On a lovely sunny day in June, Maria and Ramtin finally got to walk down that aisle and say their ‘I Do’s’
Before we talk about this lovely couples wedding day, it all started with a proposal…
“Ramtin proposed to me on 26th March 2017, which was my very first Mother’s day. Our daughter Chloe had been born the previous August and I had no idea the proposal was coming!
My mum looked after Chloe as we had arranged to have a night off and some sleep and when I came out of the shower there were candles everywhere and Ramtin kneeling in the lounge with the most amazing diamond ring! We then went out to Smith’s restaurant, in Ongar near to us, and celebrated with champagne and cocktails! I had asked for a nice present for my first mother’s day but I certainly wasn’t expecting one that big!”
What a lovely way to ask that all important question.
With no time to lose, it was onto thinking about the big day and what they thought would be the perfect place to celebrate with all their family and friends:
“The first step was to decide where we were going to have the wedding. Ramtin is Swedish and the vast majority of his family and friends still live over there, so we had to decide which country we were going to host it in. We decided however to have it here, as this is where we live and it would be easier to organise from home. We knew we wanted an amazing venue, as half of the wedding party would be flying over, so it would have to have the wow factor!
The first thing we booked was the venue a year prior to the wedding as this was the most important thing to us. We looked at two other that didn’t feel like us. When we viewed Gosfield Hall we knew it was perfect for us. I have grown up in Gosfield so this little village has always felt like home to me, it made sense to get married here, especially in such a beautiful venue. Ramtin also loved Gosfield Hall as the design and white colour of the building are reminiscent of Swedish country homes and a style we both love. We wanted a venue that we had exclusivity for us for the entire day and also a venue that had accommodation, as we had so many people travelling not only from different cities in the UK but also different countries too. We didn’t set a budget, with a venue like Gosfield Hall you either have to go big or go home!“
With the venue settled, the budget non-existent, all that was left to do was plan all the other bits and pieces in between!
“Right from the beginning we had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted our wedding to look like. We wanted it to be elegant and sophisticated. I wanted to be able to look back in ten years’ time and still think it looked stylish and not dated. We wanted a white Scandinavian theme as it is beautiful, so I looked online at some Swedish weddings for inspiration and also some celebrities, that have had a white theme, to get some inspiration and ideas for styling on the day.”
With all the planning now coming together, all that was really left to do was look forward to the big day.
The night before the wedding, Maria arrived at our Lady’s Chambers Cottage with her Mum, Sister and daughter Chloe to have some girly time.
Then Maria and the girls awoke the next day to lovely blue skies. Every Brides wish! Hair and makeup will have started early and excitement would of started to kick in.
With the girls busy in the cottage, unbeknownst to Maria, the ceremony space outside was complete and awaiting guests.
At a point to be able to move, Maria and her family moved up to the Bridal Suite, to have finishing touches to hair and makeup and to put on that all important dress.
“I have to admit that I don’t like wedding dresses (strange i know!) and the idea of wearing a big glittery meringue definitely wasn’t me! I was really worried that I wouldn’t find anything that I liked and even at one point threatened to wear a black cocktail dress that nearly gave my mum a heart attack!”
“In the end we went to Grace and Lace in Chelmsford. I found an amazing lady in there called Ruth, who put my mind at ease and suggested I try a Mikado fitted dress with low front and back that was similar to a cocktail dress. I fell in love with the material and thought it was a young and sexy dress. At last I finally found one I loved! I also decide on a cathedral length single tier veil with a jeweled edging that I kept on until the meal.”
“My bridesmaids were my younger sister Annabelle, my oldest friend and godmother to my daughter Emma, Ramtin’s two nieces from Sweden Nika and Leona and our Daughter Chloe who was also the ring bearer. The adult bridesmaids dresses were from Phase Eight and looked so summery and chic, I actually let them choose them completely as I wanted them to feel great in them on the day. The three children’s dresses were from Marks & Spencer’s and matched the white theme of the wedding. They looked like three little angels! The children’s accessories were from Accessorize and the adults, including mine and my mum’s, were from liberty in love.”
Whilst Maria and the girls were upstairs in the Rococco Suite, guests were starting to arrive downstairs…
Ramtin was ready and raring to go! With cocktail in hand, he was very relaxed and looking forward to seeing his Bride.
“We always knew we wanted the wedding to be elegant and stylish and we wanted our outfits to reflect that. We also loved the American style wedding where people wear tuxedos and cocktail dresses. Ramtin decided that he and all the Grooms party would wear tuxedos. We also asked the male guests attending to wear them too, they all looked so smart and the photos looked amazing.”
“We knew we wanted a white Scandinavian theme which was reflected in our flowers which were gorgeous shades of white and off white with greenery, lots of candles which we put on every table including the library and windowsills.”
“We managed to find a great deal on the men’s suits. We bought them online and they looked absolutely amazing and it was cheaper than renting them. The rings were also a really good deal online that we also had engraved.”
“Once we had booked Gosfield Hall we took our parents on an open day to show them around the venue, it was then we met our photographer Ben Brown. As soon as we met Ben we knew we liked him and wanted to book him straight away. He has the experience of photographing weddings here all the time and knows the venue and running order of the day inside out so I knew I could trust him to take the lead and produce the most amazing shots. He is also a parent to young children like us and had such a warm presence and patience and understood how important it was to us that we get lots of pictures with our daughter Chloe and the other children we had at the wedding.”
“Our cake was a four tier square design that was Chocolate, Lemon, Oreo and White Chocolate and Raspberry flavoured. It was finished off in white icing with ribbon on each tier to match the ribbon on mine and the bridesmaids bouquets. We also had a little dove iced in white on the top tier, this was a reference to our daughter Chloe who was born in August 2016 early weighing only 4 1/2 pounds, when she was born Ramtin called her our little Dovey.”
“As Ramtin is Iranian Swedish we also wanted to include some Persian traditions including Persian wedding table which Katie kindly helped me to prepare the morning of the wedding. We also had white sugared almonds as wedding favours, which are popular in Persian weddings.”
“It was actually thanks to another Brides blog on the Gosfield Hall website that I found my violinist Hayley Pomfrett who was absolutely amazing! All of my suppliers had been to Gosfield Hall before which was really important to me as they knew the venue exactly and what would look good on the day. I’m so grateful to them all, they definitely made my day extra special and beautiful.”
With the last few finishing touches done, it was finally time to make that important walk to the aisle, for Marie to meet her groom at the top.
“The ceremony was amazing, Ramtin and I picked all the music together as this was very important to us both and we also decided to have some readings to make it more personalised and special.
We also wanted some Persian influences on the day, so my dad’s partner read out a marriage blessing by the 13th century Persian poet Rumi (a first for Gosfield Hall I bet!). We also had a poem that was written for us by my cousin from Ireland that was an Irish wedding poem. Both were so personal and unique, and it meant a lot to me that two female family members read it out as it would be the men doing the speeches during the wedding ceremony. Being able to have the ceremony outside was the highlight of the day for me and something that I’ll never forget, it was amazing to have all our family and friends seated outside in the beautiful grounds to witness our wedding ceremony.”
“I knew I had to have live music playing during my ceremony as this would create a special atmosphere. Ramtin was also adamant that I walk down the aisle to an acoustic version of the 80’s song Take on Me by A-Ha! We were also in love with the idea of having an outside ceremony, although I didn’t get my hopes up until three days before the actual wedding that it would be possible! We were so incredibly lucky to have an amazing day with bright sunshine and not a single cloud in the sky!”
The hard bit was over… We are pleased to introduce Mr and Mrs Sanei!
After the ceremony had taken place, the newly weds took a stroll around the grounds to enjoy some alone time and get some stunning photos outside in the sunshine.
They then joined their guests for welcome drinks and canapes, before heading off again to have some more pictures taken!
Welcome Drinks
Strawberry Mojitos
Classic Margaritas
Raspberry Daiquiris
Canapes
Rare roast Beef served on Rye bread with a Horseradish cream mousse
Roast Peppadews stuffed with a Goats’ Cheese and Black Olive crumble (V)
Buckwheat Blinis with Smoked Salmon and Sour Cream
Free range honey chilli Chicken skewers
Chocolate dipped Strawberries
“We had our drinks reception in the courtyard in the bright sunshine with my all-time favourite cocktails that looked as good as they tasted!”
“Ben then took lots of photos and we mingled with guests before we went up to the dining room. It was laid out so beautifully, the lily centrepieces smelt beautiful and the white theme in there looked incredible.”
Marie and Ramtin then greeted their family and friends at the top of the staircase, before heading through to the Ballroom for the wedding Breakfast.
“We decided to arrange our speeches the traditional Swedish way which is a speech between each course. I would definitely recommend this as it broke them up and made it more fun.
When Ramtin pulled out a crumpled up post it note with his speech on it everyone burst out laughing! Another highlight was my dad mentioning that when you’re a couple you need to support your partners passions… That in our case included me supporting Christiano Ronaldo and Ramtin watching Eurovision with me every year! Ramtins best man, Pej who was also his cousin, also had everyone laughing when he compared their group of lads to the men in the hangover movies and that their stag trip to Estonia for five days had been a lot like that! (although best not to ask too many details!) All three men delivered amazing speeches that made everyone burst out laughing as well as some touching moments remembering those who couldn’t be with us that day including both our grandparents and also Ramtin’s mother.”
Starter
Chicken and Asparagus Salad
Served with Baby Spinach, Stilton and Pine Nuts
Mozzarella and Rocket Salad with Tomato and Chilli Salsa (V)
Toasted garlic bruschetta, topped with rocket salad and slices of creamy mozzarella, garnished with tomato, red onion and chilli salsa
****
Main Course
Roast Pork with Apricot and Stuffing
A tender piece of Pork on bubble and squeak, garnished with sliced Toffee Apple and Cider Sauce
Roasted Vegetable Wellington (V)
Seasonal vegetables, blended and encrusted in puff pastry, finished with red wine and cranberry reduction
****
Dessert
Chocolate Brownie
With dark chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream
Baked New York Style Cheesecake
Finished with summer berries- just like in the Big Apple!
After the Wedding Breakfast, it was then off downstairs to cut their beautiful wedding cake
“For the evening reception we spoke to Gosfield Hall’s DJ, Richard, who was absolutely amazing. We gave him a list of about 150 songs that we wanted to be played and he did a brilliant job of blending them all together and really get the party going. He even managed to deal with some Persian music requests, thank you so much Richard!”
“We were undecided about our first dance for a long time. We really didn’t want something cheesy for the sake of it that wasn’t even a song we really liked. In the end we went with an acoustic version of Chris Isaac’s Wicked Games which is my all-time favourite song. I’m so glad we went with this, as although it’s not normally a song you’d associate with a wedding, it was special to us and unique. We also asked Richard to play two of our favourite songs as the last two that were played at the end of the night. At 1am when it was just a small group of us left, our best friends and closest family, it was very special to have those two last songs and brings tears to my eyes when I think back to it. We had a George Michael and an A-Ha song to finish what was a magical day.”
So that was that. Marie and Ramtin had the day of their dreams, surrounded by friends and family, with every moment captured.
We asked Mr and Mrs Sanei, based on their own experience, what were their top tips…
“I would recommend to add the little extras, I know it can be more time consuming and slightly more costly but people really appreciate it. Having a place where we had photos of those who had passed away who we loved was something that a lot of people said was moving and a nice touch. I also made up a basket of flip-flops for when the party got started and straight away every single pair had gone! The women said it was a great idea so that they could take off their heels and dance the night away! I also had sparklers for the children, but in the end everyone ended up having one, it was lots of fun and so pretty to watch them light up as the sun set after a hot summer’s day. We also asked people on the invitations to suggest a song that could be played at the disco so that everyone had something they loved played in the evening.”
“If we could do it all again, we’d…Do it all exactly the same! It was perfect!
From all of us here at Gosfield Hall, we wish you all the happiness for the future and thank you for sharing such a special day with us!
Credits:
Wedding Dress and Veil: Grace and Lace Chelmsford
The Men’s Suits: Dobell Online
The Accessories: Liberty in Love, Accessorize, Asos
Bridesmaid’s dresses: Adult dresses: Phase Eight, Children’s dresses: Marks and Spencer’s
Wedding rings: Star Wedding Rings
Wedding cake: Little Lucy’s Bakery
Cars: Grahams Coaches Brentwood
Invitations: Zazzle
Photographer: Ben Brown at Lavenham Photographic
DJ: DJ Richard
Wedding favours: White sugared almonds
Hair and Make up: Abi at Lipsticks and Locks
Ceremony Music: Hayley Pomfrett
Flowers: Vikki Browne & Bernard Chapman
