Our Warwickshire Wedding – Written by Sonia

Our Warwickshire Wedding took place at my family home in Warwickshire. The most important thing to me was I wanted to feel relaxed and not have to go anywhere, just head downstairs to our wedding! So we all came to the agreement that a marquee would be ideal in the garden and that way we could celebrate across the whole weekend. So on the Saturday we did the Islamic ceremony, the evening was a ladies party, where I wore quite a few Arab dresses and my white wedding dress without a headscarf. Then on the Sunday we had a formal reception, where we danced the day away.

Our wedding was planned so quickly, so there wasn’t too much time to make decisions. However, we wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

It was a truly special day, it meant the most even in it’s simplicity. Simon was adamant he didn’t want it to be a big occasion, as it is believed Islamically that there are more blessings in the most simple weddings. We have even been finding this when working on weddings. The most recent wedding we photographed only had 30 guests, but the day had so many personal touches that it even brought us to tears!

There were lots of personal touches during our wedding. As you can tell from the video, the Islamic ceremony was quite emotional. Obviously I was extremely happy but it’s all quite overwhelming. The fact that I never got the chance to meet Simon’s mother was the most heartbreaking thing for me. Simon’s sister wore her charm bracelet in memory. I also was very upset because my grandmother never had the chance to meet Simon. I wear her bangle every day,  and especially made a point of wearing it on our wedding day.

My mother’s best friend made the wedding cake. She is like a second mother to me, as she has known me my whole life. She is a head caterer at a boarding school, which also holds weddings, so she made sure everything was perfect for our guests. Dress designer Rima Tadmory styled my headscarf, which was a masterpiece in itself!

I had a nightmare with my wedding dress! I actually ordered one initially from China, as lots of people had recommended to do so. I DO NOT recommend doing this. It was awful quality, and there was a lot of hassle, with me being out of pocket financially for it. It did not arrive on the date specified, did not look anything like the picture and arrived in a bin liner. Be wary when looking at online stores, as this particular company had a UK website address but was actually based in China.

But all this hoo-ha actually meant that, with my mother’s sympathy and generosity, I got the initial dress that I fell in love with when I first started dress shopping! The dress was from Eternal Bride in Warwick. They were absolutely amazing, getting everything turned around quickly in time for the day. Sadly the shop has now shut down but they are still running an online store.

The dress I wore for the Islamic ceremony was actually purchased in Morocco. I bought it, crazily, thinking that one day if I get married I’d love to wear it. I wasn’t even engaged at the time! But it was a super special dress and I wouldn’t have been able to find anything like it here!

One amazing thing about the day was that we hadn’t met a lot of each others family members. Our Warwickshire Wedding was all about two completely different cultures coming together. We photographed a half Pakistani, half Italian wedding last year and the registrar was chatting to me. She said, ‘this is so beautiful to see, it is two nations coming together and becoming one.’ Those words have stuck with me since. It is exactly what our marriage is about. Merging two completely different cultures and making our own!

Watching this video back, it is so heartfelt. Sharing it across our social network has brought many to tears. We wish we could do it all over again. Having all the people we love around us and celebrating our love for each other.. Super cheesy, but that is what marriage is about after all! If you can’t be cheesy when it comes to your wedding, when can you be? It’s amazing to see how much we have changed in 5 years, let alone the little ones in the video, our niece’s and nephews. As well as my brother’s wife actually being pregnant then, with my nephew being born a month later! It’s also heartbreaking to see who is no longer with us, with the sadness of a close family friend passing away, as well as one of the cats in the video sadly no longer being with us.

Watching this video has inspired me to finally put together our Warwickshire Wedding album! Being wedding photographers, our own wedding has always been put on the back burner, as we spend all of our time creating beautiful imagery for others. However, having loved ones pass away recently and going through their old slideshows and photographs, it has only reaffirmed our belief in photography. Not to mention, how important it is to print images. Photos are just getting lost on hard drives these days, with no one printing images for so many years. Physical prints stand the test of time and you just cannot beat actually holding one.

Such fond memories! So glad that we have this footage and the wedding images. These will only get more and more precious with time. Only five years on and we are already seeing how valuable they are. To the point, in order to mark this year, we have a couple shoot booked for September with a fellow photographer!

Our Warwickshire Wedding – Written by Sonia

Vendors:

White Wedding Dress: www.eternalbrideuk.co.uk
Wedding Shoes: www.dunelondon.com
Bridal Bouquet & Marquee Flowers: Hearts & Flowers 
Marquee: www.warwickshiremarquees.co.uk
Wedding Hijab: www.rimatadmory.com
Wedding Catering: www.baderrestaurant.co.uk
Wedding Suit & Table Centre Pieces: www.next.co.uk

S2 Images Ltd are a husband and wife wedding photographers based near Warwick. We photograph weddings nationally, having covered areas such as Leicester, Warwickshire, the Cotswolds, Dorset, Leeds and London. We can even venture worldwide should you wish. We would love to know your wedding photography plans. Please get in touch via our contact page if you are interested in our services.

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