Reigate Hill was the first venue we went to view, I hate to admit but we only looked initially because it is less than a mile away from our house, however, it did not disappoint! The moment we made the long and winding walk down to the outdoor ceremony area we knew this was the place for us. The trees and the lake really encapsulated the vision I had for my wedding, and after chatting with the wedding coordinators, Lucy and Lauren, we had pretty much booked in a date by the time we left. We did view one more venue after for good measure but that just made us even more certain Reigate Hill was for us. John’s one request was a custommade tailored shirt, in typical Johnfashion he left it too late to order professionally in a store. So armed with a tape measure I tried my hardest to measure him for an online website with a quick turnaround, safe to say, I needed some more practice with my tailoring skills! Shirt aside, he found a lovely dark green herringbone style suit fitting the theme of the wedding! He paired it with a fun floral tie, satin moss-green pocket square and some lovely dark brown leather shoes from Loakes in Guildford. Chloe and John met in Australia when they were 18 years old, “I had moved to Australia from the UK when I was a child and John was having a gap year travelling and visiting family friends who we knew,” recalls Chloe. “My mother had arranged a surprise 18th birthday party for me and when I walked into the party he was waiting to ’surprise’ me with all of my friends and we hit it off from there. We spent most of the party talking to each other, bonding about things we missed about England. We turned up in each other’s lives completely unexpectedly and have never spent a moment apart since. We both shared a longing for adventure, and I ended up tagging along in his gap-year visiting places like Sydney, Melbourne, and Bali. We spent a year together and when John’s return flight to England came around we realised we couldn’t end our story, I booked the same plane back with him and the adventures have never stopped.” John proposed on the 20th December 2023, “This date will always remain significant as it’s the day before our youngest daughter was born. Our proposal is not one that would make it onto the likes of Instagram, but to me it was perfect,” shares Chloe. “We had just got back from a hospital appointment to go through the pre-op checks for our C-section scheduled for the following morning. I’d had a bit of a rough time at the appointment after passing out on my midwife following a blood test – never knew I was a fainter – the nerves were on high alert for the rest of the day, and I was stressing beyond belief. John did the best thing he could do to cheer me up, propose in the kitchen! That definitely cheered me up, and it was just our perfect moment. No other people around, in our first home, the day before we welcomed our little girl. Turns out he bought the ring literally the day before while Christmas shopping! My heavily pregnant swollen fingers wore that ring with pride for a full 12 hours before I had to leave it at home to have my C-section!” I wore a Morilee wedding dress called Polina. It was a beautiful A-line, chiffon dress with clear crystal beaded embroidery on a net bodice. I tried on 10 dresses in total and said yes to this one! I then found out it was just about to be discontinued so I managed to get it for an absolute bargain and left with it on the same day. I knew I wanted a high-neck dress but didn’t limit myself with too many ‘must-haves’, my dress felt so airy and flowy which was perfect because we got lucky with the sunny weather, plus it had pockets! Our groomsmen wore the same style suit as John. We gave the four of them satin moss-green ties and pocket squares which perfectly complemented the bridesmaids, flowergirls and pageboy as they all had the matching moss-green details to their outfits. My bridesmaids all wore lovely satin moss-green dresses. I was conscious of letting my girls choose the style of dress that they felt comfortable in. This meant they all had a slightly different style of dress, but all in the same material and colour, it was great to see their personalities showing through and hopefully they will wear them again in the future. They all chose gold heels to wear which complemented the dress. 44
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTA0NTE=