Genuine & Fun Tropical Botanical Wedding Full Of Love

Hold on tight, we’re about to enjoy the tropical botanical wedding of Sarah and Aaron. They tied the knot in the summer at Sefton Park Palm House in Liverpool on what turned out to be one very special day indeed.

They had a gorgeous green, white and gold colour theme complete with greenery galore. They didn’t need to add too much decor to their glass house venue and really let the amazing setting shine. Look out for the cute succulent favours, beautiful outfits, elegant stationery and a showstopping bouquet!

Gina Fernandes Photography, I can’t thank you enough for sharing these sensational images from this very special day.

Tropical Botanical Wedding

The Proposal

We got engaged on the beach at sunset. Hunstanton Beach is my favourite beach, having spent summers there as a child. Aaron had planned to take me on a walk up towards the famous cliffs.

Unfortunately, I’d gotten cold and didn’t want to go on a walk! Undeterred Aaron got me a jumper and a cuppa and we went out for our walk. As we neared the cliffs he started rustling in his wallet, I was a bit confused!

Turns out he had kept a ‘voucher’ I had made him years ago for his birthday. I’d got him a wallet and filled it with homemade vouchers such as ‘breakfast in bed’ etc, one of which I’d left blank for him to fill in. He got down on one knee over 4 years later having filled it in with the words ‘Marry me?’ I said yes!

The Vision

We wrote down a few things that were important to each of us before we started planning. We both wanted as many friends and family as possible present, particularly after not seeing as much of everyone over the preceding years due to Covid.

We wanted our guests to really enjoy their day with us, and to have a big party in the evening! Our theme/colour scheme was somewhat guided by our beautiful venue, to reflect the gorgeous green foliage I went for greens, gold and white.

Budget

We spent around 23k in the end, including generous donations from family and what we had saved ourselves. I had a spreadsheet to keep track of everything.

The Venue

We met at Liverpool University, and have stayed since, so a venue in Liverpool made sense. I remember walking through Sefton Park as a student and seeing a wedding taking place in the Palm House, I never imagined then that I would have my wedding there!

The Palm House was donated to the city of Liverpool by a local benefactor, now it is managed by Sefton Park Palm House Preservation Trust, a registered charity that maintains the Palm House for the benefit of the local community.

Your Outfits

My Auntie Brenda used to own a bridal shop, The Ivory Wardrobe. It is now owned by the lovely Laura, who used to work for my Aunt. I considered various styles, but in the end, went for a tiered ballgown by Maggie Sottero, when else can you wear a dress like that?!

Laura was so kind and helpful during the selection process. Since my dress was going to be a surprise, Aaron insisted his outfit also was going to be a surprise for me! He chose a lovely blue suit with a grey checked waistcoat from Richard Paul Menswear.

The Ceremony & Music

The ceremony was held at The Palm House, I walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by The Beatles – a little nod to our love of all things Liverpool!

We had ‘Your Song’ by Elton John and ‘Lover’ by Taylor Swift whilst we signed the register. We came back down the aisle together to ‘Accidentally in Love’ by Counting Crows.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Gina was amazing from start to finish. She included a second shooter (Caroline Goosey), as Gina also shot some film for us. This meant we got some lovely images of us both getting ready, it was really nice to see pictures that we didn’t get to share together.

Gina was happy to do what we wanted as far as photos were concerned whilst still giving us the advantage of her experience in guiding us on what would work. She captured some very special moments. We are so grateful to her for all her hard work on the pictures and video and couldn’t be more pleased with the results.

The Styling & Decor

The Palm House didn’t need much extra decoration! It lit up at night as well which was stunning.

Our florist was Garlands Florist, Kath was wonderful, I was so wowed by her beautiful creations. We used one of Aaron’s friends for the wedding cake. The cake was gorgeous, we had a chocolate layer and a lemon layer.

For favours, I had seen mini succulent plants on Pinterest and thought it was such a cute idea that fitted with our botanical theme. To go with the colour scheme I bought terracotta pots and spray painted them gold whenever I had a moment and a dry day! I made place cards on Canva as well as the menus and the signage.

For table names, we opted for places we had visited together. I put pictures of us from each holiday in gold photo frames, with pressed eucalyptus and gypsophila. My mum spent hours drying petals from her garden for our confetti.

We also had garden games, mainly borrowed from my parents. Unfortunately, it rained on the day but some still got used, and we brought the limbo inside in the evening and gave out shots for anyone who did it!

We DIY’d a photo booth using a ring light, an old phone and an iPad. We had a sweets table and we bought alcoholic popsicles that went down well.

The Honeymoon

We went on safari in South Africa for our honeymoon. It was as magical as we had hoped, we were welcomed on our first morning by 6 female lions.

Memorable Moments

One of my memorable moments was Kath delivering the flowers, they just were so beautiful and beyond my expectations, it was such a fabulous moment that set up the day!

The readings during the ceremony were very special. We asked my brother, Aaron’s brother, and his mum to do readings. They each chose their own but I thought they tied together nicely and were very meaningful.

The speeches were another lovely moment, we did a joint speech so we both had the opportunity to thank everyone personally.

Following the first dance, the first song was Come On Eileen (Sarah’s mum’s name) and we had a mother-daughter dance followed by Aaron bringing his mum and other friends and family onto the dance floor.

Advice For Other Couples

Writing down a few things that were most important to each of us helped with making decisions later on about where to spend money and where we could cut costs or compromise.

Don’t let small things going wrong on your day like rain ruin your experience, it rained during ours and we still had the most amazing time.

You will never have a day quite the same surrounded by all your best friends and family members. It really is quite special and nothing like anything you will have experienced before, so make the most of it!