Mr + Mrs Goble
Saturday 28th October 2017 │ Royal Holloway University
Instagram: @amyverse
Amy and Michael celebrated their glorious October wedding date at the same place where they met and got engaged. Their October wedding was something blue with a vintage twist. Read all about their love story, emotional personal vows, literary theme, surprise first dance and the DIY stationery that lead the bride to start her own calligraphy business; The Amyverse.
How did you and Michael meet?
My friend Zach insisted that I went to the Students Union with him that evening for the sports societies night. I reminded him that neither of us were in societies, but Zach nonchalantly said ‘you never know you might meet the love of your life’. We made up a pretend society, The Shark Fighting Squad. Zach happily covered me in glitter and we were ready for the dance floor. When we were at the SU, Zach decided he would choose someone for me to introduce myself to which was very much outside of my comfort zone. They pointed at Mike, who was in a pair of swimming trunks and goggles, clearly part of the swim team and they decided that was who I must talk to. We got on so well straight away, and from there our romance began. We immediately became inseparable. Five years later, we were back at Royal Holloway University for their wedding. It is amazing to know that we met completely by chance, and had Zach pointed at somebody else that night we might never have met.
Tell us about the ceremony...
We started with Union by Robert Fulghum which was read by Mike’s sister Dorrinda. Our friend Will then read “Thoughts In a Garden” by R. Gerhardt, which we picked because it talks about the importance of nurturing your relationship and growing together. Then our friend Bernice read the beauty of love which we dedicated to my grandparents who had passed away a few months before the wedding. They were married for nearly 68 years. The beauty of love talks about how beautiful it is to see an old couple still in love and that’s exactly what my grandparents were like and that is how I hope we are when we have been married as long as them.
Our ceremony was the most special part of the day. We were like children on Christmas morning, we could not stop smiling. All our friends and family told us they had never seen two people so excited and happy. We both felt like we were the only people in the world. We honestly kept forgetting that there were other people in the room with us. Every time the registrar said we were going to do the next part of the ceremony such as the vows or rings, we would look at each other with the biggest grin.
I am so glad we wrote our own vows. We loved sharing the promises we had written to each other and it made our ceremony so personal.
When we were announced as husband and wife, it was the most wonderful feeling and we both felt truly and utterly complete.
How did you choose your wedding date?
Mike is a teacher, and so we wanted to get married in the summer holidays, however, when we went to book our wedding, knowing that we had to get married at Royal Holloway, we could either book the October half term 10 months away or wait for the following year. Neither of us could wait, so October it was. Autumn is my favourite time of year, and I loved getting married then.
Tell us your proposal story...
We went back to Royal Holloway University, which is where we met and studied. We were there to celebrate my birthday and Mike had planned to propose to me in one of our favourite spots, the picture gallery. However, when we arrived, we quickly realised it was an open day and it was filled with teenagers and their parents. Mike said we should come back later that evening, once everyone had gone, which I thought was a lovely idea. When we came back, we wondered around all our favourite parts of the university, such as the library where we spent many days sat next to each other.
Mike then suggested we went to the chapel, which is the most beautiful place on the campus. Initially, it looked as though the doors were locked, but luck was on our side. As we walked down the aisle of the chapel hand in hand, Mike suggested that I took a picture of the hand painted ceiling. After taking the photo, I turned round to see Mike down on one knee holding a ring. It was the most wonderful feeling and we both felt truly complete. Neither of us can remember the words that we exchanged, we were so caught up in that special moment. We were so lucky to be able to go back to that spot on our wedding day a year later and relive that moment.
Tell us about your wedding theme...
As we were getting married at the university we felt it was only right to have a literary themed wedding. We used our favourite books for the table names and we used the book covers instead of numbers. We tried to pick versions of the covers that were green and blue so that they all worked well together. Our main colour for decoration was teal we wanted something vibrant and that worked well with the red bricks of the university and the autumn leaves. The teal was paired with mint accents and they contrasted perfectly with the colours of the book page decorations.
Did you make any wedding DIYs?
I made everything for the wedding. I made our invitations, orders of service, place cards, chalkboards, centrepieces, signs, table plans, displays, bunting, photo collages, favours, thank you cards, and everything else in between. Our house was a small wedding craft factory and I absolutely loved it.
My favourite thing that I made for the wedding was our invitations as it gave me a chance to be really creative. I decided to create a design that looked like a book cover and the inside of the invitation was designed to look like an open book. Mike wrote a story about how we met, which went on the first page and I added some illustrations. I printed them at home and I felt so proud of them as I sent them off to our family and friends.
The decorations followed the literature theme of the wedding, and books were the main decorations, but they took many forms. I spent the months leading up to the wedding creating things from old books that we had found in charity shops. We were always on the lookout for turquoise books that we could use as decorations. I spent hours making 56 book page roses and another 15 for the cake. I also covered 32 glass bottles in book pages to use as vases. It was hard work, but I was so proud of them. They were such a unique decoration and we received so many compliments on them. They are now proudly decorating our home.
I also loved making the chalkboards for our wedding signs. We had three, and I designed them to match with teal and white calligraphy and we put mint artificial flowers around then boards to make them look extra special. I also made a sign to welcome our guests to the wedding which was styled to look like a book shelf.
One of the biggest challenges was making the table plan. I had so many different ideas but I needed something that was easy for our guests to read. I covered an A1 sheet of card in book pages. As each table was a book, we had an image of the cover, and next to it was a library card with the guests’ names and the due date of 28/10/2017. We put it in a gorgeous gold frame and we thought it looked great. This piece was so in keeping with our theme and was incredibly fun to make.
I made the confetti by drying petals from the flowers in my garden – my nan would have been very proud of me. I put the petals in confetti cones made from book pages. I added some simple calligraphy and a book design to a wooden crate and this worked as the perfect confetti cone box. I also made a card box in the same style.
Our guests received personalised book marks as a favour, which were also used as a place setting. I have loved receiving photos from our guests of them using their bookmarks. I wanted to give our guests something that they could keep and use.
After the wedding, my friends and family were so supportive and encouraged me to launch my business, The Amyverse. I love making wedding stationery for my couples, it makes me so happy to be involved in something so special. I would love to make my stationery again, now that I am a calligrapher and I make stationery for a living. It was the wedding that got me back into being creative and helped me to realise what I wanted out of life. I am so happy that I launched The Amyverse after this, it’s been a huge learning curve but I am so proud.
Tell us about your first dance...
One of the most fun parts of the day was our first dance. When I was a little girl, I had images of myself and my husband doing a beautiful waltz as our first dance for our wedding. Unfortunately, as the date of our wedding started to get closer I was reminded that my husband-to-be had two left feet and had never danced in his life. My aspirations of a viennesse waltz worthy of the strictly final flew out the window.
However, Michael knew how important dance was to me and suggested that we did a surprise Charleston dance as our first dance as our guests would never suspect it. I’d been learning the Charleston with MyCharleston in Brighton. The Charleston is a perfect dance for us as it is silly and fun, and we just had such a great time performing it. Our guests were so surprised and they were all cheering and clapping the whole way through. It was amazing. We did our Charleston dance to ‘Yes sir that’s my baby’ by Firehouse Five plus two as this was the music that Mike first saw me perform to. Before the Charleston, we danced to a cover of The Book of Love by Airborne Toxic Event. Mike introduced me to the band when we first got together, and this song means so much to us.
Did you have have anything unusual at your wedding?
After our first dance, my friends who run the company MyCharleston got all our guests on the dance floor and taught them how to Charleston. It was incredible to see all the people we love all doing the Charleston together. It was such a fun way to get everyone to meet each other. It was a great way to kick off our evening celebrations. As Mike had just done the charlteston for our fist dance and he has two left feet, no one could use the excuse that they could not dance to avoid joining in.
We decided to have a sweetheart table, and that was one of the best decisions that we made. It meant we got time together to take the day in. Many people would often mention to us that they seemed to spend little time together outside their ceremony on the day. The sweetheart table gave us a chance to reflect on our lovely ceremony as well as watch our guests enjoying their meals.
We were meant to leave at 11.30pm, but we were having so much fun, we decided to stay until 12. Just before 12 as it was announced they we were going to be leaving, all our friends and family formed a huge wedding arch for us to run through. It was a wonderful way to end the day. As we walked towards our car, the bell of the clock chimed midnight. I felt a bit like Cinderella.
Wedding must-have
One of our best decisions was to hire a videographer. The day goes so fast and it was lovely to watch it all back together. Our favourite part was watching the ceremony. It was lovely to watch those little looks we gave to each other and to see that our friends were right, we really were the most excited and happy people.
You can watch Amy + Michael's beautiful wedding video here.
Venue: Royal Holloway UniversityPhotographer: Gyan Gurung PhotoVideographer: Video4adayStationery: The AmyverseDécor: The AmyverseBand: The SoultasticsDancing: MyCharlestonFlorist: Budding SensationsBook page flowers from The AmyverseHair + Makeup: Kitty Boo MakeupDress: Lou LouBridesmaids dresses: Lady VintageFlower girl dresses: M&SSuits: Next
Calligraphy + illustration by The Amyverse
Contact Amy via Instagram @amyverse for all of your wedding stationery needs, from calligraphy to bespoke drawings. Quote 'frombrideswithlove' for 10% off all wedding stationery including save the dates, invitation suites and on the day signage.
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