Graham and Katherine's Wedding in Markfield, Leicestershire
Countryside Spring Green 3 wedding suppliers
G&K
17 Apr, 2021Our Real Wedding
After planning and replanning our wedding multiple times during the COVID pandemic, we knew we didn't want to postpone it again and so decided to go ahead with a wedding of 15 rather than the originally planned 130.
We had a few last-minute panics- we'd planned to have the reception in my parent's garden but the Government updated their guidance a week before the wedding to specify this wasn't allowed- luckily a local restaurant had space in their grounds where we could set up a marquee while they provided the catering, and we were able to find a local man who did furniture hire who could provide the seating!
I grew up in the scenic village of Newtown Linford, in Leicestershire (which is so small it doesn't even show up on your location field!), and it was important to me to have a wedding in the church where I grew up. We also wanted to make the most of the beautiful surroundings, so we decided the main mode of transport would be walking.
We started at my parent's house, where I got ready and my bridesmaids began to arrive while Graham met with the groomsmen at the village pub. The wedding dress is a customized Elcira dress from Pronovias, the veil was bought from an independent maker on Etsy, the bridal jewellery is from Britten Weddings and hair and makeup was done by Anstey-Based Jessica Nurse (Makeupmyweddingday). The bridesmaids sourced their own dresses within a colour scheme, two of which were second hand, and my evening jacket was bought second hand from Vinted.
Continue reading »Everyone walked to the church together before I walked through the village with my Dad and the bridesmaids. We were greeted by friends waving from their doors as we walked past.
The ceremony was at All Saints Church, which sits on the cusp of Bradgate Park and has stood there since the 15th Century. It was the local church of Lady Jane Grey who grew up in Bradgate Park before she was queen. The church doorway was decorated with a deconstructed flower arch put together by local award-winning florist, Helen from Bradgate Flowers, who provided all of the floral arrangements and helped drive the arch and pedestal arrangement to the Grey Lady Restaurant, where the reception was held.
The bridesmaids, groomsmen and Bride and Groom all walked the mile from the church to the Grey Lady, which made for some brilliant photos, and we got plenty of congratulations from passing cars and bicyclists (pictured in the main photo).
The Grey Lady provided a fantastic four course menu using their event-hire kitchen, and I did a lot of DIY for the decor. The tables were decorated with hand painted jars and paintings of parrots as the table names. Each person had their place name engraved on wood slices, and instead of a traditional wedding cake we had a cheese tower from a local delicatessen.
While COVID restrictions meant we couldn't do any dancing or party late into the night, we had a really wonderful time and felt very lucky to be able to get married after a much longer engagement than expected, and everything was captured perfectly by Kim Williams.
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