Maria and Doug

We met at karate. the proposal was a complete surprise to Maria, although everyone else seemed to know! We were on a trip to the Philippines. Doug had enlisted the help of Maria’s daughters to design the engagement ring. So on a beach hopping excursion, in the appropriately named Crystal Cove, on bended knee Doug proposed and Maria said yes!

For Maria: as soon as I turn into the drive, my shoulders drop and I feel relaxed. The venue is stunning and the staff are so helpful, always. It has everything we wanted and more.
For Doug: The over all quality and attention to detail is second to none. It felt like us and our guests were the only people who mattered to them.

It was important to us  to be able to relax and savour as much as we could, knowing the day(s) would fly by. So to achieve that we had very intimate ceremony with our children on Friday with a wedding breakfast for 10 and then a party the next day. Nothing too stressful and just wanted everyone to share in the enjoyment of the occasion. 
We both love Star Wars but did not want it to take over the event, so we had subtle nods to it on the cake, and cake stand and with our Lego wedding Guest book, which everyone really loved. It was great fun to see who everyone chose a Lego character to represent themselves.

Maria: I didn’t really know what I wanted. My dress was probably the third dress I tried on and the team at Love Me Do in Walton said they knew straight away that was going to be the dress! I didn’t want a long dress so  I had it altered in length- mid calf- and absolutely everyone commented on the dress. It felt wonderful to wear and had a fifties vibe with a layered skirt. . The dress has large pink peonies on the skirt. My daughters wore complimentary pink dresses and I have to say they looked stunning!

Doug: I wanted the suits for me and our two sons to be very special so decided to have them tailor made by Sunny B, Southall. I had a rough idea of what I wanted but they helped me find the right materials and style. They made it very easy and I was really surprised how easy it was and how the styles suited all three of us. The waistcoats were a custom embroidered material that continued the pink theme which was the only thing I knew about Maria’s outfit. I was so happy with the suits. They were better than I expected and so comfortable to wear on a warm summer’s day.

We were very lucky to have great weather and be able to have the ceremony outside. The service was so poignant and emotional that every word and vow was spoken with absolute love and intent.
Doug remembers feeling relaxed but emotional during the ceremony and being able to appreciate the whole event as there was no rush to go to the next part and the next thing as it was across two days.
All our guests commented on how wonderful Pennyhill Park is and it truly was the perfect venue.

So over the years, Doug has been likened to Jason Statham, to the point in Marrakech Medina, people were calling out “Jason, Jason, Jason Staham” across the square at him! So Maria asked the registrar to swap their names at any point in the ceremony, which she very kindly did. When she did, it caught everyone by surprise and Doug could not stop laughing for a few minutes. A memory for a lifetime. It will make us laugh every time we think of it.
We also learnt a routine for our first dance secretly, or at least we thought it was a secret. Our daughters cottoned on to this very quickly but decided to keep up the pretense to see what excuses we would come up with each week!

Make sure you have the wedding you want- whether it is the type of dress or the decorations, the music  etc you will be happier with the day if you have what you both want. Plan as much as you can well in advance, as on the day you will forget something and Colleen will remember it to save the day! 
If you can,  spread it over two days and it really did make a huge difference to our enjoyment of it. Don’t get us wrong, it still goes by in a flash but you do remember a bit more.