Real Weddings: Lottie and Luke

February 21, 2020 | Weddings and celebrations | 6 minute read

Sitting back in the Maldives waiting for the next cocktail to arrive, Lottie reflects on her dream wedding to Luke and decides that simplicity was best for their stunning wedding at a place that meant so much to them.

She says:

It’s quite a ridiculous story on how we met, even though we met at work. It was a charity night for Children in Need, and Luke offered to help out at the occasion. Hating cold beans, I put him on the Baked Bean Game, and after the night ended, Luke sent me a picture on Twitter of a single baked bean. That was all it took for our relationship to get going!

He proposed to me on Holkham beach, our favourite place in the whole world. Holkham beach is the only place where we both feel relaxed, away from a phone signal, and close to The Victoria for a nice cold pint to quench your thirst after a long walk. All my family had come to the area for the weekend, and after deciding to set out for a walk, it turned out that we had to let them walk off before us, as Luke said that he needed to do some work on his degree. Holding us up, it took me five minutes to convince Luke to catch up with my family. But it turns out that this was deliberate, as he was only pretending to do his university work. At the sand dunes, he asked if we could sit down for a minute, which was very odd as we are normally in a fast march towards the pub… After taking a moment, I turned around to look at Luke, and there he was on one knee. We headed straight to the pub and got a bottle of fizz to celebrate.

The easiest decision of our life was to get married at Holkham, and that’s what we did. On the 6th September 2019, with 100 guests made up of our closest friends and family, we became husband and wife. The bridesmaids, my mum and I stayed at the Ancient House at the Victoria the night before, full of excitement and slight nerves. We had a lovely meal in the restaurant that evening and had a surreal moment when all the bridesmaids were dancing around the room with their hairbrushes like the scene from Grease! We gifted each of my bridesmaids with a bespoke ring made with a stone from Holkham Beach by a local jeweller. Taken Twice. Luke went out into Wells for a bar crawl the night before and was more sensible than one of our groomsmen who didn’t get back in until the early hours. My brother also had a busy night, which basically stretched into a lad’s bender for the whole weekend!

Our ceremony was in the Marble Hall at 2 o’clock. Dad drove me down the south drive in his Jag. We held it together the whole way, but both lost it once the doors opened and it was our time to walk down the aisle. Luke had surprised me with having a string quartet playing canon D as I walked across to meet him. This was one of my favourite moments. My cousin and his girlfriend took it in turns to play the piano as the guests were seated, too. I’ll never forget everyone’s faces during the ceremony.

We’d opted to go up to the stateroom for a brief moment together afterwards. We had a glass of fizz while watching the fountains out the window. This was amazing and important for so many reasons, the main one being able to take a moment to let what had just happened sink in.

My Aunty Ali and Panny had collected rose petals over the past year so we got absolutely covered in them when we came down the stairs. There were petals in my champagne, my hair, my dress… everywhere! After that, we had a few pictures taken and headed over to The Lady Elizabeth Wing. Our little Fred held my veil the whole way round, and really looked after me the whole day.

We’d gone for a simple green and white theme. My mum had done such a lot of it herself with the bows on the back of the chairs. We had lovely lanterns, menus with olive branches, lots of tea lights and love letters. My parents had secretly upgraded all the prosecco to champagne which was a real luxury. We never saw a half-empty glass, and the staff were so attentive. We felt like royalty the whole day.

Our food was by Rebecca Mackenzie, and it was phenomenal. It was our favourite part of the wedding planning, trying all the food. We really want to go back to the yacht club to try some more!

My advice to others planning their wedding is to not over complicate it; it’s not necessary. If you ever feel like you’ve gone off track, talk it through and reflect on your original plans. We didn’t go over the top with photo booths or anything like that; it really wasn’t needed. The best thing you can do is have good food, good music, and drink. Our day was made extra special by the saxophonist David Walker, the string quartet and the champagne.

Holkham is dear to our hearts, and the Holkham team were amazing- so amazing that my parents meet Miranda for coffees every time they go to Holkham now! I’m sure there were plenty of funny stories from the Holkham team from my wedding but they won’t tell me regardless. They’re very professional and everything is thought through.

All sorts of things happen at a wedding, and each moment is unforgettable.

Brides Dress: Enzoani
Brides Shoes: Jimmy Choo
Brides makeup: Michelle Bennet
Brides hair: Katie Atwood
Brides Jewellery: Swarovski
Brides necklace: Tiffany
Grooms suit: Peter Posh
Bridesmaid dresses: TFNC
Pageboy outfit: Next