Shay and Thibaut had their dream wedding at Ladywood Estate towards the end of July 2019 after meeting in London around nine years ago. With Shay’s Indian and Thibaut’s French heritage, their wedding had a certain je ne sais quoi, merging both backgrounds to create an unforgettable Asian wedding with a French twist which lasted three days.
To celebrate their marriage, we decided to interview them to find out more about their day, including the decor, theme, wedding setting, outfits and of course, we even asked them about the highlight of their special day.
Shay and Thibaut chose to marry at Ladywood Estate after feeling compelled to pick a venue that combined both quality and idyllic surroundings. Situated in the peaceful countryside of Leicestershire, Ladywood Estate Asian wedding venue boasted a luxury and unique location for their special day.
On the third day of their wedding celebrations, Shay and Thibaut had a relaxed get-together with their family and friends at Ladywood Estate with delicious food and drinks before everyone departed. As Ladywood Estate is a flexible wedding venue, most couples decide to make the most of their wedding and have the venue over two or three days.
The decor for their wedding was by
Krystal Group
who are locally based in Leicester. On the first day of the civil ceremony, the couple opted for a simple and elegant silk flower arch and table dressing to adapt with their French theme of woodlands. During the evening Mehndi, Shay and Thibaut went for vibrant colours with a small dancefloor, a swing and stylish food carts.
The decor on day two of the Indian wedding ceremony was not short of vibrance nor colour, with a beautiful bespoke flower wall and mandap leading into the luxurious evening reception with dark blue tables and floral centerpieces.
If you’ve been to an Asian wedding before or you’re currently in the process of planning your upcoming day, you’ll know that there are many traditions and ceremonies involved, meaning that several outfit changes are no surprise.
Shay decided to wear a traditional white wedding dress for the civil ceremony, a coloured outfit for the Mehndi, a heavily embroidered wedding gown in neutral tones for the Indian wedding then followed by her evening dress.
Thibaut wore a classic navy blue suit for both the civil ceremony and Mehndi, followed by a navy blue and gold sherwani for the Indian ceremony and a light blue jacket and navy blue trousers for the evening reception.
Both the bride and the groom were situated in the
bridal suite
and groom suite of Ladywood Estate prior to the wedding where they were getting ready.
Shay says “Before the wedding there were mixed feelings of nerves and excitement to get the event started. Making sure everything was ready and perfect for our guests’ arrival was the only stressful part of the day, but The Ladywood Team made sure the day ran so smoothly and we had nothing to worry about!”
Shay and Thibaut’s wedding reception consisted of approximately 180 guests who were welcomed with pre-dinner drinks in the Ladywood Orangery, which created the perfect setting for a champagne reception with a private terrace and woodland setting.
They then made their entrance to Dhol players and their chosen DJ. Afterwards, Shay, Thibaut and their wedding guests went on to their delicious food, speeches and dancing when the Dhol and guest Sax players did a set with the DJ.
Amongst all the exciting wedding traditions, food plays a big starring role for many. Catering plays an important part in your wedding, as the food can really make your special day stand out.
On the first day of the wedding celebrations, the couple opted for a buffet lunch and a Mehndi buffet dinner, which was catered for by
Indigo Leicester, who are one of our approved caterers at Ladywood. With the groom being of French heritage, the tasty cuisine during their wedding reception was mostly Indian with a French twist, catered by the Bandook.
Wedding photographers
and videographers play a tremendous part in any wedding day. Your wedding day usually flies by, so you’ll want to ensure you have a photographer or videographer to capture every joyous moment of the occasion
Shay and Thibaut decided to use the highly-talented Dragos Ionita at
Glamour Weddings
for the photography during their special day. Glamour Weddings attended the wedding with a small team who also filmed the videography to capture every moment of the day.
Ladywood’s country house wedding venue is set in 100 acres of parkland and gardens, featuring two lakes and 22 acres of woodland which give the Estate its name. Ladywood Estate is set in the most beautiful surroundings and looks great from every angle and aerial shot.
With any wedding, there always will be a ‘highlight’ which makes the day significantly more special. As Asian weddings usually occur over the course of a few days, choosing just one highlight is even more difficult!
We asked Shay and Thibaut about their highlight of their wedding celebrations. Shay said “Seeing all of our loved ones in one place and there for us made the day so special. We had around 20 nationalities represented from all over the world and seeing them so happy and clearly enjoying themselves was the highlight of our day. This was the first Indian wedding for many of our guests. It’s amazing that a lot of them are still talking about the experience to this day!
The average Asian wedding takes between 350 and 500 hours to prepare and organise, which may come as a surprise to some. To provide you with some words of wisdom when planning your wedding, we asked Shay and Thibaut for some wedding advice that they would give to other couples who are in the same process of planning their wedding.
They said “When it comes to preparation, you should divide and conquer with both the bride and groom involved in planning. This will lessen the pressure and balance from both sides, which in our case, was our French and Indian influences. Stay organised and list all the small things so you don’t forget them closer to the time of your celebrations.
“On the day, make sure to relax, enjoy and take in every moment as you’ll have your loved ones around looking after you. After all your hard work, you deserve to enjoy it!”
During the celebrations there was a lot of anticipation and overwhelming emotions of happiness, excitement and not wanting the weekend to end! Like many other couples, Shay and Thibaut suffered a sense of ‘comedown’ from all the joy, love and positive energy felt throughout the weekend, with great relief that the event went exactly as planned.
Ladywood Estate received a thank you card from Shay and Thibaut after their special day, which reads “A huge thank you for letting us marry in the most beautiful venue and making everything so seamless from start to finish. Everything went as planned! A massive and special thank you to Dipti who just made the day run so smoothly to the point we had absolutely nothing to worry about. What a genius team, we loved every minute of working with you and getting to know you.”
Shay also adds “Dipti, Jan and Mike were brilliant in coordinating our entire event, making sure things were running smoothly and on time whilst also ensuring our vendors were working hard in the background without the guests even realising. The turnaround for each event was done seamlessly with Jan, Mike and Dipti always on site and on hand whenever we needed them.
“Mike knew also exactly how to make us feel unique and special and immediately alleviated all our concerns in our first meeting by showing us all the possibilities that the venue offered. It was great to have him show a lot of examples of other weddings and he gave us a lot of great contacts to work with, which made our decision very easy. ”
Ladywood Estate would like to thank Shay and Thibaut for allowing us to interview them for our first Real Wedding Guide. We wish you both the happiest marriage and thank you for letting us be a part of your wedding day.
If you have recently become engaged and are looking at a leading Asian wedding venue, we would love to assist you in creating your own personal and unique wedding. We have also created an Asian wedding planner checklist to help you with planning your dream Asian Wedding.
To find out more about our Asian wedding venue, please
send an enquiry
and we will be in touch. We'll also send you our beautiful brochure through the post.
