How we created our perfect intimate wedding
I can fully understand the huge disappointment, anger and frustration that couples all around the world are feeling right now at not being able to say ‘I do’, or at least not how they had planned it. I pour my heart and soul into this industry and I can assure you that being cut off from it has been just as challenging for us as it has been for our couples. We are all invested in your big day and making it as special for you as we can.
I am aware that many of you will be reconsidering how and when to get married and in response to this we are delighted to announce our new wedding package for ‘Intimate Weddings’. This is the perfect option for those of you who have chosen to have a smaller, more intimate weddings and won’t be requiring our full wedding experience but would still love beautiful flowers on your special day.
With the launch of our ‘Intimate Weddings’ package this felt like the perfect time to share my own personal experience of how I married the love of my life last October. During the engagement people always said “Oh I bet your wedding will be amazing and full of flowers and so extravagant”, but to be totally honest the thought of being the centre of attention filled me with dread!
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE helping everyone else create the wedding of their dreams but when it came down to it I (we!) knew what was important to us and we had a pretty clear idea how we wanted our dream day to pan out. There were a few key factors that were important to us: our family and cockapoo puppy Alfie, flowers, fizz, cake and Paris. So on a Monday morning (yes you heard me right a Monday morning!) we set off to St Edmund (Teddy) Hall in Oxford, the beautiful small college where Alistair had studied Medicine.
Our wedding guests consisted of my parents, Al’s parents, sister and Nanan, my best friend and of course our little Alfie. No-one else knew we were getting married, we had planned the day in just 8 weeks and wanted to keep it a secret in our own bubble for just a few hours. Paris holds a special place in our hearts and was where Alistair proposed and I knew I wanted to be wandering the streets of Paris on my wedding day and so our day was planned around this. We got married at 10am, and were on a flight to Paris by 3pm!
Alistair and I are childhood sweethearts and have been together since we were 15, and the thought of becoming each other’s husband and wife was all that really mattered to us. We wanted no fuss, just a room full of love, cake and fizz! We had the epitome of an intimate wedding. I cried when I looked over at my Mum at one of our chosen readings, we laughed when I struggled to get Al’s ring on but most of all we had each other and that was truly the greatest gift. I walked into the room as Miss Motley and walked out as Mrs Reed and it was the best day of our lives.
I carried a bouquet full of all my favourite flowers but the most important was the homegrown Cafe au lait dahlias grown by my father. The tension we felt on the run up to the day wondering if they would survive the first frost, or whether they would get rain damage… needless to say they were perfect for the 14th October and there was something really special about having homegrown flowers.
The men all had buttonholes, I have attached many many buttonholes to nervous grooms over the years but I can honestly say none were as relaxed as my groom – I am sure he was most worried about me putting a hole in his suit and I had to reassure him I was a professional florist!
I constantly tell my couples the best advice I can give them other than enjoy every second is pick suppliers who fill your heart with love and ooze with passion about what they do. I can honestly say I had the BEST suppliers for our wedding. Capturing our special day was really important to us and when Harley and Susie from Barker Evans Photography arrived on the day and it was like they were old friends, they laughed with us and made everyone feel totally at ease whilst capturing us all naturally.
When we discussed our plans for an intimate wedding one of Alistair’s concerns was not having a wedding cake! So after our ceremony we had our own little drinks reception in the gorgeous grounds of Teddy Hall. There was only one lady I knew needed to be part of our day and that was the lovely Fen from Monannie Cakes, who made a beautiful two-tiered cake with dairy-free chocolate and Champagne top-tier and a white chocolate and Champagne lower-tier. I can still remember the pure joy of cutting into the cake to find that Fen had made the cake pink on the inside as she knew it was my favourite colour and I have never tasted anything so delicious, all enjoyed with Champagne, pink of course!
After the cake, we set off down the M40 to Heathrow in the pouring rain and with the biggest smiles before landing in Paris where we danced, ate and drank far too much and happily wandered around the city of romance as the new Mr and Mrs Reed.
We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day and so if I had one piece of advice it is this: remember what is important to you both, do what makes you happy and if you have to wait a little longer I can promise whatever your dream day is, however big or small it will be worth every delayed second.
love, sarah x