English Rose

The following article is taken from p.53 of The Wedding Planner Magazine, Autumn/Winter 2013.

Lucy Matthews and Chris Paterson married in the Parish Church of St Andrew and St Mary on the 15th June 2013.

Chris and I met at work when Chris began to travel regularly to London from the Edinburgh office where he was based. We got to know each other and it all progressed from there.

We married in the Parish Church of St Andrew and St Mary, Whittlesford as this is my village church where I was christened and grew up, so it had a special relevance for me.

My dress, a Sassi Holford gown, was bought second hand and fitted for me by dress designer Jo Poole. The groom’s party wore hired suits from Karen Forte Bridalwear. Whilst choosing the suits was easy, Chris put most of his wedding planning effort into scouring the shops for the right pair of shoes!

Our ceremony and reception venues were unique and characterful so we didn’t focus too heavily on a theme for our wedding day. Instead, we chose to decorate with flowers and framed photographs from previous family weddings. The brief given to our florist Tolly Considine at Tolly’s Flowers in Newmarket was ‘English Country Garden’ so our incredible displays featured fragrant roses, peonies, stocks and sweet William as well as other seasonal blooms.

The wedding breakfast was held in the Dining Room at the Jockey Club which had been through a complete refurbishment between January and March 2013 and the decor is elegant and beautiful. The venue had a suite of 17 guest rooms which were used by our guests, plus the Kings’ Suite which serves as a Bridal Suite. On the morning following the wedding we reconvened with family and friends in our beautiful surroundings.

We spent the first 5 nights of our honeymoon at Sirmione, Lake Garda, enjoying boat trips, lake swimming and lots of Italian ice cream before travelling to Baie Lazare on Mahe, the main island of the Seychelles, for a week of beach bliss.

We chose Scott Gilbert at Scott’s of Cambridge for our wedding photography as we loved the relaxed, natural and unobtrusive style of his reportage photography. His beautiful photographs captured the intimate and honest moments of our wedding day, and we have so many lovely shots that our only difficulty is narrowing down which of them to choose for our album!

Photographer: Scott’s of Cambridge, www.scottsofcambridge.com

Venue: Jockey Club Rooms, www.jockeyclubrooms.co.uk