Boho Chic Wedding at Babington House - Chelsea and Chris Part 1

Chris and I enjoyed so much happiness together during our courtship of three months – and when he asked me to marry him on the 1^st December 2009, I must admit it, came as somewhat of a surprise! 

Together we both wanted to keep the momentum going and set a date of 9 weeks from the day we got engaged. This of course meant a winter wedding. After visiting twice, we knew we wanted to be married at Babington House, it provided the cosy atmosphere we wanted to encourage for our wedding day; intimacy and interaction between our guests was important to us.

As an interior designer, space and detail are all important. The brief I gave myself was Ralph Lauren meets boho chic, so vintage glass vases, nautical map placemats, purple velvet and mint green leather chairs were the order of our day. 

Polo is my passion so polo ponies and gauchos greeted the guests on arrival at Babington, galloping up the driveway and trotting around the grounds. St Margaret's Chapel at Babington House is stunning and intimate so we decided to keep things simple; our guests provided all that was needed.  Our beautiful ceremony was alive with colour so magical, hats bumping into others and feathers and frills bustling in and out of the aisle. There was no need to decorate; we kept it simple with just a few candles burning. 

We strolled from the church to the reception on a hay-lined mat, beneath an awning of matching umbrellas. As we entered the library to meet our guests, it was buzzing. Chatter, champers, and canapés were all a flowing as a magician disguised as a wedding guest entertained our friends and family.

Our reception line led our guests through to be seated. I donned Chris’s family traditional tartan sash and we finally made our entrance into the wedding breakfast. 

Having been together a relatively short time, this was our chance to introduce our favourite people to each other for the first time.  To break the ice, we kicked off our evening’s revelry with stand up comedian Adam Bloom, who had everyone united in laughter from the start.

An antipasto dish was served as our entree, and for the main course, we had a few ideas up our sleeve to help our guests to get to know one another a little better. We had a male guest on each table carve up a succulent Leg of lamb for the table, each were given a chiefs hat and apron embossed with a top gun pilots name on the front and it was a lovely touch in the evening. 

After some deeply moving speeches, we cut our croquembouch wedding cake.  As we cut into it, it spilled out with such drama and our bridesmaid’s caught the wonderful display in the table cloth, it was such fun; the pieces were served throughout the evening along with chocolate cake and lemon tart to fuel our guests with tons of energy to party the night away! 

In a break with tradition we decided to be different and have a first song, which caught a lot of our guests by surprise.  While we kept our guests distracted with our musical talents, the bar was converted into a Charlie and the chocolate factory room that was filled with colour and sweets – magical!

The emphasis for the final part of our glorious day was on live music.  Our band played rock music to which everyone could dance and there was a DJ for when the band had a break. Chris and his old band members even got up and did a few numbers. People were cheering and hair was flying, so intimate, interactive and a reflection of what we both hope for our marriage.

Read about our beach blessing in New Zealand next...

Wedding venue Babington House
Chelsea's designer wedding dress by Temperley London
Wedding photography by Paul O'Connor and David Burges
Make-up by Kathryn Gould
Wedding styling by Beyond Weddings
Wedding gift list by Beyond Weddings