Last week I showed you the civil partnership ceremony of Nicky & Natalie, I now would like to talk about their reception.

Wedding venue

My clients live in a beautiful renovated modern barn but they really wanted their wedding in a traditional rustic barn. Upon meeting them and understanding their personalities I knew they would love Milden Hall which is a quirky venue I love. The owner Juliet Hawkins is incredibly accommodating and passionate about her venue. I’ve organised a wedding there before and thought it would be ideal. We wanted to keep the quirkiness of the barn but add some glamour. Our numbers were low for the daytime so we were able to have the long banquet tables along with a separate children’s table.

Table Design

The banquet table is Suffolk made and beautiful so we decided to have a green runner made instead of covering it with linen. All down the middle of the table were tealights and small vases with flowers, the sweet peas smelt amazing on the day.

Chartreuse French chairs were hired from Great Hire and all place settings were from Chimneys outside caterers. Hanging from the cartwheels were Perspex balls of flowers.

Personalised menus with the liberty print were tied to napkins using green & plum raffia.

The children’s table was decorated with green art paper, purple plants with windmills, felt watering cans with colouring sheets & crayons + craft kits.

Nicky’s father supplied the drink including some personalised labels for the wine.

Speeches

The speeches were very funny and emotional. Both Fathers spoke then Nicky gave the most beautiful speech which had everyone in tears, she then lightened the mood by giving a speech “from the pets at home” which ensured the tears were replaced with laughter.

Lighting

Wedding creative did a great job of draping the far end of the barn thus hiding the band until the evening, fairy lights were criss-crossed across the ceiling and festoon lighting was out in the courtyard.

Food

The cake was a stunning 4 tier chocolate wrapped design by Michelle at Vanilla Patisserie. in vanilla and raspberry, lemon, carrot, dark chocolate and blackcurrant truffle.

Chimneys Catering Long Melford were selected as caterers for this wedding. I’ve  worked with them many times so knew the food and presentation would be spot on. It was important that the food was organic and as locally produced as possible.

Guests were give a choice of Seafood Stack or Asparagus & artichoke salad to start and Fillet of Beef / Vegetarian or Seabass for the main. Pudding was a trio which included Gooey chocolate brownie – mini tarte au citron – summerfruit pudding

In the evening there was a cheese table, hog roast & strawberries and cream. The children weren’t forgotten with cookies & milk available for them at night!

Wedding music and entertainment:

We had Sax & Honey  (female vocals & sax) for the ceremony & drink reception, then during dinner we swapped the sax for a piano. In the evening we had the fantastic Blue Harlem  who were FANTASTIC!

Thanks for letting Lisa and I share your special day, we had a lot of fun working with you x

Recommended wedding suppliers:

 Wedding Planner – Dream Occasions http://www.dream-occasions.co.uk/

 Photographer – Mark Bothwell http://www.markbothwell.com/

 Caterers – Chimneys Long Melford http://www.chimneyslongmelford.co.uk/

 Cake – Vanilla Patisserie http://www.vanillapatisserie.co.uk/

 Florist – Jades Flowers http://www.jadesflowers.co.uk/

 Celebrant – Linda Morgan http://humanist.org.uk/lindamorgan/

 Stationery – A Bespoke Design http://www.abespokedesign.co.uk/

 Lighting & Draping – Wedding Creative http://www.wedding-creative.co.uk/

 Chairs – Great Hire http://www.greathire.co.uk/

 Signage – Muddy Creek Signs http://www.muddycreeksigns.co.uk/

 Bar – Ibarco http://www.ibarco.co.uk/

In June this year I had the pleasure of my very first civil partnerships, when I initially met Nicky & Natalie I knew we would get on. I became very close to them as we had the same sense of humour and we have continued to stay in touch.

We were totally on the same wave length for their wedding and they gave me the design freedom to get on with the job. The suppliers and I were left to set the barn up on the Friday ensuring the final set up was a surprise. We were trusted and as a wedding planner there is no better feeling. This wedding was featured on English-Wedding.com  back in July

The Brief

An intimate wedding ceremony with close friends and family with a larger party in the evening. A big emphasis on flowers and styling (Natalie) and music and lighting (Nicky). They knew they wanted local and organic food where at all possible. They wanted ‘tradition with a twist’& ‘luxury but not glitzy’. When working on their design I wanted to choose a fairly modern and fresh colour scheme that would work well in a rustic barn and thankfully when I suggested apple green & plum they were delighted. We were able to get permission from Liberty fabrics to use one of their designs, this was scanned and used on all stationery and subsequently the colours were used for the design palette for the reception. We even draped some of this fabric over the old arm chairs by the log burner to create a cosy area to relax. In addition we also incorporated a dog paw into the days design as my clients have many pets and their Labrador was the ‘best dog’!

The wedding ceremony

The original plan was to have a civil partnership ceremony but we were unable to book a registrar on the date we wanted. After discussing some options with my clients we decided on an intimate ceremony at the registrar office on the Friday with their witnesses and parents. On the Saturday we had a Humanist ceremony conducted in the garden by celebrant Linda Morgan. We were determined to have the ceremony outside by a stunning tulip tree and were fortunate with the weather. It was touch and go but I’m so pleased we were able to give Nicky & Natalie the garden ceremony they desired.

Thankfully the rain held off (just) albeit it was a tad windy so some of the design details planned for the ceremony area had to be ditched. We did still manage to tie Perspex balls and buckets of flowers to the tree although they did bash about a bit!

Both fathers walked their daughters down the aisle and Natalie’s sister was a bridesmaid whilst their dog Hatty was the ‘best dog & ring-bearer’. His bed was under the tree so he could nap during the ceremony!

Drink Reception

The drink reception was held in the garden with champagne and canapes and fruit shoots for the children! Sax and Honey continued to play relaxing background music. Whilst this was taking place Lisa and I re-positioned the buckets of flowers to the courtyard area and inside the barn, I’m a big believer in getting dual uses out of flower displays if possible!

Photo credit - Mark Bothwell

Suppliers featured: Jades Flowers, Linda Morgan, Chimneys Catering, A Bespoke Design, Milden Hall

13th DECEMBER UPDATE

Please note that Chloe & Eddie have requested that their personal pictures remain private and as such have been removed, the ceremony post has now been deleted.

Recently I showed you the ceremony images from the wedding of Chloe and Eddie , I am now delighted to show you some of the highlights from their reception. Chloe and Eddie decided to hold the reception at Eddie’s former home in Brentwood, the current location of the family business. The gardens are vast and hold  some amazing views across London to  canary wharf. I worked very closely with Chloe throughout the 7 months planning the wedding. Chloe explained that they wanted a very modern and contemporary wedding with little fuss, they wanted their guests to be looked after all day with food, drink and entertainment. We hired Mahood Marquees after seeing one of their weddings, we chose a white lining for the interior, white carpet, white dance floor and white linen. This ensured the modern feel to the wedding with no-one confusing it with a country fete design! Entertainment was a big part of the day with no less then 10 entertainment elements throughout the whole day (solo singer, organist, jazz band, pianist, evening band, mixologists, video diary, twist & pulse, DJ Spoony, fireworks). I think guests were left wondering what surprises were next. One of the highlights was surprising Eddie with Twist & Pulse half way through the first dance, his reaction was fantastic, I also loved that Eddie got up to sing with the band followed by his Father, Barry .

Entertainment: Jazz band, pianist, evening band, mixologists, video diary, twist & pulse, DJ Spoony, fireworks

Other Suppliers: Flowers, Caterers, Marquee, Lighting & AV, video, Photographer, stationery

This morning when opening my post I was delighted to find a CD from Alan Walter who photographed the wedding of one of my September clients, Chloe & Eddie . The shots are beautiful and I cannot wait to upload them and share with you but until then I thought you might like a teaser …..

13th DECEMBER UPDATE

Please note that Chloe & Eddie have requested that their personal pictures remain private and as such have been removed.

The marquee was very contemporary and pure white, not a smidgen of ivory in sight!

Photo credit: Alan Walter Photography

You may remember some of the beautiful shots from Sarah & Tom wedding in July and their twilight style engagement shoot.  The photographer used was the gorgeous, talented Kerry Morgan, someone I have worked with for 5 years and whose work just keeps getting better and better. Sarah & Tom wanted to create some romantic shots again so Kerry was happy to take them off on their own, the videographer also created some wonderful footage which I cant wait to show you at some point. Ok onto the pictures, I’m not going to comment, more let you enjoy the scene set by Kerry.

I’m so excited to bring you the gorgeous, wonderful, romantic images from Sarah & Tom wedding. You may remember them from their twilight style engagement shoot with Kerry Morgan. and their testimonial. There were so many to choose from that next week I will show you how Kerry created some stunning shoots when the sun was going down, again styled in the twilight style.  I had such fun working on Sarah & Toms wedding, they were a lovely couple and I miss them already.

The boys looked handsome outside Queens College, perhaps it was the perfect buttonholes Lisa helped them with?

In the meantime I helped Sarah with her coset, this is the first time I have had this responsibility but thankfully it was all ok on the day!

As you will remember from her engagement shoot Sarah is a bit of a rock chick so wearing fancy shoes was never going to be her style, therefore I think the heeled converse shoes were fabulous for her. So perfect and looked funky as well.

I love this shot outside the chapel, if only I could show you how beautiful the interior was.

We hired Manor House to play during the drink reception and dinner, we commissioned them to play some rock pieces which on the day went down a storm as guests tried to ‘guess that tune’, for more appropriate then playing classical throughout the whole day.

Inside the hall we used red & white flowers to decorate the tables, black & white stationery and black napkins, just these simple touches bought the theme to life.

The cake was again designed bespoke for Sarah & Tom even down to the lace ribbon to match the stationery.

Look out for more photos next week…..

Credits

Kerry Morgan Photography- the queen of wedding photography!

Joanne Carter Flowers

Katie Druett Stationery

Scattercake

Ok so we have covered the ceremony and the drink reception, it is now to show you how beautiful the grand hall looked. Again thanks to Mydas Photography.  We hired in linen, chairs, stage and dancefloor to totally change the feel of the room – this made a huge difference and worked well with the ivory & gold theme. Again all flowers were provided By Appointment Only Design and the stationery was from Sposini Wedding Stationery.

The cake was from the very talented Linda Fripp.

The music was provided by the fabulous The Soul Patrol and the dance floor was packed all night.

Credits: Mydas Photography

Last week I showed the ceremony for Tess & Gary married on the 10th July, today we are showing you the reception with the photography again supplied by Mydas Photography. It has been so hard choosing which images to show as there were so many beautiful detail shots so I plan to show you some more end of this week. The reception was held at the gorgeous Stapleford Park which is not only stunning, the staff are incredibly polite and efficient.

The drink reception was held in the gardens and the stunning orangery, By Appointment Only Design hung orchids from the top of the orangery and provided the gold day bed in the middle.

In the garden we had a very tall fountain again fromBy Appointment Only Design and used the base as a structure for the seating cards.

Credits

Mydas Photography

On the 10th July I organised the wonderful wedding of Tess & Gary whom I had been working with for 18 months. As always there were so many gorgeous photos sent to me by Mydas Photography so I have decided to split the highlights into 2.I love this shot up high showing the congregation and the bespoke aisle runner from Wedding Runner.

We hired the talented singers from tenors unlimited, this was a surprise act from Tess to Gary, they were wonderful.

The flowers on the day were stunning and so refreshing to have a colour other then pink, the talented duo fromBy Appointment Only Design created amazing displays, more evidence will be apparent when I upload part 2 of the wedding .

Next week I will highlight the unique touches put into play at the reception so dont forget to log on or subscribe so you dont miss the report.Credits: Mydas Touch Photography

At the end of August 2009 I planned the wedding of Josephine and Gordon in Newmarket. We had been planning the wedding for 2 years so it was wonderful seeing all our ideas come together on the day. I will miss our afternoon tea meetings with Josephine! Whilst Lisa was at the church I was at the marquee supervising the final design touches and welcoming the many entertainers we had booked. Next week I will highlight some of the suppliers used in this beautiful wedding.

We thought you would like to see their thank you as well:

I would highly recommend Dream Occasions, our wedding was a huge success, attention to detail was excellent and working with Bernadette was great fun.

Josephine & Gordon

Photo Credit: Kate Anderson