Leah immediately knew that Lee was someone she wanted to be friends with when she met him while working in the restaurant at Brandshatch Place Hotel & Spa. The friendship grew through mutual support and in time blossomed into a relationship. The couple went to Nerja in Spain on holiday with best friends Riley and Ilona in September 2019 and while visiting The Balcon De Europa, which looks out onto the Med, Lee popped the question. “I had an inkling it might happen, but I was still overwhelmed when it did and I didn’t answer him for a really long time!” Leah remembers. The venue search was on when they returned to the UK and the pair visited several before they discovered Nettlestead Place. “We knew it was the right place for us, everything about it is stunning. When we saw its undercroft, we knew we’d be able to get the look and feel we wanted,” Leah explains. Here, the bride shares her treasured memories of the big day as well as the preparations… SETTING THE SCENE There are plenty of flower names in Leah’s family – on her mum’s side alone there’s Violet, Rose and Iris. Plus, her two flowergirls were also aptly named – one Violet and the other with the middle name Rose. So, in honour of these lovely ladies Leah’s bouquet featured roses and ivy, while the bridesmaids’ and flowergirls’ contained roses and eucalyptus. The idea was for little Violet to have her namesake blooms in her bouquet, but sadly there weren’t any to be found. The buttonholes too were all mindfully created: the best man and ushers had eucalyptus to match the bridesmaids’, and the dads wore gypsophila to complement the flowergirls. Meanwhile, Lee’s featured a rose, gypsophila and ivy to mirror Leah’s bouquet. Continuing the flower theme, Leah’s maiden name is Poppy, so they chose poppy seeds as their wedding favours, which were gifted in little hessian bags to suit their rustic theme. With the idea of featuring everything they loved without deviating from the rustic aesthetic, the place names were cut from wood in the Disney font; while the tables were all named after the couple’s favourite Marvel characters. The retro comic-book versions were printed on to parchment and framed before Leah’s mum calligraphed the names. The centrepieces were made up of gin and whisky bottles filled with faux flowers, mainly pink peonies and gypsophila. Fairylights were added for a touch of extra magic. Faux ivy was wrapped around the pillars in the undercroft and rose gold tea light holders were placed around their bases. The latter were also used to decorate the tables along with hessian runners. Since Leah was staying nearby, she didn’t need transport. However, the gents were all getting ready at home, so a Buick was booked for the ushers and Lee arrived in style in a Mustang, which his bride booked as a surprise. FOOD FOR THOUGHT “We had canapés, which tasted amazing,” Leah tells us. These were followed by a three-course wedding breakfast started off with goat’s cheese and beetroot parfait. The main course was braised beef, with chocolate mousse for dessert. The couple and their guests enjoyed tapas in the evening and they were also treated to a sweet table and doughnut wall. The three-tier big-day bake was simply iced and decorated with REAL WEDDING 33
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