more real-life weddings
Charlotte and John, September 2007
The Manor Barn
Charlotte’s Story
The Proposal
John proposed to me at home – no exciting story there, but it was a surprise!
The Outfits
The Bride – My dress was emerald green, made of satin and with heavy beading on the skirt. It had a strapless bodice for the top and floor length skirt with layered petticoat and small train.
The Bridesmaids – Gold dresses, made by my mother-in-law.
The Groom and Groomsmen – The best man and father of the bride wore the same suit as groom.
The Wedding and Reception Venue
We chose The Manor Barn by looking online, and chose it because it enabled us to do whatever we wanted – there were no set packages. We had both the ceremony and reception at The Manor Barn, which suited us perfectly.
The Decorative Touches
Room decorations – We decorated the room with sunflowers (some were homegrown) and lots of fairy lights and candles.
Table centrepieces – Vases of sunflowers.
Favours – I hand-made all my favours. I did a cross stitch of everyone’s name with a border (100 of them!) and painted little boxes green and stuck the cross stitch in the boxes. I then filled the boxes with chocolates, sweets, jokes, sunflower seeds, raffle tickets and a thank you card.
The Cake
My mum made over 100 cupcakes all with an edible sunflower on, they were on a tiered stand, with a small cake on top for us to cut.
The Transport
In my dad’s car.
Advice to other couples
It makes the day much more special and personal if you can do a few things yourself. Although the favours took me a long time, I was really pleased I’d done them on the day, as people loved them so much!
The Suppliers
Wedding Reception Venue – The Manor Barn
Venue found through Country House Wedding Venues
Bride’s dress – Made by my mother-in-law
Bride’s accessories (tiara and shoes) – Tiara – Chantal Mallet and Shoes – Debenhams
Groom’s suit – Charles Gale Suit Hire
Bridesmaid’s dresses – Made by my mother-in-law.
Other outfits – Charles Gale Suit Hire
Wedding rings – Hallmark Jewellers, Titchfield
Wedding cake – My mum made the cupcakes and cake.
Flowers – Penny Boyd, a friend of my mum’s. We also had guests who grew sunflowers for us.
Cars – My dad
Invitations – My mum made them.
Wedding list – We made it up ourselves and my mum oversaw it.
Disco/DJ – Pogles Wood Barn Dance and Lee Normansell, a friend of my husband’s did the disco.
Wedding favours – the bride
Photographer – Phil Swallow, a friend of my mum’s