Your Wedding Stories - A Winter Wedding in Oxford

This wedding story is all about Robin and Darragh: she is American, he is from South Africa, and they met while both living and working in Amsterdam, where they fell in love. They moved in together with their adorable dog, Bailey, and later, Darragh proposed on a trip to South Africa. Darragh was starting a course at Oxford University in the UK in the Autumn of 2022, so they decided on a winter wedding in the UK for early January 2023 - perfect.

Robin and Darragh contacted me at the beginning of their planning in April 2022, looking for a full-service wedding planner to help them organise their UK wedding while still living in Amsterdam. After exploring the idea of country venues, they decided on Oxford Town Hall. This historical city offered the ideal location for their international guests, and they could show their friends and family the place they now call home. Their wedding also included a weekend full of events; with nearly 200 guests coming from all over the world, they wanted to make the most of the time with them. The wedding weekend also included a Bridal lunch, a welcome family dinner, welcome drinks party and a farewell brunch at various locations within Oxford.

The wedding day took place on the 7th of January 2023 and started with the bride and her bridal party of 11 (plus two mums) arriving at Oxford Town Hall, with a private room for them all to get ready together. The wedding ceremony started at 5 pm (to keep in tradition with American-style weddings); being in the UK, this also meant it was dark outside. To bring in more light, we included lots of candlelight (LED due to venue restrictions) into the wedding design, with extra up-lighters, which together created an elegant and romantic atmosphere. The flowers incorporated lots of green foliage and classic white flowers, which we placed at the beautiful staircase entrance and draped over the fireplace, which was used as the focal point for the ceremony.

The order of the day went from ceremony to cocktail hour to wedding breakfast, of which the couple opted for a very cute sweetheart table. There were some lovely heart-warming toasts by family members, and then the party kicked off with cake cutting and a floor-filling DJ. Robin had a change of outfit into a stunning sparkling dress, and the evening even consisted of a spontaneous breakdancing dance-off (Darragh was a breakdancer in a past career). This wonderful winter wedding ended with a sparkler send-off as the couple made their way to a classic wedding car, driving them away to their nearby hotel.

It was such a gorgeous wedding, and I loved getting to know Robin, Darragh and their family in the process. I am truly grateful to have been their Wedding Planner; Robin and Darragh, thank you for choosing me, and I wish you all the happiness on this next adventure together.