Orangery Wedding by Louisa Dettmer, Kent Wedding Photographer

Olivia & Kieran

The Orangery Maidstone

Olivia & Kieran chose The Orangery Maidstone for their June wedding, we asked Olivia to share her story with us.

Scroll down the page to see links to all the wedding suppliers and Olivia’s advice for other Brides.

Olivia’s Wedding Story:

The Dress.

The dress was the part of wedding planning I was most excited about as it’s something I’ve dreamed about for years! When it came to going dress shopping though I felt quite overwhelmed as I couldn’t believe it was actually happening – it was the moment the wedding planning felt real. I went to Go Bridal in Tunbridge Wells with my mum and sister. I’d looked at their stock online and picked out a selection of dresses I wanted to try. The dress I tried on first was one of my favourites based off the pictures on the website but it looked different once I had it on and it just didn’t feel right. We decided to go for something completely different for the next dress; a ballgown with a bateau neckline that I instantly fell in love with. It was so different from what I thought I would like but it was the perfect dress, especially as it had pockets! As it was only the second dress I tried on I was keen to make the most of my appointment and make sure I got to try on plenty of dresses. In the end, I think I tried around 10-15 dresses but stuck with the second dress.

The Venue.

We knew we wanted to get married outside so beautiful grounds were high on our list. However, we were well aware that the weather might not be on our side so it was important the inside ceremony option was just as nice. The Orangery Maidstone had the most beautiful, immaculately presented gardens as well as a gorgeous light, bright and airy inside room that still had views of the gardens and managed to bring the outside in. The events team were also lovely and we knew they would help in creating a brilliant day. We decided we wanted to get married there even before we’d finished looking around the venue!

The Theme.

When it came to colour schemes we both wanted a simple and elegant wedding with a classic theme. We went with a fairly neutral green and white colour scheme and let the beauty of the venue shine through.

I had two bridesmaids; my sister and my best friend. They both have very similar colouring so it was easy to find a colour they both liked and both looked gorgeous in. We went for dark forest green halterneck dresses. The top half of the dress was lace and the bottom was chiffon. The girls both liked that the dresses were flowy and had an open back, especially on such a hot day!

For the Groomsmen we stayed with a classic theme we decided to go for black tuxedos with bow ties. We went with a Ted Baker 2 piece from Moss Bros.

The Flowers and Cake.

The bridal bouquet was a trailing bouquet made up of white roses, lisianthus, freesias with plenty of greenery. The bridesmaid’s bouquets matched and the groomsmen had white rose buttonholes with a little greenery and the Groom had a peony buttonhole. The centrepieces were a mixture of tall and low arrangements that matched the bridal and bridesmaid bouquets. We didn’t know much about flowers at the start of the wedding process, but we found some pictures online and showed our florist who able to create exactly what we imagined, even if we didn’t know the names of all the different types of flowers.

We had a four-tier cake made up of lemon, chocolate, and Victoria sponge cakes with the top tier being carrot. It was covered with white chocolate ganache and white icing, topped with a cascade of sugar flowers. The cake was one of our favourite (and most delicious!) parts of the wedding planning process. It went down really well with all the guests – people still talk to us about the lemon tier in particular as it was so tasty!

The Ceremony.

Walking down the aisle was so surreal and a moment I will never forget. I was so nervous on the long walk around from the Wisteria Suite, where I’d gotten ready, to the Gazebo where the ceremony was. Me, my Dad and my bridesmaids stopped on the jetty to have some pictures and it was lovely to pause for a moment to take it in before the most important walk of my life. We had two-page boys who are both 18 months old who were due to walk down the aisle with the bridesmaids ahead of me, but we were under no illusion that it may not go to plan! My nerves melted away as soon as I saw the pageboys who were the stars of the show – we got a little wave from one of them before the other took a detour and went around the aisle. It put everyone at ease as set the tone for a fun day.

The Reception.

Once the ceremony was finished we could just relax and enjoy the day. The wedding breakfast was just brilliantly topped off by some fab speeches. We managed to sneak away for some more photos after the meal and are so glad we did as we love the photos. Louisa and Duncan were the perfect wedding photographers, they had everything under control from start to finish during the day and the photos they captured are outstanding. They helped the whole day run smoothly and made it easy for us to enjoy the day.