The Big Day

This is it. This is the post I was planning, for a long time to write. I though about it for months and here I am writing and sharing with you my wedding day and some of my pictures.

This might sounds a bit of a cliché but my wedding day was one of the best day ever! About 8 months of preparation over in a blink ....all the stress, excitement, tears, joy and boom! It will be over before you realise it.  It was a roller coaster of emotion (here another cliché for free...thanks me later!) but it is true when they said that wedding prep can be very stressful but worth it at the end. But this post is not about the stress of managing, organising, buying, renting goods such as the marquee etc at all. but more for me to share few pictures and the plan we had this day in our mind and what really happened. I think I will properly talk about my experience of 8 months of prep in another post with the 'what to do' and 'what not to do' kind of things so bear with me on that one please.  Today I want to share my wedding pictures, talk about my amazing cake lady, the caterer, the makeup artist and the Marquee people which made everything come together. My wedding was on the 27th of July 2019. In  the tiny village of Wadborough in the Worcestershire. Our theme was bohemian (see my inspiration wedding blog post here) so thanks to the family's orchard, we were able to make this bohemian theme wedding theme a possibility. 9.30 am Kirsty, My make up artist (find her here) arrived at the time booked and as per the trial, I had few month earlier, she made me at ease very quickly and mostly made me feel very special. On the trial, back few months ago, we tried few eye make up and we settle for the below for my big day: HD foundation mixed with Charlotte Tilbury Flawless filter. The palette used on my eyes was Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk along with my lipstick from the same name. Basically mostly an entire Charlotte Tilbury face which made me so want to get new CT make up.  Just a little note that my make up last all day along with my fake individual lashes. I loved my make up and truly I am sad that I can't really recreate the look every day. Thanks to make up talentless me. Kirsty can be found on Facebook : Beauty by Kirsty Nicole.

12 pm It was time for the Welcoming and the re-new vow speech time, which was supposed to be done under a beautiful orchard's tree (Official ceremony happened in January see post here), but the weather on this day had other idea. It rain from early morning until about 3 pm!  So while I was having my make up done all the boys (my brother, best man etc) were running (like literally) to pull out, out of nowhere a very large 4 x 12 mtr beautiful white casibo. At the time I was not aware of this and in my mind I though the Welcoming and re-new vow would be done inside the marquee as a backup plan. The boys made a beautifully decorate white casibo with inside the open free bar they also set up all the picnic tables etc. (that were supposed to be scattered in the garden for the afternoon chill time). All was decorated tastefully with white pompom, white bunting, candles etc and everything was just perfect. 

My husband, our daughter and I arrives to make our entrance just after 12 pm and  I had the shock of my life seeing that beautiful large casibo that was not planned standing there beautifully and proud with all my guest inside, we had enough room to swing a cat by the tail and more importantly we were all kept dry. Yes it was a shame that we could not do our Welcoming & re-new vow under the tree, that originally was beautifully decorated with lantern, candles, Moroccan rugs and macramé,  but at the time I was too happy to care about the original plan. 2 pm It was time for lunch. Until 2 pm we kept our marquee lock from curious eyes. We wanted to make it a surprise (as it was so beautifully decorated. Thanks to all my helpers the day before) so we kept everybody outside. we opened the door and once everybody were sited we made our  official entrance.  For our marque decoration, we wanted a bit of drama so we had 2 gold chandeliers, white ceiling buntings, walls lined in drape & and a natural seagrass floor with a wooden dance floor. I wanted to keep my table decor in the bohemian vibe so we had dry wheat bunch in the center of each table on top of a wood slice, lots of candles, lacy runner etc. It was what I had in mind and I made it possible. I hand made a lot of things (name tags, candle decorated jars, pompoms, menus etc.) and spent literally months searching affordable table decors too (see my post about tips on where to find affordable wedding decor here). 

Without sounding too proud I was quiet happy of what I achieved. Don't take me wrong it was not easy every day and I had sometimes tears for worrying of not be ready on time but I managed all on my own 9my husband was very busy with work so all was on my shoulders). It did happened and it did not cost the hearth...like literally as all were recyclable (I refused to use any plastic), or hand made our up-cycle. 

Now lets talk about the food.  Our caterer was High On The Hog. I found our caterer through the website: Add to Event . He had great reviews and after comparing with other caterers. High On The Hog was the one standing out, not only because of the food choice but for his prices and the fact that he used to reply to my every questions very quickly and doing his best to satisfy me.  We did not want anything fancy. we wanted a cold and hot buffet for lunch, that would satisfied all taste buds so we kept it rather simple. See below my two menu (lunch & evening):

I would like to take the opportunity to give a shout out to Colin, our caterer and his 2 helpers on the day. They were all very friendly, polite, made everything looks easy, clean, they were ready on time and most importantly the food was great ! We had many positive comments back from all of our guest. My favourite dish was the beef pie! Absolutely delicious. Find Colin here. Highly recommended! 3.30 pm 'ish After the main meal and the cheese platter, that we created ourselves, it was time to finally taste our beautiful wedding cake. Debra from White Hyacinth Cake Design was our wedding cake lady of choice. Debra is an absolute gem! She made our wedding cake in her lovely home (she has a food, health and safety standard certificate). We met her about 6 months prior our wedding for a taste in her cute kitchen with a nice cup of tea. She made us at ease, was friendly and most importantly what we tasted was great so we set up for a 3 tiers naked cake with 3 flavours: Chocolate, Vanilla & Lemon.  Wedding cake toppers Chris and I settled pretty quickly for Mini Lego Star Wars characters for our wedding cake topper , both being Star wars fan it was the obvious reason. Debra made the cake delivery on time and unfortunately, as I was busy having my make up done, I could not meet her, but she decorated our cake, free of charge, with berries and gypsophilia which was the kindest things for her to do. In all honestly I dream of that cake, after looking at too much Pinterest ideas (not going to like) , and I did know at the time if it could become a reality but Debra made my dream cake and I will never thank her enough for this! I could not stop looking at it and I could not stop taking picture of it too. And you know what?.... it also taste amazing, it was moist, creamy, full of flavour without being too sugary! honestly one of the tastier wedding cake I ever tasted. My favourite tier was the lemon which was just amazing! My only regret : I only wish we had more of it (it was the smallest of the 3 tiers). Debra I know you will probably read this blog. Thanks a million again for our wedding cake. I will not recommend you enough. Thanks, thanks and thanks again! I just wish I saw you on the delivery to give you the biggest hug!! If you wish to contact Debra please find her here honestly you wont regret it and has a small business owner she need all the help!

4.00 pm ish After lunch we had plan to have games outside but as it was wet everywhere (by then the rain finally stopped!!) we mostly stay under the casibo bar and the dance floor inside the marquee. But around 5 o'clock we decided to put our fire pit on and a lot of us sat around it on hay bales while chatting , playing guitar and running every now and then from the fire pit inside the marquee to dance as soon as one of our favourite song was coming on ( Betsy knows what I am talking about *wink emoji*!) . It was great The atmosphere was cosy, the rain was gone , wine and Champagne were flowing , kids were running all was just perfect .  8 pm BBQ time arrives and an amazing aroma was coming from the marquee. The bbq was served. Once again it was 'a help yourself buffet kind of vibe' and I have nothing bad to say , everything was as planned the food taste great and my only regret its that I wish I had more of the pork loin but my stomach was already too full from lunch and of course from too many cocktails! 

9pm until down Then 9 pm came , music was in full swing, and grilled marshmallow on the fire pit was on the menu for our guest. The kids loved it and marshmallow could not grilled quick enough to their taste!!  The light went off at about 2 am...but the fun was not over has more awesome things were planned the next day for the vip guests. But this is another post coming soon. Stay tuned.