LIBBY AND SHADAB

So, tell us about how you met and all about the proposal….
We swiped right and the rest is history as they say. Our first date was at Costa coffee and it was the best first date we could wish for. We had so much in common as we chatted away and found out more and more about each other. At some point I grew so confident that I was going to kiss Libby that all of a suddenly nerves took over and I couldn’t muster up the courage to do it anymore. Fortunately for me, Libby went straight for a kiss at the end of the date…phew! So, fast forward 8 months we bought the ring! Bad boys for life was showing at the cinema that day so we went to watch that and back to her parents for dinner (absolutely nothing was planned!) Libby went upstairs for a while and that’s when I told Libby’s mum and dad, Anne & Steve that I wanted to propose totally forgetting to ask her dad for permission so I quickly asked him and he said yes and to also hurry up so that they can make her bedroom into a lovely guest room. Parents hey! I went upstairs once Libby returned back downstairs, upstairs I was pacing up and down psyching myself up getting ready to ask the most important question of my life. Suddenly, Libby came upstairs and started telling me about this that and the other, I was like, let’s go downstairs, I led her back into the lounge and sat her down and then with her parents there in the room, I asked her the BIG question. She gasped and said yes, then burst into tears. Happy tears, I hope!

What were your hopes for your big day? ie. things that you really wanted to happen.
To have our closest family and friends who matter to us and for everyone to really enjoy celebrating our big day with us.

Why did you choose the Granary as your venue?
From our very first stay back in October 2019, we had been amazed by how tranquil, beautiful and stunning the Granary at Fawsley looked. Our host made our stay very pleasant and accommodating. We had decided from that moment if we were to get married then it would be here. Fast forward to 26th May 2022 we did exactly that and what a wedding it was! If you are reading this then you probably understand the hard work and stress it goes into planning a wedding so to have a team like we had at the Granary was an absolute dream! Our wedding planner Charlotte went above and beyond our expectations, from constant communication to accommodating our needs, be it dietary or how we wanted the venue to look on the day, nothing was ever a problem in our ever-changing plans for Charlotte and there were a lot of changes! Charlotte was on hand in a very professional manner but also made us feel at ease by making us relax by taking away the stress. Thank you, Charlotte and the entire team, at The Granary from the bottom of our hearts!

The Bride and her Maids……tell us about the dress, shoes, accessories, how many bridesmaids ….
My dress was from Icon bridal, bridal boutique in Kettering by Justin Alexander’s adore range. My dress was the second one I tried on and I knew it was the one. The most beautiful beaded lace with illusion back and sides, and I chose a cathedral veil by Elizabeth Dickens. It complimented my dress so well with its sparkly laced detail. I also purchased my head piece from icon bridal, it was a rose gold hair vine by Miranda Templeton. My shoes were from lace and favour. I went for an ivory satin pearl low block heel for all day comfort. The earrings were a gift from shadab and my necklace was a gift from my parents.
I had 5 wonderful bridesmaids and they all wore coral classic multiway dresses from multi award winning La Closet De Chanel and they all looked absolutely beautiful. We had our two nieces as flower girls. The flower girl’s dresses were custom made by Loulous bridal boutique in a deeper shade of coral to compliment the bridesmaids’ dresses.

The Groom and his Groomsmen… what did the groom wear, who was the Best Man?
My suit was from MC Coture, it was a lovely 3-piece dark blue with checks this was for the main day ceremony. My groomsmen wore a summer blue 3-piece suit. Tunde was my best man who delivered a lovely speech. For the evening I had a change of outfit where I wore a regal red and gold sherwani with a red scarf to complete the look.

Tell us about the theme for the day….
Our theme was an English /Indian fusion wedding bringing together two cultures and traditions to the day, full of bright colours throughout the day. We wanted a colour that would complement our theme, a room full of deep corals, soft corals, peaches and golds. The colour of the bows on the chairs, centrepieces and table runners incorporated in the flower colours, grooms party ties and pocket squares, bridesmaids’ dresses and flower girl dresses.

Our stationary was made by shadab’s Uncle and he worked with us from the start to create the same theme throughout all of the stationary from wedding invitations, table names, table plan, table menus etc. We decided we wanted to come up with a photo wall of all our wonderful memories using the granary’s foliage backdrop. We also ordered a Mr and Mrs sign from the wedding budget company and Love letters for the dance floor.

Our wedding cake was made by Laura from the Greenhousecakerie. it was incredible, we were blown away by the coral and gold detail in our three-tier cake. We knew we wanted sugar coral roses for the top tier with gold leaf detail and we got exactly that! It was a top tier of dreams. Our second-tier had our initials in gold and the bottom tier had an Indian theme of gold detail stencil artwork. Libby came up with this design from looking at Indian cake designs on Pinterest. We had a beautiful backdrop for our cake from the little details company.

Flowers, who supplied them and what arrangements did you have?
Hannah from With Love & Roses made our wedding flowers. Hannah went above and beyond and captured our vison so beautifully when making a gorgeous silk rose bouquet full of creams, and coral shades, silk rose flower wreath table centrepieces, silk rose top table arrangement with touches of gold, creams and corals, bridesmaids had a single coral peony with Gypsophila foliage. Our flower girls had a small basket tied with coral ribbon, filled with coral petals for scattering. Shadab and his groomsmen had traditional style single buttonhole. Close family members had traditional style single rose pinned corsage. Hannah also made our aisle ends for the ceremony, a group of three shades of coral silk roses with foliage.

Photography – who did you choose and why?
We came across chapter one photography’s work on Instagram during the first lockdown and fell in love with their photography. What wonderful people these two honestly are! Our photos are incredible and the way they captured the moments was amazing. The photos tell a story of our day from start to finish, from when we got ready in the morning, to our ceremony, wedding breakfast and then our first dance and then our finale with our dress change in the evening as it was an English/ Indian wedding. We have watched our photos as a slide show many times and their photos make our wedding day come alive and we get to relive it again and again. Jason captured moments of shadab getting ready with his groomsmen whilst I had Gosia capturing my moments beautifully with my mum and my bridesmaids and that special moment when my dad enters the room to see me in my dress for the first time. They both did an incredible job and we can’t thank them enough.

We also choose Adam from Ayelle, for our videography. We also came across Ayelle on Instagram. He captured our day beautifully and made us feel so relaxed and comfortable. Our video is a lovely keepsake for us and our loved ones to treasure forever.

The ceremony- tell us about it
Our ceremony was at 1.30pm and we chose modern vows. Our ceremony was a beautiful fairly intimate with 60 of our closest family and friends inside the Fawsley Suite. It was a last-minute change of rooms because originally, we were going to have our ceremony on the lawn, however due to strong winds on the day we decided to move it inside. To us it was still perfect and we wouldn’t have changed a thing especially the mango mocktails on the lawn were to die for!

The food-what did you eat?
We were literally blown away with our wedding breakfast and evening food! Our guests kept on commenting how it was the best wedding food they have ever experienced! Danny our chef, was flexible and adaptable on how he let us create a menu that totally tailored our dietary and religious needs.
We went for a three-course wedding breakfast. Starters, we had salmon fish cakes with a mango sweet chilli salsa or a choice of a crispy turmeric cauliflower with a spiced tomato gel and herb rice.  Both were incredible! The lamb shank for main had to be the star of the show it was delicious. We
had two further main options for our guests, the pan roasted sea bream or the vegan option of roasted cauliflower steak. For dessert, trio of desserts of warm chocolate brownie, Eton mess and vanilla ice cream or a vegan choice which was very popular among our guests. Rum steeped
caramelised pineapple with a coconut and lime cream- toasted coconut-mango sorbet and honeycomb sunflower seed granola. Evening food was fabulous, mini garam masala fish & chips and vegetable tacos.

Entertainment tell us about it?
We had the resident DJ from ACE Entertainment which was complimentary through our wedding package. Marc was fantastic and went above and beyond to accommodate our requests. Fantastic mixture of music throughout the evening. We wanted to really make our wedding a memorable experience for us and our guests and this being an English/ Indian fusion wedding, it would not be complete without having some proper Indian dhol drummers! The boys put on an absolutely mind-blowing performance and we had it staged so that me and Libby would enter the room dancing to the beat of the drummers!

What was the highlight of your day?
Announced as Mr and Mrs Sayed was a beautiful moment as this made it official to the world that we were now a married couple!
Performing a dance in front of family and friends with the drummers was definitely the highlight thanks to our show stopping performance lol!
What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to anyone planning a wedding?
Enjoy every second because the day goes so quickly, its over before you know it. Try and take ten minutes together before the evening guests arrive, to take it all in. Luckily shadab had a dress change in the evening so we could have that time whilst getting ready in the bridal suite. It gave us time to just take a breather and check in with each other to make
sure we were ok. Best life experience ever.