Wondrous Wedding: Frankie & Rob

When I started The Utter Blog I really didn’t know what it was going to lead to or indeed if anyone was going to read it! So when emails started trickling in from people who were, indeed, reading and enjoying, I was thrilled. What has surprised me the most over the last couple of years though, is the number of emails I’ve received from brides-to-be who have or are getting married at the wonderful Great Barn in Rolvenden, the place that holds the most fondest of memories for me as I, of course, was wed there a lifetime a mere 14 months ago.

I feel an instant connection with everyone who chooses to get married there; it’s a special venue and a bit of a hidden gem, so when Frankie emailed me last year to say that a) she was getting married there too and eagerly following my blog, and b) could I tell her a bit more about the lighting I’d hired, I obliged of course. Imagine my absolute delight then, when, 6 months later she posted a sneak peek of her wedding on The Utter Blog’s Facebook page. I emailed her IMMEDIATELY (after several squeals of delight), and now I’m very excited to share her day and brilliantly written report with you lovely lot.

You’ll see I’m also sharing some images from the set-up day before. Selfishly because it brings back such amazing memories from my own set-up day, but also because it eases you in to Frankie’s lovely tale of how her and Rob met. Enjoy…

All photography by Jeremy Freedman

“Rob and I met at a work party (snore) complete with Cantonese buffet and late-night karaoke which, on paper, is a pretty classic way to meet your future spouse, except that Rob didn’t actually work at the same place as me so technically wasn’t supposed to be there! He’d done work experience with them in a totally different part of the country and had been given a special invitation to come along to the party in London as he’d done such a good job. He was a stowaway, essentially the only man in the room I didn’t know, and his smile knocked me out from across the room. Me being me, I tactically ‘ran into’ him and a colleague of mine at the bar who then introduced us.

We chatted for a little bit but didn’t really speak to each other much until we all got thrown out of the venue at the end of the night. We ended up walking to the night bus stop together with a friend of his who had had one too many shandies.  It was a bit awkward saying goodbye, and then I just watched him get on the bus without even a phone number, email address, carrier pigeon instructions… nothing. I thought I’d never see him again.

Of course in the age of Facebook, nothing is ever over. A few days later he was tagged in a picture by said drunken friend, so I went out on a limb and messaged him.  We then continued to message each other lots about loads of stuff including advice on where to live as it turned out he was moving to London! We then went on a proper ‘date’, he moved into a crazy house in Mile End with 10 housemates and two cats, and 5 years later we got engaged.  What I didn’t know at the time was that he actually hadn’t been planning to move to London at that point at all. But he went out and got a job, found somewhere to live, and moved here on a total whim all because of a girl he hardly knew that he’d met at a work party. Nuts. Classic Rob.”

“We wanted our wedding day to be fun, informal, and personal to us. We had a small search area venue-wise as we needed to be as close as possible to Rob’s family home in Tenterden.  After visiting a whole bunch of different types of venues offering varying levels of essentially ‘package’ weddings, we went for the Great Barn as it gave us loads of flexibility and the chance to create a day that was ours. There were no stipulations about suppliers, no corkage fees… we could do as we pleased pretty much which felt brilliant. It also meant we could have the ceremony and reception all in one place which kept things nice and simple. PLUS we’d also found The Utter Blog along the way and followed the planning of Sama’s own wedding which massively inspired us and gave us the confidence to go for it!”

“Our ceremony was short and sweet. I was utterly terrified of the whole ‘spectacle’, and writing our own vows just seemed to bring too much pressure with it, but we did add some personal touches. We asked my dad to sing for us. He’s a carpenter/builder by day and blues musician by night, so we picked a beautiful song by blues man Eric Bibb called ‘For You’.  It was amazing- I cried. Our friends’ 6 month old baby, Alba, loves music and also decided to ‘sing’ along during his performance which was mega cute! Then Rob very bravely said that he’d like to do a reading as part of the ceremony, the content of which wasn’t revealed to me until the ceremony itself. He chose a traditional Native American poem — it was such a good choice and beautifully read. Again, I cried…”

“I’m a graphic designer — by default I like things to look nice, and so I had the most fun (and therefore stress) planning the overall look of the day. My style is a little bit eccentric, colourful and eclectic — I like to think of it as a sort of creative, organised chaos! I wanted to extend the feeling we have in our own home into the barn, to kind of welcome our guests into our new family home, offer them a seat at our new family table… that kind of thing.

As an extension of this idea I really wanted 100% wooden trestle tables but the shape of the space, and our budget, just wouldn’t allow for this so we opted for round tables with cloths. Pretty standard stuff, but SO efficient, affordable and actually more guest-friendly. In terms of seating, I opted for a mixture of mismatched dining chairs and lime-washed chiavari chairs, the combination of which looked SO brilliant. We also hired in a beautiful yellow chaise longue in mustard yellow from the lovely Jenny at Bellaboo and Beau for us to sit on during the ceremony (£50 well spent!), and I bought a 9m-long carpet runner so I could walk down the aisle bare foot. It was a bargain but utterly filthy when it arrived so we spent a weekend in the yard in Kent with a domestic carpet cleaner… the things I did for this wedding!

So what else did we fill that big empty barn with? Myself, my bridesmaids, and Man of Honour made approximately 80m of bunting in my chosen colours of pink, blue and yellow with flashes of gold. We bought a bunch of cheap, papier-maché letters from eBay which we spray painted white and gilded gold leaf along the edges. These were used as table ‘numbers’, as a sign for the cake table and at the bar. We bought around 60 cheap, old books with nice coloured covers (again on eBay) to use as props on the tables and generally around the space. And my mum and my aunt hand-picked all the flowers two days before at Blooming Green in Kent, and arranged them all in jars for the tables and to hang on the back of the chairs.

Lighting-wise, we hired light-up letters from the fabulous Amanda at Doris Loves. Then all other lighting we got from the amazing IA Sound and Light. We had festoon lights hanging in the main space and out to the marquee at the back of the barn which were surprisingly easy to hang and we only had a couple of breakages! We also hired in a bunch of floor cans to use in the darker corners of the barn, plus a few for the stage area with coloured gels. We also got a cheese-tastic DJ lighting package which, when we were setting it up, I thought looked RIDICULOUS but actually, when the lights went down were amazing!

In terms of other little details, I made fun bow ties for all of the men in different shades of pink, blue and yellow, along with matching pocket squares. And we painted Rob’s old guitar white and asked guests to play it and write messages on it throughout the day. What with everything else going on though, it wasn’t very well signposted so wasn’t as successful as we’d hoped! I also made little monsters out of socks for the kids table which went down a treat.

I’m not a particularly ‘girly’ girl, so booking in to a more traditional bridal shop was never going to be for me. This, combined with the fact that my engagement ring and both of our wedding rings were all antique, meant I always knew I’d go down the vintage route.

I had been expecting to traipse across London, scouring through vintage rails for months on end, but when it came down to it all it took was one trip with my mamma to Annie’s Vintage, an amazing boutique in Angel.  Annie only has one rail of wedding dresses in her magical shop but it’s FULL of gems, all selected by her, and my-oh-my does she have an eye for beautiful dresses. I probably tried on about 75% of them and in the end I bought two! Lucky I did because the very bottom of my first dress didn’t survive me running around in the grass all day, so I’m glad I had a backup to change into for the evening!

Rob wore a tweed suit from Walker Slater. He bought it somewhat spontaneously when we were away for a long weekend in Edinburgh. Like Annie’s, the Walker Slater shop was just an amazing experience to be in- we loved it! Plus, at the time, we thought we were snapping up a one-time-only Scottish number but it turns out they have a store in London too so we actually could have got the exact same suit there… but we like to tell ourselves that it wouldn’t have been the same. He wore it with a checked shirt, brown brogues, some cycling-related cufflinks (Rob’s massively into cycling) and a slightly silly yellow bow tie that I made.”

“Our most memorable moment was probably down to our friend, Sam, who bravely put himself forward to DJ in the evening and put together an awesome playlist full of songs we love, plus a few surprises. Not only did he basically choose our first dance song for us (a whole other story), he also put on a stonking last 10 minutes of the night. This included two ‘essential’ songs that we had asked for- Livin’ On a Prayer for the air-guitar players amongst us (and my mum who’s a massive Bon Jovi fan), and Man in the Mirror because we just love it (CHOOOOOOON). BUT the surprise moment was that he threw in Never Forget by Take That in between the two. After Bon Jovi, everyone was on a massive high and this resulted in a massive sing-a-long, lots of drunken arm waving, simultaneous gospel-style hand clapping, and me and Rob in the centre of a big circle of love high-fiving all our guests. It was drunken, it was awesome; we loved it.”

“My favourite part of the planning process was actually the two days we spent in the barn prior to the wedding setting everything up. Ironically, it was actually the least stressful part of the whole thing, as finally everything we’d been chatting about for months on end was happening. We couldn’t squabble about it or change our minds on things; we were just getting on with it and it was brilliant fun!

Both of our families were there — including some of my family from the states who had flown over for the wedding — and everyone mucked in to bring the space to life. After planning it for the best part of 18 months totally on our own it was really nerve-wracking waiting to see if the vision we had in our heads was actually going to turn out OK in reality. Of course when you’re setting everything up you don’t really have much of a chance to think about it, but when the last few flowers were being put in place and we did a final sweep of the floors and looked at what we’d achieved, it really was such a brilliant and emotional feeling and it was amazing to have shared it with our families and close friends.

For that very reason, if you can face it, I would 100% recommend a ‘DIY’ wedding. It’s stressful and infuriating at times, but SOOOOO satisfying to see it come together and see how every person in that room had contributed and made an impact on how the day will be.”

Ahhhh, it just brings everything back! I remember feeling that mixture of satisfaction, elation and anticipation when we did the final floor sweep having prepped the day before, the spontaneous drunken song that had our guests surrounding and serenading us at the end of the night, and, of course, that beautiful barn and setting which really does provide the perfect backdrop for a relaxed, fun, DIY wedding.

Thank you Frankie for getting in touch and allowing me to share your beautiful day on here. It really does feel right to do so, and I hope my readers have enjoyed your write-up as much as I have putting it together! And, of course, a huge thank you to Jeremy Freedman who took such lovely photos.

Happy Wondrous Wedding Wednesday everybody!

Sama xxx

 

 

Our Wedding Part 3: P-A-R-T-Y

So where were we? Ah yes, Paul and I were walking in to rapturous applause.

We’d had a magical, laughter-filled ceremony, we’d hugged and high-fived our guests in the orchard, we’d posed and nuzzled our way through a portrait shoot with Dominique, and now our guests were at their seats and on their feet to whoop, holler and welcome us in to the barn. A thrilling ten seconds, I have to say- and one of my favourite parts of the day.

All images by Dominique Bader unless otherwise stated.

I don’t have any images of the food as our photographer was enjoying a well-earned break after four hours of finger-clicking, but I can tell you that the food and service provided by Tatlers Catering was marvellous. As we chowed down on a Mediterranean-inspired feast of antipasti, roast beef and melanzane parmagiana, I took great pleasure in sitting back and watching everyone talking, supping wine, enjoying their food and generally having a lovely, relaxed time. I ate quite lightly- the adrenaline was keeping the hunger at bay- and was conscious to take a swig of water with every swig of wine. A total lush usually, I was determined NOT to get trollied on my wedding day. (And I succeeded- just!)

Despite toying with the idea of doing the speeches before dinner, or slotting them between courses, we stuck with tradition in the end and they went one after the other once the main course had been cleared (but before The Great Wedding Bake-Off). I won’t go in to details about the speeches as it’s pretty dull if you don’t know the people involved, but I loved all 45 minutes of them, from my Dad’s short and sweet intro to the Best Man’s showman-style conclusion. There was A LOT of laughter.

I gave a little speech myself (I say little, I think I may have hogged the microphone for longer than anyone else- my bad), as I wanted to say a few personal thank yous and give a special mention to my beloved Gran who had died only 6 months prior and yet financed a large chunk of the wedding. But my favourite speech of all was Paul’s. Seventeen months of fretting and dread that boy put himself through, and yet he delivered the warmest, calmest, funniest speech of them all. I was a very proud wife.

Speeches done and evening guests already beginning to arrive, Paul and I were whisked off for our second portrait shoot/ nuzzling session with Dominique whilst our guests helped themselves to cake and coffee.  I loved this second shoot, and would recommend everyone doing a couple of photographic sessions where possible. Not only was the light completely different, but we were physically more relaxed, and if you zoom in on some of the images… just a little bit tipsy.  As we kissed and laughed and congratulated each other on our respective speeches and all-round brilliance, Dominique snapped away, but we were soon lured back to the barn (and our newly-arrived guests) to start some serious p-a-r-t-y-ing.

And p-a-r-t-y, we did.  Laura and the team had re-arranged the barn again whilst our guests gorged on cake, and the set-up was very simple; on the lower level was the bar, band and dance floor (handy hint- if you want people to dance, put the bar and the dance-floor near to each other), and on the upper level was the seating area and the polaroid guestbook table. Out back, there was a fire pit with hay bales, blankets and s’mores, and the aptly-named Van Dough, a little retro Citroen van that came all the way from south-east London to serve the most amazing pizzas all night long. And they brought fairy lights with them and everything. Total stars.

Our band were the phenomenal Flood The Floor, a five-piece of male musical hotness who were perhaps the biggest triumph of the whole evening. I’d always wanted a band rather than a DJ (there’s nothing quite like live music) so was absolutely delighted when Paul’s grandparents offered to buy us one as a wedding gift. A pleasure to deal with (and to look at, ahem), we started dancing during their sound check and didn’t finish until they started packing up at the end of the night. Random guests were called up on stage at various points to sing, dance and, erm, rap (that last one was my ‘contribution’), and I’ve lost count of the number of compliments we received about them in the hours/days/weeks after the wedding. So they kept getting overexcited and exceeding the noise limiter- who cares? All that happened was the lights temporarily went off, but with the music still playing we simply continued to dance under the LED-lit paper lanterns until the power was switched back on again.

Book them, and you will have one hell of a party. I can assure you.

So as the sun went down the music played, the people danced, the pizzas were eaten, the drink flowed and fun times were had. You may remember The Great Guestbook Debate where I waxed lyrical about how much I wanted a polaroid picture guestbook, but wasn’t sure if I could go there financially. Well a couple of days later my scha-mayzing manager at the boutique came in to work with a Fuji Instax camera she’d dug out from her attic and I almost spontaneously combusted with gratitude. (No, seriously- it made my day.) I bought enough film for 60 pictures, a book, pens and photo corners from Paperchase, and the day before the wedding we mocked up a quick streamer background to add a flash of colour.

It was a resounding success!

From the inside of one amazing guestbook. Images my own.

My brilliant bridesmaids spent a huge part of the evening spreading the word and getting the book filled (largely with pictures of themselves although they’re absolute corkers so I forgive them), and that night when Paul and I got back to our hotel room we sat on the bed opening all our cards and dissecting this immense creation of love, drunkeness and hilarity. I’ve gone through it at least twenty times since then and find something new to laugh at nearly every time.

Our wedding day was even more FUN, even more RELAXED, and even more FULL OF LOVE than I ever could have hoped for. Even now, more than three months later, there’s little I would change. In retrospect I wish that we had asked our photographer to stay for longer (although, as she’d just had a baby she probably wouldn’t have been too keen). Although you don’t want hours of dancing shots there are a few more elements I would have liked captured- the outside area once the sun had set and all the candles/lamps were lit, the queues for the pizza van and the consequent gorging, the polaroid guestbook table being utilised and abused, and the epic last dance (see below). Also, I don’t feel so strongly about it now, but in the immediate days after I wished we’d started proceedings just an hour earlier. We had to be off site by midnight (which Paul and I were actually fine about), but with dinner and speeches running a little over, the party didn’t really get in to full swing until 9pm which meant the evening did feel a little cut short.

Having said that, we went out on an absolute high… quite literally. We didn’t want a first dance, as Paul *hates* dancing and I *hate* shuffling awkwardly. But I knew we’d end up having a ‘last dance’ (Paul + alcohol = compliancy), and had asked Flood The Floor to learn Love Is In The Air from my favourite film of all time, Strictly Ballroom. As the music played our guests formed a circle around us, linking arms to sing and sway drunkenly whilst Paul and I shuffled and twirled in the middle. (Well, I twirled and Paul shuffled. ) My last prevailing memory is of being picked up and held aloft by a group of particularly strong guests to the sounds of “Sama’s in the air…!”.  As I said, pretty epic.

So that’s Our Wedding in a three-part report. It’s hard to believe that three months have passed and it’s freakin’ September already?! There are a couple more wedding posts to come, starting with a dissection of our Wedding Bar and the amounts of alcohol purchased and consumed, but in the meantime I’ll leave you with this- our last dance (with lift!) in all it’s drunken, shaky, technicolor glory…

Paul’s gonna kill me.

Sama xxx

Our Wedding Part 2: I Dos and Festoons

Good morning one and all! Right, I’m diving straight in to Part 2 of Our Wedding Story. Apologies for the two-week break- I think I got a bit sick of looking at my own face, and following the launch of the Utterly Wow website, the feature on Rock My Wedding, new enquiries and an upcoming client wedding this weekend I’ve been a bit of a busy bee! But I can’t leave you hanging with only Part 1 of a three-part story (plus I do love talking about it really) so I’m pressing on. Shall we?

A Blank Canvas

The Great Barn is a wonderful blank canvas venue. Obviously you have to like wood (there’s quite a lot of it) but it’s high ceilings, original beams and wonky bits lent itself to some really quite simple décor for the ceremony. I was going to town with colour and life for the reception, but for the part where we made our lifelong promises I wanted something a little more… raw. Regular readers will know of the many backdrop ideas I’d toyed with, but in the end (and largely because I was running out of time and money) I decided on a simple backdrop of festoon lighting. I hoped it would be romantic with a touch of theatricality, and, well, just look at that picture. It makes me want to jump in and say my vows all over again!

I chose antique-black stained chiavari chairs for a touch of old-school glamour, and lined the aisle chairs with a pop of flower power. (That pink feathery flower is called Astilbe- I LOVE it.)

As before, all images are by the wondrous Dominique Bader.

A Twinkly Blur

The ceremony itself was a twinkly, magical, laughter-filled blur. I walked in to the 80’s pop classic, ‘Only You’ (you know, the one that is being played in the final episode of The Office when Dawn returns to the party and kisses a heartbroken Tim). The version I chose was by a Canadian a capella group called Straight No Chaser, and despite weeks of struggling to choose and edit the damn song, my bridesmaids took off way before their cue and before I knew it I was down the aisle myself, having beamed at anyone and everyone along the way.

I remember reaching Paul and saying quite loudly, “Well, this is fun!” which wasn’t planned but made everyone laugh. And then Paul leant over, whispered he liked my dress and the ceremony began.

Looking back now, the whole experience is indescribable really. There were moments of sobriety and seriousness, and moments of pure joy and laughter. At times I was very aware that there were 97 people watching on, and at other times it felt like Paul and I were the only people in the room. We were in contact with each other the whole way, whether we were shoulder to shoulder, or holding hands, or arms around each other. Paul had been so anxious he’d get emotional but we both held it together thanks to lots of hand squeezes, eye contact and encouraging grins. Plus in the words of Darius, there was a lot of love in the room.

Meaningful Words

We only had one reading- a version of The Vow by Wendy Cope which I’d adapted for two voices so that my step-sisters could read it. You can read the original version here, but this is what my step-sisters said, taking a line each:

She cannot promise never to be angry.

He cannot promise always to be kind.

They know what they are taking on, our sweethearts; it’s only at the start that love is blind.

And yet she’s still the one he wants to be with

And he’s the one for her, of that she’s sure

She is his closest friend, his favourite person

He is her lover and the home she’s waited for

He cannot promise that he will deserve her from this day on. He hopes to pass that test.

She loves him and she wants to make him happy

They promise they will do their very best.

An emotional pair, they sobbed their way through (although their attempts to man up caused much amusement- I love the photo of the registrar in hysterics) and then we were asked to take centre-stage again to say our vows; an amalgamation of personal promises I’d found from across the internet, and which I felt had meaning to us without being too cheesy. They were:

“I, xxx, take you, xxx, to be my lawfully wedded husband/wife ~ In doing so, I promise to be your loving wife/husband ~ to cherish your love, intellect, and uniqueness ~ to support and inspire you ~ to delight in your happiness and comfort you in sorrow ~ to create with you a home which celebrates kindness, joy, good food and laughter ~ and I do all this unconditionally and without hesitation.”

The exchange of rings was quick and faultless, and before we knew it we were declared husband and wife. Cue a rather pregnant pause where the registrar didn’t invite us to kiss. I love the photos during this moment with me, arms outstretched saying, “Well kiss me then!”, Paul checking with the registrar that it was ok to kiss me, and finally… the kiss itself. Which was fab.

Married (and relieved) we sat down to sign the register whilst our brilliant and talented friends, Alice and Jeff, sang ‘You and I’ by Ingrid Michaelson (with an audience sing-a-long, I’ll have you know), and then we were announced back down the aisle to whoops and showers of confetti… minus the confetti. Unbeknownst to me the registrar had requested in her introductory speech that only bio-degradeable confetti was thrown. Ours was, but our guests didn’t know this. (Curses!)

We got showered in the stuff outside though, so it was all good.

A Fiesta Feel

Whilst we were kissed and hugged and photographed and handed drinks and congratulated, the barn was being speedily turned round by my coordinator, Laura, and the brilliant staff at Tatlers Catering. Just before guests were asked to take their seats for dinner I popped to the loo, and couldn’t resist poking my head inside the barn to see how it was looking.

To say I was blown away is a total understatement.

I know it sounds ridiculous but I can honestly say that this was one of my favourite moments of the day. Obviously I was overjoyed to finally be married to Paul but that was the easy part. I would have done that in my sleep or dressed as a giant banana if I’d had to. That’s not what I’d spent 17 months imagining, procrastinating, pinning, blogging and preparing for. The creative process had been my joie de vivre and seeing the barn set up for the reception- from the lanterns and festoons to the tables, centrepieces, signage and bar was ah-may-zing.

Remember table-linen-gate? In the end I bought a beigey/grey linen-look fabric from eBay which my clever and long-suffering Mum turned in to floor length table cloths. I don’t think we actually saved any money this way but they’re mine to keep now, and potentially hire out through Utterly Wow. (If you’re interested do get in touch for more information.) Then we had an array of runners in black and white stripes, gold sequins and orange shot silk, and the pimped-up jam jars, table numbers and flower arrangements were on wooden roundels in the centre. A selection of tealights, menu cards by Kate Ruth Romey and home-made ribbon napkin holders in an assortment of colours completed the look of the tables.

Let Them Eat Cake

Ahhh, the cakes. The Great Wedding Bake-Off was a roaring success, although it didn’t come without it’s faults (more on that later). Décor-wise, I’d asked my good friends Kat and Claire to make me a ‘Bake Off’ sign which was BEAUTS. Then I’d bought a big piece of pewter sequin fabric and left the actual cake-arranging to Laura and the catering staff. I’d asked guests to bring a cake stand or their fanciest plate, and with the addition of the ceremony flowers to the table the overall effect was an eclectic array of rustic, sparkly, heaving, cakey goodness.

What I hadn’t given any thought to (or rather, what I gave some thought to before struggling to find a solution and deciding to ‘wing it’) was how to judge The Great Wedding Bake-Off. There were well over 20 cakes, and with Paul and I being whisked off for our second portrait shoot after dinner and my appetite being non-existant that day, we were never going to be the taste-testers. I’d lovingly made rosettes as prizes and decided upon three categories (tastiest, prettiest and most creative), and what I should have done was made three ballot boxes and asked people to vote. What I actually did was decide that ballot boxes made things too competitive, had a mini drunken taste test to myself later on in the evening when most of the cakes were eaten, and then slyly handed out the rosettes at the end of the night to the people whose cakes I’d heard the most about. Not so slick.

On the one hand I still maintain that I didn’t want it to get too competitive… but on the other people had gone to such efforts it probably should have been taken a bit more seriously.

It did look frickin’ amazing though 🙂

At around 4.30pm ish Paul and I were announced in to the barn to a huge round of applause (and stomping of feet) and the wedding feast began, which is where I’m going to leave you for today I think. Next time I’ll talk briefly about the speeches before concluding with the evening shenanigans, final reflections and the lessons I learnt (including not to believe your husband when he tells you you’ve not bought enough alcohol).

I hope you enjoyed this post and for anyone getting married this weekend, have an amazing day!! I’ll be running around a hippy commune in Oxfordshire making sure Charlotte and John’s day is the best it can be. It’s gonna be epic!

Now does anyone want to hire some linen-look tablecloths??

Sama xxx

Best. Day. Ever.

Ok, so I’ve been sat here staring at my computer screen for too many minutes now, wondering how to start the first post-wedding blog post that basically says:

We got married on Saturday and it was, quite simply, the most AMAZING day of our lives.

Oh wait, that does it! Actually no, without exclamation marks I don’t think it comes across strongly enough…

We got MARRIED on Saturday and it was, quite simply, THE MOST AMAAAAAAAAAAYZING DAY OF OUR LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s better.

Uttersons, it was perfection. As you may remember, it poured with rain all week in the lead-up, but as Paul and I woke up on Saturday (and I got to lean over and whisper ‘we’re getting married today’ as you know I wanted to), I saw these beams of beautiful sunlight filtering through the cracks in the shutters and I knew it was going to be a good day.  The sun stayed out for pretty much the whole day, and despite it definitely being a bit chilly the orchard looked just glorious. One of my strongest memories of the day is looking around and seeing everyone relaxing on the grass; sunglasses on, drink in hand, ribbons blowing in the breeze, with laughter and love filling the air. It was beautiful.

Teeny tiny things ‘went wrong’. There was a bit of trouble with the ceremony music meaning my bridesmaids and I walked in way too early, and Paul and I walked out to nothing but whoops and cheers (not a problem!). The heater that we’d hired last minute stopped working halfway through the day, and the band were so brilliant they kept blowing the power (minor details- it only took a simple switch to turn the party back on again.)  Oh, and looking back at a few photos we’ve seen I don’t think the up-lighters behind the bar were ever turned on.

BUT ALL OF THE ABOVE IS IRRELEVANT.

Our ceremony was a twinkly, colourful, laughter-filled dream, the venue and setting went down a storm, the barn was turned around swiftly and looked SENSATIONAL (if I say so myself), Paul and I smooched all through our personal portraits, the food was delicious, the speeches were personal and funny, the band were BRILLIANT (we started dancing during their sound check and didn’t stop for four hours), the cake table was heaving, the pizza van was a hit, the polaroid guestbook got filled (and is our favourite memento of the whole day so far), and Paul and I got lifted up and carried round the dance floor during the final number of ‘Love Is In The Air’.

Best. Day. Ever.

I want to go in to sooooo much more detail. I want to tell you how much alcohol we got through (erm… and how much we didn’t- we way overbought). I want to tell you more about our brilliant suppliers. I want to tell you about the lovely morning I had getting ready with my bridesmaids and how the rest of the day panned out from my point of view…

…But not today. The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of de-rigging, packing up, loading, unloading, unpacking, sorting, taking things back and de-briefing/blowing our own trumpets with various friends and family. Tomorrow Paul and I are heading down to a beautiful little hotel near Hastings for a couple of days away, and then it’s back to work for me on Saturday.

I’m so sad it’s over, but so happy to have experienced a day like we did. Weddings rock.

And for those of you desperate to see some images from the day, our wonderful photographer, Dominique, has released a couple of sneak peeks which have already blown us away…

Image by Dominique Bader Photography

Image by Dominique Bader Photography

Image by Dominique Bader Photography

We can’t wait to see more!

Oodles of love,

Mrs H xxx

 

Weddings and Football…

… do not go together.  FACT.

I’ve always wondered about those unfortunate souls who have booked their wedding day a year or even two years in advance, blissfully unaware that the date thay’ve pencilled in for matrimony and good times is in fact the last day of the Premiership, and therefore the most important day in many of their male guests’ calendars.  Or slap bang in the middle of a World Cup and the day that- it turns out- England are due to play Germany in the semi-finals.

That’s twelve, eighteen, twenty-four months of planning for a dream day that turns out to be smaller than expected because many guests suddenly have a ‘gippy tummy’, or, for two (three if it goes to penalties) hours of the evening reception the dance floor is emptied and that expensive band you paid a fortune for are playing to a couple of lone Grannies because everyone else is gathered around a TV screen in the bar.

Not on my watch, I thought, when imagining my ‘one day in the future’ nuptials.  I shall make absolutely sure that my wedding date does not clash with a major sporting event.

The 2013 Champions League Final is on 25th May next year.  Our Wedding Day.

I realised this last night, whilst watching England limp pitifully out of the Euro Cup when a sudden lightning bolt struck through my ‘I’m looking at the telly but not really watching’ train of thought.

“The Premier League will be over by our wedding, won’t it?”, I said to Paul.

“Oh yeah”, he said, “it’s usually over by early May”.

“Will you check?”, I asked, panic creeping in to my voice, “… I’m pretty sure everything’s knocked back a bit next season because of the Olympics.”

He rolled his eyes and turned to his phone, and I watched intensely as his brow first furrowed, and then opened in surprise, followed by a small smile of relief.  “Six days before”, he said, “the Premiership finishes six days before”.

“Phew!”, I said- and we both turned back to watch what felt like Italy’s seventh ‘how was that not a goal?!’ moment.

Lightning bolt again. “Can you just check the Champions League?”, I asked, unable to concentrate.

Paul tutted and made a big song and dance out of being torn away from the game, but dutifully retrieved his phone and had a closer look.  A small smile spread across his face again, but this time it was nervous… and accompanied by wide eyes and a manic look that said “Oh shit”.

The final, ladies and gents.  THE GOD DAMN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL.

Ok, so… let’s look at this sensibly.  Let’s be rational and not start throwing things.  The only way this is really going to affect us is if Arsenal make it to said final.  Paul is a huge Arsenal fan, as are his two brothers, and there is ‘no way on Earth’ (says Paul) the game is not being watched should Arsenal be playing in the biggest game of the football calendar come the 25th May.  I briefly flitted with the idea of stomping my foot and screaming ‘No!’- well, actually, I did stomp my foot and scream ‘No!’- but even mid tantrum I knew my protestations were falling on deaf ears.

Now, Arsenal haven’t made it to the Champions League final since 2006 or something, and I’m sure there will be many football fans out there who be laughing and saying there is ‘NO WAY’ Arsenal will get to the finals.   But you see there is such thing as Sod’s Law.  And Sod’s Law says that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.  So we must prepare for the worst.

The Great Barn, as my regular readers will know, is a completely dry hire venue so there is no bar or ‘television screening’ area as standard.  This in many ways is a bonus.  It means that if it’s Chelsea or Man United in the final (more likely- sorry Paul), our wedding can still remain a football-free zone.  But if Arsenal do the unspeakable, we will need to bring in some sort of screen… and have the game playing in a corner somewhere… in silence preferably…

And I’ve got such a brilliant band playing as well.  Sniff.

Has anyone else had any wedding date clashes? Would love to hear your tales of woe if so!  And in the meantime let’s just all keep our fingers crossed that Arsenal have a really shit season…. again.

Sama xxx

 

 

Inspiration Galore at The Great Barn

Hello oh wonderful ones,

I hope good weeks have been had by all.  Right now as I look out my kitchen window the sky is grey and there’s the smell of pending rain in the air.  Just in time for a four-day weekend full of barbecues and street parties (I have both planned), and quite a difference from the stunning ‘hotter than the Med’ weather we had last week! But hey-ho, it wouldn’t be Britain without a rainy bank holiday, eh?

Last Friday my Mum and I had a day of ‘wedmin’ related travels in the depths of the Kent countryside.  The weather was simply glorious, and as we sat on a hay bale in the orchard of the wedding venue, I actually commented “I think it might be too hot!”.  Yes, I have well and truly now shat on any chance of a sunny day for my wedding next year. Ha!

But it was lovely to get back to The Great Barn, having not visited since January on a sunny but freezing cold day.  It was hard to imagine a wedding day without heaters back then, but of course this time round it was all about how to keep people cool!

View of The Great Barn from the orchard

The Orchard

My beautiful Ma testing out a hay bale. (They work.)

With it being late May we’d missed the trees in full bloom but there was still a little blossom left on the apple trees, and the grass had been mown in preparation for a wedding the next day.  I’m planning on hanging streamers from the trees to inject a little colour, but other than that it just needs to be filled with beautiful people and sunshine.

We had called ahead to make sure it was ok to pop down, and were warned that with a wedding the following day there may be decorating preparations in full swing.  Fortunately for us when we got there around midday there wasn’t a soul to be seen; the only sign of a forthcoming wedding being a couple of gazebo roofs and some tables of props inside the barn.  We were able to snap away and really try to get a sense of layouts and logistics which was very helpful.

The upper level where the ceremony will take place

The lower level where the drinking/dancing will take place in the evening…

Yes, that is me playing the air guitar on stage. Problem?

The barn really is so beautiful in its natural state that I’m going to keep the decorations as simple but as striking as possible. The people who were getting married the next day had put some bunting up, and there were lovely little love hearts and signs hanging around the walls, but with so much- well- wood around, I feel it is too easy for all those lovely little bits and bobs to get lost.

I’m taking inspiration from this STUNNING California wedding which has me bouncing up and down on my chair with excitement.  If you don’t think this is beautiful than there is something wrong with you.

Tanja Lippert Photography

Tanja Lippert Photography

Tanja Lippert Photography

There will be festoon lighting everywhere, and a multitude of colourful paper lanterns over the dance floor, but aside from the table decorations I think that will be it.  Hard to imagine when looking back on those pictures of an empty barn, but I know it’s going to work.  Can’t. Frickin. Wait.

One of the bigger challenges is how to make the back of the barn look good.  The orchard is out the front and naturally very pretty, but the back is a little more… industrial.

The barn from the other side

And to the left slightly… the catering entrance where the vans etc will be parked up.

Looking out from the barn

The catering area is ugly but necessary.  And as we can’t be out in the orchard once the music starts in the evening (too close to local residents), this back area will need to be used.  Weather permitting we are going to have a fire pit which will provide some sort of distraction, and I intend to string festoon lighting from the barn to the bottom of the stairs, but apart from that I think I’ll be relying on myself and my guests enjoying ourselves far too much at that point to even care!

The other question to ponder is to marquee or not to marquee? With the entire day’s festivities taking place inside the barn, people will need to vacate the space at several points during the day for furniture to be moved around.  If it’s raining… gulp.  So I am going to have to provide some sort of gazebo/marquee construction (I hate marquees!) for around 100 people…  Yes, there is still lots and lots to think about.

But it was lovely to go and see the barn in all its start-of-summer glory, and I can only cross my fingers and *hope* that Mother Nature looks kindly on us next year.

And just because I know that Paul finds it hard to imagine the barn decorated and full of people (hello Paul, I know you read this), I thought I’d share some images of previous weddings that have taken place at The Great Barn.  So without further ado, here’s one barn done three very different ways…

1. Vintage lanterns and greenery galore in this super-chic wedding- photography by Wild Weddings:

2.  A 1940’s RAF-themed wedding- by Neil Hanson Photography:

3. An informal and fun country affair- by Sara Thomas Photography.

I love this couples’ style and they did some beautiful things to the barn both inside and out- you can see the full wedding here:

Sara Thomas Photography

Sara Thomas Photography

Sara Thomas Photography

Sara Thomas Photography

Sara Thomas Photography

It really is a blank canvas dream.

Have a fantastic Bank Holiday weekend everyone and if there are any Great Barn brides (or grooms) to be out there who might stumble across this blog, do say Hi.  Would be great to share plans!

Sama xxx