“We met at university in a chicken shop, after a Halloween night out,” Natalie Jade Chapman recalls of her first encounter with Ross Mark Henry Chapman. “I saw the cheesy chips before I saw Ross!”
After eight years together, Ross proposed while on a picnic in Cornwall. On Flushing Beach, Ross began reminiscing about the childhood memories he had there. He took out a full spread of food out of his rucksack and told Natalie she should stand up and close her eyes, as he reached for the last item. “I held my breath, but didn’t want to get too excited just in case it was it was just more food, but when I opened my eyes, Ross was down on one knee with a sparkling diamond ring,” she recalls.
“Believe it or not, Cobblers Cove Barbados popped up on Instagram ads, and after looking on their page and website, we knew it was our venue,” Natalie says. “We had paper and bamboo parasols for the bridesmaids and hand fans for the guests to keep them cool, and this also created the aesthetic I wanted. We wanted an outdoor reception with the Caribbean Ocean as a backdrop with festoon lighting.”
For their summer wedding, the groom and groomsmen wore tailored double-breasted Prince of Wales check suits from Reiss and brown snaffle leather loafers. “It was super lightweight, so perfect for the Barbados climate; it looked so smart and sleek,” the bride recalls.
Natalie never really liked lace and loved the drama of ruffles and bows, so she knew she’d be a Halfpenny London bride. At her appointment at Amare, she found her perfect Mayfair dress. “It features a silk organza overskirt and a dramatic silk organza ruffled sleeve—so extra and so me,” Natalie shares. “The way it moves when it’s on and the versatility in wearing the sleeves up for the ceremony and down for the reception was perfect, as I knew I wouldn’t want to take her off!” To customize her look, the bride’s seamstress made a big hair bow, which she wore post-ceremony.
Natalie doesn’t wear a lot of makeup daily, so she smartly entrusted Brittany Tuleja with making sure she still looked like herself, but bridal. For her hairstyle, she referenced an image of Alicia Keys in Glamour Germany, where she had pearls placed into her tresses. “It took both Hair by Donna and Brittany to recreate this fiddly look,” Natalie recalls. “It took the whole of the next day to remove them, and I am still finding little pearls to this day! 100% worth it.”
The bride’s birthstone is also a pearl, so she wanted pearl earrings to complete her ensemble. The pair from A. B. Ellie was perfect. And Natalie’s “something borrowed and blue” was a beautiful bracelet that her father had gifted to her mother before she was born. She also held a fresh pink bouquet by Events and Décor by Giselle.
On August 20, 2022, guests gathered at St. James Parish Church—the oldest church in Barbados. The bride walked down the aisle with her parents, as an organist played. “I honestly just felt overwhelmed with excitement, and only became emotional until we started saying our vows to each other,” Natalie recalls. “I think this is when it really hit me—all the build up for this moment. It was magical.”
After the newlyweds walked out to the church bells ringing, the party of 25 enjoyed coconuts, rum punch, canapés, and the music of a steel pannist before taking their seats at one long table. Natalie and Ross arrived to the reception in a candy-striped pink boat and surprised their guests.
Once everyone had finished their starters, it started raining, and people opened their pink umbrellas and scrambled inside while appropriately singing “Singing in the Rain.” The two cut their buttery lemon wedding cake filled with fresh mixed berry Swiss meringue buttercream by With Love Cakery by Esther James.
Natalie admits that by the end of the night, the groom had a few too many rums, so she and two others lifted him into bed. And the joyfully bride concluded her wedding day by jumping into the pool and dancing into the early hours on the rooftop terrace.
