It’s time for another installment of my wedding day story.  Sorry for the delay in getting this one posted, with Christmas, work and job hunting it got lost in my list of unfinished posts.  You can catch up with my previous wedding posts below:

{Wedding of my dreams} CHAPTER 1: Getting ready

{Wedding of my dreams} CHAPTER 2: I do

The drive back to Coombe Abbey after the ceremony meant Alfie could be alone for the first time as man and wife.  It was a chance to take everything in…we were finally married!

We were greeted at Coombe Abbey with champagne flutes filled with champagne and Scholer (Alfie is t-total) and a red carpet.  Little touches like that really made feel extra special.  Whilst our guest arrived at the reception venue our photographers started to get snap happy and we had what felt like a million pictures taken around the Abbey and the grounds. Please don’t be fooled by the sunny and cloudless sky…it was freezing!

Whilst we were outside having our snaps taken our guest were serenaded by our string quartet from the ceremony and a sweetie buffet in the bar area, which we had put together ourselves.  Everyone seemed to be having a great time mingling and making new friends.  It was lovely to finally get to talk to our friends and spend some time with them.

At one point we were dragged away by the Master of Ceremonies to get the first peak of the wedding breakfast room.  When the door was opened we were both in awe at how beautiful everything looked.  It was everything that we had dreamed of and more.

The room was decorated with flowers and candles throughout.  I had painstaking wrapped lace and ribbon around empty jam jars that had collected for the florist to put flowers in.  The jars were scattered on the windowsills and in the bar area.  We also opted for huge candelabras decorated with flowers matching my wedding bouquet for our centre pieces.  The tables were also decorated with a lace overlay and tea lights to create and intimate feel to the meal.

From the off we had decided that we wanted to have simple table decorations, which I think we achieved.  The sweetie buffet also served as the wedding favours, which saved more space in the table.  In keeping with the vintage theme we used luggage labels made out of recycled card.  Each table was named after Elements of Life such as peace, love, hope and faith.  Also the seating plan was designed to have each table in an individual vintage frame.

The wine and champagne was flowing, the food was out of this word, the atmosphere was amazing, speeches were made that had everyone in stitches and I was on cloud nine and in awe of everyone’s kindness and love.  My brother made his first public speech at the wedding and with vodka in his hand for Dutch courage he delivered the most perfect speech. We were all so proud of him.

After the wedding breakfast we had to leave our seats for the room to be turned around for the evening disco and for our big band and DJ to set up.  In the meantime there was still lots going on.  We had a finger print tree for our guests to sign as a keepsake.  Also, sweet messages were left on the back of the luggage label place cards from our guest and placed in our wedding card box.  My brother in law also had the crazy idea to project embarrassing pictures of Alfie and I when we were younger…everyone seemed to enjoy this for some reason…ha! =)

For our wedding cake we chose a four tier extravaganza with tiers of red velvet and vanilla sponge with fresh flowers.  It was so beautiful that I actually didn’t want to cut it. Then it was time for the first dance which was to the Etta James version of At Last played and sung by our band.  In addition to this we also had a second dance later on to You Make Me Feel Brand New by Simply Red.  We partied till after 1 am in the morning which also included an evening buffet and a  session of incredible fireworks over the lake too.

I was truly saddened when it was time to say goodbye to everyone, I  didn’t want the day to end.  It was honestly the most magical day of my life and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for me and my new husband.

We would like to thank:

Wedding dress, Donna Nicole

Suits, Moss Bros

Cake, The Cakery

Florist, Passion for Flowers

Photography, Storybook Weddings

Videographer, BRS Wedding Photography