Fay aND Michelle
Through the highs and lows of planning,
stay true to the vision of your future
together say Fay and Michelle
All you need is love
W
e met in 2005 through our joint love
of music and got together in the
summer of that year. When we first
saw one another it was one of those
‘bolt of lightning’ moments that you
only read about or see in a film. It
really can happen – and for us it was love at first sight.
When we’d been together for nine years we decided to
get married. It was very much a joint decision in the summer
of 2014 and the announcement led to much excitement all
round! We chose to tie the knot on 2 August 2016 – the
exact same date that we’d got together 11 years earlier.
We both have similar tastes so going through the process
of planning our day was something that we both really
enjoyed. We wanted an exclusive venue that was both
intimate and stylish – but most importantly, we wanted it to
be a day full of love, with our closest family and friends there
to celebrate with us.
We chose orange as a theme for our wedding. Our guests
were all asked to wear a splash of orange and the best
woman and bridal party had either orange shoulder corsages
or orange cravats. Needless to say, our guests took the
instruction very seriously and brought a vibrant colour palate
to our pictures!
We wanted our wedding to have an exclusive ‘celebrity’
atmosphere, so we chose two venues, both owned by the
same hotel group, so we could be confident of their privacy
and quality. Both venues were stunning, and nestling in
Constable country, Essex, they gave us the perfect blend that
we wanted. Our ceremony took place at Maison Talbooth, a
beautiful 14-bedroom manor house, where our immediate
family and closest friends stayed with us.
Then a luxury coach took our 50 guests to the next
venue, Le Talbooth, for our wedding breakfast. As our guests
nibbled on the most exquisite canapés by the river, we
surprised them by arriving by boat. We had been whisked
away from the ceremony in a chauffeur-driven Bentley
(complete with a much-needed ice cold bottle of Veuve
Clicquot!) and taken to Stratford St Mary, where we sailed up
the river to our wedding party.
Wanting some splashes of tradition throughout the day,
we both decided to wear ivory and cream. We knew from the
start that it would be a dress and trouser suit combination so
the challenge was to find what we wanted. We were always
fairly relaxed about this aspect and we loved our outfits – as
did everyone else.
W
e loved choosing the music for our
ceremony. We walked in to Christina
Perri’s A Thousand Years, as the lyrics
were really important to us. Luther
Vandross’s Here and Now played when
we signed the register, and then
Forever by the Brand New Heavies drifted across a room
charged with positive emotion. As everyone stood to
welcome us as the happy couple – ‘Fay and Michelle
Greaves-Hughes’ – we walked out in style to Cheryl Lynn’s
Got to Be Real.
When we first saw one
another it was one of
those ‘bolt of lightning’
moments that you only
read about or see in a film.
It really can happen...
pink weddings magazine » 9