Rachel & Richard's Real Life Wedding

Rachel & Richard - Summer Wedding

Rachel and Richard are both schoolteachers so they wanted to get married at the beginning of the summer holidays. All the local venues were fully booked for summer 2008 so they decided to search for their venue a bit further a field. "As soon as we saw Gaynes Park Barns we fell in love with it. As neither of us are religiously inclined we didn't feel a church was appropriate and I loved the idea of a converted barn. Gaynes Park had a lovely converted barn and the Orangery for the ceremony - I liked the fact I could walk down the pathway and into the ceremony! The Walled Garden also provided a lovely setting for photographs and it had a quaint cottage that we stayed in."

Rachel's younger sister and cousin were the bridesmaids. As Danielle's sister was the eldest she wore an A-line skirt and jewelled bodice and her cousin wore a dress in the same colour. The colour of the dresses was teal blue which complemented the sea theme. The ushers wore Prince Edward suits with a tie that matched the colour of the bridesmaids' dresses.

Rachel's dress was strapless with a sweep of fabric across the bodice. Rachel chose an Amanda Wyatt tiara, a choker necklace and matching earrings.

Rachel wanted simple, traditional flowers and chose cream roses, mixed with some ivy and stephanotis with a few diamond pins in the roses' heads. The men had cream rose buttonholes and the bridesmaids had simpler bouquets of cream roses.

Each table had a fishbowl with some pebbles in the bottom. Floating on the top were a few cream roses and several strands of sea grass were twisted in the bowl. Rachel made the favours herself; each woman had a handmade cream origami rose to take home with them, while the men had a polished pebble with a picture painted on them of an angelfish and their name.

They had a seven-tier cake made by Rachel's Mum and sister. The seven round tiers rested on each other and hand made roses made out of icing were position around the tiers. Unknown to Rachel & Richard, they had also made them a diving helmet cake, with figurines of the happy couple in their scuba mask and snorkel!

"I find it hard to describe the best part of the day. Richard says it was seeing me so happy during the ceremony and I would have to say the same. I knew Rich was apprenhensive about the whole 'everyone looking at him' part of it, but thankfully he REALLY enjoyed it all!"

When asked if she had any tips for future wedding couples Rachel says; "It is important to plan and have a few days before the wedding day to organise all the last minute things. My Mum, sister and I also had massages the day before - which was perfect. Also advice given to me; on your actual wedding day, step back and just take moments to savour the atmosphere - it goes so quickly that it is really important to stop and just watch!"

Images courtesy of Sandy Calvert

Suppliers:

Bride's dress -The Bridal Outlet, Kent
Bride's accessories - jewellery hand made by Twice As Nice
Groom's suit - Hired from Debenhams
Bridesmaid's dresses - The Bridal Outlet
Other outfits - Hired from Debenhams
Wedding rings - Paul Grays
Wedding cake - Mum and Sister
Flowers - Karen at Rose Blossom
Invitations - Handmade
Wedding list - GRRR Wrappit
Disco/DJ - Sillouette
Wedding favours - Handmade
Photographer - Sandy Calvert