Civil Partnership Reception: Nicky & Natalie

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/

 

Share this:

2 Comments

  1. Helen on 6th December 2012 at 12:16 pm

    Stunning wedding Bernadette. The styling of the barn is just beautiful and I love those hanging cartwheels!

    • bernadette on 12th December 2012 at 4:16 pm

      Thanks Helen, was a lot of fun organising and I do love Milden Hall for being so quirky.

Leave a Comment





*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.