Hawkes & Holland™
Distinctly British Events
Extraordinary Experiences
A Very British Love Story.
There are very few occasions in life when you can reasonably ask several hundred people to dress beautifully, travel across the country, cry before lunch and then dance until somebody loses a shoe. A wedding is one of them.
At Hawkes & Holland, we create modern, beautifully considered weddings across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, from intimate celebrations to gloriously ambitious multi-day affairs.
Some are steeped in tradition. Some bring together several cultures, ceremonies and families. Some are sleek, contemporary and entirely their own thing. There may be a chuppah, a mandap, a ceilidh, a church aisle, three outfit changes, a string quartet, a headline DJ or a Labrador in a bow tie. Quite possibly several of the above.
But for all the flowers, food, dresses, speeches, tables, music and very carefully timed transport, the thing that matters most is how it feels.
That little intake of breath when you first see the room. The moment the music starts. The way dinner somehow tastes better because everyone you love is sitting around the same table. The laugh during a speech that nobody saw coming. The dance floor still full long after the sensible shoes have been abandoned.
That is the bit we are really creating.
We bring together exceptional venues, brilliant chefs, florists, musicians, designers and impeccable suppliers, then quietly deal with the hundreds of decisions behind the scenes so that, to you and your guests, it all feels wonderfully effortless.
Which leaves you free to get on with the rather important business of actually tying the knot.
Something warm, beautifully judged, full of character, unmistakably yours and with champagne poured at a frequency we consider entirely reasonable, purely to keep proceedings suitably buoyant.
The kind of wedding you wish you could do all over again the next day. Although perhaps after a lie-in.
The Sort of People You’d Trust With the Good China.
The best weddings are built by brilliant people, and we are rather lucky to know a great many of them. Some of our suppliers have worked alongside us for years, others for decades, and they have become far more than names in a little black book.
They are florists, chefs, musicians, designers, producers and makers whose work we know, whose judgement we trust and whose standards match our own. They understand how we work, care deeply about what they create and bring that wonderful combination of talent, experience and warmth that makes everything feel beautifully looked after.
They are also wonderfully reliable, genuinely good people and, just as importantly, the sort who have your back from beginning to end. Many have become friends along the way, which perhaps says it best.
These are the people we trust with the details that matter. Because this is one of those days you only get once, and you want good people around you. People you trust, people who care and people who know exactly what they are doing, all without making a song and dance about it.
Unless, of course, making a song and dance is precisely what we hired them for. Like the band.
Lighting, Production & a Little Theatre
The Sound of a Very Good Evening
Cars, Carriages & Making an Entrance
Somewhere behind every beautifully effortless celebration is a group of very clever people doing things with lights, sound, staging, screens and an alarming quantity of cable. Our production teams turn ballrooms, barns, marquees, gardens and occasionally fairly improbable spaces into something quite extraordinary. They understand atmosphere, timing and how to make a room reveal itself at exactly the right moment. You see the magic. They know where all the plugs are.
A string quartet while the bubbles circulate. A brilliant band after dinner. A DJ who understands that reading a room is something of an art form. Or perhaps the artist whose songs have been the soundtrack to your entire relationship suddenly appearing on stage. We work with exceptional musicians and performers, from brilliant talent to names recognised on a global stage. And if there is somebody you have always rather fancied having at your wedding, do ask. We have found that a polite enquiry can occasionally lead to some very interesting evenings.
There is arriving, and then there is arriving properly. Vintage cars, elegant chauffeurs, classic British motors, boats, helicopters, a London cab, a bright red double-decker bus or something delightfully unexpected can all become part of the day rather than simply a means of getting there. We look after every journey, collection and carefully timed arrival so the whole thing moves along beautifully. We worry about the timings, the routes and all the moving parts. You simply make the entrance.
Flowers, Foliage & a Certain Amount of Flourish
The Little Things That Are Actually a Big Deal
Supper, Champagne & All the Good Stuff
From one exquisite bouquet to entire rooms transformed with flowers, candlelight and quite magnificent quantities of foliage, this is where things start to look remarkable special. We work with florists and designers who know the difference between simply decorating a room and giving it a personality. English-garden abundance, sculptural modernism, wonderfully restrained elegance or something gloriously theatrical, we are rather fond of all of it. The only rule is that it should feel unmistakably yours.
Photographers, filmmakers, cake makers, stationers, calligraphers, stylists, hair and make-up artists, and all the wonderfully talented people responsible for those details that make everything feel complete. A hand-written place card may be tiny, but placed beside the right flowers, under the right candlelight, in the right room, it suddenly matters enormously. We work with people whose craft we genuinely admire and whose standards match our own. Because the finishing touches are very often the things people remember long after the last glass has been cleared away.
It might be a Michelin-starred chef, something created by the kitchen of your favourite restaurant, the food you both absolutely love, or Britain’s finest fish and chip van arriving at precisely the right moment. The best wedding menus don’t follow a formula. They tell your story. Beautifully plated tasting menus are wonderful, but so is something hot, salty and wrapped in paper at midnight. It may be the dish you ordered on your first date, the pudding your family always makes or simply the thing you would both choose without hesitation. The important thing is that it is delicious, memorable and feels completely like the two of you.
A Most Marvellous Match
A love story, a beautiful setting and a celebration as wonderfully individual as the two of you.
Tell us what you’re dreaming of. We have a soft spot for romance, a weakness for champagne and an exceptional collection of places in which to say ‘I do’.
