Oh the joy captured in these photographs! When Sophie and Adam tied the knot on 30th September 2023, they wanted to bring their loved ones together for a celebration of bold colours and Bridgerton inspired romance.
The couple chose Cowley Manor to get married – a luxury hotel and spa, located in the heart of The Cotswolds, and appointed County Marquees to the provide the space to host their beautifully styled reception.
The bride wore a puff sleeve gown by Suzanne Neville, which she discovered at the legendary Miss Bush bridal boutique, located in Ripley, Surrey and chose The Springles to document their day in imagery. I love everything about this and hope all the joy captured lifts your spirits.
Bridal Beauty & Accessories
My best friend works for the amazing Fernando Jorge and she was able to lend me some beautiful sequence drop diamond earrings, which were the perfect touch of sparkle. My mum also lent me her sapphire ring that had been passed down to her from my nani – it was my something blue, borrowed and old, which I loved.
I went to Christian Dior’s Collection Privee scent room in Selfridges to find the perfect wedding scent! I opted for La Colle Noire which is the perfect mix of rose entwined with spices. I loved the meaning behind the vision of the perfume: the fragrance discloses a unique and secret vision of the flower to which the Couturier-Perfumer vowed a unique, everlasting love.
My hair was styled by Hair by Charmaine and my makeup artist was Mike of Makeup by Miki.
As mentioned above I’m a big fan of elevating any look with the perfect accessory, mine was all about the hair! I wore a cathedral length veil from Miss Bush – I kept it pretty plain and simple so that I didn’t distract for the fabulous dress. My hair bow was from Gigi & Olive – I then swapped that out for a rhinestone party headband for the dance floor. And as I really went out there with the hair accessories, I ended up finding the perfect pink heels from New Look.
The Dress
I wore the Hailey gown by Suzanne Neville which I discovered at Miss Bush – I can’t speak highly enough about the team there.
They were an absolute dream to work with, they made me so comfortable throughout the whole process, the dress fit perfectly and they really brought the additional sleeves that I added into real life.
I also bought my veil from Miss bush too, they have an amazing veil service and ensure your veil is perfectly made to complement your dress length.
I would advise any bride if you live in the Surrey/London area – GO there! Make the journey! You won’t regret it.
The Ceremony
My fab dad walked me down the aisle to the traditional wedding song. I was pretty nervous and my dads humour kept me nice and relaxed and smiling! Thankfully no ugly crying!
We had a traditional church ceremony which Adam and I had always dreamt of. Both of us just love a church. The wonderful Reverent Janet officiated the wedding and she was fantastic, as we were getting married outside of our local parish we actually had to attend services quite regularly in Cheltenham so we got to know her pretty well.
Our two fantastic friends did readings throughout the ceremony. Zak one of my university pals read a beautiful bible passage – we knew he’d take it seriously enough and deliver it perfectly. Petros who used to work with Adam and I when we first met wrote the most beautiful reading about love, friendship and it really had everyone feeling all the feels. They both were amazing!
One extra thing I’d love to mention is during the signing of the official wedding document. Our very dear friend Joanne Gray and her singing partner Mike sang my favourite song – The Prayer by Celine Dion & Andrea Bocelli – It had people in tears and it was the perfect tough of drama and surprise to our ceremony.
Photography
After extensive research, we chose The Springles as our wedding photographers – as we loved their modern and intimate take on weddings.
They really captured the love and fun of the day, we wanted a photographer who felt like a friend on the day and we really loved the whole process with them – being relatively awkward in front of the camera they made us feel so relaxed.
We would highly recommend booking them, we also added the second shooter as we have over 130 people, it meant all angles were covered and we managed to have pictures of both of us getting ready. We’d also highly recommend if you don’t go with a videographer to add the second shooter.
How They Met
We both met at work in London, and nearly seven and a half years later, Adam finally proposed at a beautiful vista just outside of Falmouth in Cornwall on a gorgeous sunny day.
It was actually the queens diamond Jubilee weekend, so it was nice to get my own diamond too.
We loved planning the wedding and were engaged just under a year and a half before our wedding day.
Adam wore a fan favourite, the sartorial range from Marks and Spencers! The perfect navy suit
The Reception
Jenna of Bloom Street Florals is the dream, I searched high and low for the perfect florist and from day 1 I just loved working with Jenna.
She really did bring our vision to life, she checked in all the time throughout the process and felt like a mate that I could bounce ideas between!
Flowers were a big thing for me and I felt like she really made it look gorgeous. Another thing I loved with working with Jenna was that she was so pro re-use, we used all our ceremony flowers which dressed the church and utilised these for our table settings.
We had custom matchboxes made from Etsy with our names on and a little crab! A little homage to Cornwall where we got engaged and Adam’s love of Rick Stein.
Apart from marrying the love of my life and getting to spend the most perfect day dancing and partying with our incredible friends and family – I also loved that Mike performed an incredible set after our main courses.
He sang all the big classics and also rolled in ‘I’m forever blowing bubbles’ as Adam is a massive west ham fan. He had everyone up in the marquee dancing, even my grandparents!
Evening & Dancing
We hired The Mojo Band for the evening and chose Mariah Carey’s ‘Fantasy’ to dance to.
Maria is one of my favourite artists and we really wanted something fun and upbeat! The perfect 90s classic.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
My words of wisdom would be, there is a lot of noise from every angle when you’re planning your wedding. Make sure you stay true to your vision, and push for the things that you really want. Adam and I both had 2/3 non negotiables, these were things we each really wanted and we weren’t going to budge. Set these out at the beginning and don’t feel the pressure to shift from outsiders opinions.
Another thing would be to ensure you have people who are going to make you feel relaxed and laugh in your room when getting ready. Don’t be afraid to keep it to a small group and potentially offending people.
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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.
