When St Audries Park is the only venue you visit, and you just know it’s the one…
Tell us about the proposal – how and where did it happen?
Well to answer this, we must go back in time to when we first met – at Bridgwater Fair! We’d originally met online and been chatting for months, but never met in real life until I saw Aaron walk by me at Bridgwater Fair. A quick exchange of texts, and Aaron ran to meet me to say hi, in person, for the first time! Skip forward 2 (and a bit) years later and, on that very spot where we first met, Aaron proposed to me! It was pouring with rain and bitterly cold, but it was beautiful, nonetheless.
What was your first step in planning your wedding, did you use blogs/magazines etc?
Our first step in planning the wedding was researching local venues and suppliers. We were lucky to come across St Audries Park as one of the top results. In fact, St Audries Park was the first thing we booked! We later went on to create more Pinterest boards and notes pages than we’d care to mention!
What were your wedding “must have’s”?
I was desperate to have a choir at the wedding (special shoutout to Vocal Works Gospel Choir!) who did not disappoint – a real crowd favourite with our guests!
Aaron on the other hand was more concerned about how well the bar was stocked and whether they’d serve his favourite gin! Again, our wish was granted, and St Audries Park made sure they had everything we needed!
How did you organise your wedding budget?
I famously says, “you aren’t organised until you’ve got a spreadsheet”. Needless to say, we budgeted everything down to the pound! We used a variety of sources to pitch our budget, using a selection of websites but also asked friends and family who have organised their own weddings. Surprisingly, we were within our budget and didn’t have to compromise on anything. St Audries Park helped us to meet our desires within the budget we had, and our Wedding Manager was great at helping us make sensible decisions (Although nobody was talking me down from a choir…)
How did you find your venue and what made you choose it?
It didn’t take long to research where we wanted to get married – we had booked two different venues to look at, St Audries Park being the first, and we loved it so much that we cancelled our viewing at the second venue and booked St Audries Park on the very same day!
We were obsessed with the intricacy and architecture that St Audries Park had to offer. The Orangery offered everything we’d dreamed of for our ceremony, and the main house boasted the elegance and grandeur we were looking for to host our wedding breakfast and reception.
How did you personalise your big day?
We took a lot of inspiration from the venue and its many attractive features – styling it around the concept of countryside life. With the venue being as stunning as it was, we actually had very little decoration to do, because it already looked beautiful and idlic!
Everything from our wedding favours and stationery, to our colour scheme and cake was styled around the countryside – blending with the beautiful grounds of St Audries Park and the incredible deer park that sat outside the main house.
Did the venue provide any memorable extras or nice personal touches that stood out?
The venue did everything they could to make our day extra special, and we were really pleased to have a set of robes each and a customised cushion as beautiful reminders of our special day. On the day, the venue did everything they could to make us feel welcome and special – specifically making sure that we had exclusive use of the venue, so we were free to party and celebrate to our heart’s content!
Describe your wedding attire and favourite accessories
We both wore a beautifully tailored tux to our wedding ceremony, accompanied with bow ties and matching cufflinks. For our wedding breakfast and reception, we swapped our tux jackets out for waistcoats and matching ties.
Tell us about your Bridesmaids, Groomsmen and their outfits
Our best man, best woman and groomsmen all boasted a beautiful matching colour scheme – Sam’s side wore black, and Aaron’s side wore a navy blue.
What was your ceremony like?
Our ceremony began with a small choir singing various songs to welcome our guests into the Orangery. They sang ‘Precious Love’ by James Morrisson as I walked down the aisle with my Mum, and sang a range of songs during and after the ceremony including Higher Love by Whitney Houston and Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake!
Our ceremony was quite simple and straightforward, we didn’t have any readings, and we were super lucky to have two calming and enthusiastic registrars.
Tell us about your drinks reception and wedding breakfast
The stage was beautifully set for our drinks reception by Vocal Works Gospel Choir, who performed a series of songs for our guests whilst they mingled over drinks and canapes.
One moment neither of us will forget (and the biggest tip we can offer any couple getting married!) is when we had 10 minutes in the day’s schedule put together to just spend time together after the ceremony, away from the hustle and bustle. It’s true when people tell you – you rarely see each other on your wedding day between after the ceremony and the end of the night! So, it was really nice to spend some time together and reflect on how beautiful the ceremony was!
Our wedding breakfast was fantastic – the food was incredible, the atmosphere was electric, and everyone had an absolute blast. The speeches were a combination of emotional and hilarious, and there was the odd sentence or two that we hadn’t quite signed off on (we’re talking about you, Tom!) – but hysterical nonetheless.
Did you have a band or DJ for your evening reception? Did you have a first dance – what song did you choose?
For our evening entertainment, we were incredibly lucky to have the exceptional Ian Boyd, who did an incredible job of getting everyone dancing, and singing all night long!
After Ian’s sets, we turned to DJ Geoff, who did a great job of playing all the classic party songs – from the Macarena to Mr Blue Sky!
We both had separate dances with our mothers – Aaron and his Mum danced to ‘Have I Told You Lately’ by Van Morrison, whilst Sam and his Mum danced to a surprising, comedic mashup of songs!
Deciding what our first dance would be was difficult. We aren’t really the ‘slow dance type’ so we settled for something a bit more ‘on brand’, opting for everyone to join us on the dance floor to dance to the Cha Cha Slide. We had all our friends and family with us for our first dance and we wouldn’t have had it any other way!
Based on your own experience, give us some top tips:
Alongside factoring in some time to yourselves, our biggest tip would be to enjoy the planning stage and make every decision with yourself in mind. It can get surprisingly daunting with the amount of decisions you have to make, but it’s important to enjoy the process and make the most of your big day!
Did you go on a honeymoon or mini-moon?
We went on a mini-moon to London for a few days the day after our wedding – exploring the sights, eating lush food, and reflecting on what a wonderful day we’d had!
Later in the year, we were incredibly lucky to have had our honeymoon in New York City! We spent two weeks touring the city, visiting various landmarks and experiences, and eating more food than we thought possible! It was one of the best experiences of our lives and we’re already planning our next visit out there!
“If we could do it all again, we’d…”
If we could do it all again, we’d have chosen a day without a red weather warning (shout out the Storm Eunice) but done pretty much everything the same! It really was the perfect day and we can’t thank Courtney and the rest of the team at St Audries Park for making us and our guests feel so welcomed and special throughout the day!
Purchase & Hire – Tell us who your suppliers were:
Wedding attire: Moss
Other outfits: Moss
Wedding rings: Tiffany’s
Wedding cake: Dreams & Wishes Cake Company
Invitations: Claire Elizabeth Designs
Photographer: Daniel Standerwick (photographer) and Andy @ Union Video (Videographer)
Band/disco/DJ: Vocal Works Gospel Choir / Ian Boyd / DJ Geoff
Wedding favours: Etsy
Other: Letter There Be Love (for the Mr & Mrs Letter Décor)
