Sophie & Scott: Married on 10-year anniversary

Sophie and Scott tied the knot in The Royal Berkshire Hotel in Ascot in September 2011.

They share their wedding story.

Photos by Loren Stone www.stonephotos.co.uk

Scott proposed on the fourth anniversary of our first meeting September 13, 2005. He had booked for us to revisit a small hotel in Somerset.

Later, I went into the bathroom to get ready for dinner and Scott told me to stay there. I knew he was going to pop the question! When I was allowed out, Scott had filled the whole bay window of the room and the table with tea lights and even had a bottle of my favourite champagne on ice. He got down on one knee ...

We would have been together for 10 years on September 13, 2011 and wanted to get married as close to that date as possible. The civil ceremony was at The Royal Berkshire Hotel in Ascot, witnessed by around 100 of our family and friends.

As I work for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead I knew who I wanted to take the ceremony for us -The Superintendent Registrar for the Council Claire Williams. She officiated at ceremonies for Elton John and David Furnish and Charles and Camilla.

My dad walked me down the isle. We had two readings, one by one of our ushers Matthew Webb and the other by my aunt Carol Brand who had travelled over from Australia for the wedding.

The dress I wore was not the first one I bought! I decided to have a look around to get an idea of style and price etc ahead of a sample sale that was coming up. I must have tried on 50 dresses before deciding on one that I liked but I still wanted to wait for the sample sale. Mum Mandy and I got to the sale early and joined a queue. Through the window I spotted one that I wanted to try on. I went straight for the dress and got it. I was first in the changing room and when I came out everyone in the shop looked around and said how wonderful it looked. But still I spent a lot of time saying ‘but is it nicer than the other one?’. I did buy it but the next day I went into a full-on panic. I couldn’t get the other dress out of my mind and after much tears and a second opinion from my trusted auntie Val I decided to buy the other dress and sell the sale dress.

My final choice was an ivory taffeta dress by Mori Lee with pick-ups and crystal from the Wedding Centre in Marlow accessorised with an ivory hair comb, white gold and diamond earrings and necklace (gifts from my mum, dad and sister), and a Swarovski crystal bracelet (which was my wedding gift from Scott). Everyone commented on my shoes - my favourite item - from the Couture range by Rainbow ( Supernova in Datchet) which I had dyed to match Scott’s tie.

Scott is not the traditional type - he even threatened to wear a white suit! He chose a shiny silver fitted Italian suit worn with an ivory/blue pinstriped waistcoat and a pale blue tie. Italian leather shoes from Next and an Armani Leather belt (a wedding gift from me) finished off the outfit. The ushers (Adam Grace and Matthew Webb), best man (Danny Grace) and father of the bride (Colin Purvis) wore dark grey suits, with waistcoats to match Scott’s, and cobalt blue ties (matching the bridesmaids) hired from Impeccable formal hire in Weybridge.

Our bridesmaids were my sister Kirsty Purvis (maid of honour), Scott’s sister Vicky Hayes and my school friend Nicola Bryant. They wore cobalt blue dresses in different styles by Venus (Supernova, Datchet). I wanted them to be comfortable - my only restriction was that the dresses should be blue. As it turned out they all decided on the same shade. Two were satin and one was chiffon. I had bracelets custom made with beads in a matching blue.

Having a professional, Mandy Davies (Big Day), to do hair and make-up was one of the  best decisions I made. A couple of my bridesmaids aren’t big make-up fans and were a little scared but Mandy made them feel comfortable.

My bouquet was of white Avalanche roses and pale blue delphiniums and the bridesmaids carried posies of white Avalanche roses (Fleur de la Maison in Cookham).

The photographer Loren was an absolute godsend on the day. She even helped to get me dressed. It rained a bit but she made sure that everyone looked fab and that we felt comfortable. She was never intrusive and when we got to see our pictures there were a few we didn’t even know she had taken.

The ceremony was followed by a drinks’ reception in the hotel’s main bar (unfortunately the weather wasn’t good enough for drinks on the lawn). Then everyone moved into the main room for speeches and dinner. There were speeches by Scott’s sister Vicky (which was a big surprise for the groom), my dad and Scott, but they were all over shadowed by a best man’s song which had everyone in fits of laughter.

Having a professional, Mandy Davies (Big Day), to do hair and make-up was one of the best decisions I made. A couple of my bridesmaids aren’t big make-up fans and were a little scared but Mandy made them feel comfortable.

My bouquet was of white Avalanche roses and pale blue delphiniums and the bridesmaids carried posies of white Avalanche roses (Fleur de la Maison in Cookham).

The photographer Loren was an absolute godsend on the day. She even helped to get me dressed. It rained a bit but she made sure that everyone looked fab and that we felt comfortable. She was never intrusive and when we got to see our pictures there were a few we didn’t even know she had taken.

The ceremony was followed by a drinks’ reception in the hotel’s main bar (unfortunately the weather wasn’t good enough for drinks on the lawn). Then everyone moved into the main room for speeches and dinner. There were speeches by Scott’s sister Vicky (which was a big surprise for the groom), my dad and Scott, but they were all over shadowed by a best man’s song which had everyone in fits of laughter.

Tips:

Things take longer than you think on the day, from getting dressed, to the photos, to the speeches. We got married at 3pm and I wish we had gone for 2pm instead. Research the costs of things before planning your budget. We under estimated a few things.

Go for suppliers who show interest in your day and connect with you. These may be more prepared to go that little bit further for you.

It’s worth considering hiring a wedding planner for the day. Nothing really went horribly wrong but there were a couple of things that someone “outside” would have picked up on.