What is your most memorable wedding?
Mine, we did it on a small budget in my wife's home village and everyone chipped in , helping with whatever they could. Kaftans, military uniforms, morning suits, pirate outfits, Chanel & Dior we let everyone come as they felt best and had a wonderful day.
Describe your style in 5 adjectives.
Eccentric? eclectic, inventive, embracing and skilled
What about your business are you most proud of?
The service, I will treat you like i would my close friend, i wont let you down or exploit you. I still look after pieces i created years ago and I now call those clients my friends
What is your No. 1 wedding planning tip for couples?
Relax don't worry about what other people think do it for yourself, everyone is there to celebrate your happiness- if they're not its their problem. Dont kill your budget trying to make others happy.
What is your favourite personal touch you have seen at a wedding?
Our best friend singing the Chili Peppers "Under the Bridge" - not a dry eye
Describe your typical process with a couple.
I meet my clients in person either in my studio or at their place of choice, we discuss their vision and budget, they will bring images or design ideas to the initial consultation or the following one, I show samples and materials, we agree a direction and i go off and collate all the ideas into some designs gather a selection of stones for the client to choose, make up the metalwork, have a fitting, make any alterations, set the stones, create the finished piece, polish any other jewellery for the wedding just prior to the day and sit back and enjoy the reaction.
What are your favourite wedding traditions for rings?
Keeping it simple - the Victorian wedding band is the basis of so much of what i create, substantial, comfortable and elegant, don't overpower the engagement ring as it is the lead actress. With the gentleman's ring it has to be robust and masculine, it needs to last a lifetime and we are not kind so it must have a solidity and a comfort fit
What is the most romantic engraving you have seen on a wedding ring?
So many beautiful sentiments, i use one of the finest hand engravers in the UK he can replicate anything. i have had a grooms first love note actual signature on the inside, her flower illustrations on both bands, a western wagon train (don't ask) , Burns, Coleridge, Shelley and Shakespeare- each one is romantic because of the thoughts put into them
Which ring do you think holds most significance for a bride?
How can you separate them, the engagement ring is that first brave promise and the wedding ring the lifetime comitment. They live together as the couple intend to- inseparable.
What is your favourite proposal story?
One of my clients went back to Vienna to the Wiener Riesenrad the famous Ferris wheel, and his girlfriend thought it was coming and they went around twice and nothing. They got off. She was terribly disappointed and blindly followed him up the little hill near where he had hidden champagne and glasses in the snow and he asked her there and then. They have 2 children and obviously it was a yes.