Charlie + Emily by Darina Stoda - Together Journal

It was quite a romantic meet-cute: having a group lunch on the steps under a bandstand of the local park on Charlie’s first day.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

We are both advertising producers, working in photography and film. We love food and travel—finding new restaurants, cooking at home, and exploring new places. We are proud dog mums to our Australian Labradoodle, Gus. Emily is also obsessed with interiors and constantly mood-boards for the house—there was a lot for the wedding, too, which came in very handy.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

We worked at a photography studio together in London, which is how we met when we were 25. We would secretly exchange glances at work or meet on the stairs to watch the sunset—this lasted for about six months before it was obvious to everyone. Charlie was instantly drawn in by Emily when we first met, but Emily took considerably more woo-ing. It was quite a romantic meet-cute: having a group lunch on the steps under a bandstand of the local park on Charlie’s first day.

When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?

We both knew there was something special after our first date. Charlie had made a plan for a group drink, knowing the other parties had to leave after one, and we would end up alone! We strolled down Southbank for hours, talking and laughing until our cheeks hurt.

Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…

We had just moved out of London and bought our first home in the countryside. Charlie laid out a candlelit picnic blanket on the floor of the sitting room (because we had no dining table yet) and served our favourite meal shared on our first weekend away together. We had previously talked about getting engaged, but Emily was still so surprised that Charlie managed to organise it secretly, especially around the stress of buying our first house. Charlie got down on one knee…but then cried so much that she could only get the words “Will you marry me” rather than the speech prepared.

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding.

The initial vision was to just have everyone we loved in the same room, celebrating with good food and ample drinks. It wasn’t supposed to be a proper wedding, but it kept evolving until that was exactly what it became. We knew that we wanted bright colours for our bridesmaids, flowers and stationery. We wanted the day to be simple but full of joy. We wanted everyone to be able to wear whatever they wanted as long as they felt fabulous – this applied to our bridal parties, too! We ended up giving them a colour palette of about 10 colours as they kept finding new dresses they liked. We didn’t know If it was going to work – but it all came together, and they looked beautiful! Both working in photography, the photos & photographer were really important to us – being the first thing we chose. We are both terrible at posing, so needed a photographer that would make us feel comfortable and capture the moment without us noticing – which Darina is perfect at! We also hired a vintage photobooth which was aesthetically very cool as well as giving lots of entertainment to our guests.

What was one element you were happy to splurge on?

Being absolute foodies – the food was top of our agenda. We went for feasting style, where they cooked whole Asedo lambs over the fire & Aubergines in the ash, served with multiple sides – because you can never have too many sides or sauces! We had ice creams and churros (because we couldn’t choose between them!) served from the hatches for pudding. We went with Pizza cutting instead of a cake, and the venue came through with our last-minute request to make it heart-shaped! Oh, and prosecco…We did two x prosecco spray photo shoots which was a very fun addition and a new party trick for Charlie.

Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?

Charlie was still writing her speech seconds before our dinner entrance and finishing the place names whilst getting glam in the morning. Thinking about it, we are very unorganised as we were still choosing all our walk-in songs on the drive to the venue from our home the day before! Most of them were from Bridget Jones’ Baby soundtrack! However, we were SO happy with the choices, and everyone erupted with singing as we sat down to lunch to “Inner Smile” by Texas (Charlie had to get a song from Bend it Like Beckham in there). It was a very memorable moment.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?

We wanted to be non-bridal and relaxed, with movement on the dancefloor being an important factor! It took a long time to find the perfect outfits, but we did in the end. Emily only found her dress two months before the wedding and shoes one week before – it’s lucky we didn’t go down the full bridal route, as the dress would have never been ready on time!