An incredible real wedding at London's Kew Gardens

Hattie and Brendan exchanged vows surrounded by the amazing plants and trees of world-famous Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens room setup Hattie and Brendan

Photography: Mark Bothwell

Dream venue: Kew Gardens

As incredible wedding venues go, Kew Gardens is a pretty spectacular one. The gardens themselves date back to the 18th-century when they were used for royalty. And in the height of summer, Hattie and Brendan held their incredible wedding here.

Hattie’s wedding planning began with an all-important Pinterest board (a bride-to-be essential if you ask us), and on this board she developed a love for greenery. ‘For our “botanical” feel at Kew Gardens, we leaned towards an outdoor/indoor vibe with a colour palette of green, white and silver/gold, and had as much foliage as possible, which we moved around from space to space during the day,’ says Hattie.

‘A huge frame with blooms suspended from invisible wire that was behind us during our ceremony in the Nash Conservatory was moved to behind the bar, and the trees which flanked the aisle became the table centrepieces in the Orangery.’

Fun wedding ideas

The overriding tone of their day was fun and laughter. ‘Instead of an order of service, we created a newspaper that included a timeline of our relationship so far, photos from our parents’ weddings, quizzes and games (personalised pencil included) and a comic strip of our proposal story, which Brendan illustrated.’

But there was also plenty of room for emotion. Each place setting was a wooden laser-cut of the guest’s name, with a small card featuring a message from Hattie on one side, and one from Brendan on the other. ‘It was time consuming but wonderfully sentimental, as figuratively it let us spend time with each guest before the wedding itself,’ says Brendan. ‘A lot of people mentioned how touched they were by them.’

Kew Gardens ceremony kiss Hattie and Brendan

Kew Gardens wedding breakfast Hattie and Brendan

Real-wedding advice

The table signs had illustrations by Brendan which included dad jokes (guess the punchline to find your table). ‘We’re both really fond of terrible puns!’ says Brendan.

Top tip: ‘Choose your priorities – ours were flowers, music, the dress and a big bar tab for our guests!’