Real Wedding: Allison and Neil

In April I had the pleasure of organising the wedding for Allison and Neil. From our initial consultation Allison explained she wanted to have an intimate wedding with close family and friends, followed by a larger party a few weeks later at their home. After recommending some fabulous venues in Essex we decided to book Gaynes Park, I was delighted as I’ve wanted to work there for a while.

 

The Brief

Allison wanted the design to be clean lined with muted tones which is why Gaynes Park was so perfect. For anyone unaware, Gaynes Park is a very stylish and contemporary wedding venue in Epping, Essex. Despite snowy showers in April we were incredibly lucky with the weather on the day with blue skys and a warm temperature.

 

The Wedding Ceremony

The civil ceremony was held in the stunning orangery at 2pm with approx.. 50 family and friends in attendance. The Corelli Strings  performed during the ceremony and drink reception, their rendition of “One Day Like This by Elbow” for the recessional was beautiful.

Neil’s son did a perfect reading of All I ever really needed to know I learned at kindergarten  which made everyone smile.

Drink Reception

As guests exited the Orangery for the drink reception we were treated to the red arrows flying past, this was just a very lucky coincidence even though I joked with Allison and Neil I organised it especially for them.

After a confetti line up guests made their way into the Mill Barn for the wedding breakfast.

Barn Design

The Mill Barn is so beautiful that we didn’t want to detract from the simplistic feel by adding too much fuss. The flowers were organised by Aimee from Abridge Flowers  a local florist to Allison. We stuck to lots of ivory Roses with the odd pink one for a little bit of colour! We hired Ilknur from Mediterranean Occasions for the chair ties backs and top table dressing.

The mini cakes & cake pops were by the very talented Love Cupcake  and stationery by Nikki from With Love Stationery  whose Paris range was perfect for our design, and of course the ribbon used was a very muted grey!

Amazing Food

Guests were treated to scrumptious food by Galloping Gourmet  of:

Seared Scallops

Roast Beef

Trio of Desserts

(Glazed lemon tart, White chocolate mousse, iced passion fruit parfait).

After dinner there was yet more treats with port and cheese which guests enjoyed nibbling on during the speeches.

 

Home Time

The day came to a natural finish at about 8pm, it was a treat being home after a wedding so early whereas I’m normally home at about 2am for my marquee functions. It was a joy working with Allison and Neil, not just on this wedding but also their marquee party a few weeks later (images will be shown very soon)

With Thanks

I would also like to reiterate how professional the staff are at Gaynes Park, I’ve met many venue organisers over the years and  cannot rate Angela and Victoria highly enough.  It was a pleasure working with them both prior and on the day itself.

I would also like to send my deepest thanks to Kerry Morgan for these images, regulars to my blog will know I love Kerry and this is the 8th season I have used her.