A Fun, Colorful Wedding at The Palace Downtown Dubai

“When the first fountain show commenced, our venue looked magical and for our guests, this was an experience never to be forgotten. ”

The couple: Julie & Lee Phillips
Length of engagement: 5 Years | Wedding date: 28th October 2015
Wedding Venue: The Palace Downtown Dubai
Photographer: Louise from The Studio Dubai | Wedding Celebrant: Helen Schrader

We met… at a nightclub in Newcastle in the UK on the stairs on the way to the loo!! We spent the whole night talking and we’ve never looked back.

Our proposal… we were visiting my brother and his family who live in Dubai for Christmas and on Christmas morning I woke up to Lee on one knee with a massive diamond… who could say no to that!

What our bridal party wore… my stepdaughter who was head bridesmaid wore a dress from our local UK wedding store but both little bridesmaids wore dresses from Debenhams in the UK.

Our flowers… I wanted beautifully bright colourful flowers and Sanjay from Firenze Flora LLC was great at understanding my vision and delivering this with quality.

Our ceremony and celebrant… We were highly recommended to use Helen Schrader and we are so glad we did. Helen was amazing and once she met myself and Lee, she totally understood the tone and kind of ceremony we wanted. Lee has two children, Liv and Harry and we wanted to include them in our ceremony and Helen suggested a sand ceremony which was beautiful and exactly what we wanted to cement us as a family.

His suit… Lee purchased both his suit, my dad’s, nephew and brothers suits back in the UK from Skopes Suits within House of Fraser Department Store.

My dress… I purchased my dress in Dubai the year before the wedding on another holiday visiting my brother and family. All the girls including my niece and stepdaughter had a day shopping at Dubai Mall but we surprised them by having an appointment at The Bridal Showroom. I had a very clear idea in my head – I wanted a fitted lace dress BUT once I tried these on I soon realised I didn’t have the body shape for such a dress!!! BUT all was not lost! Once I put on the dress by Ellis Bridal, the room broke down in to tears including me and I knew from that moment, that was the dress I would marry Lee in.

Our wedding theme/colours… As we were having our wedding in Dubai, I really wanted vibrant colours to reflect the Arabic culture and the amazing country that Dubai is so our colour scheme was mainly purple but with a lot of bright colours thrown in too. I love bright happy colours. I never wanted traditional muted colours, that’s just not me and Lee.

We chose our photographer because… she was recommended to us. As we were planning the wedding from the UK, recommendations from friends and family living in Dubai were extremely important. Once we met Louise and Jess from The Studio Dubai we knew straight away that we wanted to work with them. They understood we wanted a fun wedding with natural shots and nothing too staged and that’s exactly what we got.

My make up… Monica Hernandez from MHG Beauty did an amazing job on all us girlies. My biggest worry was my make-up melting off my face in the heat but my make-up looked flawless throughout the whole day and night.

We chose our venue because… As 30 of our friends and family were travelling from the UK to Dubai for our wedding, we wanted to make sure our wedding venue screamed DUBAI. Once we visited The Palace Downtown Dubai and saw the stunning viewing deck which has the Burj Khalifa as its backdrop and the free entertainment of the fountain show every 30 minutes during the evening, we knew our wedding couldn’t be anywhere else in the world. It’s unique, beautiful, exclusive and perfect for a smaller wedding. The Palace Downtown Dubai is a magical venue. Camila Semeraro was our amazing contact at the venue and made our wedding day shine and seamless.

My favourite part of the wedding day… Everything!!!!! But when the first fountain show commenced, our venue looked magical and for our guests, this was an experience never to be forgotten. Our wedding was everything we wanted and so much more… marrying Lee was also a highlight!

My piece of advice for other brides… Don’t sweat the really small details because on the day you just won’t care or even see them. Make sure you surround yourself with great people and suppliers because they made me relax and know everything was in hand. On the day itself, make sure you spend 5 minutes away from everyone with your new husband just to connect and take everything in, because the day goes so so fast.