After postponing their June 2020 wedding, Katarina and Simon were finally able to marry in June this year, in a beautiful, intimate Beaconsfield wedding. The ceremony took place at St. Teresa’s Church, followed by an elegantly styled reception at Hampden House, Great Hampden. Katarina wore Jesus Peiro's beautiful long sleeved lace creation, Style 8004, which looked just perfect in the country house setting.
Whilst their wedding was smaller than originally planned, Katarina said that their day was "absolutely perfect in the end albeit with all the restrictions. We felt so ready to be married and nothing else mattered on the day."
As well as the images below we were also sent a link to their beautifully moving film by Ben Tynegate, which was set to a recording of Simon's romantic speech, and had the whole team welling up! Click here to watch it, and read on to find out more about the wedding, in Katarina's own words along with images by Liam Smith...
Jesus Peiro 8004 wedding dress
As soon as I saw the dress online I completely fell in love with it. It was everything I had ever imagined in a wedding dress. I loved the delicate lace on the sleeves, with the wide waistband and then the big white taffeta skirt with train. The dress fitted me perfectly on the day and I kept glancing down at the beautiful lace covering my arms and could not have felt happier in it!
After seeing the Jesus Peiro 8004 online and completely falling in love with it, I tried to find a local bridal shop stocking Jesus Peiro. All of the places I contacted locally were very unhelpful because the dress was ‘last season’. It was then that I found Miss Bush Bridal, which was slightly further afield.
Being 6 foot 4 means that any clothes shopping is difficult for me.. nothing is ever long enough and the proportions are always wrong. Even ‘tall’ sections do not usually cater for people as tall as me! So I knew wedding dress shopping would be no different. The bespoke dress option with Miss Bush was perfect. Straight away Emma filled me with confidence that I could have the dress of my dreams fit me perfectly!
Dress Shopping
I went with my mum to meet Emma and see the sample 8004 dress. With Emma’s help we were able to envisage the dress being the right fit for me.
Once we ordered the dress through the made to measure service my sister and mum came with me for a styling appointment with Corinne. My mum and sister loved the dress and Corinne was great at helping us choose the right veil and giving us tips and inspiration for flowers and accessories.
I loved coming to the dress fittings. Jo and Willow were so lovely and it was so exciting to see the dress again after not being able to see it for 2 years! The team of people working there are amazing and the chapel is so beautiful. I will miss my visits there!
We had originally planned our day for June 2020, but we had to postpone due to the pandemic. Emma and her team were so supportive and reassuring. From the Facebook live updates to the virtual quiz sessions, they kept my spirits high even when it felt like I would never get to have my wedding day.
Styling
I knew I wanted to have a veil, however, I did not want the veil to distract from the dress and the detailed lace. In the end I chose a simple and elegant long veil. I loved that one could still see the lace on the back of the dress through the veil.
I also chose a pair of flat glittery Jimmy Choos - they felt so special and were very comfortable!
A intimate traditional church wedding in Beaconsfield
We ended up having a very traditional wedding. We had the ceremony at a Catholic Church in Beaconsfield. The boys all wore morning suits which looked great on the day and they all loved wearing them.
We had the most amazing venue for our wedding reception (Hampden House, Great Hampden). They organised everything for us and when we had to postpone they were brilliant at moving our suppliers to the new date a year later. Due to restrictions we could only have 30 people at our wedding reception. We actually ended up really enjoying having a ‘smaller’ wedding. It felt very intimate and special. To compensate for not being allowed to have a dance floor with guests dancing, Simon and I decided to choreograph our first dance - we are both very uncoordinated and it took a lot of YouTube tutorials!
Part of the restrictions meant that we had to leave our reception venue by 7:30pm. For our wedding night we planned to stay at the Crazy Bear in Beaconsfield and very spontaneously on the day of the wedding the groomsmen, along with my sister and one of the bridesmaids, decided to join us for drinks there. We had so much fun! It felt like an after party and everyone was cheering us and congratulating us when they saw us in our wedding attire!
Our day was absolutely perfect in the end albeit with all the restrictions. We felt so ready to be married and nothing else mattered on the day.
Katarina's Advice
My advice would be to trust your gut instincts. We found we had to make a lot of difficult decisions especially to do with postponing and the restrictions involved. In the end we had the most perfect day and would not change a thing!
Suppliers
Venue: Hampden House
Photographer: Liam Smith
Videographer: Ben Tynegate - highly recommend, Ben is an absolutely incredible videographer and has given us the wedding film of our dreams!!!! Click here to see the trailer.
Catering: Cavendish Events
Flowers: The Flowers, Wedding Specialist
Wedding Stationery: Ellie Press
Cake: Simply Alpa
Hair and Make-up: Emma Page
Bridesmaid dresses: Oasis
Morning suit hire: Domino, Thame
Shoes: Jimmy Choo
Duo Jazz band: Take Two - function central
Fine art bouquet preservation: The Botanical Bouquet
Bride lashes: Susie - lash lounge of Beaconsfield