Our Wedding and the people who made it extra special!
After performing at other people’s weddings for nearly 15 years, on 8th August last year I got married!
I know people always say it, and now I am one of them- It really was the most amazing day. We couldn’t have hoped for better- the food, the entertainment, the venue, the photographer, the car and all of our friends and family together, made it a very special and incredibly fun day.
That’s what it was all about; fun. We wanted to inject our own personalities and our own interests into the wedding which, in the world of pinterest, is actually a pretty difficult thing to do!
Way back in 2012 when we started planning our wedding we created a pinterest board to ‘throw some ideas about’. There are so many amazing ideas and creations out there that you’re bound to find some things of interest. We whittled things down to what we liked most and then set about doing it our own way.
The first thing we did was work out what was really important to us.
Venue, Photography and Live Music were top of the list.
Venue.
Lucy, my wife, had a few places in mind and with appointments booked we went to meet with the teams and view the venues. I only had one other – a wild card if you will – that I wanted to take Lucy to see. Having worked at Weddings in the Tithe Barn, Ditcham over a number of years I knew it was a very special place. We took a look around, met with the Manager, Sam, and almost as soon as we were in the car, Lucy wanted to book it! We pencilled in our date – for 2015, as the venue gets booked up well in advance – and as soon as 08/08/2013 rolled around, with Wedding insurance in hand, we went back to the Tithe Barn to officially book in our Wedding day!
Music.
Lucy and I are huge fans of live music and we knew straight away that we wanted to have a band play at our evening reception. There are a lot of fantastic wedding bands out there but we had something specific in mind. After visiting many websites, watching numerous videos and listening to many online tracks, we found Decade. This four piece band had a video on their website showing 3 tracks; The Zutons / Amy Winehouse’s ‘Valerie’, Reef ‘Place your hands’ and The Beatles’ ‘Twist & Shout’.
Between their 2 sets, which were packed full of brilliant songs, they allowed us to play our own playlist through their PA. This meant that prior to our wedding we were able to get requests from our guests, ensuring everyone was catered for!
The lead singer has a really good raspy voice, all four of them are very talented and their set list suited us perfectly. Decade are looked after by Tailored Entertainment. Nick and Phoebe were very helpful and it wasn’t long before Decade were booked!
Live Band – Check!
Photography.
Choosing a photographer was initially very difficult.
We both knew that we wanted someone to capture the day as it happened rather than stopping the day to gather numerous groups for posed photos with forced smiles. There are lots of amazing photographers out there.
We began looking into documentary photographers and browsing their work. I don’t remember exactly when it was that Lucy lead me to the work of Tom Wishart and Murray Lambert but as soon as she did we were both sold. Operating as One Thousand Words, their photography is simply stunning. The warmth of their photography adds something really special to the sheer joy they are able to capture.
For our day, Tom would be our photographer and we met with him on a crisp April morning and over coffee had a chat and looked through more of his beautiful work. We mentioned that there were only a couple of group shots we wanted and he said he normally only allows that anyway due to time limitations for everyone. The more ‘staged’ and potentially unnatural shots there are, the less time there will be for the more natural and potentially more exciting ones. This was exactly what we wanted to hear!
We got on really well and we went home feeling very excited.
On the day, Tom walked among our guests as one of them. It sounds strange to say being that people have come to expect a Photographers presence to be very prominent, but Tom mixed in, and for the most part, did so almost unnoticed. A lot of our guests commented on how amazing this was – he stood back and took photos without stopping or interrupting anyone – simply documenting what was happening around him. A friend I was chatting to had been watching him work, fascinated by his approach, and made sure to tell me how brilliant it was that he was taking photos of what he saw rather than creating the image himself.
As previously mentioned, we wanted to everyone to have fun at our wedding and tom allowed them to do this. He captured the laughter, the silly moments, the hugs, the smiles, the running about, the quiet moments, the jumping and everything in between. I believe that in my groom’s speech I went ‘off script’ to call him a legend, to us and our guests, this is what he is.
Catering.
The Tithe Barn have a long list of recommended suppliers in every area of expertise; each one supplying a top quality service and product. This made choosing a caterer a daunting task. We picked up packs and browsed the menus. When we read the menu of Tourelle Cuisine we drooled a bit. We contacted the Director, Tom Fletcher, and conversations began. He met us at our flat and walked us through all of the menu options. He allowed us to pretty much design our own menu and accommodated every dietary requirement; some of guests being Coeliac, Vegetarian, Vegan, myself with a nut allergy and some guests with a number of other food allergies.
As part of his incredible service, we arranged a tasting of our menu and on a cold November evening Tom arrived with two crates. Crate in hand I lead him to the kitchen where he told me to go in to the lounge and he would get started.
He appeared a little while later to serve us the canapés that we had chosen months earlier. Shortly after this, our starter arrived, followed by the main and our desert trio which had been made a quad owing to Tom offering us a 4th choice!
Dinner the following evening was a massive disappointment!
Cryptically, we raved about the food, not letting anyone know what our menu was until the day. Since the day, we have been inundated with guests telling us how much they enjoyed the meal.
It isn’t just the food that makes Tourelle cuisine so special though, it is the incredible personal service provided by Tom and his Team long before and on the day.
Owing to a cancellation in the Tithe Barn on the day before our wedding, we were able to get in and set everything up early. Tom and his wife Yvonne met my family and I who were frantically setting up. Just having them there helped to calm me down! Tom was assuring, helpful and accommodating and his table set up is stunning. The Glassware and cutlery were already immaculate- even though the following morning every glass would be polished and every knife, fork and spoon would be cleaned and shined.
Tom helped ensure every moment of the day ran smoothly and we cannot recommend his service highly enough. Our guests loved the food and the day wouldn’t have been the same without Tourelle.
Floristry.
It’s probably no surprise that I had little-to-no idea about what flowers would be required / desired for the day. It was entirely Lucy’s department. She met with Kerry of Rose Cottage Flowers and they organised the lot. The flowers were so much more than just flowers.
What Kerry Provides is art. The colours and the arrangements were just stunning and added something really special to the overall look and atmosphere of our day.
Kerry also collaborated somewhat with my mum, who made the spectacular (both inside & out!) Wedding Cake. Kerry added flowers to it which made it a real show-stopper.
www.rose-cottage-flowers.co.uk
Wheels.
Every step of the way, when thinking of each element, and when searching for suppliers we had one thing in mind; fun. We wanted all of our guests to leave having had fun. Every element had to match our personalities and bring something different. With that in mind, when we were thinking of Wedding transport, we wanted to bring an element of London with us as that is where we had first lived together. A red London bus was the first choice for transporting Wedding guests around. This idea was quickly discarded as no-one would need transporting anywhere; the whole day would be at the Tithe Barn.
Lucy, her Dad and her Bridesmaids would however need transport and as a bus would be too big, we thought about a hackney carriage. We looked around for White Cabs and found a few- however availability and distance proved tricky to negotiate and we were left wondering what else we could do.
I cannot remember how we discovered Vinnie’s Vintage Vehicles but my goodness are we glad we did!! From the minute we found Vince and Karen’s website and looked at their cars, we knew that what they offer was exactly what we had been looking for; something different that no-one would be expecting and an overwhelming amount of fun.
Sleepy Jean is a beautifully restored, pastel green and cream, split-screen 1965 “Sundial” Campervan. By herself she is truly wonderful but once Karen has added her personally designed touches, she really comes alive. Karen had really gone to town, incorporating our colour scheme, passions for music and magic and even throwing in some corks that had cartoon versions of our faces drawn on! There was a bottle of bubbles, a card and all manner of lovely little details that made our ‘wedding car’ so much more than just a ‘wedding car’. Sleepy Jean, driven by Vince himself, picked Lucy, her dad and bridesmaids up and dropped them at the Tithe Barn in plenty of time. Vince parked up directly outside which meant that my first glimpse of her was as Lucy and I left the barn after the ceremony. Gleaming in the August Sun, with all of her details clear to see.
This too was the first time our guests knew anything about her and so upon leaving the barn for drinks, you could hear nothing but cries of ‘wow’ and ‘that is amazing’ as they saw Sleepy Jean for the first time.
You can tell that Vince and Karen put so much love and passion in to their vehicles and providing a service like no other, and Sleepy Jean was so much more than just a mode of transport; she provided everyone with something to look at, talk about, have photos in and around and Vince was more than happy to talk about her with our guests.
In a highly competitive world, I think recommendations are incredibly important and I couldn’t recommend our suppliers highly enough.
Stationary.
Lucy had a specific design in mind for our invitations and so we set about finding a maker. Jodie at Wedding Invitation Creations made a sample that we loved and with her expert guidance on fonts, styles, sizes, types of card and colours of envelope, we knew that she was not just your average wedding invitation designer and maker. From the word go she was on hand to answer questions and advise us on what would work and even helped source the envelopes when the ones we wanted weren’t available in the UK! Who knew pale grey envelopes were so hard to come by?!
http://weddinginvitationcreations.weebly.com
Special thanks…
A final thank you should be to a special guest who made Lucy’s day complete.
As a child Lucy was a big Jason Donovan fan and even had a T-Shirt with his face on. In 2014 while working on Annie Get Your Gun, I asked our leading man Jason to have a photo wearing a T-Shirt I had made with Lucy’s face on!
As part of my grooms speech I presented her with the photo along with the T-Shirt which Jason signed ‘Especially for’ her! What a great guy. I told Tom, our photographer, about this in advance and he captured the moment perfectly!
Our tips.
We learnt a hell of a lot when planning our day and leant even more on the day itself. With that in mind, here are my top tips for anyone getting married…
1.
A good photographer is worth every penny. Go all out- Your photographs will be with you forever and having a professional who makes you feel at ease and captures your day how you want it is priceless. If anyone needs a recommendation… you’ll find it above!
2.
Don’t worry about the weather! You can plan every detail of your day… except for the weather. It’s completely out of your control so why worry about it? Put in place precautions in case of rain / snow / sharknados and all will be fine. Make sure you have an umberella (or Chainsaw) that you would be happy having in photographs.
3.
Spend time together. Hold hands. Chat to people as a couple. Before our day we were told of a couple who made sure they dropped whatever they were doing on the hour, every hour to find each other if they had been split up. Whilst that proves difficult, it is very easy to become separated on a day when you’re supposed to be together!
4.
Observe your wedding. This is easier said than done but for us, one of the highlights was when we took 5 minutes to stand back and observe everyone enjoying themselves. The Tithe Barn has a balcony which allowed us to do this easily but I highly recommend it in whatever venue you marry. Plus, when we were spotted, Decade were playing Feeder’s ‘Buck Rogers’ and we jumped about like rock stars on our own stage. It was brilliant!
5.
Leave before the end. This was an idea proposed by my Dad and I’m glad we did. We booked a taxi for 5 minutes before the end of the evening and when the taxi arrived, we jumped in with everyone waving us off and left on a high; buzzing all the way to our cottage. It was the perfect way to finish without ever having the feeling of our Wedding being over.
