Sitting together in the wedding car was our last chance to enjoy some alone time, gather our thoughts and prepare ourselves for our long-awaited wedding reception. It was a very hot day for May and we sat back in the car as we passed through Hyde Park watching everyone enjoying the sun…how funny I thought, it’s just a normal day for them but it’s one of the biggest days of my life!
When we arrived at The Dorchester, Mr Silver helped his new wife (!) out of the car.
And we had the chance to pose for some photos by the car and outside the hotel.
We were then led into one the hotel’s private rooms for our formal photographs to be taken…
As we had so many people in our wedding party this took quite a while!!
And as were posing for these all important photos, we didn’t get to attend the reception. But I loved seeing all the fun that our guests had while we were getting our photos taken.
Each guest had a personalised card telling them where to sit…
…and once they took this they enjoyed Laurent Perrier and Raspberry bellinis.
Enjoying each other’s company…
And some delicious canapes.
The photographer sneaked into the ballroom to take some photos of the beautiful setup before it began to fill up with people.
We’d kept the floral arrangements varied on each table to keep it interesting! And added some candles for romantic lighting…I think you’ll agree the florist, Rob Van Helden is a total genius and the room looked absolutely stunning!
The band began a rendition of ‘Lovely Day’ and everyone started to filter into the ballroom.
Here’s Mr S’s sister-in-law with his adorable niece Mia.
The band were fantastic and start encouraging everyone on to the dance floor straight away…
Mr S and I stood outside the ballroom door nervously…it was time to make our entrance…
We stepped into the middle of the dance floor surrounded by all our guests…
And then the music began… we took each other’s hand and starting whirling round the dance floor. A traditional Jewish wedding nearly always begins with Israeli dancing and songs such as
Hava Nagila, and ours was no exception. Soon everyone was joining us un whirling round the dance floor.
As the majority of my friends aren’t Jewish they were a little confused at first, then gamely joined in the fun!
It’s also traditional to put the bride and groom on a chair and lift them high above your heads. The dance is known as the Hora….
I have to admit, I was more than a little scared at this point as I felt very unstable!
Crazy, mental dancing over, it was time to sit down.
Before anyone could start to nibble, Mr Silver’s dad made the blessing before meal which involved slicing a challah, a traditional Jewish plait of bread.
And next, my dad’s speech…the old man is pretty humourous so everyone was cracking up laughing at his funny, though rather embarrassing speech. He recounted my birth (in very specific detail) and some of the stupid things I got up to as a teenager!
After he’d finished embarrassing me, the starter came out…
We’d chosen a delicious tomato tart and despite the fact that the hotel had had to cater for so many people it was totally delicious with a lovely crisp base.
Our dad’s began to work the room!
My dad really was a star of the night, managing to talk to every person there, where as Mr S and I struggled to get round half of them!
Our guests really loved that fact that we’d chosen to do dancing between each course, which really kept the atmosphere alive!
Everyone loved our personalised dance floor!
The band were incredible and even got us both on stage singing!
Usually this would terrify me but my adrenaline was pumping and I loved every minute!
We returned to our seat to enjoy our main course…
As I love Asian cuisine and we chose a sea bass with sesame and noodles. If you read my post on the
wedding tasting I ended up combining two dish to make up my own main course.
It was filled pasta for the vegetarians
and mini fish and chips for the kids!
Our gorgeous heart-shaped cookie wedding favours were made for by
Cakes By Robin.
During our main course, the band bought a piano on to the dance floor and the music got a little softer while we ate.
Next it was time for Mr Silver to be embarrassed as he brother took the stage for his best man’s speech.
And finally it was time for Mr S’s speech about how wonderful I am…
I’m not one to cry (apart from over my hair, of course!) but I was very moved by his loving words. He’d been pretty nervous but the speech went down very well.
And now came the part I’d been really nervous about…the first dance! We’d had about eight lessons at Karen Hardy Studios but we were still pretty crap! Having said that, we absolutely loved our dance lessons, they were great fun and it was a chance to spend some time together. It was part of the wedding where we didn’t have to involve any other family members it was just about us, and we always had a glass of champagne afterwards too!
Check out our moves!
I really hate wedding song cliches so I wanted to do something a bit different and we ended up doing a mash up of ‘At Last’ with ‘Love on Top’ by Beyonce. It was perfect!
Once I have the wedding video I’ll be able to share this moment more fully!
But it was quite a relief when our friends came to join us on the dance floor once it was over.
Next our rather spectacular flaming dessert was bought out.
Followed by Mr S’s oldest brother reciting the grace after meals.
And then the final formality…the cutting of the cake.
I just loved our beautiful bespoke design by
Peggy Porschen. The cake contained three flavours: strawberry and champange, salted caramel and fruit cake (because it’s my dad’s favourite!)
With all the formalities over the party could really get going…
And before everyone got too drunk I was happy to get some photos together with some of my closest friends.
School friends
University friends
And friends made later in life.
And finally here’s some photos of our guests enjoying the party…including some evening nibbles!
It was the most incredible day and I tried to take in every second… but as expected the whole day passed by so quickly. It didn’t feel like reality, it was like I was watching a movie of someone else’s life.
I had the perfect day and certainly one I’ll never forget. I hope that you enjoyed it too!
