A Real Wedding | Mr & Mrs Martinez
The newly weds Chloe & Manuel Martinez shared with us details on their very special and intimate wedding day that they shared with just 11 of their closest loved ones!
When did you get engaged?
12th January 2022
Tell us about your proposal?
We took a holiday to Lanzarote and stayed at the beautiful Barcelo Teguise Beach Hotel. On the first day we took a romantic walk along the beach and Manny proposed to me along the rocky pier on the beach - I was so shocked as it was also Manny’s 30th birthday so never expected it but it was beautiful, and then we had cocktails and tapas overlooking the beach to celebrate after whilst calling our families. I think Manny choose his birthday to propose so he wouldn’t forget the date! Haha!
How did you choose your bridal party?
I choose my twin sister Francesca, and Manny’s brother’s Fiancé Hannah as my Bridesmaids - they are both so special to me and I love them both dearly so it was a very easy choice. They both looked fabulous in their bridesmaids dresses (from the amazing Lá Closet Dé Chánel) on the day too, I was very proud and honoured to have them by my side.
Tell us about your day?
We had a very small/intimate wedding - only 11 guests and the 2 of us. We choose the The Old Marylebone town hall as it had a beautiful room called the Pimlico Room there which we both fell in love with as soon as we saw it online. We also choose the Ivy Asia, Sakura room as our wedding reception - the room fit our number of guest perfectly and has a beautiful cherry blossom tree in the middle which we both loved. Cherry blossom is our favourite. 🌸
The food at the Ivy has always been delicious when we had previously been but the Ivy Asia was incredible. The whole menu was fantastic and exactly what we wanted and we had so many compliments from our family on how amazing it was.
What was your favourite part of planning?
We only gave ourselves 3 months to plan everything which worked perfectly - we liked the fact there wasn’t a huge build up to the day. I couldn’t imagine buying my wedding dress then waiting a year to wear it. we literally did everything the 2 of us wanted to do. It was very stress free.
What was the hardest part of planning?
There wasn’t anything hard at all about planning, we managed to get everything organised in the short space of time so nothing was hard about it. Luckily we do know some amazing people in the wedding industry so we were able to get the perfect dress from Abigail's in good time, same with the bridesmaid dresses from Chanel. Manny’s best friend Denny was the photographer. My lovely friends Olivia and Alice doing hair and makeup. And a friend Sarah organising flowers.
I think having a short amount of time means you focus more on what you actually want, I can imagine if we spent 2/3 years planning we would have probably tried to organise a bigger and extravagant do, having all the extras like most weddings do (which there is nothing wrong with at all) but this would have also meant spending more and more money which we didn’t have.
We kept in our budget and did everything exactly how we wanted!
Brides Favourite moment of the day?
Just having our 2 wonderful families together and also having time with my husband getting our Photographs - our Photographer/friend Denny was so awesome - he got some fantastic shots of us around London - they came out so well. He captured the day perfectly!
Grooms favourite moment of the day?
The food at the Ivy.
Any tips for future couples?
The day is about the two of you - do exactly what you want, you don’t need to worry about pleasing anyone else. If you have thousands of pounds to spend on a wedding and you can afford to have 200 guests then perfect, but I really don’t think you need to. We have both been to weddings before as guest where we have hardly spoke to the bride or groom just because there are so many other guests. I think a smaller wedding can be a lot more personal, more relaxed, and more memorable for the couple and ours definitely ticked all those boxes.
Anything either of you would do differently?
There is nothing at all that either of us would do differently. Every second was perfect.
Tell us about your Honeymoon plans?
We are taking our wedding guests (the families) to Milan to celebrate again (going to make them take their wedding outfits again, they don’t know that yet)
Supplier Credits:
Venue - Old Marylebone Town Hall
Photographer - Denny Wright Photography
Hair - Mi Amor Hair & Cosmetics
Makeup - Alice Wotton
Bride’s Dress - Abigail’s Collection
Bridesmaid’s Dresses - Lá Closet Dé Chánel