Charlotte + Pete | May 2024
“A regular ceremony can be dull - but it’s the main part of a wedding right? Sarah made it interesting, interactive and lovely.”
I want to tell you about Charlotte and Pete’s ceremony, and I will.
But, first, I have to tell you that the bride is a wedding dress designer. And that she had not one, not two, but THREE dresses. And not just three wedding dresses but three bespoke, stunning, delicate, one-of-a-kind handmade creations. Feast your eyes on these…
Charlotte is a romantic, a creative, a chic-as-hell individual, and there were some gorgeous elements to their ceremony that gave me goosebumps - not least of all the fact their chosen venue was a riverside temple built in honour of Shakespeare. I’ll never forget a kayak of fabulous fifty-something women pulling up to disembark (I made sure I got one of their phones to nab a great photo of them in action) as I waited for guests to arrive. The various row boats, paddle boarders and swans floating past gave the setting such a storybook London air; a Saturday on the riverbank unfolding as the wedding began to take shape on the grass beside. Early, as ever, I watched the faux flower arch be built, helped set up the chairs in the Temple, light candles and get ready for the first guests to arrive.
Truth be told, I hadn’t twigged in my research of the venue that the area was low on the loo-front (one public toilet nearby) so I ended up hiding in a corner of little Garrick’s Temple itself to get changed, using my phone as a mirror. It was fine, no mega early guests came and caught me in my knickers, but it was a lesson in doing more thorough research of a venue beforehand.
Gorgeous photography by Debs for Jess Withey Photos
Guests were serenaded by acoustic guitarists Brother From Another UK as they assembled in the Temple, and the duo played iconic millennial melody Fantasy (Mariah Carey) as Pete went to meet his bride and the flower girls and they all walked in hand-in-hand. It was a cosy squeeze to get all the guests in, and I ended up conducting the ceremony from just outside, with the bride and groom in the doorway, pride of place.
Pete went to meet his bride so the family could walk into the ceremony together
We did a ring warming ceremony (passing the wedding bands around to be imbued with love and luck) that was particularly special because Charlotte’s wedding band had pearls, and I’d learnt - from the bride - that pearls are known to absorb from our skin, and pearl heirlooms can carry loved ones’ DNA. Scientists have discovered people’s DNA inside pearls from body moisture absorbed while wearing them, and I explained this to the friends and family as they passed the rings around.
Another beautifully special thing about the wedding bands was that Pete’s ring was a signet ring Charlotte had had specially made, with both her and their (adorable) daughter Erin’s fingerprints on it. Erin was a central figure in her mummy and daddy’s wedding and was presented with her own little ring too.
Given the location I wanted to include a little Shakespeare, and landed on one of the classic sonnets. Now I’m no Kate Winslet (you may recognise this one from Sense and Sensibility) but I practised and practised and gave it my best shot:
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken,
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
(Sonnet 116)
Rather than tequila or champagne, when it came to a toast the couple had opted for something quintessentially English, that fitted the sunny riverbank setting perfectly: pink rose lemonade. When the ceremony ended guests were given their own glass pink lemonade bottles with stripy straws to sip on while enjoying the scenery. And by “enjoying the scenery“ I mean that many of us were trying to crane our necks around the trees to get a glimpse at Pink Floyd frontman David Gilmour’s floating recording studio - an Edwardian houseboat called The Astoria. I left when the guests moved on to their second location - a boat for the reception - so I’m gutted I only saw one of Charlotte’s three dresses in person.
But what a wedding, a wedding of details, and a feast for the eyes from start to finish.
“Me and my partner are very private, so although we wanted to celebrate, we don’t wear our hearts on our sleeves - so Sarah had her work cut out teasing information from us.”