The 31st August (Bank Holiday Monday) marked the wedding day of a very special couple Doug and Johanna at Broyle Place, Lewes. The day started with extremely heavy rain which by all accounts is a symbol of good fortune for your future marriage so despite the wet weather spirits weren’t dampened! Good fortune box now ticked, the rain finally abated just in time for the guests to make their way to the outdoor ceremony and for Johanna herself to make her dramatic entrance…

The wedding itself was a truly relaxed affair full of emotion and love as you would expect but for me the most moving moment of the day was in the evening when Jo sang Eva Cassidy’s ‘Song Bird’ to Doug followed by a beautiful solo of ‘A Thousand Years’ by Christina Perry from Jo’s daughter Keira. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house (including me) such was the emotion that both Jo and Keira put into their performances and the love and pride that shone from Doug and all their family and friends. It is a wedding moment I won’t ever forget.

I caught up with the lovely Jo after her wedding to ask her a few questions about her wedding planning and day to share with you all…

1) Where did you get your wedding dress and who was it by?

Isabella Grace in Tunbridge Wells. Beautiful boutique that offers the exact experience a bride imagines when she dreams of wedding dress shopping! The dress is a Sophia Tolli and the style of the dress was Bergonia. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her.  Shoes by Rachel Simpson – vintage classic and so comfortable

2) Favourite moments from the day?

My dad seeing me for the first time. It was a private and personal moment that I will never forget. We both cried….Seeing Doug as I walked down the isle, and taking his hand at the bottom.. We couldn’t take our eyes off each other.
My mums reading…She has such an amazing way with words and so soppy and gushy!  All the guys speeches…Both my Dad and Doug nearly ruined my makeup and had everyone howling with laughter!
My daughter Keira singing for us.. I held it together pretty much until then!

3) Why pick Broyle Place?

As we walked up the drive for the first time we didn’t stop smiling and knew it was our venue. Doug and I wanted the country house from the beginning, and Broyle offers the beauty, the history and the space for everything we envisaged for our day. The marquee is stunning, the grounds and house are the perfect backdrop, and the bridal suite and Betty (Broyle’s Place House manager – she is truly remarkable in what she does) closed the deal!

4) How would you describe the theme for your wedding and what was the inspiration behind it?

Our inspiration was to create a classic wedding day, followed by the most awesome party we’ve ever been to!

We wanted a traditional English country wedding feel for our ceremony. Our colour theme was a classic and quite vintage blush pink with a country garden feel, tying in English roses and gypsophila in our flower arrangements. We had a string trio to see me down the isle with Pachabels Cannon and who played so beautifully throughout our drinks reception.

For the evening we wanted glamour! We brought gold into the theme, had champagnes as our table themes with bottles of the corresponding bubbles to toast..

We had casino tables and beautiful draped ceiling lighting throughout, with a photobooth to capture all the silliness at the end of the night (the jäger machine helped with that too)!

5) Any special touches you put in place regards decor or entertainment that is worth mentioning?

Our families are very close to us and we wanted to incorporate them into our day. We framed pictures of each of their weddings on both sides back to our great grand parents. They looked beautiful in vintage black and white in pretty white frames.

A friend of the family kindly offered the beautiful vintage car, an Alvis that sat in front of Broyle on the day. She made for some stunningly shots of the boys!… Who by the way looked gorgeous in their classic tuxedos!

6) Where did you source the giant Love sign from?

Vexx Entertainment where our venue decorators and florist and I would like to take the opportunity to credit them as highly as possible. I always said if my wedding was even half as pretty as my Pinterest page, I would be a very happy bride! Vexx literally brought it to life! When I asked them for love lights, they offered the set they had in house which were LED and not what I really wanted. Danny especially sourced in the set with bulbs for us. They literally could not have done more for us to make our vision come to life.

7) Who provided the evening entertainment?

We had the most incredible soul funk band who our guests haven’t stopped raving about since the day called Party Up! Especially since the lead singer announced himself to be a bit of a celeb!!! They also learnt and played songs that Keira and I sang on the day, surprising our guests and my husband 🙂

I have to say this is a particularly large blog post(!) but there were so many beautiful moments throughout the day, I wanted to share just some of my favourites from the day….

Brighton wedding photographer – Sharron Goodyear photography

Credits from Jo:

Make up by Natalie, my beautiful friend who made me look as beautiful on the outside as I felt on the inside!
Make up by Natalie

Harriet Burrows – Exceptional bridesmaids hair!
Harriet Cordery Bridal Hair – Facebook

Ace Fun Casino – Jane Hand and Amina Akram
Amina our great friend who so kindly gifted her team of Sky TV croupiers! (They were from the telly 🙂
Casino hire for Sussex and the South East. Describes the organisation and its services.

David Sloan – for gifting our beautiful classic car
Classic Touring

Sarah Sibley for the beautiful cakes!
Bake With Sarah

Circa Events – for the incredible catering service! Marc and his team were faultless in their food and service!
CircaCirca

Kylie Milne – Rock n Roses Florist – such a gorgeous lady and so talented!
Rock ‘n’ Roses Florist – Facebook

Martine – for making my dress fit perfectly!
Miss Kay Seamstress – Tunbridge Wells

Steve Read – videographer – great friend and so talented with a lens! Worked tirelessly for us all day.
Steve Read Photography

Premier string quartet – amazing strings, professional team and such lovely people!
Premier String Quartet

Pete Muchamore – friend and DJ!