What started on the London Eye ended up at the Stunning Leez Priory..
Tell us about the proposal – how and where did it happen?
The proposal happened on the 16th October 2020. It was our 2-year anniversary. We had decided to go on a trip to London and go on the London eye for the first time. My husband was so nervous and now I know why. We got on the London Eye and when we got to the top, he called me over and sat me down. He was shaking like a leaf and pulled out a ring box and gave it to me. I immediately started sobbing, I honestly thought it was a prank. But then he asked me to marry him I honestly don’t even remember saying yes, I was crying that much. He then stood me up and told me to look towards the front of the pod. I lost my Nan in 2013 and my Uncle in 2019. He told me that he picked to propose to me on this side of the pod as it faced east London, where my Nan and uncle both lived before, they passed and where their graves are located. Made me sob even more. But the most special memory.
What was your first step in planning your wedding, did you use blogs/magazines etc?
Believe it or not, the day after I got engaged, I was already looking at wedding venues with my sisters and my mum. My whole family thought I was crazy. But I have always wanted to get married and the dream turning into a reality was just so exciting. I loved looking online, on Pinterest and google for different ideas. I found just typing in what you were looking for and taking pictures or screenshot just made my theme come into place.
What were your wedding “must have’s”?
In all honesty the small things at my wedding didn’t bother me so much I just knew I needed the perfect venue and everything else would sort itself out. I knew I wanted my theme to be not too out there and to keep it simple.
Wedding budget: how did you organise your wedding budget?
The first thing I did was buy a wedding planner. I used this to plan for budgets plan my whole wedding. I did find having a budget hard at times and I did splurge a little when it come to my dress and veil but, we saved money other ways by doing our own centrepieces and buying the only flowers that we needed.
How did you find your venue and what made you choose it?
Macaulay actually found the venue. He was looking online one day and came across Leez Priory. We booked in a venue visit straight away; at this point we had already seen 3 wedding venues prior. As soon as we parked the car and I saw the outside of the venue, I could picture us getting married here. When we walked into the ceremony room, I could see Macaulay standing at the top waiting for me and I knew I just had to get married here. It made it even more special that my husband picked the venue. If I could get married again Leez Priory would still be my choice of venue. That will never change
Styling your wedding: how did you personalise your big day?
I kept our theme quite simple, I used glass jars and candles for the centrepieces, and had crystals scattered on the table. My sister has her own balloon business, Rj’s bespoke balloons so she did a balloon piece around my table plan, which I created myself using card for the names and putting pictures of myself and my husband in the photo frame. She also did a balloon hoop for the evening on the dance floor. My cake was a three-tier cake consisting of lemon, chocolate and white chocolate and raspberry cake. It was then decorated in iced red flowers as this was Macaulay’s mum’s favourite colour, unfortunately we lost his mum in 2018 so she wasn’t able to be there for our big day.
Did the venue provide any memorable extras or nice personal touches that stood out?
Leez Priory is just stunning throughout so we didn’t want to cover too much of the venue itself because how old it is and that is what made it the perfect venue for us. The venue provided house floral decorations which were beautiful and meant we saved money on purchasing lots of flowers. Our wedding manager Sophie was fantastic, she put glass mirrors underneath my centrepieces which made it stand out more and it was such a nice and simple touch that made all the difference.
Describe your wedding attire and favourite accessories;
My wedding dress was completely different to what I had always thought I would wear but as soon as I tried it on I knew it was the one. I chose a ballgown dress with a sparkle under layer and a sparkly veil. The veil just made the dress pop, it wasn’t something I had intended to have but as soon as I tried it on, I knew it wanted to wear one. My wedding dress made me feel beautiful like I genuinely looked at myself and thought wow. My mum cried her eyes out and I even found myself crying.
My favourite accessories were my sliver wedding locket. It had a picture of both my Nan and Uncle in it,which meant that had them there on my wedding day close to my heart.
What did your partner wear?
Macualay chose his own suit, he wanted to be in charge of at least one thing when it come to our wedding day. I pretty much knew what I wanted our wedding to be like and he just let me get on with it. He ended up picking out a three-piece wedding suit from Leonard Silver.
He had always been interested in getting a tweed suit and this would be perfect as our wedding was in January. I loved his suit the moment it arrived. He looked so handsome and I cried my eyes out the first time I saw him in it. He then purchased an overcoat from next in a dark grey it definitely made the suit complete. Seeing him on our wedding day was completely different though, I fell in love with him all over again. I felt like his suit gave off peaky blinder vibes.
Tell us about your Bridesmaids, Groomsmen and their outfits
I had a total of 4 bridesmaids and 5 flower girls. My flower girls wore white dresses and had sparkly wands to carry down the aisle and the bridesmaids all wore light grey floor length gowns that they picked out themselves. Macaulay had 5 groomsmen and our two nephews as page boys. With our oldest nephew even taking on the responsibility of being our ring bearer. The groomsmen wore dark grey three-piece suits and the page boys wore 3 piece light grey suits. We gave all of the groomsmen and my brother who walked me down the aisle personalised cuff-links with their role on them.
What was your ceremony like?
Both my brother and mum provided a reading that they had picked it out during the ceremony. This was such a beautiful touch and I highly recommend doing this. Having our family being a big part of our wedding day was really important to us both.
I walked down the aisle to 10,000 hours (acoustic version) by Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber. I love this song and have always been a big fan of Justin Bieber so already my husband and my family knew that one of his songs would definitely incorporated somewhere. We had specific songs to be played as we signed our marriage certificate to “Everything” by Michael Bublé and “I guess I’m in love” by Clinton Kane. We wanted the songs to be romantic and represent us so we spent a long time choosing these.
Tell us about your drinks reception and wedding breakfast
For our welcome drinks we chose strawberry daiquiris, sparkling wine and buck’s fizz. We wanted to pick something we liked but also wanted to give guests a selection. Our wedding breakfast was one of my favourite part with Parsnip Soup for starters, Roast Beef for mains and Chocolate Brownie for dessert. The food was amazing but because I was so excited and nervous I didn’t manage to eat everything. Macaulay and the guests said the food was one of the best parts. The speeches were just everything. Macaulay said the most beautiful things about me,our family and our future together, he was nervous but his speech was perfect. His best man gave a mention about his mum and how she would be so proud. I cried because I knew it was true.
Did you have a band or DJ for your evening reception? Did you have a first dance – what song did you
choose?
We had the Dj for our evening reception provided by Leez Priory. He was amazing. Our first dance was to “Lifetime” by Justin Bieber, managed to fit in a song by him again… Macaulay loved the song when I first played it to him so together we decided it was our song, He now has a tattoo of a section of the song on his arm as a reminder of our wedding day.
Based on your own experience, give us some top tips:
My main tips are to do what you want to do. So many people will have opinions about your wedding and what you should and shouldn’t do but always remember, it’s your day, you don’t want to have regrets. Budgets are good to have but sometimes things can work out a little more expensive than you first thought, especially if you end up spending more money on things you didn’t intend too, for example wedding dress, so try making cuts elsewhere if you are being strict with the budget.
Did you go on a honeymoon or mini-moon?
We went to Salisbury for our honeymoon. It was a lovely get away and allowed us to stay in our wedding bubble for that little bit longer. We went and see Stonehenge whilst we were there and just spent some time together going out for dinner and walks. It was perfect.
“If we could do it all again, we’d…”
Do it exactly the same. We wouldn’t change a thing.
We just wanted to say a big thank you to Leez Priory for everything. For giving us the wedding of our dreams and answering all of our questions no matter how big or small. Sophie, you were amazing on our wedding day and made sure we stayed stress free and had the day we had been dreaming of since the day we got engaged. This venue will always hold a special place in our hearts.
Wedding attire: Bellissima weddings and Leonard Silver
The Accessories: H Samuels
Bridesmaid Dresses: Ever-Pretty UK
Wedding Rings: Ernest Jones
Wedding Cake: Charlie & Loobys’ Cakes
Photographer: The Kensington Photographer
Wedding Favours: Wooly’s Bakery
Florist: Cherubs Florist
