Aimée and Ollie’s Beautiful Rainy Day Wedding at Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve

Aimée and Ollie married at Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve in Kent in October. They’ve visited this beautiful nature reserve for years, so choosing it for their wedding came very naturally and meant they could share their love of this special location too.

Talented Aimée planned the wedding herself, flexing her skills as a wedding planner. As founder of wedding planning business, One Oake, her organisational skills and attention to detail kept everything running smoothly. The day was effortlessly styled in pale greens and neutral tones too; florals were created by Love My Dress recommended supplier, Rosie Obeney Flowers, who elevated the spaces at the reserve and kept the arrangements seasonal and refined. Guests dressed in black tie and Aimée wore the chic and long sleeved ‘Winter’ gown by MWL Bride.

It rained, but it didn’t matter one tiny bit – the bride, groom and guests embraced the English weather with cute brollies and a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere full of joy and celebration.

Thank you so much Aimée for allowing us to share your precious day. And reader – enjoy!

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We visited Port Lympne for Ollie’s birthday back in 2018 and knew that we wanted to return. We didn’t know they did weddings at that point but it was a place that we often talked about going back to.

So as soon as we were engaged and saw not only did they hold weddings, they were opening two new stunning spaces we thought it would be the perfect venue for us and our guests and somewhere that was already special to us. 

I wanted to go down to the ceremony with my parents and sister, sitting in the taxi with them chatting about how excited and nervous we all were, is a core memory for me of the day. Such a special moment.     

My dad walked me down the aisle, and as it was a long aisle we chatted about what was about to happen and laughed about the rain, while trying to keep the umbrella over my head! Also had the lovely Natalie of Louise Perry Weddings making my laugh holding my train all while trying to keep my heels sinking in the grass! It made me a lot more calm and got rid of any nerves. 

I walked down the aisle to an acoustic version of ‘Simply the best’ me and Ollie love the song so I wanted to include it for the ceremony but in a more laid back style and I think it worked really well! 

Our ceremony was officiated by Kim Taylforth – a dear family friend who has known me and my family for a long time. It was extra special to have someone who we knew personally officiate our ceremony and allowed us to add another personal touch to our day. She did a wonderful job!

As we had our legal ceremony the year before, we decided to do our own vows for the wedding. We both made a selection of promises which were personal and also a bit funny, such as one of my promises was  ‘I promise to always back you up when you think you are right, unless of course I know I’m right’ or ‘ I promise to not say ‘its just a game’ when his rugby team loses’ which got a mixed reception! 

We got our rings from COO. They had a really great selection of rings to choose from along from really helpful staff and a wonderful studio for us to look through all the possible options.

 D&A Studio was our photographer, and we chose them because they are amazing! Dan absolutely nailed our photos, and I couldn’t be happier!

I was worried what they would come out like due to the bad weather, but you wouldn’t even know it was raining. I have worked with Dan a couple of times before and knew he would do an incredible job but he also makes you feel so relaxed in front of the camera, he really captured the day so well. Neither of us love being in front of the camera but Dan put us both at ease and made everything feel really natural. 

Our videographers were Six Eight Video – you can view our film here.

We met on Tinder in August 2015, we dated for six years before getting engaged on a cruise with my family on our sixth anniversary. Long story short, I ruined the planned proposal by saying I didn’t want to go up into a private trip on the North Star viewing platform on the boat, as I thought I was saving Ollie from going on it as he is terrified of heights! So said I didn’t want to go on it to save him from saying it to my family.

Turns out he had planned it with the ship staff to have a private cabin! In the end he proposed in our room and it was honestly perfect and just what I would have wanted anyway.

We had a legal ceremony two years later, followed by our wedding a year later. We held the legal ceremony a year to the day before hand to make sure some of our older relatives were able to see us get married. 

Ollie hired a three piece black tuxedo from Dapper Chaps Formal wear.  As our dog couldn’t be with us on the day my sister gave Ollie some socks with our dogs face on and our wedding date as a little nod to her and so she was there in some way on the day.  

For the reception, I wanted to keep the table centerpieces smaller so that guests could still see each other and chat across the table. So each guest table had a footed bowl centrepiece with greenery ,cream and white florals. We then had a sweetheart table with the meadows from the ceremony surrounding us on the floor and bud vases and  sage green taper candles on the table. I loved all of the flowers so much and Rosie did an incredible job, I had full trust in her and was loved everything she created. 

Candles were a non negotiable for me as I love to use candles at home so had to have them in the wedding. We have green taper candles on the table and the dotted around pillar candles in tall hurricane vases around our sweetheart table and the table plan. They added so much to the atmosphere and something that really elevated the space. 

We hired the candle covers and holders through Black Saucers, a great company to work with and were really local to the venue which was a massive plus! 

We wanted to do something really special with a guestbook that wasn’t just writing in a book that would be shoved in a cupboard somewhere. So we chose to have a ‘wine guestbook’ This consisted of three wine boxes with the dates of our 5^th,10^th and 15^th anniversary on them. We then asked our guests to write messages on cards and put them into the boxes for us to open the bottle of wine and read the cards on the corresponding anniversary. 

I wanted to elevate the tables and bring in our own linen and napkins which I hired from Northfields. We chose to have the Natural collection in ‘Straw’ for both the napkins and all the tables. It really complimented the space so well and gave it a warmth and texture that we wouldn’t have got with the classic linen. @northfieldslinenhire

I love calligraphy and really wanted to include it in our wedding, I had been on a course with Heather of Leigh Calligraphy to try and do my own stationery but didn’t want to risk it so enlisted her help! She created our place cards, individual menus, table names, guest book signage and my favourite piece our fabric table plan. This wasn’t something she usually creates but we worked together to make it happen and I’m so glad we did, it was a talking point and one of my favourite features of the day. 

All the stationery was on natural paper which really added a lovely texture to the tables. Everyone commented on how lovely the stationery was and I am still obsessed with it now. 

We also got some drinks napkins printed from Zazzle with our dog Peppa on them saying ‘drinks on me’ as another way of having her with us.

As a subtle nod to the venue and the location we were in, our place name holders were little gold animals from Etsy that we placed each guests place card into. They weren’t supposed to be a favour but everyone loved them they ended up keeping them. 

Our drinks reception singer was Dale Ali – another friend of the family who did the most incredible job and was so special having him there.

We hired the Uptown Showdown band from Boujee Music and our first dance trace was Baby I’m Yours by the Arctic Monkeys.

This song was special as it’s a song we have loved for a long time and it’s what I walked down the aisle to in our legal wedding the year before so has kind of become ‘our wedding song’

“Don’t worry about the weather! I obviously really didn’t want rain, I buried the sausage and did a few other old wives tales the night before and it still chucked it down. There is nothing you can do about it – and soon as I was in my dress and on my way to the ceremony I didn’t care. I just wanted to get on with the day and worrying wasn’t going to change anything. It also oddly made the day more memorable for the guests as they all laugh at remembering the ‘wet and wild’ safari ride! Remember too – ‘a wet knot is harder to untie’!”

Don’t get too caught up in the tiny details, your guests won’t notice if something isn’t ‘perfect,’ but they will always remember how loved-up and joyful you looked. The day goes by in a blur, so take little pauses together to really soak it all in. Most importantly, do what feels right for you as a couple, rather than worrying about traditions or expectations. At the end of the day, it’s one beautiful chapter in your love story, so let it be joyful, fun, and uniquely yours.

We had a honeymoon fund with our travel agent (Route Trip USA) who planned our honeymoon. So guests were able to contribute towards this and it went straight against our trip. Great experience and a very smooth process. 

My only regret is that I wish I’d have relaxed and let go of my dress train! I was so worried about it getting dirty because of the rain, but I really don’t know why – it wasn’t like I was going to wear it again.

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