Real Grooms: Jonathan Keith

Name: Jonathan Keith

Age: 29

Bride: Lisa-Marie Assenheim

Where did you get married? St John’s Church in Havering atte Bower, Essex with the reception in a marquee at my new in-laws house

Where was your stag do – any scars? At my in-laws villa in Calpe (Spain) no real scars apart from the normal, my usher Chris was unable to come out one night due to a large consumption of Absinthe around the pool during the day!

Best man and ushers names (L to R): Chris Parnell (Usher), Jon Keith, Lee Adams (Best Man) Ross Assenheim (Usher & new brother in law)

What did you wear on the day:

I wanted us to have a very classic look and we had our suits handmade so they could be to my exact design. I chose a 2 piece suit in a dark royal blue and added a couple of small twists to make it individual. I went with a one button jacket based on a tuxedo and all the buttons were satin blue to stand out that bit more. Each person got to choose their own colour lining, I choose shocking pink and the funniest was Chris who choose orange to match his fake tan!

We all wore plain white shirts with white ties tied in a traditional knot, from TM Lewin. Everything was finished off with patent black shoes from Church’s. The whole outfit came to approx £450/£500 each. I wore white gold and pearl cufflinks on the day which I had made (although they were a gift from my wife) and she wore diamond and pearl earrings I had made her as a matching set.

One piece of advise I was given by the tailor was to have a spare shirt for the evening just in case you get hot as the day went on and wanted it to look clean and fresh in the evening when you are likely to take your jacket off. something I hadnt previously thought of but now seems obvious!

What three pieces of advice could you give to other grooms going through the wedding process now?

I would say try and be as involved in the planning of the wedding as much as possible. Many grooms I have spoken to say they leave everything to the bride to arrange, and is it quite stressful for her so you should give as much support as possible, but its also nice to feel the day has both of your stamps on it. I made lots of important decisions about our day which made it really enjoyable for me.

Be prepared with your speech but don’t think about it and analyse it for weeks and weeks, I wrote mine 2 or 3 days before so that I couldn’t stress over it and it still sounded fresh on the day.

However, the single most important bit of advice would be to enjoy every single minute of it as the day really does go by in a flash.

A word for the lady, come on, say something emotional about your bride…

Lisa-Marie looked so stunning on the day and literally took my breathe away. We were both so happy all day we couldn’t stop smiling. The day after our wedding I was really proud of what we had both achieved, and although we had already been together 10 years there was a feeling of more togetherness that you can’t really describe now that we were married; it somehow feels much more complete now I can call her my wife!

Staggered says: The perfect start to Good Grooming week to see someone who has taken control of how they look, specified everything to the last detail and pulled it off with aplomb. Obviously it makes it easier that Jon and Lisa are sickeningly attractive but with planning and forethought, even people as ugly as the Staggered editorial team [Oi! Aggrieved Ed.] [No, actually, that's a fair point, Crushed Ed] can look sharp. Also we’re getting a lot of love for T M Lewin on the site at the moment, so take a look if you’re after a decent shirt.

Thanks to Jon and Lisa for sharing their day with us and if you’re after some bespoke wedding or engagement rings then you might like to see what Jon does when he’s not looking smart on Staggered.

Related Posts:

• Real Grooms: Alex Sutton III
• Real Groom Stuart Herring
• Real Groom Stuart Thorn
• Real Groom Mark Bull
• Its all about the shoes