Inside: A Floral Filled Wedding In Winchester The Wedding Edition

The Story

We met as babies (20 and 22 years old) studying abroad in Berlin, Germany. He’s from Somerset, England and I’m from San Diego, California. He’s a grumpy Brit and I’m a bubbly cheerleader. Sam had planned a roadtrip to Budapest and our mutual friend invited me to join. We met at the U Bahn station and had a crush on each other immediately.

We had our first kiss in Vienna while on the road trip and started dating as soon as we got back to Berlin. When it was time to return to our home countries – we knew we wanted to stay together. We always had our next flights booked to visit each other which helped a lot and we facetimed every single day. After graduation, I got a job in San Francisco and Sam worked remotely, so we moved there together.

We got our fur baby, Pogo, and enjoyed our time there for six years. During covid, we decided to leave the city to buy a home in San Diego where most of my family and our friends live. Eight years into our story, my grandma was sadly diagnosed with lung cancer. This led Sam to speed up his plans to propose at Thanksgiving, and instead planned the most epic surprise proposal of all time in Spring 2022.

He had me thinking I was going to dinner with my two besties at a beautiful spot in Balboa Park. While walking through the stunning Spreckels Pavilion, I felt someone grab my arm. It was Sam’s dad… who lives in England! He walked me over to the iconic archway where Sam was standing in a suit and to the left, all of our friends and family were cheering. Sam proposed with the sweetest speech and as we walked down the archway stairs (which were lined with vibrant bouquets of sunflowers), a full choir came out of nowhere and reenacted my favourite scene from Love Actually with All You Need is Love by The Beatles. They went on to perform Perfect by Ed Sheeran and Say A Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin. All my favourite love songs. We danced and took photos before heading to our surprise engagement party at a restaurant nearby.

I am obsessed with my ring! Sam had it made custom based on an antique ring I saw on instagram. It’s an exact replica of a vintage Victorian era (circa 1895) two-tone diamond engagement ring called “Loire Valley”. The platinum and 18k yellow gold ring showcases a 3.03ct Oval Brilliant Cut diamond which is flanked on either side by two Pear Brilliant Cut diamonds gauged at 0.70ct each. It’s further glammed out by an intricate diamond-studded platinum gallery with an additional 28 Old Mine Cut diamonds with a total additional weight of 0.85ct. It’s romantic, unique, and an instant family heirloom.

Venue

We held a rocking welcome party at the Bombay Sapphire Gin Distillery in Winchester, UK the night before our wedding. It has two stunning Heatherwick Studios Glasshouses in the courtyard where we welcomed guests with gin and ginger cocktails, catered upscale kebabs and a breathtaking “living pavlova” dessert station by Kalm Kitchen. Dj played ‘British Bangers’, we had a couple speeches, and lots of hugs. I wore a bright orange bodycon by Norma Kamali with matching kitten heels and Sam wore an electric blue suit with matching Givenchy sneakers

For our wedding, we chose Avington Park in Winchester, UK. We fell in love with it the second we saw it because of its long tree lined driveway, deep red brick walls that contrast with its bright white centre columns, immaculate floral lined exterior, and breathtaking ballroom whose ceiling was painted by an artist who painted parts of Versaille, Antonio Verrio. We loved the roaming peacocks and sheep nearby and the creek running along the property. We wanted a complete rent out where our wedding party could sleep over. Its goddess statues atop the entrance and history as the party palace for royals and their friends sealed the deal!

The morning after, we hosted a ‘cheeky recovery brunch’ at a local spot on the high street called Forte Kitchen. We rented it out so guests could come in waves to enjoy fresh juice, home baked scones, and big nourishing breakfast dishes.

Fashion

I went dress shopping with my mom, two best friends and one of my little sisters in LA. I ended up with the first dress I tried on! The Vic gown by Ghalia Lahav which is from their Urban Love Story collection. It’s a fitted and flattering mermaid gown made of sequin lace in a unique modern geometric pattern. It gives a sleek, chic, and sexy look which is exactly how I always wanted to feel coming down the aisle.

To be a little more extra, I also wore a glittery ivory cape made for me by my mother. My shoes were nude feather-strapped low block heels from BooHoo. I wore feathers to honour my grandma who passed away before the wedding – she loved wearing them!

My something blue were my earrings – they were long elegant dangle diamond earrings with moonstone drops at the end that gave a blue / lavender shimmer.

Sam wore a black three piece suit with a velvet floral textured pattern on top by Twisted Tailor. It was super edgy and romantic. He wore black Christian Louboutin dress shoes and gold Ray Ban specs.

Jewellery

I wore the dangle earrings I mentioned above – they were my something blue and something borrowed from my mentor who was also our officiant. I wore a vintage gold, pearl and peridot ring gifted to me by Sam’s grandmother, and of course, my two tone engagement ring that was custom made by a jeweller in LA.

Sam wore a gold vintage pocket watch and his wedding band, a yellow gold ring from David Yurman’s ‘Waves’ collection.

Bridal Party

I had twenty three bridesmaids (LOL) and I wanted them all to feel their absolute BEST on our runway so I gave them very loose guidelines around the colour being something between emerald and dark forest green. Aside from that, anything was up for grabs. Most of them wore a deep emerald green and there were all sorts of textures and fits which I loved. They wore gold and / or nude shoes.

There were ten groomsmen who all wore sand coloured three piece suits from ASOS and brown dress shoes.

For the bridesmaids, I had a friend hand make ceramic ring dishes with their initials on them. I also gave everyone TATCHA sheet masks and a “peaches” swag bag with all kinds of peachy themed goodies like peach sour fish gummies, peach loofa, peach coloured fluffy slippers, booty shaped bar soap and canvas bags with all our names on them.

For the groomsmen, we gave them peachy swag bags with things like peach spiced BBQ rub, mini mikes HOT honey jars, and beers on the morning of.

We also paid for our whole wedding party (and their plus ones) to stay the night in their own rooms at the venue with us!

Tablescape

We had tall glass cylinders with thin cream colored candles. Our lush tablescape included floral bowls in differing sizes and heights with blousy midsummer florals in a nearly monochromatic palette of peaches and warm pinks. Interesting, fun textures to intermix of peaches and apricots. Very little to no greenery but massed florals and lots of warm colour.

Each guest had a lavender and pink personalised menu. We gave hand written letters on branded “Stay Peachy” stationary to each guest and had them in peach coloured envelopes on each place setting. Tableware included an ivory charger plate, white napkin, and gold cutlery. There were also disposable cameras spread across the tables for guests to snap their own shots with throughout the evening.

Wedding favours were custom mugs that say “You Are a Fucking Peach” with mixed tea bags, pens and custom journals with the same writing template we use in our daily journal and tea ritual as a couple. We’ve been doing it for years and wanted to share one of our success tools with everyone.

Food & drink

The canapés were sensational – especially the raw seafood bar, “fish and chip” tray passed bite, and vegan Marsala bite. The burrata with peaches and honey was the star starter and the pan seared hake fillet with a potato and fennel roasti in a courgette and lemon sauce was the star main.

We had big shared desserts served on raised wooden stands which was social and exciting for guests. They loved the oversized Mille-Feuille which alternated between Banoffee & Caramelized Banana and strawberries and cream flavours. But most of all, everyone loved the late night stone oven pizzas!

The bar was done flawlessly by Cock and Tail. We had three personalised cocktails at the cocktail hour, and three different ones at the reception. All were named playfully after friends, family and our pup Pogo. There was a lot of gin and a lot of tequila.

Entertainment

We hired LDN Entertainment for all aspects of entertainment. We had their Fortissimi String quartet including a beat boxer playing modern pop and R&B songs at our cocktail hour in the ballroom. Think Bridgerton soundtrack meets The Thong Song by Sisqo.

Their show band performed at our first party in a gorgeous raj tent by the stream. Our first song was Say A Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin. We heard artists like Queen, ABBA, Destiny’s Child, *NSYNC and Whitney Houston. Our encore song at the end of the band performance was All I Want For Christmas is You by Mariah Carey which was an Easter egg for our guests and just delicious to jam to in the middle of summer.

Our after party was DJd plus the addition of two saxophonists who played along with the DJ tracks. I entered the room with the saxophonists playing to Jubel by Klingande in my second outfit which was a cherry red sequin jumpsuit by Nadine Merabi with matching red rhinestone platform heels by La Roude. All the guests got red feather boas and we closed out the night with Rihanna, Lizzo, Spice Girls, remixes of all kinds, plus an epic group sing along moment to Robbie Williams’s Angels.

Beauty Regime & Wellness

We both ate as clean as possible leading into the wedding to give our skin the best chance at being glowy and fresh. We worked out every day to keep stress away and walked minimum of 10k steps per day to stay fit. I get monthly facials and started focusing them on facial massage about five months before the wedding. I got a hydrating glow facial at The Langley two nights before the wedding. We also both got massages.

I had the best hair and makeup artists in England. All my bridesmaids got theirs done too and many said they liked their look on my wedding better than their look on their own wedding day. Samantha Stevenson + team on hair and Tara Sanger + team on makeup.

Favourite Wedding Gift

Since our wedding was a destination, we insisted on no gifts! We did supply some of our favourite charities as options for our most stubborn guests who wanted to spend. These included mental health, prostate cancer, heart disease and dog charities.

Honeymoon

We stayed in London an extra week without working at all as our mini moon and we’re going to Borneo, Singapore, and Japan for our full honeymoon. We are sushi and animal freaks so best of both!

Advice

There are no rules. Plan the day YOU want, don’t worry about what’s traditional if it isn’t meaningful to you. Enjoy it! Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks and don’t let small issues get to you.
Do personal vows and a private first dance. These were the two most special, emotional, electric moments of our day. We will never forget it.
Write letters to your guests. It takes forever if you have 140 guests like us, but it’s the best thing we did and made everyone feel so special and loved and important which is all we could have asked for since we knew we wouldn’t have time to really sit and connect with every guest.