An Essex Wedding - Mar/Apr 2019 (Issue 85)

We gifted our adult guests mini Tiptree strawberry and champagne preserves while the younger guests enjoyed the brand’s small jars of chocolate spread, which my maid-of-honour and I decorated with pink bows. Our cake was created by Lisa at Enchanted Tiers who did an incredible job. The four-tier masterpiece had three vanilla sponge layers with raspberry jam and delicious white chocolate ganache, with a traditional fruit cake on top. It was decorated with an intricate display of icing work with a flowing trail of flowers cascading downwards in a pink hue. Our florist Stacey Stevens from Designer Flowers Essex created a number of pieces for us including two altar arrangements, which we also used behind the top table during the reception. She also created buttonholes, thank you bouquets, a floral table plan frame and she also hung small bottles with flowers from a tree with coloured ribbon. The blooms used included peonies, roses, stocks, lisianthus, astilbe and flowering foliages, all of which were a mixture of soft pink, cream and champagne hues to fit our theme. We incorporated little touches such as two wedding ornaments – one Hello Kitty and the other Disney – allowing our personality to show. We also bought a big photo screen, which we decorated with pictures of our travels and a personalised guest book. We chose to hire a flower wall from Finishing Touches Covers, which also provided Chiavari chairs. We placed it in the conservatory and it was easily one of the best purchases of the day. People were even heading out to it during the breaks in-between courses to make sure they got a picture in front of it! We opted to have three varying sized cylinder vases with tea lights and a submerged pink rose surrounded by sweet avalanche and tea roses, blush peonies, eucalyptus and hydrangeas. REAL WEDDINGS 43 