Oh how lovely….

The second part of this delicious affair may be even better than the first ( if that’s possible) and Francesca and David sure make one hell of a pretty couple.

All of the stunning images are courtesy of Christian and Erica of Christian Ward Photography and all of the detail is supplied by the lovely bride Fran.

Handsome Groomsmen

The groomsmen chose their own grey suits, which worked really well together on the day with them all wearing matching green ties from Marks & Spencer’s.

David and his Best Man Jon bought their suits together from T. M. Lewin, and wore the same matching green ties.

D.I.Y Blooms

I knew the type of flowers I wanted and had collected images for my scrapbook. I knew I wanted some bright colours, not pastels, and I wanted to include simple, traditional English flowers like roses, hydrangeas and stocks. My mum’s friend, Christine is a member of a wholesaler’s and she also does a lot of flower arranging for church. She took us down to the wholesaler called Sabins in Sandy, Bedford and we picked out all the flowers we’d worked out we would need for the bouquets, buttonholes, decorating the cake and tables.

The day before the wedding we made up the bouquets and arrangements with lots of help from my mum and David’s mum, my sisters and some friends. It was really good fun to have so many people involved and its lovely to look back on the picture of the flowers knowing they were made by all my kind friends and family!

Let Them Eat Cake!

The cake was really beautiful. Another of my mum’s friends, Annie Haig, made it, and it was decorated by Miranda Parry (Wisteria Cottage Cakes, Holcot). I gave her a sample of the lace that we were using on our table plan and invitations, and she made an exact replica in icing. It looked so beautiful next to the roses on the cake and looked like real lace – it must have taken her ages.

Unique Decor Ideas

At Cranford Hall we had access to the beautiful grounds, and we had a marquee set up for our wedding breakfast. The marquee was provided by Big Top , who were great – very accommodating and helpful. The Caterers were called A Country Kitchen and were recommended by Cranford Hall, To suit the informal feel we were looking to create we asked the caterers to cook joints of meat to be served at each table with dishes of vegetables and roast potatoes like a family meal and this definitely helped to break the ice between guests. We couldn’t decide on puddings so they served a mixed platter of our favourite desserts to each table and guests had to fight between themselves for the most popular choice!

We made our own table plan, decorated with the same lace that we’d used on our invitations. Inside, the tables were themed with either Flower Fairies (for me!) or Footballers (for David!) The Flower Fairies idea came from my hen party, where my friends surprised me with a party where they all dressed up as Flower Fairies. They made me close my eyes while they dressed me up too, and when I opened my eyes I was wearing wings and a fairy costume! It was a really lovely surprise. I have always loved flower fairies so we continued the theme through into the wedding itself. I also made up photoboards for guests to look at whilst they were waiting at the bar with pictures from my hen do and David’s stag night.

The candles were really pretty, we had hart shaped tea lights and candelabras – they were made by Marianne Parry ( The old Candle Works in Northants) , David’s sister Emma worked so hard producing beautiful calligraphy for our place settings.

Finding The Perfect Photographer

We chose Christian Ward Photography a husband and wife team from Chesterfield but who work nationwide. They were initially recommended to us by some friends whose wedding they were photographing the month before in Spain. We met with them informally to see their work, we liked them and felt that we and our relatives would feel comfortable with them on the day. The photos in their albums were just amazing and exactly the kind of style we wanted. We loved the colours and the way they were processed. From our discussions we knew we could trust them to take the kind of photos we wanted – not too formal.

Let Me Entertain You

My brother George entertained the guests in the church whilst we were signing the register by singing and playing the guitar. George had written one of the songs himself and the songs were so beautiful they really made the service feel personal to us. After the reception, we started with an hour of music on the Ipod from a playlist whilst people warmed up on the dance floor and.then we had a brilliant band called Payback who we’d heard playing my cousin’s wedding. We’d arranged for them to come on as a surprise for the guests, with the music starting and then the back curtain of the marquee coming up to reveal the band. Our family and friends really enjoyed the band and it was a great party into the night.

The First Dance

The song was Stay With Me by Spiritualized. David and I listened to it a lot when we were first at university around ten years ago and spent a lot of time apart in different cities so it has always been special to us.

I mean really – gorgeous doesn’t even cut it, it’s just beyond beautiful and certainly some of the loveliest photography we’ve seen.

Thanks to Christian and Erica of Christian Ward Photography for submitting these amazing images and Francesca and David for allowing Rock My Wedding to feature their Big Day.

Big Amounts of Country Garden Love

Charlotte xxx

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