Sam and Charlotte had known each other for years – Sam went to school with Charlotte’s brother and sister. According to Charlotte he was a prolific flirt (actually, she called him a tart!) and she even used to warn her friends not to get involved with him. Years later, they bumped into each other while they were both visiting family in the Easter holidays. Sam asked Charlotte to go for a drink, Charlotte said no. He asked again, and she thought about it. Eventually, they went out. And the rest, as they say, is history!
How did you get engaged?
Sam took me to Paris for my 30th birthday. Having never been before, Sam took me round all the typical touristy spots so I could tick them off my list. That evening, the last stop was the Eiffel tower before dinner. As we were crossing the road by the Trocadero, he made me walk right into the middle of the road to take a photo of the tower lit up ‘so I would get a clear shot’. After taking the photo – I turned round and Sam was stood with a ring in his hands. I was so taken by surprise, I can’t remember a word of what he said. Thinking he was taking the piss, I very unromantically asked, ‘is this a f**king joke?!’… Before obviously saying Yes!
What kind of wedding did you plan?
We both knew we wanted a wedding that felt more like a giant party than a formal occasion, and so traditional wedding venues were never going to fit the bill for us. We found the amazing East Quay venue in Whitstable, Kent which was right on the beach and happened to be a place we would visit when we first started dating. It was a former sea food restaurant that had been converted into a venue – it was quirky and fun and the perfect setting to celebrate with our loved ones. It was the first place we visited and we booked it immediately!
The inspiration for the rest of our wedding would be the venue itself – it has a real industrial feel to it and we wanted everything to feel relaxed. To reflect the industrial look, we decided to trawl junk shops and antique fairs in order to find props to decorate. We then asked our florist to offset all the junky bits and pieces with some vibrant rich flowers spilling out of everything! We spent ages personalising all the little details of the day to reflect each other and our guests.
What was your first dance?
All of me – John Legend.
We struggled to find a song for our first dance as we both have quite different music tastes. We settled on this because of the lyrics; ‘you’re crazy, and I’m out of my mind’.
What was your favourite part of the day?
We loved every minute of the day – but I think we’d both agree that the ceremony surprised us by being our favourite. For such a short part of the day, the excitement and anticipation of that moment when we first saw each other was hard to beat. From that point onwards the day continued to be so much fun – such a strange word to describe your wedding, but we both laughed and enjoyed every minute.
Why was Patchwork the best choice for your honeymoon fund?
Having lived together for a while, we didn’t feel like we wanted traditional wedding gifts – but we really wanted to treat ourselves to an amazing honeymoon. I found Patchwork as I was googling honeymoon fund websites and loved the whole concept!
What did you decide to fund?
We really wanted to go to Sri Lanka for our honeymoon and didn’t want to hold back on things we could do when we were there because we were saving money. Using the patchwork to fund different trips and activities on our travels meant that we could do everything we planned to without worrying about over spending – everything we did felt like a special treat because it was a gift from someone.
I remember sitting in the airport before we flew, writing a list of all the things people had bought us to do while we were away. We couldn’t believe how generous people had been and we could finally start plotting the various things we wanted to do. We bought a camera at the airport so we could take some amazing photos of everything we did to send to the people that had treated us to them! We’d have never done half the things we did had people not contributed to our honeymoon, which enabled us to have the holiday of a lifetime.
Our friends and family loved the convenience of the website – and give me someone that doesn’t enjoy a bit of online shopping? They loved getting a bit of a say in shaping our honeymoon and the things we did.
And finally would you recommend your trip to other honeymooners?
Sri Lanka is quite possibly the most beautiful place to visit – the people, the wildlife, not least the food and the weather!! It was a holiday of a lifetime and we couldn’t recommend it highly enough! Who knows – maybe we’ll return for a special anniversary in the future?
Thank you Charlotte & Sam for sharing your lovely wedding and honeymoon with us. And a huge congratulations from Team Patchwork.
Wedding photography by Ross Hurley: www.rosshurley.com
If this has inspired you to make your own patchwork, just customise one of our readymade patchworks or create one from scratch.