The Venue
The church was a no brainer; Jack and I had many dates cycling around Rutland Water on a tandem, so when we found out you could get married in
Normanton Church there we knew instantly that that was the place. It's the only remaining building from the construction of the reservoir built in the 70's when a few villages were demolished and flooded. It's such a stunning building just sitting on the water's edge. We love the fact that in years to come we will still be able to visit our wedding location.
When it came to our reception venue, I knew I wanted a barn, but I didn't want a country cottage theme!
Kingsthorpe Lodge Barn was perfect. It provided a slightly more industrial look with pealing limewash paint on the walls, exposed brickwork, corrugated steal and gorgeous wooden beams. Being a dry hire venue meant it was a blank canvas which was great as it gave us huge flexibility and didn't restrict us to using certain suppliers, but the thought of planning our wedding was daunting, especially whilst living in London. We decided to bring in a wedding planner and after
Natalie Hewitt was recommended to us, we hired her on the spot! She was amazing; she brought our vision to life and handled the difficulty of dry hire venue planning for us, ensuring we didn't forget anything.
Colour Scheme,Décor & Flowers
Blush, burgundy and gold! I like country cottage / shabby chic but I have been to quite a few weddings with this styling and I wanted my wedding to be totally different. I had the unfortunate experience of hiring a novice wedding planner in the beginning trying to save money and this was the direction she steered me. Unfortunately, a number of errors came to light and we decided to walk away but the thought of planning our wedding on our own was too stressful. I met Natalie Hewitt in January who is a member of the UK Alliance of Wedding Planners and she instantly envisioned the style I had in my head and ran with it. Natalie redesigned our whole concept, creating some great design boards, working closely with our suppliers to ensure our vision came to life and her expertise in her field meant that she knew what was going to look good and what wasn't. She encouraged us to have a few epic pieces of styling to create a wow factor and use the rustic backdrop of the barn to create a chic industrial vibe. Natalie actually insisted she set the venue up for us, meaning our wedding party and us could relax the day before the wedding. When she unveiled the barn with all the candles lit, it was amazing!
We had a cool lounge area and hung two chandeliers up in the bar and above the sofas to create some glamorous lighting in our rustic barn! We thought the juxtaposition between plush velvet sofas and crystal chandeliers inside an old working barn looked amazing.
Cake
Our cake was probably the main styling show piece (along with our top table hanging floral installation).
Katie is a true master at her craft. As soon as we met her, she suggested a handing cake. We had seen her own wedding cake on her Instagram page and loved it so we decided to spend a little more on our cake and make it a feature. It really was the talk of the wedding and tasted amazing. Our favourite tier was the prosecco and peach!
Flowers
Flowers were another key styling element and when we decided to move away from jam jars and bunting, Natalie Hewitt recommended the Queen of florists,
Jay Archer. The flowers were something we didn't want to compromise on and even Jack wanted them to be beautiful and dramatic. I wanted English garden flowers arranged in a loose and natural way, with blush and burgundy as my main colour palette. Jay created a stunning hanging piece that was suspended from the beams above the top table which was just incredible. In real life it looked jaw dropping and smelt so fragrant. It then doubled up as a backdrop of the band to perform under. As our top table was such a feature (and our guest tables were narrow) we opted for simple sprigs of greenery on the tables with endless amounts of candles! We also used the bridesmaid's bouquets for additional styling and put them in vases on the bar, coffee table and gift table, which made use of them after the ceremony and brought little touches of colour around the barn. Jay also created a garland which we nailed to the wall and strung some gold acrylic lettering to create a backdrop of our selfie stick photo booth. It looks great against the lime wash walls. This was one of my favourite parts of the décor and Natalie pulled it all together in a way I would of never have been able to create on my own.
The Wedding Party Fashion
The bridesmaid outfits were from
Coast. I find bridesmaid dresses can be similar so I wanted something different. My initial idea was a skirt and a cream camisole, but when I saw the lace tops with v backs which were similar to my dress I knew they would be perfect. They all wore gold shoes and all had similar hair styles - I wanted them too all look similar but with a hint of their own personalities.
We bravely decided to put the groomsmen in a different colour suit to jack, burgundy... they were from
Next and boy are we glad we did that. They looked incredible and really pulled the colour scheme of the day together, they wore a dark blush tie from
Topman and a floral navy pocket square from
River Island.
Ceremony
We didn't want a standard short civil ceremony. Music is very important to us so we decided to have musical 'hymns'. Being a civil ceremony, we couldn't have any religious content so we chose to have our guests sing "can't help falling in love with you" by Elvis and "I can't take my eyes of you" by Andy Williams.
We wrote our own vows which proved to be a hit making a registrar with over 40 years experience cry! (I hope with happiness and not boredom). My maid of honour Anna sang two songs during the singing of the register.
Entertainment
We put a playlist together for background music during our drinks reception and dinner and in the evening, we had a
band that was in the style of Munford and Sons who were incredible! The dancefloor was never empty! I suppose my husband will also be classed as day entertainment; as a surprise during his speech he wrote and performed a song called "Natalie". Our best man's speech took the form of a poem which was so heartfelt. Our first dance was "the girl" which Jack and I had pre-recorded in a studio and my dad and I had a Father - Daughter dance which my bridesmaid Anna and her dad sung.
We also filled our wedding with selfie sticks and had a cool backdrop for people to take photos.
Food
Our
caterers served canapes on arrival which looks great. Jack and I wanted simple, good tasting non- fussy food, so we served hog roast for our wedding breakfast but we wanted it to be table service rather than a buffet. For dessert we had Eton Mess as this is a favourite ours. In the evening we put on a cheese and pate spread and served our wedding cake.
Photographer
Jeni was recommended to us by a friend, so we took a look at her website and knew she was the one for us. We're not into posed photos and prefer natural shots that tell a story and that's Jenis style to a tea. Her passion for film and photography shone through and that was important for us to know that she really really cared about her art.
Videographer
We found
Blue Ridge on the internet and loved their style instantly. It's all about the story and the way in which they capture the day. When I contacted them from the get go they were always so accommodating, took time to liaise with me and were personal; these are qualities that we really admired in them. And they really captured our fun style perfectly in their highlights trailer.
Advice for other brides getting married
We both live and work in London, I am a paediatric intensive care nurse so work long unsociable hours, and Jack in the city. We were very close at the beginning of the year of having a wedding day with many issue and a lot of stress leading up to the day and unrealistic expectations of what our suppliers had been booked to do; we thank all of our lucky stars that we found
Natalie Hewitt and that she was able to pull these issues apart and fix them in a way we never thought possible. Any advice we would give brides getting married is to really think about having an experienced planner. They can save you endless stress, so so much time and Natalie Hewitt was a magician managing our budget continuously throughout our planning. Natalie created the most beautifully styled, perfectly planned and incredibly executed wedding for us. We didn't have a single worry after we hired Natalie and we really had the best day of our lives, it was truly perfect.