One Year on… My own Wedding!
On a hot sunny day in 2019, on top of a large hill overlooking Glastonbury Festival, James asked me to marry him. My first response was ‘Fuck off!’. Then after tears and kisses it was a ‘Yes!’. Once we got home, we started our Wedding planning journey. We knew we wanted to plan a day that felt like us and have all our favourite people attend. Fast forward to the 24th May 2022, James and I finally got married! After 2 cancellations due to Covid. But the result was better than we could have wished for! All our hard work and planning had paid off and we’re both so glad we held off and got to have everyone we wanted there.
It’s now one year on and to spread the love, and take a trip down memory lane I wanted to share with you the wonderful suppliers we used!
Our Photographer- Claire Obrien Photography
I’ve known Claire for years. She’s an old friend of the family and in 2017 I started working with her as a second shooter so when I got engaged, I knew there was no one else I wanted to do my photography. The whole day we wanted a vintage 60’s sort of feel and Claire’s timeless and classic style of photography was going to capture that perfectly! Claire is one of the lovliest ladies you’ll meet! We had 3 portrait sessions throughout the day; just after the ceremony, on the bus once we had arrived at the venue and then after dinner, and each time nothing felt forced or stuffy- it was just fun and we really enjoyed having those quiet moments through the day instead of them feeling rushed or tiresome.
From our friends the comments we had about Claire was that she just appears to be everywhere! They all remarked on how she didn’t appear to stop and how nice she was to everyone, especially the kids we had at our day. My Little brother loved her!
Our Venue- Dodmoor House
When we looked around venue’s we knew we were looking for somewhere that felt relaxed, that would match the warm feeling we got from the church we were having the actual ceremony in and that didn’t need too much extra work to look beautiful! Then we were told by a couple of people about Dodmoor House. Well, as soon as we got in the car after our first viewing, we both turned to each other and were just beaming. We had found our venue.
With Having to rearrange our wedding things got stressful, but not when it came to every interaction with the team at Dodmoor. They were genuinley understanding of how sad moving our dates were, and it was clear we were dealing with people who truly cared about our day. If you want to be cared for then I can’t reccommend Dodmoor enough, from booking to the morning after they were absolutely fantastic! The whole day ran smoothly, every one of our guests commented on how lovely the staff were, the choice of drinks package were great (hello cocktails!), our wedding coordinator Sophie anticipated our needs perfectly and gave me a real sense that our day was in safe hands, which meant we could just relax and party! It was the perfect day and that’s largely down to them.
Our Flowers- Bloomfield’s Flowers
When we started wedding planning I hard mood boards of muted dusty coloured flowers, very in right now. That got thrown out of the window after we knew we’d have to reschedule, for us our day was a celebration and we wanted as much colour as possible. So, I collated a new set on inspiration photos and sent it over to Hayley who runs Bloomfield flowers and the suggestions she came back with were exactly what we were looking for! Big bright and beautiful!
Every interaction with Hayley was great, she was super helpful in the planning stage, setting up the church the day before, moving our flower columns between the church and Dodmoor and the morning of the wedding she was a ray of sunshine when she dropped our bouquets off!
(Also 10 points to anyone who can recognise the accidental Harry Potter reference in our flowers)
Our Rolling Stones inspired Cake- Amelia Rose Cake Studio
So, I think our cake is the thing that needs the most explaining from our day- Instead of your normal 3 tiered Wedding cake, we wanted a recreation of the cake that features on the front of the Let It Bleed album cover by The Rolling Stones. However, this came with it’s own challenge- To find a cake maker who could create this without making it look rubbish. We spoke to lots of cake makers at wedding fairs and venue open days and most looked at a picture and went ‘sure, we can do that’ None really filled me with any hope. But when I got in touch with Leean, she wanted to map it out and really work out what it would take to make this cake- I knew we had the right person for the job!
As you can see, the result was amazing! The detail is brilliant, we especially loved the little Rolling Stones on top which we’ve kept. And as well as looking spot on the cake tasted amazing! The flavours we chose were one tier of vanilla and two of raspberry and white chocolate. The day after the wedding most of our family and friends joined us down the pub for wedding boxing day and there was more than enough to go around.
Transport from Church to Venue- 60’s London Bus by Alpha Bus
As we were having our day split across two locations, we needed to transport everyone from the church to the venue, and what better way than with this 1962 Double decker bus! It tied together our vintage vibe perfectly, all our guests loved it and it felt like a real treat!
Looking back on our day we both agree the time on the bus is our favourite part of the day. Everyone boarded the bus before us so when we got on the only seats left were bench seats facing into the aisle at the back, we sat there with my mum and James Parents for the whole journey just soaking in the ceremony, catching up on how our mornings getting ready had gone and having our glass topped up by the various bottles of fizz that were being handed around. It was really lovely to spend that uninterrupted time with our parents and each other.
Music Choices
Music is a massive part of both of our lives, James Plays in a bands and its one of the things we spoke about for ours in those early dates. So it comes as no surprise that we spent a lot of time choosing our music;
Entrance into the church: Time Is On My Side, written by the Rolling Stones but we used the Irma Thomas version as it felt more soulful.
Songs during the signing of the Register: This Will Be Our Year by The Zombies, Toothpaste Kisses by The Maccabees, Detectorist’s title music by Johnny Flynn, La Vie En Rose by Louis Armstrong and lastly, Baby, I Love You by Ramones.
Exiting the church: All You Need Is Love, by The Beatles. We both worries it was too cheesy but the grand start seemed perfect for walking back up the aisle together.
Walking into the Wedding Breakfast: I Could Be So Good For You, Dennis Waterman. It was sooo funny! Everyone found it hilarious!
First Dance: Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks, individually it’s one of both of our favourite songs so it felt like it was meant to be our song. Then we had Happy by Keith Richards to get the party started with a bit of Rock and Roll! and it worked! it felt like everyone was up on the dance floor.
Other Supplier and Details
Dress: Charlotte Bridal from Tessa Francis Bridal Studio
Suit: Adam of London
Shoes: Anniel Shoes
Hair: Melanie from Changes Hair Dressing
Make-up: Louise Troy Make-up ( I cannot recommend enough, She’s lovely and was so patient with me!)
Earrings: My something borrowed from my Nan
Main Invites and Order of Services: Your Perfect Invite by JMS Creative
Glastonbury Stage Table cards: Drawn Together Art
Card Box: DIYed from an old vintage suitcase, some fake baby’s breath and Card bunting brought off Etsy.
Guest Book: We brought a guest book from Martha Brook, then had a polaroid camera for people to add to their messages. Our guests however forgot to do this until just before the end of the night and the results are hilarious!
DJ: Our good Friend Mark aka Scissors, who used to DJ an old club night and it was at one of his DJ nights where James said ‘I love you’ for the first time.
Name Cards: I DIYed using some tea stained card and stamps.
Seating Chart: Another DIYed project. We used a large photo frame, Ribbons, Party decorations, some card and Photos from our trips to Glastonbury (including the photo of us getting engaged)
Ceremony Venue: St Andrews Church, which is the Church in the area of MK where we both grew up and where my dad is buried.
