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Real Bride: Sarah and Earl's magical Santorini wedding
Let us whisk you away for a moment and share the magical wedding of Sarah and Earl in the beautiful island of Santorini. Sarah was such a lovely, gorgeous bride to dress with a bohemian, laid back style. We decided to create a brand new dress called Ida, a multi-tiered lace dress exclusively from this year's collection, in a pretty peacock style lace worn over the Lilian dress with a low back. Here are her top tips...
The couple: Sarah and Earl
Venue: St Irini, Santorini
Bride’s dress: Ida (new collection)
Groom’s suit: Blue Ben Sherman
Shoes: Rachel Simpson navy suede shoes
Accessories: Flower crown Sophie & Luna
Bridesmaid dresses: Coast, Marks & Spencers, Debenhams for the bridesmaids and Monsoon for the flowergirl
Make up: Katerina Karatzia
Photographer: Trifonas Trifonopoulos at www.dreamonphotography.gr
Videographer: Stelios Fanourakis
Hair artist: My Aunty Susan
Wedding Planner: A la Carte Weddings, Santorini – Chara
The background:
How did you and your husband meet?
I was in Dublin for St Patricks day with a friend, Earl arrived in Dublin the day after St Patricks Day. We me in a club on Temple Bar, and luckily we both were London based. Swapped numbers. I returned to Essex and lost my phone on a hen night the same day, luckily my replacement phone arrived in the nick of time for Earl to have returned from Dublin and he called!
What’s your engagement story?
We went to Munich for the Christmas markets in November 2013, after a day of touring all the markets we were getting ready for dinner, I was in the bathroom putting on my make up, when Earl came in, dressed only in his boxers I must mention, and just stood looking at me, as only I can I asked him what he wanted, I didn’t think these words were going to be the perfect prompt for him to say you to marry me, and for him to be holding a ring behind his back! I swooped the ring up and onto my finger, forgetting to this day to say yes! Phone calls were made to our nearest and dearest, and then we went out for the night!
Where is your engagement ring from? Did your husband choose it himself?
My engagement ring and wedding band are from DSM Jewellery in Hatton Garden. Earl chose it all by himself, however I think I may have told him HUGE pointers over the years!
The planning;
How long did you have to plan your wedding and was it enough time?
We had 16 months from our holiday in Santorini where we fell in love with the place, it had been on my top visit list and when we went there it was just perfect.
Why did you choose your dress? Which dress did you wear?
I chose my dress because it ticked all the right boxes for me, I wanted lace, and interesting back, and not poofy! Sabina made me know she was going to get it just right for me. I loved my dress but having someone I liked who was making it for me made the process even better.
Why did you choose your venue? Where did you get married?
We wanted a destination wedding, we love greek food, and Santorini is so beautiful we wanted to return with our loved ones.
The memories;
What was your first dance song?
All of me, John Legend mixed with Hey Ya by Outkast
How did you feel in your dress?
Awesome
How did you feel just before you walked down the aisle?
Excited, and slightly overwhelmed, I mixed between laughter and tears!
How many bridesmaids did you have? Where did you find your bridesmaids dresses from?
3 and they were all different ages, we had a dress from Coast, Marks and Spencers and Debenhams and they were age and personality appropriate!
Our beautiful 10 month old niece wore a dress from Monsoon which had the same applique flowers as my 10 year old cousins aqua dress, this was the sign that everything was going to work!
What was your colour scheme or theme?
Blue with Yellow as the accent with a little touch of Gold Glitter here and there
What was the best moment of your wedding day?
Too many, that 10 minute drive with my dad talking nonsense just so we didn’t have silence, arriving to hear Chara tell me that she couldn’t get our family and friends to sit down as they were loving the view too much, Sharing a moment when the registrar said the vow about talking and listening, the shock on everyones faces when our first dance turned into Hey Ya, the FIREWORKS – yes we had fireworks, the conga from the beach into the bar, shooting stars in the sky as we had dinner, Looking around and everyone dancing on the beach to the twist!
Oh and the 30 minute tour of the island we had just Earl and I, so we could catch up
What was the funniest thing that happened on the day?
I think they may all be in the above! The video and pictures just show everyone with HUGE smiles and laughing at so many moments
Advice;
What’s your best tip for dressing for the big day you’d like to share with other brides?
I started to get ready at 12pm, to leave at 5pm, I thought they were crazy! But within what seemed an hour it was 4:30 and my dress needed to be on!
And take your bridesmaid or mum with you to the last fitting so she can go through the how you put the dress on and how you fix the train in a calm environment!
What advice would you give to other bride’s planning their wedding?
Plan together, don’t listen to anyone else other than each other, what your parents want doesn’t really matter, it’s a hard conversation but it will make you happier in the long run.
Did you discover any amazing suppliers that you’d like other bride’s to know about?
Looking back, is there anything you’d change?
Nothing at all
Is there anything you wish you knew before you started planning your wedding?
To take it all in
What was the most stressful thing about planning your wedding?
Our wedding was not stressful at all, being abroad made it absolutely amazing and our planner made us feel so relaxed on the day we didn’t have to think of a thing, as she had thought of everything.
Finally;
What 3 words would you use to describe your wedding day?
Sunny, magical, loving.
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