We were married on the 29th August 2009 at Westbourne Church.
Wedding Day 29th August 2009
I organised the event in just under 6 months. Weddings take a huge amount of planning and organisation, it can be a very stressful process, however if you are methodical and work through each task until the end, paying a lot of attention to the details it can take away most of that potential stress. Lists and more lists are the only way to keep on track of what you have done and what there still is left to organise.
I bought the Wedding Bible Planner by Sarah Haywood www.sarahhaywood.com/home which came in a ring bound file, it was extremely helpful, as it had sections to fill in, ideas to think about and pictures for inspiration and you could also add your own pages as you went along. It makes a lovely keepsake and something to show the family in years to come.
One of the first exciting things to think about at the start of the planning is the dress!! Having not been one of those brides who had their wedding all planned out in the heads since they were six, I didn’t really know what I wanted.
The choice is endless, colours, styles, lengths etc. I can highly recommend Proposals in Chichester, www.proposals.co.uk who have been running for 21 years. They offer a professional and personalised service and a stunning selection of over 200 gowns by leading designers. There fabulous collection is hand picked to include the best of British couture, as well as top international fashion houses and they also offer a full alteration service. Proposals also sell veils, shoes, tiaras, jewellery and other accessories for the special day.
We also bought our bridesmaids dresses from Proposals, they were completely unfazed by 2 tiny tots, who really weren’t that interested in trying on dresses, but managed somehow to take measurements and stay completely calm around all the screaming.
Planning the reception: The reception venue should not be any further than 30 minutes drive from your church/ registry office. We were lucky in that the church and venue were right next to each other. We decided on a relaxed style wedding held in a private house with a garden big enough to hold a marquee. I can highly recommend Southern Marquees www.southernmarquees.co.uk
Hugh and Mandy Reigate have been running a family marquee company for 20 years. They provide beautiful marquees for all occasions.
Wedding stationary: This can be a mine field, especially if you want something a little bit different to the normal black and white invitations. I trawled the Internet for ideas and came across some very good sites. In the end however I had them designed by a professional graphic designer. www.mintd4b.co.uk
Kate Honey at Mintd4b is the designer of the Frog Hollow Catering marketing stationary and the wonderful frog logo which has been admired by many of my clients.
I wanted a purple and lime green theme with love birds to add romance and country garden feel. Kate produced exactly what I wanted and we were very pleased with the results.
Lime green, purple theme with love birds
For our table plan, which is probably one of the hardest details to get right, who sits next to who is a tricky business. You can buy tables plans to make at home, quite fun if you have the time and a computer with a good printer.
We decided to have one professionally made. Yet again the web was a helpful source of inspiration. The wedding planner company designed our table plan around special places to us. I supplied a lovely picture and the guest list and they did the rest. www.thetableplanner.com It was delivered by post and provided us the perfect way to show our guests where to sit and will now hang in our house as a lovely reminder to our special day.
Flowers played a big part in our day. The church, house and marquee were decorated beautifully incorporating the purple and lime green theme.
A good photographer is very important to capture your day perfectly for ever. We chose a local company who I had met through the women’s business meeting in Westbourne. www.pjlp.co.uk
Philippa Jeffs Location Portraiture offers creative and informal wedding photography and portraiture PJLP’s studio is situated near Chichester on the Hampshire, West Sussex border. Philippa had the photographing task completely in hand on our wedding day. She was discreet yet totally in control, guests and family members were gently moved into positions, and she took some lovely romantic shots of Shaun and I in the garden at our reception venue.
Transport to and from the church for our wedding was in my car! The distances were approx 1/4 of a mile, and not worth splashing out on a hired vehicle. We decorated it with a ribbon kit bought from Hobby craft. www.hobbycraft.co.uk
I made the wedding cake myself, it would have been almost impossible to do the catering for my own wedding, so the cake was a nice way of adding my own creative skills to our day.
It was a delicious three tired fruit cake, which I had made a couple of months before and had been feeding with lashings of brandy. I covered it in marzipan and white fondant icing and decorated it with sugar paste green stems and purple flowers. On the top I placed a pair of love birds dressed in wedding attire. In true tradition we have kept the top tire for future happy events and the middle we intend to eat at Christmas.
The caterer was obviously going to be very important to me, I toyed with the idea of doing it myself, but as time progressed it became very obvious that I would have really not enjoyed my special day stuck in the service tent, making salads in my wedding dress!!
The caterers we chose have been running their company for about 20 years, are very experienced and not only that, knew my family well, having done parties for us before. Cook and Buttle are based near Chichester and offer a personalised service and created a perfect menu for our day.
We had a hog roast as our main course, delicious roast pork with big bowls of apple sauce were served to tables by the Cook and Buttle team and accompanied by imaginative salads and hot new potatoes.
The hog roast was expertly cook by Vic May and his team www.catering4-u.co.uk I have worked with Vic May on a number of weddings, and he produces a delicious alternative choice for your main course.
For the entertainment we booked a jazz band who played throughout the reception and and DJ for the evening. The jazz band we chose came from London, I found them on the Internet, they sent me a disc of their music, which played a big part in me choosing them. Gavin Scott at Bandwagon was wonderful, I sent him a huge list of our favourite tunes and he played them beautifully. www.jazz-trio.com
The D-J Mark Smith was from Sound design and local company based in Sussex, their website was very informative and they offer a lot of extras which interested us. They were easy to contact and were happy to take all of our music and play it and of course the all important first dance tune. www.sussexdisco.co.uk
We had a chocolate fountain at our wedding, which went down a storm with the oldest and youngest guests, and Shaun who is a chocoholic!!
I can highly recommend the original chocolate fountain company, who were hugely helpful and can offer all sorts of styles and colours to compliment your theme with delicious dark, white or milk callebaut chocolate and an amazing selection of dipping foods. www.theoriginalchocolatefountain.com
Groom, ushers, best man outfits: We hired all of the men’s outfits at Hugh Harris in Woking. www.hughharris.co.uk mainly because they offered a fantastic purple waistcoat for Shaun to wear on the day.
Our gift list was held at John Lewis, the only place in my opinion, as they offer the best service and have the biggest range. www.johnlewis.com
We bought all our thank you gifts for the Brides maids, Best man, and special family members from Bell Pigeon. A fantastic company offering personalised glass ware, engraved with your own special wording. www.bellpigeon.co.uk
My hairdresser was a local firm in the village of Westbourne, Village hair craft, they were amazing and very reasonable. I had yet again trawled through the web to find styles I liked and found a simple half up design, which they copied perfectly, I had 2 trials and there were many compliments on the day.
My make up artist was a local lady based in Chichester. I went to her house for a trial, she was able to give me tips on skincare ranges and what would be good for me. On the day of my wedding she came to my house and did my make up and nails. I can highly recommend her www.kathrynmooremakeupartist.co.uk
All of our wine came from Majestic in Chichester. Shaun and I had a wonderful afternoon trying different bottles. They offer a delivery service of the drink and ice to your venue, and they were able to store our order until the day, which was a great help. www.majestic.co.uk
Our wedding rings came from Timothy Roe in Chichester, who was able to design and make our rings for us. www.timothyroe.com
Our first night as a married couple was spent at the Montegue Arms Hotel in Beaulieu in the New Forest, a lovely old traditional Inn. We had a super room and the food was excellent. www.montaguarmshotel.co.uk
The rest of our honeymoon was spent in Cornwall at South Penquite Farm Bodmin in a wonderfully romantic Mongolian Yurt. The Farm is set on Bodmin Moor, surrounded by green fields, the De Lank river and lots of fresh air. Also a perfect position to discover the rest of what Cornwall has to offer. If you want to get away from it all then I can highly recommend the farm. www.southpenquite.co.uk
