@Lisaandneil

Voewood Wedding | Charlotte & Samuel

Name: Lisa and Neil wedding photography
Price range: $$$

December 4, 2024

We’re not normally ones for using millennial slang, but there is only one word we could use to describe Charlotte and Samuel’s Voewood wedding; lit. Yes, their wedding was lit. For those of you unsure, Urban Dictionary defines “lit” as “something turned up or popping.”

Charlotte and Samuel, the ceremony, confetti, and speeches were all 100% lit. And if you could describe anything as either turned up and/or popping, it would definitely be the dancefloor. If we dare say it, we also think we turned up quite on fire ourselves haha.

The only thing we wouldn’t describe as ‘lit’ is Charlotte’s dress. Because it was ethereal AF. When it slowly emerged from the wardrobe I swear I could hear angels singing. The room filled with silence as we all stared at it in awe. My jaw dropped to the floor.

Back to the subject of the dancefloor, Samuel and Charlotte created one of the best dancefloor playlists we’ve ever heard. Here’s a link to it. They don’t mind if you borrow it for your own wedding and we actually recommend you do 🙂

Below you’ll find their wedding pics and words from the lovely Charlotte and Samuel themselves.

Tell us a little bit about yourselves…

Samuel is an assistant technical theatre manager and Charlotte works in a library – which nicely both come under the same department at a university (University of Essex if you want specifics!) We both studied drama, hence pretentiously having plays as our table settings.

Charlotte’s go-to fun fact is she had a pet sheep growing up (Penelope Bertha Button, so Penny).

Samuel has a tattoo of a line from his favourite play – “Homo Fuge” from Doctor Faustus. The placement on his arm means when he’s wearing short sleeves it just reads “homo” (we don’t expect this to make the blog cut). His other one is he was nearly run over by John Cooper Clarke (well, his wife was the one driving). Samuel also has a massive love for marmite (like, will just eat it on its own) which Charlotte HATES HATES HATES.

How did you meet?

Charlotte started studying Drama and English Literature at the University of Essex in 2016, the same time as Samuel started his Drama and Theatre Studies degree. Somehow it worked out we weren’t in the same classes in our first year – but we were the only two students who went to the campus theatre (where Samuel now works) every year…and of course, we needed someone to talk to about the shows!

We also were a part of the Theatre Arts Society on campus so developed a friendship during their weekly workshops. Bit embarrassing for Charlotte to have gone from a total of 0 dates – to meeting a boy on 10th October and going out with him less than a month later (7th November)

Tell us about your proposal

This is not particularly sappy or romantic but…tbh you can google a variation of “Charlotte and Samuel proposal” and you’ll likely find what you need (e.g. https://www.essex.ac.uk/news/2022/11/14/theatre-wedding-proposal ). If you’re feeling particularly nosey, you can watch it here (skip the first 5 minutes, we couldn’t find our edited version).

Shortly after saying yes Charlotte raised all the typos in the presentation. (Love is real, folks). We went to our usual pub quiz straight after this, and then won for the first and only time to date!!! Kind of a bigger achievement It really was such a shock for Charlotte – the convo the night before of her saying “I know you’re not going to propose to me” was a genuine jokey remark.

What was your vision for your wedding day?

Our main aim really was just for it to be fun! We wanted everyone to be relaxed so they could enjoy it – so often there are arguments and stress but we seemed to achieve in avoiding a lot of that. Some things didn’t go as traditionally expected but it was better for it – there were no tears during the ceremony, just mainly people giggling!

From a visual perspective, we wanted it to have romantic, whimsical vibes. Plenty of lush greenery and decoration of a professional standard. But also enough of our own touch in it – like Samuel’s plant propagations in old jars being used as table decorations. The cakes being made by Charlotte’s mum and Samuel – with teddies on top. We designed all the signage; printed, cut out and displayed the table plans; etc.

Tell us about your Voewood wedding ceremony

We may have had one of the chillest formal ceremonies? It had all the traditional non-religious stuff you would expect but with plenty of laughs and Charlotte mugging to the camera within it.

We had readings of lyrics from David Bowie’s Absolute Beginners and the Jim Henson quote here https://onefabday.com/wedding-ceremony-reading-jim-henson-forget-the-map/. Charlotte is a massive Bowie fan and Samuel a massive Muppet fan!

Charlotte walked in to Clara’s theme from Doctor Who, and we walked out to Modern Love by David Bowie. We picked La Vie en rose as our signing track as Samuel loves it and he used it during the proposal!

Tell us a little bit about the planning process for your wedding

We were very lucky to be honest – things really fell into place for how last minute we worked things!

We booked our photographers earliest as we knew what we wanted 😉

Probably decorations for the venue was the hardest thing! It was such a gorgeous space that it took a lot of back and forth to settle on what we wanted. We considered fresh garlands, drapes, hanging lights – to be honest money was a great limiter here. We’re happy with how it turned out so don’t break the bank just because you see a nice inspo pic!

We were lucky in our hair and make-up stylists having availability despite only being contacted a couple of months before the day. They were ridiculously helpful as we had no clue about how we wanted to look! The initial florist we reached out to was busy, but she sent us someone else’s details. This worked out a dream as Clare at The Flower Fairy Florist was the *nicest* person in the world and her work is just beautiful!

What made you laugh on the day?

The speeches were definitely a highlight – just all so much fun. Mostly Charlotte’s family being mean about Samuel.

Arranging it to go straight from our first dance into Fatman Scoop’s Be Faithful. Friends rushing to join in.

Confetti throw being a bloodbath.

Doing some of the poses together – we wonder how the ones of us doing deadpan at the camera turned out!

What made you cry?

The Best (Wo)Man’s speech, absolutely! Delaney is such a funny person but she knew that the Buttons would go for comedy, so she swooped in with sincerity. Samuel’s speech also got teary (until he disgustingly snotted a lot out of his nose haha).

Otherwise, there was a shocking lack of crying!

What’s your favourite photo from your wedding day and why?

The black and white photo of us on the stairs in the club is so cool. A favourite with our fans (friends and family).

The picture of Delaney on the dance floor is iiiiincredible. Struck us immediately when looking though the album, she’s really chuffed with it.

Charlotte loves a photo of her outside by the red leaves doing traditional wedding dress poses (I kinda feel like I could be a model in some).

The one of us sat on the floor in the club looking at each other is very sweet!

Cute picture sequence of a girl in a red dress and girl in a green dress (Kat and Rio!) together. Our guest Amy (pink suit) absolutely slaying the dance floor.

Any funny planning blunders?

We initially had forgotten to send one of Samuel’s cousins and their partner an invite hahaha. We had even been talking about their wedding regularly while planning – it suddenly struck us while going to bed a couple of weeks after the rest of the invites had gone out.

We didn’t seriously rehearse the first dance until the night before the wedding (you could find us at 1am the morning of whispering “clap your hands…sleep…wave your hands” to each other while practising).

Charlotte also didn’t appreciate how dancing in pajamas is a lot different to a wedding dress…

Samuel couldn’t remember his job title for a long time during the interview with the council for giving notice.

We had a bit of fun that wasn’t our fault when two guests let us know three weeks before the wedding that they were coming. They had had an invite for 10 months with no contact so we assumed they weren’t so had to hurriedly sort out the extra catering, seating rearrangements, etc. They then couldn’t come in the end anyway – that wasn’t their fault but just some shenanigans for us!

When did you start planning your wedding and how long did the planning process take?

We vaguely started looking at venues a few months after getting engaged (it was two years from proposal to wedding day). We intended to maybe get married on our 10 year anniversary then got too excited and went for 8 instead!

We can be massive procrastinators…so after getting a venue sorted we only started sorting everything else about three months before the day itself (minus booking you two as we wanted to make sure we could get you!).

If you could plan and redo your wedding again, is there anything you would do differently?

Actually work out how long speeches will take – the speakers made us estimate it would be done in 30 minutes but it took 45 more than that…Which wouldn’t be so bad if you weren’t waiting for food!

We wish we had eaten more of our food – it was there for us to enjoy and what we had was great, Charlotte at least just felt a bit sick with the excitement of the day so had no evening food (which she majorly now regrets!)

Have a better game plan if you are decorating the venue the day before. We had a whole group of people, plenty of time, but us two still went to bed a bit late which could have been avoided.

Samuel and Charlotte’s review

“Lisa and Neil are absolute legends – if you’re reading this take it as a sign to book them!

We had met Lisa and Neil and seen their work previously when they photographed a family member’s wedding. We knew when we were planning our own they were who they wanted as the photos and fun vibes they brought on the day were amazing!

Lisa and Neil make sure to check in with you frequently before an occasion to make sure they know exactly what’s going on and that you’re all okay. They were absolute lifesavers just for the wedding planning itself – we planned our entire schedule off their suggested timings and it ran perfectly! There are other bits and pieces (like confetti amounts) that they can help with and wow, it was such a comfort knowing they would be contactable in the lead up and know what to do on the day itself. (The check-ins are also a great excuse just to have a chat and we both looked forward to every session as we knew we’d be smiling the whole way through).

As well as being wonderful people, Lisa and Neil are just incredible at their jobs! It never felt awkward having photos taken, and the results are clear! We’ve attached a few of our favourites to prove it.

Basically, you’d be a fool to look elsewhere than these two. They are incredibly professional, highly skilled, and just so much fun!”