Fantastic Family Wedding
With large numbers of one of the groom’s family attending it was a really lovely child friendly wedding.
Wednesday brought Shaun from Affordable Marquees to the field in front of the house - Tel. 01963 33798 / Mob. 07932141622 / affordablemarquees@hotmail.co.uk / https://affordablemarquees.co.uk/ - An old stager at Shiillingstone House, Shaun and his team quickly started to put up his “Petal” Marquee. With a small team, Shaun likes to take two days to complete.
Friday brought campers and helpers. Tables were laid with precision – the groom in charge of decorations had a very definite vision in mind and they looked amazing even without the flowers which were added the following day.
Each guest had a beautifully wrapped gift, tied with a black ribbon, and a sparkler on their place. The gift contained chocolates and were made by Nicky at Choc18 in Westbourne / https://chocol8.co.uk/ There were no place markers yet as the grooms wanted guests to choose their seats. The beautiful table markers and the place markers that were waiting for guests by the door were drawn by Amy, a family friend - https://www.instagram.com/amywrites__/ +44 7715 439018 / amy.writes@hotmail.com / amy-writes.co.uk
Shaun had left ropes to enable New Street Flowers to hoist their circles of eucalyptus and gypsophila into place on the outer poles and to twist a garland of the same round the central pole. They looked so smart. New Street Flowers - shop@newstreetflowers.com /newstreetflowers.com
Early on Saturday morning, Linen and Lace crept in to dress the chairs in the marquee and to drape the gazebo with lengths of white voile. It was quite a task as there were over 200 chairs! Linen and Lace - 07989 502235 / enquiries@linenandlacehire.co.uk / linenandlacehire.co.uk
Later in the morning New Street Flowers returned to add two lovely arrangements to the voile drapes on the front of the gazebo
In the marquee they placed a selection of white flowers in little bottles on the tables. The final effect was extremely sleek, and understatedly chic.
Before they left they put the button holes and bridesmaids bouquets in the shade of the porch.
Pop Up Photobox arrived with their photobooth equipment, a large selection of wonderful props and some huge light up letters for the dance floor- 07946 429066 / info@popupphotobox.co.uk / popupphotobox.co.uk
The catering tent filled with the most amazing display of cakes of every sort – all made by one of the grooms and his mother the night before!!! His mother had been baking scones all day on Friday. The Groom even made the wedding cake which was decorated with more white gypsophila and eucalyptus
One of the grooms and his friends carefully carried the chairs out to their places in front of the gazebo ready for the ceremony.. They also laid out the lawn games that they had brought.
With the welcome sign up, also drawn by Amy, everything was now ready for the first groom to go into the dining room to see the Registrars. Paperwork finished he went down to the gazebo to await his husband to be.
New Street Flowers
The latter arrived in style with 13 bridesmaids dressed in shades of dark and pale blue! The young bridesmaids had wands instead of bouquets which they loved! Photographs taken and registrars seen, the bridal procession assembled by the front door. Signal given, the music started and the groom and his mother, proceded by his bridesmaids started to make their way down to the gazebo.
The ceremony was beautiful and included a reading by one of the bridesmaids. The sun was so hot that serveral guests sheltered under the shade of umbrellas!
Ceremony over, guests spilled onto the upper lawn for drinks with A and D Mobile bars, who had set up by the marquee, doing a brisk trade! Chairs were carried less carefully back so I quickly tweaked the backs ready for the wedding breakfast!
admobilebars.com / info@admobilebars.com /o7969052649
This took the shape of the most magnificent “brunch” with the cakes being joined by delicious sandwiches etc from Butterfingers and Sandwich Bar from Poole.. The Grooms got a standing round of applause as they entered the tent as Mr and Mr Frazer-Hurst.
01202 661152 / sales@butterfingerssandwichbar.co.uk / butterfingerssandwichbar.co.uk
While guests were eating, Blossom and Bounce set up the most elegant Bouncy Castle, not a word I would have thought you could apply to a bouncy castle! The two staff members stayed throughout the afternoon to maintain safety - Blossomandbounce@outlook.com / blossomandbounce.co.uk
Their meal and speeches finished the guests came out into the sunshine and got stuck into the lawn games or chatted and explored the grounds as the children bounced and bounced!
Some tried out the photobooth props with hilarious results! The booth took double photographs one dated one for the guests to take home and one for the grooms to keep as memories.
The photographer, a family friend, took a group photograph and several other formal and not so formal pictures - including one of the grooms with an old family spaniel who attended the ceremony.
The rest of the photographs were either taken by us - marked in house - or by other friends or relations
And some went to finish putting up their tents in the camping area - quite a Canvas City! The bell tents were provided by New Forest Bell Tents - +44 7773 372425 / info@newforestbelltents.co.uk / newforestbelltents.co.uk
Soulstar Music arrived to set up on the dancefloor and as the sun began to go down, they began to play. What wonderful music - as you can see by the thank you from one of the grooms! - Soulstar Music info@soulstarmusic.co.uk / soulstarmusic.co.uk
Round the back of the marquee, Hog Roast BBQ were setting up their stall ready for the evening meal. - info@hogroastbbq.com / 07591764022 / https://www.hogroastbbq.com/- it was delicious and proved very popular with guests with a long queue snaking out of the marquee.
The grooms took to the floor for the first dance before cutting their cake.
Just before 11pm the guests spilled out of the tent to watch the fireworks that one of the grooms had set up in the field. Due to the rain shower a little earlier damping the fuse, they took a little time to light but were well worth it!!
The party contined to midnight when guests retired to their tents, camper vans or B&Bs - sadly the grass too dry for a fire pit.
The next day much clearing up took place and we were very kindly given the remains of the wedding cake and some of the fairy cakes to take round to the Homeless in Bournemouth where they were greatly appreciated.
It seemed very quiet once everyone had gone – it had been a wonderful celebration and a huge reward for all the hard work that had gone into its planning.