Carolyn and Tom’s Story

We met in Nice Airport in 2003 – Tom coming back from the Cannes Film Festival and Carolyn from an event in Nice before boarding an Easyjet flight to London. We sat together on the plane and when we returned to London, met up again and so the story started.

The Proposal

We got engaged on holiday in Lake Como, which was a surprise. The holiday was very romantic and Tom proposed on a motorboat trip on the lake, which we hired for the day.

The Outfits

The Bride – I chose a dress with a very long train – suited the day and setting very well! It had layers of material/tulle over the main dress, which softened the overall look with crystal detail running down the back before the train flowed out in layers. I wore a Swarovski crystal tiara and veil with trim and crystal detail. I had orange, red and yellow roses with real blackcurrants in my bouquet.

The Bridesmaids – Beautiful green long backless dresses from JLM Europe.

The Groom and Groomsmen – Dark grey morning suits (instead of the standard black as it was in August) with green ties to match the bridesmaid dresses. Tom had an orange calla lily, the best men, ushers and father of bride had yellow roses and the bridesmaids had wands of orange calla lilies.

The Wedding and Reception Venue

We looked at so many venues in and around Surrey and fell in love with The Barn at Bury Court as soon as we saw it, by far the best venue in the area. It has so much character and offered exactly what we wanted – beautiful garden for the drinks reception and then a big light airy room for the main reception and a separate area for dancing afterwards as well as outside space where we put games for after dinner (garden jenga and boules).

The Decorative Touches

Room decorations – The barn needs no decoration as the room is beautiful in itself but we did have flowers and ivy draped on the pillars which also were lit with fairy lights and the same on the main balcony. The flowers were orange in honour of our meeting on an Easyjet flight and also because we wanted a bright colour for a summer wedding. We also decorated the pond in the garden with gerberas on the lily pads and then our florist did an amazing bay tree at the entrance with real oranges and kumquats.

Table centrepieces – We chose a mix of tall vases and lower goldfish bowls and the best part was the addition of real goldfish in our bowls – still gets talked about today! The best aspect were the place names which we made out of champagne cork cage wires – each one was shaped into a miniature chair and then the name tag placed on the “seat”. It took a lot of time to make 80 of these! We then also used green ribbon to decorate the napkins and the favours as below.

Favours – We gave Welsh Lovespoons to the girls as I am from Wales with descriptive cards attached with the same design as our invites.

The Cake

The cake was a three tier plain cake which was made up of a fruit, lemon and chocolate layer and in between each layer there were flowers in glass vases.

Advice to Other Couples

It was great to have time to us on the day during the thirty-minute trip to the reception. It is also worth putting in the time to prepare and spend time with your suppliers to make sure you discuss everything you want as that definitely paid off for us on the day as we did not have to manage anything and could really just enjoy ourselves.

The Suppliers

Wedding Reception Venue – "The Barn at Bury Court:http://www.greenandwhiteweddings.co.uk/wedding_venue/The_Barn_at_Bury_Court/showcase/274

Venue found through Country House Wedding Venues

Bride’s dress – Caroline Castigliano

Bride’s accessories (veil, tiara, shoes) – Rainbow shoes (John Lewis), veil and tiara from Caroline Castigliano Esher

Groom’s suit – Dapper in Esher

Bridesmaid’s dresses – Jane Jordan, Kingston

Wedding rings – Tiffany’s (we bought them on a trip to New York in November before the wedding)

Wedding cake – Alison Swayne

Flowers – Jill (no website Tel: 01428 609 337)

Invitations – The groom – he is a graphic designer!

Wedding list – John Lewis

Disco/DJ – Chameleon Arts Management

Photographer – Jenny Wilkinson