A glorious, joyful wedding for a gorgeous couple with a wonderful sense of fun! This one will go down in English Wedding history for the creative way Phoebe & Sarah picked the best bits of their heritage to include as wedding traditions – and for the colour, the joy in Martin Cheung‘s images and the generous reviews of their incredible wedding suppliers. As always – more on @englishweddingblog Instagram!

Wedding photographer’s website

Martin Cheung https://www.martincphotography.co.uk

Wedding photographer review

Martin was personally recommended to us by a good friend, who had worked with him several times. We loved his energy and sense of fun, and felt comfortable he would help us capture our day and record the amazing memories! We also loved that his wife, Daiga, was available to film, as we were really keen to get amazing video for those of our far-flung family who couldn’t attend. They were both so lovely on the day, working with us throughout a pretty hectic day to capture so many amazing images, both intimate and relaxed as well as large group shots. Reviewing the photos on our honeymoon, we felt so fortunate to have had them both involved with the day. Martin managed to corral our 150+ guests into numerous group and family shots, and is still mentioned at family gatherings as a ‘legend’! He was also endlessly patient with us putting back the time of our first dance because, in true Greek fashion, nothing happened on time!

Your best moment or memory

Seeing our dog Cleo, in her beautiful flower collar, coming down the aisle as our ring bearer was so special! Phoebe’s favourite part of the day was stepping out into the ceremony room and seeing Sarah’s beautiful smile lighting up the room, where Sarah and her family had been in charge of building a traditional Jewish chuppah on the morning of the wedding. The whole room was filled with love and sunlight. Sarah’s favourite moment was during the evening reception, when we found our roller derby team-mates building a human pyramid on the lawn! It just showed how relaxed our guests were, feeling free to let their hair down and party, which is exactly what we wanted!

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

We mixed some Jewish and some Greek traditions in, without much religion, to celebrate both of our family heritages, so we smashed a glass, swapped flower crowns, drank raki and danced to some traditional (and not so!) Greek and Jewish music at the reception. Phoebe walked down the aisle on her own, following both of her parents, and Sarah was accompanied by both her mom and dad, to buck the tradition of being ‘given away’.

Sarah + Phobe – Hazel Gap Barn from No Ordinary Films (Daiga Cheung) on Vimeo.

Videographer name + review

Daiga https://www.noordinaryfilms.co.uk/ Daiga was so friendly and enthusiastic about capturing our wedding. We have laughed and cried over our wedding videos as they really capture the warmth and love of the day! Daiga was so intent on capturing the little moments, and has woven them into a gorgeous video which really feels so personal and heartwarming to watch back. It really takes us back to the day!

Venue name + review

Hazel Gap Barn – what can we say but wow! This very quickly became our wish-list venue as it is so beautiful, but it was a bit out of our price range. Thanks to our very generous parents, we were lucky enough to be able to make it work and we were so happy we did.

Our co-ordinator, Beth, was so on top of everything on the day, it felt like we didn’t have to worry about a single thing. She was worth her weight in gold! The entire staff at Hazel Gap were so professional, polite and made the whole day run so smoothly. We got so many compliments on the food – people said it was the best wedding meal they had ever had – and we have to agree! It was so important to both of us that the food was great and we were so happy with the feast night that Hazel Gap offers to its customers, where we got to sample the menu. As a vegetarian, Phoebe was adamant that their vegan and vegetarian guests would have as much choice as anyone else, and Hazel Gap really delivered! The grounds and buildings are absolutely stunning and the staff really are excellent at what they do.

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

Phoebe wore an off the shoulder, old Hollywood-style chiffon dress with a dramatic sleeve, from All Who Wander. It made me feel like an absolute glamazon! Sarah had a tailored three piece suit, in a dark green and orange checked bamboo fabric. She wore her grandfather’s RAF dress shirt and cufflinks, which matched her buttons.

Dress or suit shop name + review

Phoebe: Emily’s Bridal, Sheffield.

Emily’s was one of the first dress shops I looked at online, and as soon as I visited in person, I knew I would get my dress there. Nicole helped me throughout, as my mum and sisters all lived abroad at the time, so I was flying solo when dress shopping. She listened to what I wanted, brought me armfuls of dresses and then found THE ONE (which was none of the things I had said I wanted!) She has a magic eye and her enthusiasm and warmth shone through every appointment, every silly question, and every request I made!

The last few weeks where I was driving up to Sheffield for fittings and stylings were some of my favourite wedding prep moments, because I was SO excited to see my dress and step into the calm, kind and happy environment they have created there! I was treated with kindness and joy by every single person I met at Emily’s and I will recommend it to anyone looking for a dress.

Sarah: Orhan London Tailoring.

I found the process of finding a wedding suit quite daunting at the beginning, as I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for and how the typical ‘mens’ suits would fit. I found Orhan London Tailoring recommended online as somewhere specifically queer-friendly and really loved their photos, so gave them a visit.

I felt super taken care of from my very first visit, where Joe went through the different options with me and made me feel completely comfortable asking all the questions!

Although I wasn’t originally planning on a tailored suit, I decided that it was a ‘once in a lifetime’ chance to create exactly what I wanted, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

Florist name + review

Sanita’s Flowers, Nottingham.

It took us a few false starts to find Sanita, and it turns out the best wedding florist is actually our local one! Right from our first meeting, Sanita filled us with confidence that she understood what we wanted and was going to deliver it. On the day, she was hands-on and enthusiastically making sure every flower she had planned was in the right place and looked perfect! Sanita absolutely fulfilled our ideas of bright, rainbow coloured blooms in a bohemian, relaxed style. She was also really mindful of our budget, and helped us carefully and thoughtfully make some small changes to deliver what we wanted within this.

Cake maker name + review

Pudding Pantry, Nottingham. When we realised our favourite cafe also made wedding cakes, we were pretty sure that we wanted them to make our wedding cake! However, having almost 200 guests to the event meant A LOT of cake. Pudding Pantry worked with us to do cake tastings (the best day of wedding planning!) and come up with completely custom combinations, and they didn’t bat an eyelid at any of our guests dietary needs. We weren’t quite sure about how we wanted it to look, but they were really patient and kind at showing us different ideas and talking us through options to design a cake together. On the day, it looked and tasted incredible, even if one of our younger guests did try to eat it with their hands before we got to cut it!

Stationery maker’s name + review

We used Vistaprint and some of their design features to personalise our invitations and thank you cards. It was an affordable provider with loads of options to customise the designs and we were really happy with the speed of service and quality of the prints.

Any crafty projects or homemade styling touches?

We did a lot of the decor ourselves, with Sarah’s friends and family spending the night before the wedding constructing paper lanterns, garlands and pompoms to hang up around the venue, as well as labelling the wedding favours. Phoebe painted the welcome sign and schedule, and made the guestbook and seating plan display herself as well, and brushed up on her calligraphy skills for the place cards too. These little touches made a lot of the wedding feel more personal and a lot of them are still decorating our house now!

Wedding readings?

Our friend Nathan read an extract from ‘Everything I Know About Love’ by Dolly Alderton, which perfectly captured how Sarah and Phoebe feel about each other and their life together.

Sarah’s cousin Justin read ‘A Lovely Love Story’ by Edward Monkton, really hamming up the line about the couple being old. It was fun and funny, and just the kind of laughter that Sarah and Phoebe wanted during their ceremony!

First dance song? Playlist recommendations?

Ten Years by Daði Freyr. We pondered for ages on the wedding first dance song, as we wanted something not too formal and stiff, but that we could have a few moments together to dance to, before having our friends and family join in! This was the perfect song, as it is bouncy, energetic but with a gorgeous message, and we still get up and recreate our dance moves whenever we hear it!

Hair + makeup name + review

Ms Moo Makeup – As soon as I got engaged, I knew I wanted Sali to be my makeup artist – I think she was the first person I booked when the date was confirmed! She has done several friend’s wedding makeup, and is a well known wedding makeup artist in the East Midlands. She is so funny, and fun, and made me cackle like a witch several times over the course of my wedding morning! She made me and my bridesmaids all look absolutely gorgeous and glowy, and set us all at ease. She listened so carefully to me during our initial chats and trial sessions, and delivered a truly special service on the morning, making me feel relaxed and at ease, despite my nerves.

Blush Moments Hair – Sharon was quite a late addition to my wedding team, and she was personally recommended to me by Sali, who had worked with her before. Sharon is so lovely and friendly, she was great at listening to what I wanted and delivering it in a way that worked with my dress, veil and overall style of the day. She gave me loads of input into hair care and prep, to make sure that it would all work together on the big day and last well into the night! On the day, she was calm, well-prepared and efficient and had us all ready early – which is no mean feat! Sarah’s hair and makeup was done by her gorgeous bridesmaid, Kariisa, with the help of some amazing samples from our friend Hayley at La Mer!