Jenika and Jamal were married on a gorgeous sunny day in Somerset in August of 2024. Though they live in the US, Jamal was born in London, and bringing everyone together to celebrate in the English countryside felt like the right way to honour their love heritage. Their venue, the much-loved, relaxed and efforlessly elegant and luxurious Babington House, part of the Soho House collection of hotels, set the tone perfectly for a joyful and multicultural celebration.
Jenika wore a divine gown from Berta’s couture collection, before changing into custom made, traditional African attire in honour of Jamal’s heritage. The late-night money spray was a joyful high point – a moment of celebration and cultural pride.
Photographed beautifully by The Curries and coordinated on the day by Lauren Alway, we are so delighted and honoured to be able to share this gorgeous, joyful wedding with you.
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Our venue and location really inspired us. We live in the U.S. but Jamal was born in London and to be able to come back to the UK and celebrate at such a special place as Babington House in Somerset really set the tone for our romantic English countryside wedding day.
The Ceremony
My dad walked with me out and down the first part of the aisle where my mom joined us to take me down the rest of the aisle and over to Jamal.
Growing up, my dad and I loved watching the Lion King. We both cried when we saw it together on Broadway years ago, so I chose an instrumental piano treatment of ‘Can you Feel the Love Tonight’. It was nostalgic and perfect and very emotional for us and for our guests.
Our celebrant was Darren Robinson, a friend and mentor of Jamal’s.
We wrote our own vows which did cause some butterflies, it’s hard to know if you and your partner will be on the same page, but it ended up being one of my favourite parts of the day.
We both poured so much love and thought into them and it was so special to hear from your partner in their own words how they are committing to your life together.
We had inside jokes, many Arsenal references (Jamal is a huge fan) and it made the ceremony feel so special and unique to us.
We had a variety of ring vendors but my wedding band was designed by Jewelry Design Center in my hometown of Spokane, Washington, USA, where my maid of honour and best friend’s father has worked at since they were young. It was special to have him and Jewelry Design Center part of designing a special wedding band for the big day.
I loved our cocktail hour. I was still basking in the glow of our ceremony which had been so special but finally got to relax a bit with the ceremony jitters out of the way. I had been praying for good weather for over a year (you never know what you will get in the countryside) and the weather was absolutely stunning for our day.
I remember holding a glass of champagne in the glow of the sun surrounded by friends and family. I was so happy and having so much fun I forgot to take off my veil so I have my veil on for so many photos after the ceremony which is a bit unconventional but I was having fun and the photos make me happy.
How They Met
It was Covid. We matched on Hinge. The rest is history! Fun fact; Jamal made me FaceTime him before our first date to ensure he was not getting catfished.
Our first date was at Chinese Tuxedo – we ended up staying over 3 hours and shutting the place down. We both felt that something was special and different on that first date. Two years and two weeks later, we were engaged.
The Reception
Our flowers were by Flowers by Passion. We opted for in season, local flowers to feel native to the venue, as if the flowers had already been there, just leveled up a bit for the day.
The idea was for florals to be whimsical, romantic, like wildflowers in the English countryside.
Both our catering and cake were provided by Babington House. Wedding favours were Don Julio 1942 minis. Bride works for spirits producer, Diageo, which owns Don Julio so was fun to bring a piece of her background in the spirits industry into a fun little gift for guests.
Our first dance was to a song called ‘Find Someone Like You’, by Snoh Aalegra. We loved the song and had fun designing our own choreography for it.
Later in the evening, Jamal and I changed into traditional African Attire. Jamal wore a bespoke outfit by Threaded Culture. I wore a custom gown with a detachable cape from Bolenny Clothing. This dress was custom made in Nigeria and shipped over for our big day. I loved how dramatic and regal the cape was and how we were able to represent Jamal’s family heritage and traditions in these amazing looks and celebrate this part of the night with some Nigerian wedding traditions.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
My advice for other brides would be to buffer extra time for EVERYTHING. For example, I would have written my vows in the cute little notebook the day befor – saving it for the ‘morning of’, was not a great idea, because my hands were shaking and I could barely write or read my shaking writing at the altar! I also wish I had a bit more time with my girls getting ready for hair and makeup but I had a 1pm first look so it was a pretty fast morning getting my hair and makeup done, dress on and all details finalised before needing to take first look photos with my parents and then Jamal.
You get so much attention as a bride, you can’t leave your hotel room without getting stopped to talk to guests you run into and with so much friends and family around you, you want to talk to everyone and it’s nice when you have extra time built in for those moments versus rushing around and feeling pressured by the timeline of the day.
Regarding eating – I thought people reminded brides to eat because they were too rushed and distracted to eat. What I realize now is that food is so unappealing for some reason on that day. I could stomach small snacks here and there but food tasted like sand and I struggled to eat much of anything even though we sat through most of dinner.
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The corset dress probably did not help. My reco would be to have some high protein bars on hand – things that are calorically dense that you don’t have to think much about to keep you fuelled on a day where you likely won’t want to eat. Also have your venue or planner leave something easy like sandwiches in your room – I ended up raiding my hotel snack bar and inhaling potato chips when I finally got hungry around 1am and the food was long gone.
Some of the best advice I got before my day was to stop and take in moments you want to remember. I have some really sweet memories of just taking a minute to take in everything around me and remember where I was and who I was with and how happy I felt. The other piece of advice I am so happy I listened to was to not get separated from your partner.
People will pull you in 100 directions for photos and there were times I really hard to work hard to get back to Jamal but I am so happy that our best memories of the day are together and that we spent so much of the day together – it really does fly by.
I really tried to not get overwhelmed with looking at weddings that had budgets much bigger than mine or compare to perfectly manicured social media videos of weddings. Once I found my vendors, I spent a lot of time looking at their work and how they styled their weddings, photos, videos etc. and took my inspiration from their unique styles. I also really had my own vision in my head once we landed on Babington House for the wedding so it did not take too much external inspiration to pull it all together.
Finally, I would have rented smaller shuttle busses for our guests to get from London to Somerset. I had no idea how small the roads would be and we barely fit the large busses on the tiny roads into Babington House. I was quite nervous we would get stranded and I would have to walk a mile hauling my dress and suitcase like Cameron Diaz in the Holiday. Fortunately we made it but I could have done without the hour delay and stress ahead of the rehearsal dinner.
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