Real Wedding: Sophie and John at the Park Hyatt, Dubai Creek {Goldfish Photography and Video}

Starting the week with a fab real wedding feature, oh it does make me love Sundays. Sophie and John got married on 28th October in the very pretty Palm Garden, Park Hyatt, Dubai Creek. This a very special venue for me and holds a lot of sentimental value as my sister and her husband got married there and it was just amazing. Funnily enough my sister and her husband also got married in October, strange coincidence 🙂 Anyway…we are super excited to feature this wedding by Goldfish Photography and Video today. The bride put so much work into the decor and it totally paid off, you are going to love it.
Quick side note and just to remind you guys, we are running a competition with the lovely team at Goldfish to win AED 2000 discount off one of their wedding packages – not to be missed! All you have to do is submit your engagement story to amy@mylovelywedding.com and we’ll announce the winner next week! For more details on the competition you can visit our earlier blog here.
In the meantime, we think you should check out what you could win and enjoy this wonderful real wedding right here on MLW 🙂 I’ll hand you over to the lovely Sophie as she tells us about her and John’s beautiful day at the Park Hyatt.





Can you tell us about the planning process?
I loved every minute of the experience. I started planning 15 months in advance. Sometimes things aren’t the fastest in Dubai and takes time to source what you need so would definitely recommend starting early.
Tell us about THE Dress?
My dress & veil was from a local shop in Liverpool, UK (Natalie Ann Brides). I had two pairs of shoes one for the day time – a pair of Jimmy Choos (Amy squeals a little bit)  and for the evening had a pair of wedges to switch into – comfort is key!)
Finding the dress was not like on TV – it’s not an enjoyable experience. I thought I was never going to find a dress and was thinking that I would have to get made. I went to about 7 shops in the UK and didn’t see any I like – there were all too fussy and over the top. The final shop was close to my UK home and we popped in without an appointment as we were  passing on final day before flying back to Dubai. There were so many dresses I liked but I knew as soon as I tried on my dress that was the one. My mum started crying …. all the family wasn’t there as it wasn’t planned – just me and my mum.




What about the groom’s attire?
John’s suit was from a tailor in Media City which was recommended…Regent & Brummel. They were very professional and attentive. We knew we wanted light blue suits and he went and sourced multiple colours for us.




Beautiful bridesmaids….My bridesmaids were my best friend Sam and my sister-in-law Emily, and our younger cousin Abbi. I also had my younger sister Freya and my niece (and goddaughter) Bo as our flowers girls. The dresses for the adults were from an Australian website White Runway and my flower girl dresses was made in Satwa in Dream Girls who did an excellent job.

The Flowers…The flowers were supplied by the hotel as they have an in-house florist – but I knew which style I wanted and we had table mockups in advance. I knew I wanted ‘Baby’s Breath (Gysophelia)’ and originaly Hydrania’s, but was advised that they don’t last well out of water as I wanted this as part of my bouquet. I kept the Hydrania’s and Baby’s Breath for the centerpieces and for bouquet I went for roses (the wide ones) and lasted so well. The men had baby’s breath on the button holes also. Two of the bridesmaids also had flower crowns.

The Cake… The cake was supplied by the hotel also as part of my wedding package – was 3 tier but only top tier was real. We just went for classic vanilla and kept the cake very simple and eloquent.

The Details + Décor…. The décor was where I put a lot of my efforts and took so much time to get right … this was where we had a lot of personal touch to this. The lighting was done by John’s company, Eclipse. They worked so hard on the lighting and made sure was perfect.
I knew I wanted my tables to look the part and spent a lot of time to source the right supplier and found Party Social – Iman the owner was so helpful. Every time I went to the showroom, I would add additional items to the order for the day. We had table linen (sequins), life size ‘I DO, LOVE & BAR”.  I also come across other décor like sayings which went on the trees and another one across the top table saying “The Devines”. This was worth all the time and effort to make sure it looked perfect.




Memorable moments… our first dance & the speeches. The song for the first dance is a real Liverpool song and very upbeat and just captured us both and we made the best of it. We also had confetti machines which went off and everyone was up celebrating with us. The whole experience was more than what I ever imagined and was so over whelmed that all our family & friends had flown over to spend our special day with us – best day ever!!



Advice for other couples… Enjoy every minute as it goes so quick. Entertainment is key because it adds such a special touch and music brings back so many memories from the day. I would also say … try and make it last as long as possible if it’s a destination wedding as you can relax after the wedding if you have been busy during the lead up … we had brunch on the Friday after the wedding and we could relax with all out family & friends before they left.
Here are the vendors that Sophie & John worked with…
All our suppliers were amazing and played such a special part in our day with amazing memories. I want to say big thank you to …
Photography…Goldfish Photography and Video
Rentals…Party Social
Hair…My BeBar
Make up…my amazing friend Lauren Blower
Lighting…Eclipse
Dress…Natalie Ann Brides (UK)
Bridesmaid dresses…White Runway
Flower girl dresses…Dream Girls, Satwa (Dubai)
Groom’s attire…Regent & Brummel