Joanne + Alexander by Opperhill Photography - Together Journal

I really wanted a timeless wedding.

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

We are Alex & Joanne, and we own a business together that we set up in lockdown. We are currently spending our weekends exploring the UK coasts in self-converted campervan ‘Lenny’ we converted this whilst wedding planning (alex said planning a wedding and converting a campervan was easy, I would disagree… he said that 1 and 1 time only…) So we can have a ‘honeymoon on wheels’ visiting Switzerland later this year. We have a dog, Barney, who loves the beach as does Jo.

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

We met as I (Joanne) worked in Alex’s local pub, The Chestnut, in Finchfield. He would come in on weekends and claim to find me staring at him from behind the bar (definitely not true). I was working only part-time as and when I would visit home from university in Ormskirk. Alex would send me odd messages on social media platforms, but he wasn’t very smooth with it. One day, I received nothing but the peach emoji… When I returned from finishing university, we found ourselves in the sauna together after realising we went to the same gym. I was wearing an unflattering Speedo swimming costume, no makeup, and hair messy, with rings around my eyes from my swimming goggles. Alex still asked me out on a date, I thought fair play if you see me like this and still want a date, I could hardly say no as soon as I agreed to the date, Alex took off with speed to hurry himself to the changing rooms. We went on the date later that week.

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

Our second date, Alex, took me to Pistyll Rhaedr, a waterfall in Wales. I absolutely adore being around water, and he had remembered me saying that on the first date. I thought it was such a unique second date location and adored every second. Alex would say that for him it was on the way back from our first date, where I mentioned I was hungry (we only went out for drinks), so he took me to McDonald’s drive-through. He enjoys telling people that I kicked my shoes off, sat cross-legged in the passenger seat, and salted my ketchup. He says he knew from that moment I was the girl for him… I think the fact that he took me to McDonald’s on our first date says more about him.

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood and style of your wedding. (theme, key styling elements, florals, colour palettes etc.).

I really wanted a timeless wedding, one that I hopefully wouldn’t look back on and think ‘Why did I choose that! My bridesmaids wore black (so many people had an opinion about this!), but I thought they looked divine. I wanted people to tell me how unreal my bridesmaids looked, and they did! Alex wore a cream blazer I really loved the thought of just me and him in white and our bridal and grooms party in black.

My suppliers were my main focus; I spent so much time looking for the ‘right fit’ with our photographer. After research, I found I was leaning towards a documentary style of photographer, capturing candid, real moments over posed. I couldn’t have dreamt of a more perfect photographer than Tasha. We had an engagement shoot, which really helped Alex and me relax in front of the camera for the wedding day, and we would message each other all the time. Tasha is so incredibly talented and was much more than a photographer in our wedding; she felt like an extension of the party, and she even got me into my dress! My mom was so nervous that her hands were too shaky for the delicate buttons! I ended up being ready with time to spare, so we had so much fun parading around the bridal suite in my dramatic getting-ready robe, capturing the joy of the morning. The flowers were my next main focus. Kayleigh was a dream to work with, and she made my flowers far better than any Pinterest board I sent her. I wanted pastels and nudes and roses in abundance which looked so perfect on the day. I had a running theme of print of fabric; my wedding welcome sign, table numbers, and napkins were all fabric with writing on. The napkins had my guests’ names, which I hand-embroidered.

What styling and visual elements worked best for you? (could be things, the florals, particular hire products or your marquee etc., something the stylist created or simply just the scenic beauty of your location or the existing design of your venue).

The location Moxhull Hall, meant I didn’t need to do much as it was already breathtaking, it’s a Victorian Manor house and the team were second to none (we actually had originally booked Swinfen Hall in Litchfield they decided to close down their venue and not tell us – tried to say they emailed us and called us liars when we said we hadn’t received anything) leaving us less than a year to source a new wedding venue, just google them to see how awful they treated brides.

Moxhull Hall was clearly meant to be; the grounds are spectacular, and we fell in love instantly and were grateful Swinfen had shut down!

What did you enjoy most about the planning process and do you have any tips for couples starting their wedding planning journey?

Speaking with my suppliers, they really did become friends to me. I spoke with them all the time, they’d send me ideas they thought I’d like and vice versa. I think the best advice is to communicate with every supplier/venue as much as possible; the better they know you, the more they’ll understand your vision. Be as transparent as humanly possible; you don’t want to have any surprises on your wedding day because of mistranslation! I perhaps went OTT and provided my venue and Kayleigh my florist with a digital wedding planner with specific images, the version that went to the venue outlined how I wanted everything to look (they made it 10x better) the owner during my rehearsal dinner the night before brought my wedding planned to me laughing saying in the 25 years he’s owned Moxhull he’d never seen anything like it (Don’t know if that was a compliment haha) but it even listed our bridal and groom’s party by name and photo… Your suppliers know that it works out better on the day, as you know the people you are surrounded by. My get-ready team was a dream; I’ve never felt excitement like it on the morning of my wedding. I had no nerves, and I think it was because I was so comfortable with who was surrounding me.

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

I loved the idea of only me and Alex being in cream/white, my Pinterest board was full of images of this, I didn’t see our vision come together till the day, as obviously we couldn’t try my dress on with him in a suit. So I was worried it wouldn’t look right. No worrying was necessary as I adored how we looked together. I had no vision really on what I wanted my wedding dress to look like so myself and my mom started with picking bridal shops based on finding a meaning with them to narrow down the options i.e. we went to Dolly Blue in Shrewsbury as my mom calls me Dolly then onto Isabella’s Closest in Liverpool as I’ve always said should I ever be blessed with a daughter her name will be Isabella, I’ve always had a love for Liverpool as well. Isabella’s was a dream come true, it’s run by Louise and her mom and what a beautiful shop it is. Louise also told me she called her Isabella as she will one day have a daughter with that name as well! I actually, for the first time, struggled to decide between dresses because I loved them all. We saved the Ziva dress till last as I had wanted to try that on, I fell in love instantly and burst into tears, and my mom said she would buy it for me. It was already out of budget so the overskirt I didn’t order at the time but knew I wanted it. I actually ended up buying it for £200 on a site called ‘Still White’, a wedding dress reseller platform from a beautiful bride in Ireland who had only worn it for the ceremony, so I guess that almost could qualify as something borrowed! (although it was paid for).

What was one, or two elements that were most important to you both that you were happy to spend a little more on? (food, photography, florals, the venue, your outfits?)

Food, food, food. We are massive foodies so this was super important that our guests were well fed. Again, the venue was a dream regarding this. Their reviews all raved about how good the food was. It truly was spectacular. The guests all received a plate of varying canapés during the rink reception to ensure they could all try the different options. Our business is called Egg Drop, we supply eggs, dairy and bread amongst other things to residential and commercial customers. So our venue let us customise their menu by allowing us to serve our own eggs on the starter “Asparagus & ‘EGG DROP’ Crispy Egg: Chive Hollandaise, Baby Herb Salad”

You’ve actually listed in the question all the things we put value on, photographs were a huge one for me, everyone says the day goes by so quickly and it did and I wanted to make sure it was all captured in reality and it was, Tasha during the wedding breakfast actually edits and prints a handful of photographs and hands them in polaroids to you, I could’ve cried. It was all so perfect.

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

Well, as my wedding singer began singing our aisle song, “Songbird by Eva Cassidy, my bridesmaids one by one did their walk, the doors were then shut for the team to give me a quick pep talk and fluff my dress. JUST as the doors were about to open to allow me to walk down the aisle, the fire alarm sounded, the wedding singer stopped, and the team rushed to silence it. They did, the guests erupted in laughter, and the doors were then opened for me. I also was giggling as I thought, god, I know I have a lot of candles, but didn’t think I’d set off the alarm! I made a joke to my dad, saying it was clearly because I was “hot stuff”, which he obviously proceeded to tell everyone in a good old dad joke style. I actually didn’t mind it happening one bit, I was so worried about what could go wrong on the lead up, but on the day, truly nothing mattered apart from Alex and me, and if it HAD to go off, I say it was perfectly timed. My bridesmaids were at the top, and the guests hadn’t seen me yet. It was a fly in the sensor by the way, the staff were so apologetic, but like I said, I really didn’t care, and it is very on trend for something stupid like that to happen for me and Alex.