James and Amanda's Wedding in Farindon, Oxfordshire
Countryside Autumn Pink 0 wedding suppliers
24/08/2018 131 1
J&A
24 Aug, 2018
Our Real Wedding
We decided to get married in 2018 and after a few changed plans due to family and personal circumstances we decided to hold our wedding at our home. We're fortunate to have a large garden and a field which meant we had enough space to hold the wedding but on the flip side it did mean we had to arrange everything.
Would we advise this approach? Yes and no. We had a great day and now have beautfiul memories linked to our home which is great but also it was far more stressful than a hotel/venue weddign where most of the small details are taken care of for you.
Preparation:
Where we live is quite exposed to the elements and whilst we had big plans of preparing months in advance, adverse weather meant we could only put the marquee up a couple of days before to avoid the risk of it being damaged by the wind - this meant lots of last minute decoration and placement of things - not ideal but we got through it with a lot of help from some friends.
We managed to buy lots of decorations from facebook marketplace (lanterns, pom poms, rustic ladders etc.) these touches really finished things off and gave lots of little corners of things for people to look at.
Continue reading »We had a few friends who were going to run the bar for us, we had no idea what or how much to buy so mostly guessed. We ended up with lots left over but we preferred that to running out.
One of our key issues was ice for the day, we weren't sure what the weather was going to be like but needed to chill drinks and provide ice for using in drinks too. We found a supplier nearby that did large 10kg bags of crushed or cubed ice and would allow us to collect the bags. We then managed to buy a large chest freezer to store them all in - these are the sorts of extra expenses that you don't think of up front but that were necessary for the day to go well.
The day itself:
We got married in the local church and were lucky enough that our friend is a vicar and our church agreed for him to marry us. We had a very intimate ceremony and it was made special by the fact that the vicar knew us very well and has been a part of our lives.
After the ceremony we had some photos, we weren't too bothered about the posed group shots so we had one photo at the church with our family and then they were free to mingle at the reception.
Everyone went back to the house and we went off for some photos - this was our favourite part of the day and nice to have a break after the intensity of the ceremony. We hadn't really planned where to go but we knew a lake on the way to our house - we asked a couple of the church wardens if there was a shortcut to reach it and they told us a way. Thankfully my reception shoes were white sparkly dr Martens so I was able to walk through the field to reach the lake - this was so worth it and I would advise all brides to have a special alternative flat shoe to change into in case of things like this. We got amazing photos that would have been impossible if I just had my heels.
Our tips:
1. If you don't like stress, don't have a wedding at home!
2. If you don't have a wedding planner, appoint a friend on the day to manage logistics so you can relax
3. Overbuy on alcohol - you can sometimes return it, otherwise you'll have great parties for a while after!
4. If you're getting married at home, think about your photos and plan so good spots to have your couple shots. It's not like a venue where they will have set places for the pictures so it needs some thought.
5. Brides, be prepared - get a jacket, consider a second pair of shoes you can walk in so you can get some great photos, dance and most of all be comfortable.
6. take time out during the day just to watch on and observe
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