Lauren and Oliver’s wedding story:
Where did you get engaged and how long had you been together before hand?
“We got engaged two days after we completed on our first house together! We had been together about four years before that and although we had always talked about “when we get engaged….” I had no idea it was going to happen when it did. We got engaged at Hanbury Manor as my partner had booked a surprise spa day with afternoon tea to relax us both after the stress of buying a house. When we arrived he asked if I wanted to take a walk around the grounds before the spa. While walking we found a lovely little garden with a tree with lots of mistletoe in. He said it would be nice to get a photo of the tree but he had left the camera back in the lockers so we headed back to pick it up. Little did I know he actually had seen the tree and thought it was a great place to propose but had left the ring in his bag! Once we got back to the tree I posed waiting for a photo and instead he started going down on one knee whilst holding out the ring box! It was beautiful and we both cried with happiness.”
How many venues did you visit before you chose Fennes as your wedding venue? We saw three others.
“How did you feel when you first visited Fennes, did you know straight away that you wanted to get married here? We saw Fennes first (on a very snowy day) and fell in love with it. It looked beautiful, even with no flowers and snow everywhere. Because it was our first venue we thought it would be best to look at other venues in case we just liked it because it was the first one we saw and we were just getting carried away. After three other venues though we realised it was the magic of Fennes we had fallen in love with and decided that we wanted to get married there!”
What was your first step of wedding planning? Venue search, dress shopping, choosing a date, etc.?
“The first step was checking what sort of dates were available as my family lives abroad and we were very limited on when we could get married. Next was deciding on approximate numbers.”
How many months/years in advance did you book your special day?
“We got engaged in the first week of December 2012 and we were married on the 19th October 2013. We booked Fennes in Feburary.”
What was the hardest thing about planning your wedding day?
“The guest list was a nightmare. We were limited on what we could afford but we had a lot of people who assumed they would be included. Finding a “fair” way of selecting family members and friends and work colleagues was a bit difficult but we got there in the end. The second was the table plan! I thought our wedding planner was over-exaggerating how difficult it would be but it really was hard.”
Did you have a colour scheme and theme?
“The highlight of the day was walking in to the room fully decorated with all our items. It was even more beautiful than I had imagined and Fennes couldn’t have done anything to make it better.”
What were the highlights of your day?
“The highlight of the day was walking in to the room fully decorated with all our items. It was even more beautiful than I had imagined and Fennes couldn’t have done anything to make it better.”
Where there any funny moments on the Day?
“My brother popped the buttons off his waistcoat at the wedding breakfast from eating so much!”
Now you have “been there done that” in hindsight is there anything you would have done differently?
“Our wedding day was perfect and we wouldn’t have changed anything about it! If we could have stopped time we would have tried to spend more time with each guest.”
Do you have any advice for Bride and Grooms that are just starting their wedding plans?
“Don’t worry too much about the little things. It is lovely to put your own touch on everything but don’t get so carried away that it eats up all your time. On the day you won’t care if something is missing or you didn’t get round to making it because all that will matter is standing next to the person you want to be with for the rest of your life.”
Photography by: Thomas Day