Sam and Tom’s Wedding Story:
“We’ve known each other for about 10 years and it took 5 of those for us to get together and we haven’t looked back. New Year’s Day 2012 was a cold, grey and miserable kind of day and with post New Year’s Eve party heads we took a trip to Leigh-on Sea. I have to admit I was in a terrible mood and proceeded to make life very difficult for Tom. From the minute we got up I moaned about EVERYTHING and became deliberately awkward. We arrived at Leigh and it starting pouring down and this didn’t help the massive grumps. We got our usual cup of tea and walked down to our spot to watch the world go by. Tom then did the traditional down on one knee and proposed – getting very wet in the process! Needless to say I said yes and the bad mood disappeared. We went straight to my parents’ house where Tom had organised a surprise engagement party. It was perfect.”
“The first thing we did once we’d got engaged was pick a rough date we would like to get married. We knew we wanted a winter wedding and that we needed some time to save the pennies. We decided that anywhere between November 2013 and February 2014 would be great. There was only one other venue that I went to view but that didn’t have the right atmosphere and it was a bit inflexible for my liking. When I viewed Fennes with my mum, soon to be mother-in-law and bridesmaid, I fell in love as soon as we pulled up the long driveway and the twinkly ceiling inside sealed the deal. Now all I had to do was convince Tom. Luckily this didn’t take much effort and in the space of 2 weeks we had got ourselves a wedding venue for the 28th November 2013 – only 22 months to prepare!! The theme for the day was winter wonderland cross Narnia. We had mainly blues and silvers and a lot of snowflakes. We made all the wedding stationary ourselves including the centre pieces with a bit of help from my mum and sister. It was amazing to see the tables all put together and all the ideas coming to life. We were really proud of what we had achieved and its looked so much more than we had expected.”
“Tom may disagree but on the whole it was a fairly easy, trouble free wedding to plan, the long length of time was so valuable in getting early bookings and cheeky 2012 prices for a 2013 wedding. The dress was next and was just as easy, one dress, one try and done! Everything fell into place almost effortlessly. The hardest part was our guest list. We had booked a deal with Fennes which gave us 50 day guests. This sounds like a reasonable number but after realising 44 of those were family it left us wondering which friends to invite and which would only be coming to the evening. After many guest lists made and binned we decided that it was really important to us that our closest friends were there to share our day so 10 extra guest spaces were created. Once we had done this the guest list was simple. Being a bit of an organisation freak I had lists, lists of lists and lists of lists of lists in case people couldn’t make it. Luckily all tom had to do was nod and smile in the right places.”
“The highlight of the day (apart from the actually getting married bit) was seeing all our friends and families happy faces. We wanted them to enjoy the day as much as we did. We had a surprise cake of cheese made which was fantastic. The whole day was so amazing it’s hard to say what the highlights were but the dancing and photo booth are definitely on that list. The speeches were brilliant, very funny and emotional in places. I think at some point everyone had a little tear whether it was from a sentimental moment or from laughter. As 2 non-serious people there was a lot of gigging throughout the wedding but without that it wouldn’t have been us. Yes I laughed at my new soon to be husband’s full name and all the bridal party made my chief bridesmaid laugh whilst reading her poem but that’s us. There is not a single moment of the day that we would change; it was perfect from start to finish!”
“If we can offer one piece of advice it would be enjoy it, stop and take note, make memories of everything, even the planning! It’ll be the happiest and shortest day of your life – make the most of it, smile, cry, laugh and be happy, you’ll never forget it!”
Photography by: Mark Bloxham Photography