Real Life Weddings at Royal Berkshire

We met 14 years ago at school as teenagers, and have been together ever since. We have been lucky enough to travel the world together, from Bangkok to Seoul to Copenhagen, and this was reflected in our table names. We were most recently living in Singapore, where we were stuck for two years due to border closures as a result of Covid-19. In October 2020 we had our first “staycation” as Covid-19 measures temporarily eased, and it was on the first night of that staycation that James booked a lovely restaurant and popped the question just before dessert!

We loved the use of space – from the spacious bar with gorgeous grounds surrounding it, to the perfectly sized function room with attached bar. We also loved the smaller rooms for serving the evening food, leaving bags and generally chilling out. It was the perfect venue for a wedding of 120 people. We also need to give a huge thanks to the staff, who were the epitome of professionalism and constantly surpassed our high expectations in their organisation, service and attentiveness.

We wanted quite a relaxed day, with blue and white being our colour scheme. We had huge white and blue flowers, an ombre wedding cake that went from blue to white, and slightly blue ribbons around our Chiavari chairs. It looked beautiful!

It was a Justin Alexander Signature Collection gown, which was embellished with small leaves and had an enormous train! I absolutely loved it from the moment I saw it in the shop and knew it was “the one”.

All the smiles! It was honestly just a really happy day, and our guests all said the same. Everyone got along brilliantly, and all day I was seeing people talking, drinking and dancing together who had never met before the day itself! It was that atmosphere that made the day so special, and we are hugely grateful for that.

I am not a person who takes well to surprises! One thing that did surprise me however was how much fun it was having our photos taken in the grounds of the Royal Berkshire. I had expected to only endure the photoshoot, however we had great fun getting all the shots in the beautiful grounds so that was a lovely surprise. It was also pouring with rain as we left the Royal Berkshire to head to the church, but miraculously by the time we got to the church the sun was shining! And it stayed shining all afternoon and evening, so that was a lovely surprise too.

Enjoy it! It was honestly the best day of our lives, and I am so so grateful for that. Don’t let stress, or bad weather, or external opinions, or anything else for that matter cloud what is a wonderful celebration of love and commitment. It is your day so just take it all in and make the most of it.

Photographer: @debbieharephotography
Videographer: @memorabledayfilms
Florist: @oliviabrookefloral
Rebecca's Dress @justinalexander