Winter Luxe Micro Wedding with Romantic Candlelit Table

WWW readers Helen and Alex’s Four Seasons Hampshire wedding, which was held on the 19th December 2020, just oozes luxury and style. I love how they took the Christmas season and used hints of the festive time to bring warmth and atmosphere.

Their colour palette included muted natural tones interspersed with gold and blush. The results were just gorgeous and the tables lined with candles bringing twinkling light really looked so romantic.

I totally admire Helen and Alex’s approach to wedding planning and even though they had to cut their guest list to 14 from 150 guests, it looked as though they had the most magical day. They are hosting a second wedding next year to really go to town and celebrate their marriage. Hooray!

Kate Gray Photography, thank you so much for sharing these utterly gorgeous images of a very inspirational real wedding story indeed.

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Four Seasons Hampshire Wedding

The Proposal

I always knew that I wanted to propose to Helen on a beach as we love the ocean and travelling. Therefore for her birthday, I took her to Epic Sana Hotel and Spa in Portugal for a long weekend. We had a beautiful weekend of lovely food, wine and spa treatments. On the Saturday evening I organised a meal at a restaurant that had been recommended by the hotel which was situated right on the beach. I asked them to have a bottle of Helen’s favourite Champagne waiting for us and we sat in a secluded area of the restaurant. Helen made it easier for me by suggesting to go for a walk on the beach after we had finished dinner, I timed it for our dinner to finish around sunset. We walked on the beach until I found the perfect spot, with no one else around I asked Helen to be my wife.

The Vision

The vision changed after we had to change from our large, 150 guest wedding to 14 guests due to Covid. This meant we had to change venues so we had a full new design for the day created by our wedding planner and florist. Our priorities were to have an intimate feeling to the day, to be able to celebrate with our guests for the whole weekend and for our gorgeous Cavapoochon, Stanley, to be able to attend. We wanted the styling to have a nod to Christmas but in an elegant and subtle manner – certainly no bright reds and greens! We also wanted to change the design as we plan to use the original venue and design for 150 guests for a second wedding in December 2022 so we needed the two occasions to feel different.

The Venue

The Four Seasons Hampshire which we picked because of the flexibility they could offer in numbers. This was important as we didn’t know what the government limits would be at the time. We went for our first site visit in September but then everything was put on hold again with the second lockdown so we couldn’t do things like the menu tasting until 2 weeks before the wedding! The team there were wonderful and so understanding with the last-minute approach to planning that regulations forced us to take and the food was exquisite. We also loved that they had a number of activities to keep guests entertained all weekend, from country sports such as shooting and archery to the spa, afternoon tea the day before, brunch the morning after the wedding, ice skating and even horse-drawn carriage rides.

Don’t forget to check out my ultimate wedding planning checklist!

Your Outfits

Bride’s dress: Morilee by Madeline Gardner – I had a wonderful experience wedding dress shopping at Blush Bridal Boutique in Uppermill. I had always envisioned my wedding dress to be classic and elegant so when I saw the Morilee I knew instantly that it was the one for me. The dress is timeless and a little bit sexy without being too much. I adore my dress and I can’t wait to wear it again in 2022.

Groom’s suit: My suit and accessories were from Hugo Boss in Guildford. One of the most interesting points the sales assistant made was regarding the colour of the shoes and belt. He mentioned that the shoes and belt should be the same colour as the suit to ensure it was one piece and the guest’s attention was on your face rather than your feet. Therefore, I had blue shoes for the wedding which we were originally sceptical about but they worked incredibly well. The suit was a stylish three-piece navy suit with a matching coat. The tie and pocket square were in blush to match the bouquet.

The Ceremony & Music

Lewis Bolland, a pianist, played for our ceremony and drinks reception. For our processional Lewis even managed to perform his own version of Canon in D, we had Better Half of Me by Tom Walker played during the signing of the register and then I Giorni for our recessional.

Find even more wedding readings and wedding song inspiration.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Photographer: Kate Gray Photography. We picked Kate as she had worked a number of times at our original venue and we adored her work so much that when we had to change venues we still kept Kate.

Videographer: Unique Wedding Productions, again we booked Matt for his work at our original venue but again, loved his style so much that we still used him when the venue changed.

We’re using both suppliers again for our 2022 wedding so it will be lovely that the photography and videography styles will match across the two events.

The Styling & Decor

We wanted a subtle and elegant nod to Christmas but neither of us like the traditional vibrant reds, greens and gold therefore our florist, White Lilac, combined flowers with seasonal foliage, steel berries, waxed fruits and candles to create an intimate and cosy feel with lots of ambience. They used a beautiful mix of whites, the greens of the foliage and hints of blush and soft gold throughout to create a stunning festive feel with a mix of beautiful clear glass, some metallics and glass tealights.

Our wedding planner completed the look for the wedding breakfast tables with gorgeous tableware from Couvert, pale grey table cloths with darker grey napkins from Just 4 Linen and we hired lovely white chairs from Options Greathire which we felt had a more luxe look and were more comfortable than the standard chiavari chairs.

The covid regulations meant we veered away from the usual round tables for the meal and instead had three square tables which, due to their width, meant we could have more than 1 household per table. It ended up with a lovely intimate feel. We also embraced the covid rules creating a “Social distancing is temporary, love lasts forever” sign to remind guests of the rules but in a fun way and we had personalised masks made for our guests.

Even though we only had 14 guests (including us) we still went for a two tier cake as we preferred the look and really wanted 2 flavours!

The Honeymoon

We had booked an amazing safari in South Africa. Unfortunately, that was cancelled so we booked a trip to the lake district. But then restrictions became even tighter and we had to stay at home. Hopefully, we’ll get our safari soon!

Memorable Moments

There are so many memorable moments, but for us seeing the wedding breakfast room for the first time was truly magical. White Lilac and Caroline made the room so beautiful that it took our breath away.

We also loved the fireworks, they were so impressive and made a wonderful addition to our wedding day. Jess, the venue coordinator at The Four Seasons was amazing and also managed to organise for us to have s’mores to enjoy along with our sparklers.

Advice For Other Couples

Our advice, during this most stressful and unpredictable time would be try not to worry about the things you can not control. We had always maintained that we wanted to get married, whether that would be with just us or with 150 guests and we held on to that.

We also could not have done it without Caroline, our amazing wedding planner. We both have extremely busy and stressful jobs and having Caroline was a dream. Caroline has the best ideas (things we couldn’t have even known about), she was so organised and organised us too. Our day was a dream because we knew our fabulous Caroline had everything in hand.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Oh so gorgeous and didn’t Helen and Alex both look incredible too?!

Helen and Alex thank you ever so much for sharing your beautiful Four Seasons Hampshire wedding story, what an honour it’s been. I hope your second wedding is just as wonderful.

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