Damien and I thought very carefully about the kind of venue we wanted to hold our wedding at. We looked at country homes and hotels, we looked at banqueting halls, marquees and hotels.
First we had to decide what kind of wedding we wanted and we came to the conclusion that what we really wanted was a really great party. We both love to party and we wanted to throw the biggest party ever!
We also knew that the location had to be London – the capital city of partying so we took a whole day and visited four or five Central London locations accompanied by our wedding planner, Antonia at Peppermint Diva Events. She did all the ground work for us and found locations that fitted our brief and our budget.
We saw some great places but we really fell in love with The Mayfair Hotel, just off Berkeley Sq, W1. The ballroom (in the photo above) is beautiful and didn’t need much in terms of decoration. In the middle of the room there is the most amazing Baccarat chandelier that apparently cost over £1m.
They have a terrific bar with fireplaces and couches that we can have our champagne reception in, and the bridal suite is beautiful. We were so excited at the thought of having our wedding there. We met with the events director and talked her through what we wanted. They were extremely accommodating and I know they will do everything in their power to make this day special for us.
It was an exhausting day, and Damien and I sat in the bar at the Mayfair and had a few drinks to celebrate finding this great venue. Antonia left us to it but insisted that on our way home we go and see the work of a photographer she knew, Contrejour in New Quebec Street, W1 so we did.
Well, we were blown away!! They don’t do the bog-standard wedding photography that you see so much which is great, as Damien and I were never keen spending hours of the day having posey photographs taken. The kind of photography they do is more reportage. They send in 2/3 photographers and snap while you're not looking and the results are astounding. They capture moments – natural fun moments – that I think are often missing from a wedding album.
In addition, at the end of it, you get a great coffee table book full of fun photographs and ‘snaps’ that capture the essence of your wedding. That’s what clinched it for us. We weren’t interested in spending loads of money on an album full of pictures of us, we wanted a great memory teaser of our celebration. And that’s what Contrejour offered us. We didn’t see any other photographers – we booked them straight away!
Next week – I’ll tell you about my dress and how I found it!
Love Candida x
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