and spend a silly amount of money on one day, which was incredibly hard as I see such fantastic things at weddings every single week. I was constantly coming home saying we need this, we need that, but we had to be realistic, we couldn’t have the best of everything I’d see at other peoples weddings. So luckily the style we went for didn’t break the budget too much, it was simple and went with the venue styling easily.”

Images by Richard Murgatroyd

Samantha’s gorgeous dress was a Justin Alexander design that she discovered at the Fross Wedding Collections boutique in Uckfield, East Sussex – a boutique we’re proud to recommend through our Little Book Wedding Directory.

“My experience with Fross and Millie at the shop was outstanding – the shop is beautiful to look at and be in. You’re made to feel like you’re the only bride in the world. I would 100% recommend Fross to other brides, I have done and will continue to do so.”

“I loved all of the wedding dresses I tried on, I’m kind of obsessed with them. But I went for this dress because as soon as I put it on I felt like it had literally been made for me. I felt a million dollars, as cheesy as that sounds, I really did. Each time I had it on (prior to the wedding day) I didn’t want to take it off. The thing I loved most is that it hugged in all the right places, I wanted to WOW Owen, to look beautiful, stay true to my style and have a tiny bit of sexiness in there too.”

The couple’s chosen venue provided a space oozing stately sophistication – which was absolute perfection for their glamorous black-tie vibe.

“Being a wedding photographer, I’d worked at Pelham House a lot, so I knew we would love it and knew they we fantastic at running weddings. Lewes is also really local to us and our family and friends, we often head out to Lewes at the weekends so choosing a venue in a town that was important to us felt perfect.”

“My sisters friend did my hair and my make up artist was Elena Bedwell.”

Shoes wise, the bride didn’t feel the need to go out and buy anything new – she wore a pair of already owned shoes that she loved and that were comfortable, from Aldo.

“The Mother in Law of one of our bridesmaids did our flowers and my God, they were beautiful. Again, due to budget pressures (and having eight bridesmaids!) I decided to use bouquets for table centre pieces, so myself and my sister who was maid of honour had a messy green and white bouquet each, we had an assortment of foliage and white flowers and the remaining seven bridesmaids had a bunch of small lilies which were so cheap but worked perfectly.”

Samantha completed her look with a spritz of  Jo Malone’s Pomegranite Noir.

“Owen bought this for me when we were in Italy (shooting a wedding) three weeks before.”

“I also wore some chandelier earrings that I bought in Australia when I went there in April. I also wore a Gucci bracelet that my Dad and Step Mum gave me on the morning of the wedding.”

The groom wore a tailored tuxedo from Hugo Morris in Brighton and, in honour of the couple’s little Dachshund dog, a pair of cufflinks from John Lewis. He completed his look with a pair of shoes from Samuel Windsor.

The groomsmen each wore tuxedos from Next. I do ADORE a black tie wedding, something so effortlessly timeless and glamorous about them.

The clever bride designed and produced all stationery items for the day at home, using Photoshop and fine-art high quality paper.

“We met at work five years ago, we both worked for the local highway authority. Owen was a little bit younger than me so I didn’t think he’d be interested but I was wrong, turns out he liked the older woman! We dated for a year, then bought our first house. We got engaged in September 2017 and married in June 2019.”

Samantha’s father accompanied her down the aisle…

“A very close friend of ours, Amy, sang a slow version of Sia’s track, ‘Chandelier. We chose this song as Owen and I would sing and dance to it in our kitchen most weekends, after too many gins!”

“One of my bridesmaids Celia wrote a short reading for the wedding and it was phenomenal. We wanted a reading that was personal to us, and she did an amazing job. When I’d met Owen I’d been widowed and so parts of the reading brushed upon how he saved me and showed me happiness again. This is my favourite part….”

You were always meant to fall in love, circumstance, faith and true. A deepening love from tips to toes, growing from the glimpse across that tarmac path. Awaken the halted heartbeat, save her heart, her soul, and make her whole again. Being the constant light in the darkest hours, a best friend to hold and share each moment. (Reading from the ceremony)

“We got our rings from Camelot in the Brighton Lanes, we got our wedding rings from here as we got my engagement ring from here too and the service was just brilliant.”

“I loved the ceremony – I was a little bit stressed getting ready, so seeing Owen and relaxing with him, giggling through our vows, was just what I needed.”

The bridesmaids! We need to talk about this glamorous crew in their jewel-toned dresses adding an uber-splash of additional glamour to the day.

Samantha’s leading ladies wore a mix of brands including Reiss, Missguided, ASOS, Zara, Beretun Designs.

“We had live music during the day and evening. During the drinks reception it was our Best Mans band called Dances With Wolves, it was fab to have music in the background as we were all outside enjoying the drinks and canapé.”

After the post-ceremony celebrations, the couple and their guests moved inside to the venue to enjoy a sit down reception. Pelham House  had recently been renovated so Samantha and Owen didn’t need to worry about styling the space as it already looked knock-out gorgeous.

Instead of favours, the couple donated money to a charity that’s recently helped with their poorly miniature dachshund, called Dedicated to Dachshunds with IVDD.

What a gorgeous thing to do. Have you considered favours or doing something a little different in place of them?

The couple made a fabulous choice in hiring the very lovely Richard Murgatroyd to capture their wedding in images. I met Richard at last year’s Most Curious Wedding Fair and he was absolutely lovely – I’m very much looking forward to seeing and catching up with him again at the February 2020 event.

“Richard just happens to be the brother of one of my bridesmaids, but this isn’t why we chose him. Obviously being a wedding photographer I follow and know a lot of photographers so you would think I could have been overwhelmed with choice….”

“However, choosing our wedding photographer was the easiest and quickest decision we made. I have always followed Richards work and been in awe, I still am, so as soon as we got engaged I was screaming ‘YAY! It’s MY turn to be in Richards amazing photos!’. Not only do I admire Richards style of photography but I also knew he wouldn’t be at all phased shooting a wedding for a fellow photographer.”

“I’d worked with James and Ellie of Ground Films at a wedding a few years ago, and totally fell in love with them and their work. For me it was them or no one.”

“I loved it when our photographer and videographer took us away from the party for 10 mins whilst the sun was setting, it was so nice to just have some time alone to soak it all in.”

The bride says that amongst her favourite moments were the first dance…

“When we met I heard a song about being ready for a new love, it’s called ‘Ready for your love’ by Gorgon City and MNEK. I asked Owen to play it once (we’d been dating a while) and listen to the lyrics. The meant everything I wanted to say to him. So when we were trying to find a first dance, this came on the radio about a week before the wedding, we both just said yep, that’s the one.”

“I’d recently heard a stripped back version, so I asked a friend of mine to mash up the slow and house versions. It was AMAZING! We danced alone to the slow section and as soon as everyone realised it was speeding up to the house version they all ran on the dance floor to dance and hug us! One of my favourite moments from the wedding.”

“For the evening we used the awesome band Oompf. I see A LOT of wedding bands and Oompf have always been the best.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom  

“Ah well I have to pass on a tip that I got sent the day before the wedding from one of my previous brides that I’d photographed…. Choose a good friend that you trust and give them your phone. Ask them to use it to take photos throughout the wedding day, so that in the morning you and your husband can wake up and look at some photos. We did this and it was just magical to see some photos before even getting out of bed.

Our original budget was 10k, we spend between £14-15k.”

Absolutely totally and utterly gorgeous, and so good to hear a real bride talk so positively about one of our recommended suppliers, the gorgeous Fross Wedding Collections.

Brides, you will find many more Justin Alexander brides here, in the meantime, I’d like to thank Richard Murgatroyd for always being so lovely and of course Samantha and Owen for sharing their beautiful day.

Have a lovely Sunday all,

Love Annabel x