Your Sussex Wedding - Feb/Mar 2019 (Issue 77)

REAL WEDDINGS 59  T he Maxwells met on a night out in London nine years ago, when Victoria was just 21 and Matthew just 23. Vicks says: “I was attracted to Matt’s massive smile and how refreshingly genuinely he seemed. He was, and is, the perfect gentleman.” The groom-to-be spotted his eventual bride across a crowded room. Knowing that another person in his group also had eyes for her, he decided to play it cool and bided his time until he plucked up the courage to talk to her while his mate was distracted. He says: “Needless to say, my ironic dad dancing did the job, and I’m now lucky enough and so proud to call Vicks my beautiful wife.” Matt proposed on 2 nd June, 2016. Vicks says: “If I’m completely honest, I’d given up hope over the six years that we’d already been together that he was ever going to ask! So when he did, it came as a huge surprise!” When the waitress came to show the pair to their table during a weekend away in the Cotswolds, Vicks was surprised not to be led into the restaurant as she expected but to a private table underneath a temple surrounded by candles in the grounds of the hotel. She says: “He waited until the very end of the meal to propose just to keep me on my toes!” Having grown up in the beautiful South Downs, it was important to Vicks to have the wedding at home. Plus, Matt’s parents live in New Zealand, so his partner’s family home had become his over the years they’d been together. Join us as we discover more about the big day… SETTING THE SCENE “Food and drink was probably one of the most important things to us, ” Vicks says. “It’s what we always remember from our friends’ weddings." So having their hearts set on something homemade with love, the pair created their own limoncello and decanted it into glass bottles labelled with a lemon motif, names and the wedding date, designed by Matt. As Vicks’ family are beef farmers and they were having fillet steak for the wedding breakfast, the newlyweds decided to name their tables after breeds of beef cattle. The couple opted for logs as their place-card holders. Matt and his best mate crafted these from trees growing on the farm. Vicks then lovingly wrote out each one using a calligraphy pen. The bride has a huge passion for flowers, so she spent a lot of time with their florist, creating some beautiful round arrangements to place perfectly around ice buckets at the centre of each table. Vicks explains: “We wanted COUNTRY CHIC Victoria Bray and Matthew Maxwell said their “I dos” at the family farm in the South Downs on a day styled with pastel blue countryside elegance. Images courtesy of Camilla Arnhold Photography