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Early days…
Abbi and Phil first met at university but only knew each other by name and it was at a mutual friend's party when they officially spoke and got together. Phil openly admits that he failed at the 'treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen' game and was certainly not adverse to demonstrating his feelings. This is what made Abbi fall in love with him all the more, plus he accepted her cats straight away!
The proposal…
Phil proposed to Abbi in the beautiful rose gardens at Regent's Park, London, in May 2007 the evening before they flew off on a four day break to New York. Abbi recalls: "You might say that we had a four day engagement celebration." Phil presented Abbi with a one carat, princess cut diamond, set in platinum, "I absolutely adore it,"says Abbi.
Hen and stag parties…
Abbi's hen night began at Amuse Bouche Champagne bar in Soho. After this she and 17 friends made their way to celeb favourite, Bungalow 8 at the St Martin's Lane hotel, where they continued to sip Champagne into the early hours. Abbi looks back at the night and says: "One of the evening's highlights was without doubt meeting Eric McCormack of Will & Grace fame."
Phil's stag weekend took place in Nottingham where he and 12 friends took part in the physically challenging Go Ape assault course. Phil remembers: "We also did a spot of drinking and visited slightly shady local nightclubs where we ran into the South African cricket team."
The venues…
The venue was found using a website called Country Wedding Venues and, after looking at over 20 other venues around London and Surrey, the couple were overwhelmed by the versatility that Frensham Heights offered. Abbi tells us why they chose it: "The venue has spectacular views across the Surrey countryside which secured the decision to hold our special day there. It was booked just over a year before the wedding date."
The attendants…
The bridal party included three bridesmaids: Phil's niece and Abbi's two god-daughters aged 10 and 13. Phil had a best man and three ushers. The bridesmaids wore a gorgeous but relatively simple dark pink dress and silver shoes from Jigsaw, and they had matching gerberas in their hair. Phil, his ushers, and both his and Abbi's fathers wore charcoal grey lounge suits with matching waistcoats, white shirts and black shoes. Phil and his best man wore Paul Smith stripy ties and the ushers wore dark pink ties.
The dress…
Abbi wore a long white Ben De Lisi 1940s-style dress (new) with Swarovski crystal brooches, Jimmy Choo silver strappy shoes, a diamond drop pendant, vintage white gold watch (old) and a silver cuff (borrowed). For Abbi's something blue she had a blue ribbon sewn into her underwear.
The flowers…
The flowers were wonderfully bright and exotic and comprised fuchsia and orange gerbera, pink pineapples, lime flowers and bear grass.
The decorative touches…
The room is extremely beautiful and so only minimal decoration was used. Three pedestal flower arrangements were placed around the room and the table centre pieces were round fish bowls containing gerbera and bear grass.
Abbi tells us what the food arrangements were on the day and how they added the personal touch even at dinner: "We had canapés to start and then 119 guests sat down to cod in light tempura batter with hand-cut chips which was wrapped in a spoof Hello front cover that was designed and printed especially for the day. We also had minted mushy peas and lemon wedges. Puddings were on a 'share with your neighbour' basis so that guests could try both the organic white and dark chocolate chip cookie cheesecake and the clotted cream and raspberry Eton mess."
The best bits…
We asked Abbi what they enjoyed most about the day: "The whole day was amazing so no particular best part. We incurred no problems at all on the day as the venue coordinator, Chris Hull, was simply fantastic!"
The honeymoon…
The newlyweds jetted off to Barbados for 10 days and stayed at The House hotel in St James. Abbi adds: "It was an amazing hotel with fantastic staff. We definitely recommend it if you visit Barbados."
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