Pembroke Lodge Wedding

When I first met David and Valerie and we had a chat about their wedding, I knew that it’s going to be amazing! And it so was! Their fun-filled wedding started at Lovekyn Chapel where they had their ceremony and later continued in Pembroke Lodge. They had planned so many different things throughout the day, from drawing competition (draw the newlyweds blindfolded!), to ‘stealing the bride’ (groom had to find the bride who was missing and then he had to ‘prove’ himself to ladies who kidnapped her! ) or having a dancing competition. LOVED IT!

Thank you guys for having me capturing your Day, I absolutely and completely loved it! Here are the highlights from your Wedding <3 G.

Pembroke Lodge Wedding photographer

Oh, David and Valerie shared some of their wedding planning experience, so grab a drink and enjoy!

The style, theme and overall vibe of your wedding

Since we come from different backgrounds and parts of the world (Cambridge and Southern Ukraine), but yet we found our paradise in South West London, we wanted to share our little world together with everyone at our Wedding Day!

We chose Lovekyn Chapel, the only remaining free-standing chapel in England, dating back to 1309 for our ceremony. The chapel is literarily 2 minutes walk from our house and we love the idea of getting married so locally.

The reception location was also an easy choice – the largest Royal Park in London and officially our favourite place in the world! We feel so honoured and excited to have been able to celebrate our marriage at the highest point of Richmond Park with stunning views of Thames Valley. The Pembroke Lodge was love at the first sight, and we gave our guests some time to explore the historical mansion and its beautiful gardens while we get stolen by our photographer to capture some precious ‘just married’ moments.

Our wedding was elegant, very relaxed and great fun – exactly what we hoped for. We added Ukrainian touches like homemade Picnic with ‘pirozhki’ and other Ukrainian delicacies, as well as some crazy wedding games. We danced a gypsy dance, we did steeling of the bride tradition, we played wedding quiz and we had the groomsmen dance Hopak (Ukrainian folk dance).

We were very lucky with the weather, and sunset that we saw on our Wedding day in Richmond Park was the best thing we have ever seen.

Number one piece of advice for brides and grooms just starting to plan their wedding?

It will be a day for both of you, you will never forget it. Plan it together, find ways to communicate, listen to each other, split the roles and enjoy every moment. Brides should never assume that grooms don’t care. They might seem to behave this way, but if you magically create teamwork in planning the wedding, you both will have the best day ever!

And: get a good band to fill the dance floor!

Your dress, from buying it to how you felt in it on the day?

OMG! What a process.

I made the most of it! Like every other element of the wedding, I followed my rule of not committing to anything until I had butterflies in my tummy. That meant I had to try more than 50 dresses on, and sometimes it got stressful and annoying. I compared dress shopping to bad dates, when sometimes you might think ‘will I ever find the One’… but since I managed to find THE ONE to be my groom, I believed that I would find ‘the one’ to wear as well.

After 3 months of dress searching, mainly taking place in London, I happened to have one free Saturday in Kiev, visiting friends. So I asked one of my friends to take me to a wedding dress shop. I only had time for one visit, so I wanted to make sure that the shop would sell dresses from a single Ukrainian designer, without representing any other designers (Especially European), since I had access to them in London. And that is where I met my dress! It was the only dress that made me cry as soon as I saw myself in the mirror. It was a very clear YESSSSS, and I ordered it straight away! It was from a growing brand Anne Mariee (www.anne-mariee.com), where all there dresses are created by talented lady called Oksana Pravnyk. I had a lot of compliments on the wedding day and I really love my choice.

The most memorable moment of your wedding for you?

Having a 20 minutes drive across Richmond Park with a roof down, having all our guests follow us in the coach, stopping to take pictures of wild life. That was just after we go married in the chapel, and those were our first moments ‘just two of us’, when we could sit in the car, holding hands, looking around, having first married chats and be happy!

Your favourite DIY wedding hack

We prepared ‘Guess who’ cards on the wedding breakfast tables for people to read the cards and guess who they referred to on the table. All the cards were written in poetry, some with lots of humour and sarcasm. It was a big effort to do it for 70 guests, but it was really worth it, and it was the best ice melting start for people who met for the first time.

Highlight of your day

Having all 70 guests on the dance floor at the same time, dancing Macarena!

How did you choose your awesome vendors that made your Wedding Day extra special?

We spent a long time choosing every single vendor – from venues, invitations, cake, band to photo and video and other services. We followed a very clear, but time consuming rule: do no commit until you LOVE IT. And since we had over a year to plan our big day, we managed to make some very good decisions.