Wedding: The Big Day

To kick off wedding week on the blog I wanted to share a run down of our day in full, kind of like a diary entry that I can look back on for years to come! Then throughout the week there will be more in depth blog posts for each specific category, so stay tuned for more pictures!

Pictures by our amazing photographer – Ed Godden!

The Morning

On the morning of the wedding I woke up with the sunrise, purposely sleeping with the curtain only half drawn as the view of Tower Bridge outside was too gorgeous to resist upon waking. I’m not going to lie, I was bubbling with nerves! But I took my time showering, called in emergency lucozade from my bridesmaids to help settle my butterflies and before I knew it my florists Esta and Steph from Minoux flowers had arrived to drop off the bouquets and the buttonhole for my Dad. My bridesmaids and maid of honour sister arrived shortly after, as did our hair stylists and makeup artists for the day!

I had Jack from Samantha Cusick doing my wedding hair and Jen from Bobbi Brown doing my makeup (I also had Lucia on makeup and an extra hairdresser on hand for my bridesmaids!) but more on that in the full bridal beauty blog post coming shortly!

The morning went by in a flash but there are some lovely moments that have stayed with me. Firstly one of my best friend’s reading out a poem she had written for me whilst I had my makeup done, and also Rhianne, my oldest friend talking me through a calming, focusing exercise that helps her therapy patients. Also my mum giving me a really special present that morning, my sister helping me into my veil and just hearing all the girls laugh and chatter in the room whilst I got ready.

My dad then arrived and I think that was the point I really felt emotional! Seeing him see me in my dress just felt like such a lovely moment I will cherish forever! We got the lift town from the 11th floor to the reception of the hotel and then had some photographs by Tower Bridge which again, felt really special as that bridge has such big meaning throughout mine and G’s relationships (in fact, quite early on in our relationship I said to him that if we ever broke up, he would have ruined the bridge for me, haha! Instead it’s become even more special having it within eye sight on our wedding day). I’ve got to say this was another moment I’ll remember forever, walking past the Thames and being congratulated by all the tourists enjoying the beautiful sunshine we had that day. I felt like an actual superstar and was just so excited to get to the venue to see G!

I had left my mum in charge of transport to and from the venue on the day as I was so stressed with logistics and so I had no idea what was in store, so it was a complete surprise when I turned the corner with my gorgeous bridesmaids and parents and saw an old London Transport bus waiting there to take us to the ceremony! My dad and I sat at the front of the top deck and it was again, another special moment. He gave me a really beautiful gift, a locket shaped like a book full of engraved quotes from special books and songs throughout my life. We pulled up around the corner from our wedding venue, Wiltons Music Hall. One of my favourite buildings in London that we’ve had many a date night in together. It’s our dream wedding venue so I couldn’t quite believe we managed to book it for our day!

Before the ceremony, we decided to do a first look with G’s groomsmen. I love his friends so much and we get on so well, that we thought it’d be a really lovely opportunity to soften my nerves by seeing his best friends before the ceremony and to break usual traditions. I loved doing this, it was so nice to bundle in for a group hug with them and it totally helped me relax before walking down the aisle!

After having my meeting with the registra, it was time for the ceremony. My bridesmaids and I walked down the aisle to mine and G’s favourite Kate Bush song, Cloudbusting – I’ll be talking more about the important songs in our day in the wedding music and readings post coming this week! The ceremony was short and romantic and over in a flash!

Immediately after we both went upstairs where our incredible caterer Marie handed us a glass of champagne and we had a little 5 minutes to ourselves whilst our guests got ready for confetti. We made sure we had small moments like this to ourselves throughout the day so we could take it all in and enjoy the buzz of our new married life!

After confetti, our guests headed upstairs to the cocktail room at Wiltons where we surprised them with a Prosecco tower and delicious canapés. During this time we caught up with our guests and had some photographs taken with our family and wedding party on the stage at Wiltons which was so special!

At 3.30 our amazing friend and MC for the day, rung the huge Wiltons bell to tell people they could head through into the theatre for the wedding breakfast. We then gave him the special duty of announcing us into the room as Mr and Mrs Snooks – which we had kept secret from everyone apart from our bridesmaids and groomsmen and G’s parents! Rob did this in the most brilliant way and the videos of my Dad realising that Geoff had taken our surname is one of my favourites ever. We also gave our bridesmaids and groomsmen maracas to shake for our entrance – the picture below is one of my favs.

We sat down to our three course meal with speeches dotted between each course (stay tuned for the full food low down of the day coming shortly) and as our evenings guests arrived they could watch the end of the speeches from the balcony. For any brides wondering wether to do their own speech on the day, I would HIGHLY recommend it. It was wonderful being able to thank our guests and also tell my side of our love story. Our photographer Ed captured the most beautiful picture of all our guests in hysterics during my speech and so I think the bride speech went down a treat!!

Then it was time for cocktail hour before the party started! We had some portraits taken with our lovely photographer Ed and then I changed into my evening dress (more details on this coming soon). Again, I’ll be sharing details of food and drink in a separate post but we had Mr and Mrs cocktails to kick off the party and also limoncello shots during the wedding breakfast!

We danced our first dance and then surprised our guests with New York Brass Band who entered from different locations around the venue and they really got the party started! We had a Photo Booth, brick lane bagels as evening food, cut our cake and partied hard! We had our friend Tino DJ for us between band sets and I didn’t want the party to end! We finished the evening with a sparkler departure before getting back on the bus to take us and our wedding party back to the Tower Hotel!