A year later than originally planned but boy was it WORTH THE WAIT!!!!! Lisa is a uni friend of one of my best friend’s from home and having experienced a couple of other weddings from within the friendship group, I knew her wedding to Posho would be good but I didn’t know it would be THIS GOOD. They planned the most incredibly New Year’s Eve wedding at Hampton Court House and the day started with champagne (obviously) and a brief reenactment of Cool Runnings in the bathtub and ended at the start of 2022.  Every single second in between was pure magic. Lisa’s writing style is totally gorgeous and I just couldn’t whittle the number of images down any further so it’s a bumper edition… I wholeheartedly recommend pouring yourself a bevvy and getting stuck into this one.

Fucking Finally (please see the cake)

HOW DID YOU MEET?

It’s apt that our tinder love story kinda traces back to New Year’s Eve 2014. Despite not matching on the app until New Year’s day, it was the drinking, debauchery and dancing on NYE that led to the New Year’s Day hangovers, which allowed for standards to be considerably lowered on both sides, resulting in a Tinder match.

Unsurprisingly I was eating pizza when I received a message from ‘Nicholas – 6ft solicitor living in London’ and we messaged that evening and the next day, with a date scheduled for the day after. To be honest, I had heard so many Tinder nightmare stories that I was desperate to get my first Tinder date out of the way. It turned out, so was Nick, as it was also his first Tinder date. Clearly it was meant to be (or simply we were both too lazy and decided “you’ll do”)

After a few G&Ts, I messaged my girlfriends to let them know he didn’t seem too odd, informing them that he was very cute and “quite posh” (and so the nickname ‘Posho’ was born). After some more drinks, we jumped in a Taxi to Sushi Samba which triggered me to send a follow-up message stating this was the “best first date ever”.

The night continued in full Posho fashion – full of cocktails, champagne and ridiculously drunken PDA, and the rest, as they say, is history.

TELL ME YOUR PROPOSAL STORY

Posho proposed on the Isle of Skye in Summer 2019. We’d been together almost 5 years so while I wasn’t expecting it there and then, I had an inkling that it was on the cards and this was a trip we had planned for a long time so it was in the back of my head that it could happen.

And I almost ruined the surprise the night before by rummaging through his backpack which he snatched it out of my hands… I was really worried I had spoiled the surprise but, despite all of this, I was TOTALLY taken off guard the next day when he got down on one knee. Mainly because I was expecting a fancy meal, champagne, and for him to do it in full ‘Posho’ fashion (the boy loves an extravagance).

So when, after a day hiking about a few of the Isle of Skye’s sites, sweaty, muddy, and having just had a very public wee by the car (me, not him, I should add), he took me up a small hill overlooking Claigan Coral Beach, the sun poked out of the clouds and he got down on one knee – I was so shocked that I burst out laughing. I laughed so much in fact that he had to ask me again because I hadn’t answered.

We strolled along the beach calling family and friends and then headed back to the car just in time for it to start raining, and a beautiful double rainbow appeared and set the whole thing off just perfectly.

He hadn’t bought a real engagement ring and the placeholder was way too big so we popped into a shop in Portree and picked up a (in the words of the Scottish shopkeeper) “GENUINE cubic zirconia” gift shop ring – you know those large foam placemats at the till where you have an assortment of rings that tend to turn your finger green? Well it didn’t – hurrah – and I wore it for a good few months before we ended up getting the final engagement ring made, and it’s basically a replica of the gift shop ring because I really fell in love with its triple stone setting. I would love for us to go back to Skye soon and show it to the woman who was so excited about the proposal and that she’d be furnishing the placeholder ring, so she knows just how much of an influence she had!

WHY DID YOU PLAN A NEW YEAR’S EVE WEDDING AT HAMPTON COURT HOUSE FOR YOUR WEDDING DAY?

While we originally wanted a wedding in Scotland we made a booking to go and visit Hampton Court House as a friend recommended it, having been to two weddings there previously. Upon arrival we looked up and, through the December drizzle, we saw two bright rainbows over the venue and it took me straight back to our proposal so I said “well we have to get married here now!’

The venue itself is stunning and I loved the separate rooms for ceremony, drinks reception and dining, and overlooking beautiful Bushy Park – what is not to love?

But the icing on the cake has to be the fact that Hampton Court House has no corkage fee. So while we say it was the double rainbow, I’m pretty sure it was this detail that sealed the deal.

WHAT WAS IT THAT YOU LOVED ABOUT YOUR OUTFITS AND ACCESSORIES AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THEM?

MY DRESS HAD POCKETS!

I bought a dress March 2020 before the first lockdown (that also had pockets) but Summer 2021 I changed my mind and decided to head back to a Mirror Mirror Bridal in Angel to see if they had anything that could sway me and fell in love with the strapless dress from their couture collection, the pockets lured me in but it was the hidden split at the front that I really fell in love with. The lace top was a very last minute addition that I bought online and tried on a few days before the wedding. which is funny to think now as it set the dress off so well and I can’t imagine not having it. Plus it allowed for a day-to-evening dress change.

We also both loved the dark green velvet jackets that we found in good old faithful M&S. Finding them in stock in the right sizes proved tricky, and I was contemplating a train up to Edinburgh at one point to head to the store there but managed to get them all online in the end.

My shoes were an indirect gift from my old company that I left in 2021 after 7.5 years. They generously gave me a Selfridges voucher so I treated myself to Jimmy Choos to add a touch of sparkle to the outfit. I mean, it was New Year’s Eve after all.

The bridesmaid dresses were also chosen for our original NYE 2020 date, when one bridesmaid was due to be 11 days from her due date. I actually bought the dresses before Heather had announced her pregnancy, but having an inkling that she was, as they are cut on the bias and have so much give they would have been perfect. Thanks to my mum’s stitching we were able to reduce the size so that Heather looked just as stunning a year later without a bump!

TELL ME ABOUT THE VISION YOU HAD FOR YOUR WEDDING

Honestly, we just wanted a really big party and didn’t give it much more thought than that to begin with.

We went with Black tie as it was NYE and the grandeur of Hampton Court House really worked well with that. I had always known I wanted a dark green and gold style theme and Tie The Knot proposed gorgeous forest green table cloths with the gold cutlery – pretty sure no one noticed these but I LOVED them. We were lucky that with the theme that white flowers suited as originally the dining room at the venue had terracotta orange walls but these were painted pale green during lockdown.

Our florist was The Fine Flower Company who have worked at the venue before and were so helpful when I said we wanted something grand and elegant but also that didn’t cost the earth, and proposed a mix of beautiful flowers and settings that worked so well in the dining room.

I think my two favourite elements were the glitter ball and LOVE letters from PSL Lighting as they helped set that party theme and the photos with these in make me smile so much.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST DANCE AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE IT?

Castle on a Hill – Ed Sheeran

We had considered a more romantic number but this song has some really happy memories for us. We used to live in a high rise flat that had floor to ceiling windows overlooking a reservoir. You could also see the path to the tube and while on my way home I would often plug this track into the Sonos and Posho would come to the window and dance. And if it was dark we’d put our torches on our phones and dance around like idiots – him in the comfort of the flat, me out in public.

It’s also an upbeat number and we wanted to get people up and dancing so it was the perfect choice for us!

WHAT WERE THE MOST WONDERFUL PARTS OF THE DAY FOR YOU?

Gosh, where to start.

Seeing nearly all of our family and friends together, in one place, celebrating and smiling after 2 years of a pandemic (and no one contracting covid from the wedding) was just dreamy. Since booking our wedding in February 2020 and then covid hitting, we only truly had 4 days when we KNEW it was happening that day so while I hated the pandemic for many far more important reasons, as well as the uncertainty it had thrown our wedding into, it kinda heightened just how special the day was. I don’t think our wedding pre-covid would have felt the same because we could feel that everyone there was so relieved and happy that we were celebrating together after so long apart. People really came to party!

Also I have to say our band The Alleycatz were amazing. Once we had sorted our venue, the next thing we did was book a band because we knew NYE is a busy time and all the good bands would get booked up. When we had to postpone a year I was so scared They Alleycatz wouldn’t be free. They learned our first dance for us, they had such a good mix of songs and the Saxophonist was just *chef kiss*. I could not get off the dance floor while they were playing and it was so wonderful to have everyone else up dancing with us too.

And of course Hannah and Gina were incredible! One thing that Hannah did that was particularly thoughtful was printing out a few photos for us and surprising us with them in the evening. If you had told me this before I don’t think it would have been something I would have been excited for but it really was so lovely. All day I had seen my husband but it was the first really view I got of us as a married couple and of the day/wedding/atmosphere and being able to see it and know it was as wonderful from the outside as it was being in the centre was just brilliant. We have loads of photos now but those three are my favourites.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE HANNAH HALL PHOTOGRAPHY AS YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER, AND WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE OF YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY ON THE DAY?

Hannah was pretty much a non-negotiable part of our wedding. I think I’d sooner have changed fiancé than photographer if you’d asked me. I was lucky enough to have met Hannah when she was shooting a wedding for a friend and she has since shot another friend’s wedding and the photos of both were extraordinary.

Hannah is able to really capture the emotion and feel of the day and how it differs from the preparation, to the ceremony and to the dance floor which is so important, especially when you look back on these photos in years to come and, especially for us, when we share them with friends and family who weren’t able to make the wedding, I love that they can see just how beautiful the ceremony was from the pictures, just how funny the speeches were, and just how ridiculously outrageous the dancing was (and it really was!)

Some of the pictures aren’t the most attractive ‘posed for’ stills that you always get but we love them as they really capture the ‘essence’ of the day which is what we wanted. After all, anyone can have a family group photo on their wedding day, not everyone can really grasp the full force of the bath bobsleigh and all the laughter that ensued. Hannah can. And she does it all without you even noticing her and her crew are there snapping away. Honestly, there are pictures super close up with our friends on the dance floor and we don’t even remember seeing her there. She is a photographic ninja.

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR BEST BIT OF ADVICE TO OTHER COUPLES PLANNING THEIR WEDDING?

I should probably put something in that’s really sentimental but other than ‘just enjoy it’ and ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’ the only practical thing I would say is to switch your WhatsApp to save all photos sent to your camera roll. That way, all the photos your friends and family share with you in the days after are saved to your phone and you can peruse them while you wait for the magic that is Hannah’s photos.

Lisa + Posho’s New Year’s Eve wedding at Hampton Court House happened with the help of the following suppliers…

HMUA Natasha Wiggins / Dress Mirror Mirror Couture Bridal / Bridesmaids Ghost London /  Flowers Fine Flowers Company

Second Shooter Gina Fernandes / Videography YSD Media / Cake Cakes By Lisa / Band The Alley Catz

Venue Hampton Court House / Catering Tie The Knot Catering / Prop Hire Prestige Sound and Lighting

Cannot recommend YSD Media highly enough…

Getting married on New Year’s Eve or at Hampton Court House and like the cut of my jib?

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