Engagement celebration – a dreamy picnic to say ‘I do’

This dreamy engagement celebration picnic shoot at the Four Seasons Hampshire brings together some of our key wedding suppliers to inspire you, with real-life engaged couple Claire and Steve as our stars

Design & styling: Maple Rose; Photography: Anneli Marinovich

Getting engaged is always something to celebrate and this wonderful engagement celebration shoot is proof positive that love conquers all. The shoot was dreamed up by luxury wedding and event planner Maple Rose, led by Hannah Snowsill.

Hannah’s vision was to create inspiring ideas for what couples can do, even in the midst of these uncertain times. She believes that, while so many questions have surrounded wedding plans, there are still plenty of ways to celebrate the fact that romance is alive and well.

For this shoot, Maple Rose wanted to keep things real, which is always more romantic. Hannah says: “I wanted to use a couple in a real situation in their own clothes and doing their own hair and make-up. Not only was this to ensure everybody could stay at a safe distance, but to me, it just made the whole day feel more romantic”.

Claire and Steve met in Rhodes and got engaged in Monaco

Enter Claire and Steve, a real-life engaged couple who agreed to be stars of the shoot. The couple met in Rhodes in July 2016, when Claire was on holiday with her two best friends, and hit it off straight away. Their romance blossomed during the holiday, and they discovered so much in common. They found out they lived an hour away from each other and were even on the same plane home. But after that idyllic holiday, Claire says she did think she might never see Steve again.

Thankfully, Steve had absolutely no intention of letting that happen. He organised a romantic first-date weekend in Canterbury – complete with trips on the gondolas that run through the middle of the city. As to their real-life proposal, it happened in Monaco. Claire says: “We were on a long weekend break in Nice where we went over to Monaco for the day.

“After exploring, we had some lunch and were walking round the palace gardens when no one was around. We were there overlooking the sea when Steve got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. I didn’t actually say yes I just jumped up and down with excitement. He had to ask me if that meant a yes!”

Claire and Steve have now been engaged for a while – and with a beautiful baby, life is pretty busy. So being asked to be models for the shoot seemed a fun idea. Some ‘us time’ is always welcome. They also saw the shoot as a lovely opportunity to create some memories – something to look back on from this time as an engaged couple.

“A palette of pinks – with pops of rich yellow – add a sense of glorious occasion to this engagement celebration picnic”

A wonderful team of creatives helped Maple Rose create the perfect picnic setting, all captured by photographer Anneli Marinovich. Anneli says: “With the Four Seasons as backdrop, I was spoilt for choice when it came to creating beautiful images. As a fan of vibrant colours, I loved the bold floral design by Paula Rooney and pops of colour used throughout”.

Anneli adds that the setting for the engagement celebration picnic was a lovely surprise for the couple. “Steve and Claire’s initial reactions when they saw the beautiful picnic laid out for them, was great!”

Anneli Marinovich loved Steve and Claire’s reaction to the picnic spread

With such a joyful theme – and sense of occasion at this wonderful Hampshire hotel – there were opportunities to add dressy touches and beautiful personal details. The pure white china by Whitehouse Crockery paired perfectly with textiles by Northfields Linen. The Embroidered Napkin Company supplied gorgeous personalised words on velvet ribbons used as part of the table dressing.

The sweet finale was created by super-talented Yevnig Davis of Unique Cakes by Yevnig. A delectable fruit-topped sponge cake is most definitely a fitting way to mark a special day. You could say this was the icing on the cake. And what better way to mark a fun and joy-filled engagement celebration for Claire and Steve, second time around.