Today’s wedding is just bursting with joy, and colour, and playfulness, and love. And what more could you ever wish for? Gorgeous couple Georgina and Ben were married at Crown Lodge and chose Kent wedding photographer Benjamin Toms to capture their day. Keep reading for brilliant reviews and recommendations for their favourite local wedding suppliers, along with all the fabulous photos from this stunning Kent wedding.

Wedding photographer’s website

Benjamin Toms – https://benjamintomsphotography.co.uk/

Wedding photographer review

We had the most perfect, fun-filled day and Ben’s photos captured the essence of the guests, venue, atmosphere and day so perfectly. We’ve had so many wonderful comments from our friends and family about how professional both Ben and James (his assistant) were on the day and how well they blended into the background (shown by some of the great action shots!). We’re absolutely chuffed with the finished photos and will cherish them forever. Cannot recommend Ben more (and James, his assistant). Both were so calm and relaxed on the day and fit right in with everyone else. The photos are BRILLIANT!

Your best moment or memory

We had so many special moments – it’s hard to choose one. The most recommended advice we had from everyone leading up to the wedding was make sure you have a sneaky 5-10 minutes to yourselves after the ceremony where you can just have a mini chat and take in the day together. We found we had some perfect moments to chat when we were doing our couples photos, but also managed to catch each other a few more times throughout the day. These little moments are what we’ll really cherish.

Tell us anything you did differently – we love hearing about NEW traditions (or none at all!)

We were quite traditional with most aspects of the wedding day. We opted for a round top table rather than a straight one which we preferred as it felt like we were part of the party with the guests rather than everyone looking at us!
Our friend Pete played guitar leading up to the ceremony / during, and him and my sister sang the song Ben proposed to me with just before we signed the register which was wonderful!

Rather than a traditional guest book we purchased a blank jenga block and got guests to sign a block each, as we thought we could end up with lots of various books laying around after the wedding (photo albums, guest books, scrapbooks, etc.). We’ve now varnished this and have it to play on games nights with a few drinks.

Videographer name + review

We’re super lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderfully talented friends and family. As both of us studied Film at university, one of our good friends came along and filmed the day for us, and as Ben edits he put together a beautiful 10 minute video with all our favourite snippets from the day.

Venue name + review

Our venue was the wonderful Crown Lodge in Wye. Stephanie (the venue manager) and her team were absolutely fantastic. In the lead up to the wedding Stephanie was always on hand either via phone or email and answered every question (no matter how trivial it felt). We had a meeting in person 6 months before and another one a few weeks leading up the wedding to make sure we had everything in place. Stephanie also helped us get the ceremony sorted and organised through Kent weddings so the officiant could do our ceremony from the garden area of the venue. On the day the team were all super smiley and friendly, our guests all complimented how wonderful they were too. Cannot stress how much we loved this venue, it was absolutely perfect for us and the best views over Kent for some amazing photographs too.

Russell and his team at Kitchen of Kent were brilliant – they worked so well with the Crown Lodge team for a seamless day and experience for us and our guests. The food was phenomenal – so many of the guests spoke to us about this on the day and after. We wanted to go for something a little different to the traditional three course meal – as Ben and I both cook paella for our friends this seemed like a no brainer (and the Kitchen of Kent ones are to die for!). We had a taster included in our package which we did together a year before the wedding – a lovely day out with so many yummy dishes to try and get us excited. We also had a selection of pizzas in the evening which Russell cooked on a trailer round the back of the venue which were delicious.

Tell us a little about your outfits – both of you!

Georgina got her bridal gown from an independent shop in Tenterden – Vicki’s Bridal Boutique. Sisters Hannah and Megan run the shop and are both super knowledgable and friendly, with a relaxed approach. The boutique is gorgeous and the dresses, veils and accessories are all beautiful. It was a wonderful experience and great to have the whole place to yourself and your guests. I went once for a browse and tried a couple on, and a second time where I found my dress!

Ben bought his suit (and the best man / ushers / FOB) from Moss Bros. Kevin and his team at the Ashford Outlet branch have helped Ben and his family out with suits for weddings in the past and are fantastic. They were gone for several hours and each were properly measured and taken care of. The suits were a gorgeous colour and the colours matched the bridesmaid dresses so well (a happy accident!).

Florist name + review

Our flowers have a wonderful story. Georgina’s Dad is an avid gardener and grew a massive selection of them for us, that we cut the day before the wedding and mixed in with a few of the ‘pick your own’ buckets from Blooming Green. Two days before the wedding we went with a few family friends and picked our own flowers, which was a nice day out with everyone in the lead up to the big day. The day before the wedding we had a trusty team of helpers, including the mother of the bride and her best friends to arrange the flowers. These then went into a variety of glass jars that we’d spent months leading up to the wedding decorating with hessian / lace material and dotted them all over the venue. Blooming Green put together the bouquets for the bride and bridesmaids using a selection of the flowers we’d picked the day before – they were gorgeous and smelled all minty and divine!

Cake maker name + review

Our cake was made by Ben’s talented sister, Hannah. It was a delicious lemon cake with lemon icing and decorated with citrus fruits. Safe to say, we froze a few portions to have once we were back from Italy, as well as taking some on our honeymoon!

Stationery maker’s name + review

We made all our stationery ourselves – Ben drew the pictures for our invitations, and table decorations using photographs of our wedding rings as the centre of each object. We both studied Film at university and now work in film, so wanted to incorporate this slightly into our wedding by choosing our favourite films as the table names. We also custom made little stamps to seal our invitations and thank you cards!

Any crafty projects or homemade styling touches?

We’re super fortunate to be surrounded by many crafty people and enjoy craft projects ourselves. We made loads of different things for the wedding day, including a lifesize kerplunk and donut wall for the venue, all the wedding stationery, table decorations and little games quizzes – one of our favourites that’s done a few rounds post wedding is our ‘Guest Who’ which had a selection of the guests on. Ben’s Mum also hand painted a selection of pebbles for a few sets of a ‘Tic-Tac-Toe’ table game, we decorated over 100 jars for the flower decoration around the venue, made pallets to show the order of the day and display a selection of ‘family tree’ photos which included all of our family and extended family on their wedding days.

Wedding readings?

We had two wedding readings – one that we pulled together using loads of our favourite film quotes about love that Ben’s sister, Emily, read. Our second reading was written for us by our talented friends, Harry and Grace, and they read it out together – it was absolutely fantastic, and we loved how much this reflected our friendship with them both over the years.

First dance song? Playlist recommendations?

Our first dance was ‘As Time Goes By’ from the film Casablanca. This was our first date together so the song from the film is very special to us.

Hair + makeup name + review

Georgina, the MOB and the bridesmaids all hair their hair and makeup done the morning of the wedding at the bride’s parents house. Makeup by Lydia Rae Makeup and hair by Jeanette Felstead. Georgina had trials with Lydia and Jeanette in the lead up to the wedding – I was after something natural for both my hair and makeup as i’m not someone that wears a lot of makeup. Lydia was super friendly and talked through each stage of the trial and products to help me with a natural style which I loved! Same for the hair – Jeanette tried two different styles in my trial as I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go hair up or down. I bought along a clip and a few other accessories I was playing with too so we could try multiple options. On the morning of the big day they were both super relaxed and blended right in with the morning!