Rachel & John's Monochrome Stripes & Coral Affair

Written by: louise

When a blogger gets married you just know it's going to be a beautiful day, filled with gorgeous details and brilliant suppliers. So today I am beyond excited to share the wedding of the super stylish Rachel who runs lifesttyle blog A Chi Chi Affair. Along with so many others, I followed her wedding planning journey, from Kate Spade shopping {my kinda of girl!} to DIY details. I knew her love of bold modern style, a dash of colour and hint of sparkle would make a beautiful wedding, but the combination of bold monochrome stripes, bright coral peonies and gold glitter are just STUNNING. It's also a great pleasure to feature the work of Segerius Bruce once more, since they've jetted off to capture weddings in the Caribbean we've missed them back in London. There's simply too much to swoon over in this chi chi affair, so I've asked Rachie to tell us all the details. Just a word of warning, your pinning finger's going to get a work out with this one!

We met in 2006 through mutual friends. My friend's boyfriend (now husband) had been badgering me to go on a date with his friend for ages and I just wasn't keen to go on a blind date. After around 6 months of badgering I finally agreed to exchange pictures! I was pleasantly surprised - we met up for a date and have been together ever since! The proposal came in March 2011. We were discussing holidays and John suggested Barbados. (I was thinking Spain so was pleasantly surprised but kept quiet as I had a hunch this might be it!!) He proposed at a gorgeous restaurant in Barbados called The Cliff with the most beautiful ring imaginable that he had made especially for me! In fact my first words when he proposed weren't yes they were oh my god that ring! We got married at St Botolphs Without Bishopsgate Church at Liverpool Street London and the reception was at the Andaz hotel. We wanted a wedding that would be very 'us' and we love London, it's the city we work and fell in love in. I had seen Andaz on various wedding blogs but it was even better than I expected, so glam and had a contemporary feel. Then they suggested that the church across the road were very accommodating when it came to weddings (and I saw the beautiful black and white floor in the church) we were sold. Plus we could walk from the church to the venue which made things super easy. My dress was from Pronovias and I bought it at Teokath in Wimbledon. After a few shopping trips with my bestie and sisters I felt that I need to focus and took a trip there on my own. (I always shop better by myself!) As soon as I put it on I knew I would buy it. It had just the right amount of drama. I do love a fishtail and I knew John would love it too! (And he did!) My shoes were Kate Spade in gold and I changed up my necklace in the evening from a simple pearl for the church to a statement necklace (also Kate Spade) in the evening. My veil was my something borrowed from one of my good friends Jenny. I also had a gold Anya Hindmarch clutch which was present from John on the day. I felt very lucky, and have worn all my accessories many times since!! My hair is mid-length and straight and I'm always trying to create volume!! I originally wanted long waves but then my lovely hairdresser suggested a shorter style with clip in hair extensions and we had a trial and I was sold. I absolutely loved it and I think it really contributed to the modern contemporary look. I love make up and wanted to channel Bridget Bardot with big eyelashes plus I wanted a coral lipstick. My makeup artist got this look completely and I was so pleased with my make up on the day. My colours were corals/pinks/gold and black and white stripes. My bridesmaids all had different dresses in a coral colour palate from ASOS Maternity, Warehouse, and Coast with gold shoes. I wanted the groomsmen in a preppy style and they wore navy suits hired from Austin Reed and had a little black and white ribbon tied round their buttonhole. I commissioned our stationery designer to create a logo and font which was used across many aspects of the wedding to give it a cohesive feel. We had little bags of confetti with our logo on, various signs to point people to our guestbook etc, and the font was used on the order of service, individual menus and place cards & escort cards. I made little gold drinks flags to go in the cocktail welcome drinks, along with black and white striped straws, and I placed gold and mercury glass votives around the venue that were lit in the evening and filled with some individual flowers.

The flowers were absolutely my favourite part of the décor. I mean, when do you ever have the excuse to spend a lot of money on flowers? Our florist was Hayford and Rhodes who I chose because they understood my brief of big, puffy and round and no hard edges and no dark green foliage. For my bouquet I had coral peonies, pink peonies, Miss Piggy roses and Atar of Bethlehem (which had tiny black centres) - I wanted Anenomes but they were out of season in July. In the church décor we had similar flowers but also included pink hydrangea and proteas (the national flower of South Africa as the groom is from Durban) and eucalyptus. The florist also dotted around some single blooms in various places around the venue - they used the most beautiful and gigantic coral peonies - they were amazing and everyone commented on them. My photographers were the hugely talented Segerius Bruce. I absolutely loved their colourful style with a good mixture of portrait shots and reportage. When we found out they were also originally from Durban (like the hubs) and lived a short drive away we were sold and booked them immediately. I knew they would make the hubs feel relaxed on the day. Best decision we made. They captured the day amazingly well and we were so thrilled with the photos. We also had Reel Love Films to do the videography who were also fantastic. Do you have any advice for other couples? Just to be as organised as possible, learn from the weddings you go to what works and what doesn't and plan plan plan so you can relax on the day! (Or hire a planner!) There is absolutely no point in putting all that hard work in if you don't relax and enjoy the day. In hindsight even though I thoroughly enjoyed the day I probably wasn't as relaxed as I could have been! We had a fabulous drinks event the night before for both sets of families (Some that had travelled a long way!) and I wish I had stayed up partying! I was too nervous!! More flowers - You can never have enough!! Invest in your photography - you absolutely wont regret it! Our amazing photographers were our best investment! Again personal preference but we loved having a video of our day. I cant wait to show it to our daughter one day! I feel like I'll never look that glamorous again - its good to have it on film!! This is completely personal preference but go on honeymoon as soon as possible! I am so glad we did as even though it was a whirlwind it felt really romantic to then have that luxurious time together after tying the knot. We were completely in our own little bubble for those first few days... And if you want to see the video (of course you do!) then pop back this afternoon where I'll be sharing it in all it's monochrome-stripes-and-coral-colour glory!

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Categories: real weddings · Tags: a chi chi affair, canvas boutique, city, contemporary, coral, glitter, gold, hayford rhodes, hummingbird bakery, kate spade, london, monochrome, peonies, pink, pronovias, reel love films, stripes, the andaz hotel