Your East Midlands Wedding - June/July 2020 (Issue 38)

REAL WEDDINGS 23  Z oe and Sammy’s love story first started when they met at work and bonded over their mutual love of food and drink – they quickly realised they had a lot in common and made a great team. Zoe says, “Sammy has the most infectious laugh and smells good. It’s impossible not to notice him because he’s so confident and fun.” Sammy continued, “After we’d been dating for a few months, we wrote to each other asking questions about our plans, goals and needs. The similarities and differences in those answers and the compatibility of our personalities confirmed what I already thought, that Zoe was the one I wanted to be with forever.” After a while, it became apparent that the pair both wanted to take the next step in their relationship and started to discuss marriage. Zoe says, “We both agreed that committing to each other in front of our loved ones was something we wanted to do and that we’d like to be able to call each other husband and wife. We decided then and there and started planning the wedding!” SETTING THE SCENE It was important to the lovebirds that the reception was located somewhere they knew well and was nearby, plus the food had to be great with plenty of space on the dancefloor – Baresca Nottingham was the perfect option! The couple adores the Spanish culture and food and the venue’s tapas menu and Barcelona-theme was a great fit. Zoe says, “We had one of our first meals out together here and have loved their food ever since. It’s also the place where we discovered our favourite gin, Puerto de Indias, which we grew to love even more on holiday in Malaga old town.” The decoration and relaxed vibe were what the pair were looking for and the downstairs Cellar 9 bar was a perfect space for the evening party. Across the road sits Nottingham Council House where they couple said ‘I do’. Zoe says, “We chose the Dining Room because it had plenty of grandeur without being too big for our relatively small ceremony with around 35 people. The option to book the room for an extra half-hour meant that we had a great indoor location for our more formal group photos, which was important for a February wedding!” For favours, guests were given hand-painted chocolate bonbons, which matched the wedding cake flavour of passionfruit white chocolate ganache and strawberry jam. The centrepieces were created by Zoe using gorgeous faux eucalyptus garlands and peonies with fairylights in the middle. Place names were written using a rose gold felt tip on navy blue cards, which matched with other décor and invitations. To be able to keep the bouquets after the wedding day, silk flowers were used and as the wedding took place in February, peonies were out of season, which was what the pair wanted. This way they could make this possible and went with blush, burgundy and mauve tones to match the bridesmaids’ dresses – greenery was added to make the overall look more natural. The talented florist also put together a flower crown for Sammy’s daughter Mila, corsages for the mums, and buttonholes for the groomsmen and dads. When it came to transport, the lovebirds walked everywhere! Zoe says, “Sammy and his group of close friends and family went for brunch in town on the morning of the wedding and me and the bridesmaids got ready at the local Lace Market Hotel, which meant that everyone was within a five-minute walk of each of the venues. Our photographer got some fantastic photos of Sammy and the boys during their walk across town.” Amazing tapas was served up for the wedding breakfast and included Pedro Ximenez beef, chorizo in red wine, flatbreads, halloumi and more. Zoe comments: “Baresca were great with dietary requirements and made sure all our guests were looked after; this was especially important to us as we had a few severe allergies in the group!” LOOKING THE PART When it came to finding the one , the bride-to-be fell in love with a Thalia dress. To make it even more special she had the mesh removed and then added spaghetti