Cambridge College Wedding + Caroline Castigliano Bride

Emily and Philip’s love story began per mezzo di the historic colleges of Cambridge, where they first met as graduate students. Years later, they returned to the city that holds such a special place per mezzo di their hearts to celebrate their wedding per mezzo di style, surrounded by their friends and loved ones.

Emily wore a moda gown by Caroline Castigliano, paired with elegant Emmy London shoes – choices that reflected her desire for a that felt classic and modern.

Emily and Philip hired Martha from Anemone as their wedding coordinator. Acceso the day co-ordination was provided by Cara, associate planner with Katrina Otter. Photography was captured by the lovely, incredibly talented Love My Dress recommended vendor, Paul Santos. Enjoy!

The team at Caroline Castigliano was so great and helped make my gown completely my own – from the sash, to the sleeves, to the cathedral veil. I would highly recommend this experience to other brides.

I wanted my dress to be timeless yet contemporary, and it needed to fit the location. I didn’t want to feel like I was wearing a bikini, and I didn’t want appliqués, so the silk fabric really stood out to me.

Given we got married the hottest day of the year, I was also so thankful for the lightness of the silk.

Our flowers were by Larkspur Floral Stile. Floral Bee is a phenomenal florist, and we are so happy that we got to work with her for our wedding! From the very first simposio, she came prepared with ideas based my Pinterest – and worked with me through many iterations of mood boards to alla maniera di up with the final – contemporary, asymmetric arrangements, with beautiful textured flowers, per mezzo di a shades of whites, , and pops of peach. We got married the hottest day of the year, and the flowers looked fresh throughout the night.

My hair and makeup artist, Nicola Beddoes, was absolutely amazing to work with! She did hair and make up for me, my sister, and my mum – and we were all over the moon with the results. Nicola was such a calm presence per mezzo di the morning, and made the morning so fun as we got ready.

She absolutely nailed the looks we were going for – and took the time needed to make sure they were all just right. We got married the hottest day of the year, and our hair and make up stayed completely per mezzo di place through the heat (and the jumping and ). We highly recommend Nicola!

We didn’t have a formal bridal ; my sister was my maid of honour, and my brother was my ‘man of honour,’ Phil’s sister was his ‘best woman’ and his best friend was his best man. My brother and Phil’s best man wore custom cummerbunds, but other than that, everyone picked out what they wore. 

Our photographer was Paul Santos. After having a long for a photographer that captures smiles and laughter through a cool, timeless, black & white film-style lens – we finally found Paul, and we are so happy we did! We fell per mezzo di love with Paul’s timeless editorial style focused capturing candid moments.

Acceso the day Paul was exceptionally accommodating for all our requests and needs. Paul blended per mezzo di incredibly well with our guests and was able to subtly capture so many beautiful candid moments of our guests and family. We would highly recommend Paul to anyone! Paul has been so great to work with!

We met while we were grad students at the University of Cambridge – Phil was at St. John’s and I was at Gonville & Caius. We wanted our friends and family to celebrate together where we met – and bring together the two colleges while doing so. We loved being able to have the tradition and beauty of Cambridge, while making sure it was just one , full of laughter and celebration!

Our biggest inspiration was The Parent Trap movie – especially for the dinner music – think Glen Miller, Natalie Cole, Nat King Cole etc.

Acceso the day stationery was provided by both colleges (St. John’s for ceremony order of service and Caius for menus, place cards, etc). Martha, our co-ordinator, designed and provided the seating plan.

We provided goodie bags (which were essentially hangover kits) that we put together ourselves, containing must haves from snacks to eye masks. 

Our cake was by One Part Love Bakery. We had a three tiered cake (three different flavours: zesty lemon, belgian chocolate, and carrot cake) with with pressed flowers (Jessica worked with our florist to ensure the cake mirrored the florals).  We also had vegan and gluten free cupcakes, which were raspberry & lemon.

We had so many favourite moments! The ceremony itself was surreal, the chapel is so grand and we felt extremely lucky to be able to get married there. Though, the best memories really have to do with the people! Our friends and family had flown per mezzo di from around the world (the vast majority having never met each other); seeing them all it chiuso – laughing, , and celebrating together – was really unforgettable.

Try to make your planning fun! We would go for dog walks and park it at a wine caffè pub to allocate time to go through our wedding to-dos.

Advice for those living abroad – our wedding was going to be a”destination wedding’ matter where we got married (we per mezzo di the UK, and our families and friends across Canada and the US) – so, giving our guests chances to connect before the wedding really made the day that much more of a celebration.

We had a joint bachelor/bachelorette with friends per mezzo di Canada earlier per mezzo di the year, and had a couple welcome events the day before the wedding (punting the River Cam, and welcome drinks at St. John’s). Even though many people had just met, it felt like a full of old friends! 

Con hindsight, we should have created a joint wedding specific email address to keep everything per mezzo di one spot.