What a wedding… the whole courtyard just oozed with love and warmth. Many had flown in from Newcastle and everyone knew everyone. It was one of those weddings that was actually just a massive stylish party and the fun was on another level! Shots at the ceremony, the bride on the bar… it was fun! I have so much love for this bride and groom 🙂
What they said…..
Never having been married and being newish to Dubai I had no idea where to start with planning a wedding! I was initially recommended Joelle, My Lovely Wedding from the One & Only, The Palm, the wedding venue we had chosen. I had been trying to research about decoration, flowers and all the small things, lots of people were advising to get a wedding planner to do this for you, but part of me was dubious to do so, as didn’t want anyone taking over, and I sort of wanted to enjoy the planning phase too! I am a bit of a control freak and had a million spreadsheets for this day to happen, but after calling Joelle, and hearing her say ‘I’m not your wedding planner, I am your wedding friend!’ I was sold and knew I had found the perfect person to help us plan the day of our dreams! Â
Throughout the planning, I never once felt like someone was taking over. Joelle is a very good listener; she totally understood the vibe we were going for and took our ideas to the next level! With her advice and suggestions, things just got better than we ever imagined!
Sunflowers are my favorite flower, but I also loved the dried flower, boho style, so really wanted to incorporate these two things together. Before talking to Joelle, I was searching on Pinterest for the combination and wasn’t having much luck or filling myself with confidence that they would work well. When I told Joelle about my ideas, her excitement and input filled me with hope! We had a budget and did alter some things to try to keep to it, Joelle told us we could get some things from IKEA and Amazon that would keep our budget down, and that she also had lots of props to match our theme in her garage that we could use for free!! BONUS! I really loved this about Joelle, and never felt any pressure from her to get/hire more things, she was always on the look-out for a bargain for us!
Leading up to the wedding, Joelle always made herself available to us, whether this was via WhatsApp or meeting up to go through things (again). I was so nervous for the day, we had family flying over from the UK, they hadn’t really been involved in anything, and we had kept a lot of things a secret, which I feel maybe added to my pressure of wanting everything to be perfect! Looking back, I had no reason to be nervous at all!
Joelle was all hands-on deck from the moment I woke up on the day. She was texting me to make sure I was ok and sending some updates of the venue being set up, which I absolutely loved and just added to the excitement! Then our bouquets and buttonholes were delivered and were even better than we had imagined. (They even survived a flight home to the UK where we used them again for our celebration there a few days later).
When I arrived at the venue, Joelle was stood at the gate waiting for me, communicating with our celebrant and guests inside to move to the ceremony area so no one would see me. Joelle coordinated everything else from there, I didn’t raise a finger, and in fact probably didn’t even have time to think about doing so, another reason I am SO GRATEFUL we had Joelle with us!
Because we felt ourselves and Joelle had put so much thought and effort into the day, we thought only right that we saw her set-up for dinner before anyone else got a chance to lay their hands on it! So, myself and my HUSBAND went to view it on our own before our guests, and I am so pleased that we did! I was in awe; it was literally like I had stepped into a Disney Book! There were sunflowers, candles, fairy lights and all the rustic boho I had imagined! It worked amazingly well together! Our dream had literally come true at the hands of Joelle and her team.
Into the evening, we moved into the ballroom where Joelle had given us the idea of getting a neon light with our name, and she decorated it on the stage area with some disco balls (from the garage!!) – the perfect finishing touch!
The whole day from start to finish was just magical, I felt like a true princess. Joelle literally became my wedding friend, and I have already messaged her saying that I miss talking to her! Her creativity, ideas, and positive attitude towards everything is second to none. No words will explain how grateful we are that we found you, and we Thank You for everything you did to give us the wedding day we dreamed off.
We are already discussing what we can plan together next, whether this is a ‘funeral to our 20’s’ bash or a baby shower, who knows, but we will absolutely be planning an event again together soon!
Lots of Love,
Jessica & Jordan
Lovely Photography by Mark and Kali.
Venue: One and Only Palm
Celebrant: https://ceremonieskaren.com
