A Musical, Alice In Wonderland Wedding – Alpha & Catherine

It’s Christmas week! To celebrate the run up to the holidays I thought I’d start with a beautiful summer wedding from Velvet Storm Photography from earlier this year. Alpha and Cat were married at Deans Place Hotel in East Sussex and had a fun and family filled day of celebrations.

We met through mutual friends. It was funny because we both had the same friends for years but had never crossed each other’s paths, even though we both worked within the same industry (Alpha as a DJ and Catherine as a club promoter). Anyways about five years ago Alpha dated one of Friends. Thankfully it didn’t work out but it meant that we got to know each other a little during that time. About a year later we bumped into each other outside a nightclub, had a drunken conversation about deleting each other from Facebook which Cath is still mortified about. Alpha then re-added Cath later that night when she went home and as they say the rest is history.

Well we had an Alice in Wonderland themed wedding as were a bit theatrical ourselves. We wanted big bright colours, topsy-turvy decorations, and entertainment that continued throughout the day. Were not traditional people however we have traditional beliefs of marriage. The ceremony was very elegant (until dropped the rings and Alpha cursed lol) with a live saxophone list, but that’s where the tradition stopped. With both of us working in the entertainment industry we really wanted to put on a show that all of our guests would never forget. From a flash mob of Irish dancers, to singing waiters, to fire poi, we kept everybody on their toes all night. We wanted to look back at our wedding and say it was the biggest and best party we had ever been to and we definitely succeeded in achieving that.

Our wedding really was a friend and family affair. Cath’s mum Jayne spent months organising, decorating, creating and making so many of the perfect touches for our day. Our friends were making wooden signs, family friends were decorating the venue, and our closest friends were making bespoke Alice in Wonderland themed props. The one that really had me gobsmacked with a four force wooden stage painted with Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Cath was adamant that she wanted one for the wedding but they were simply too expensive to order. Our friends decided to take into their own hands and build it for us. After the wedding it spent two months outside our front porch which I’m sure many a drunken person walking home on a Saturday night enjoy taking pictures with.

My tattoos are a fundamental part of my character but I do think long and hard about what type of dress would accentuate my style my figure and also my ink. I had originally bought a dress in a contemporary bridal shop but I just couldn’t see myself walking down the aisle in something that wasn’t quirky. I was so lucky to have found Linda at Beretun Designs, Brighton, who really went the extra mile to create an Alice in Wonderland style gown and hat. I wanted my tattoos on show as much as possible. I even added ink more to my arm in preparation for the wedding.

We don’t have any couples tattoos however Cath always had it in her head that she wanted a bumblebee on my arm for her. Neither of us have any idea why but I have a bumblebee on my arm, for her.

The highlight of wedding day has to be when Cath dropped the rings at the altar. Known for her clumsiness this was a typical Cath-Moment. All the guests gasped while I broke my heart laughing and Cath nearly had a heart attack. Everybody was talking about it for weeks afterwards. Another really big highlight for us was our wedding entrance. We wanted something big and bold a bit like our personalities, so we booked a flash mob of Irish dancers to perform to Riverdance before we entered the wedding breakfast room. Because we were entering after the dancers we didn’t have the opportunity to see the performance but once we did on video we were completely blown away by how fantastic, moving and emotional it was.

Our advice to other couples would be to be yourself and do what you want on your day! Go crazy if you want and enjoy every second because it goes so quickly. It will be the best day of your life. Oh and if you’re wearing a tight dress, chances are that the next day you’ll have some nice burns around your waist, so bring Vaseline!