Here Comes the Sun! Part 2 of Olivia and Matt’s Country Garden Wedding

Photos are by Pippa Mackenzie and words from Olivia. Watch out for a wonderfully eclectic cupcake tower - looking fabulous! - and some impressive shapes 'thrown' on the dancefloor... and why not listen to the wedding band while you look at the blog post? I'm enjoying their music as I type!

Claire xx

Throughout the day we could not stop smiling (and neither could our guests). It was a really relaxed and intimate afternoon. We both wanted to have a wedding which was not too regimented which allowed us and our guests to enjoy the day. Olivia's parents had planned the wedding so well and Phil and Sandra (Pimpernel Associates) were there on the day to make sure everything went smoothly – Sandra was armed with a box of treasures including tights, plasters, nail varnish and sewing kit.







The theme was an English country garden; all of the flowers were typical to what you would find in a country garden – roses, peonies and hydrangeas. The table names were named after gardens or parks that meant a lot to us – for example there was Central Park (which we were overlooking when Matt proposed), Nymans (where Olivia’s grandfather volunteers) and Ramster Gardens (where our engagement shoot was). The main colours of the day were dusty pinks and ivory – which were in the flowers, Olivia's and the bridesmaids dresses (ivory) and in the brides and bridesmaid hair flowers (pink) and the groom, best man, and ushers’ cravats.

Everything went so smoothly, from the moment that everyone arrived to the moment that we left it was lovely. The food was delicious, from the amazing miniature and moreish canapés right through to the his and hers deserts (chocolate ganache and Eton mess respectively).

Having a marquee wedding allowed us the freedom to do whatever we wanted in terms of flowers, numbers of guests, and most importantly timings. Olivia's parents were amazing and really helped out. The most important thing we discovered was to plan, plan and plan some more. We were able to keep calm and just enjoy the day.

Olivia loved going to see florists with my mother as she knew what I wanted. We wanted flowers that had the wow factor in the marquee as there was so much open space. On each table we had tall vases overflowing with flowers which looked amazing. My Mum has an amazing eye for detail which helped to make the marquee look amazing – from the pretty crockery used to organza bags, petals and decorations on the tables.

Having Phil & Sandra their on the day to oversee everything meant that we and our family could enjoy the day. They were there at the beginning of the day to greet the suppliers and they were there at the end of the night to book taxis.

Sandra also helped us put together our first dance (as Matt affectionately told Olivia that she has a different rhythm to the rhythm of the music).

I knew that I wanted cupcakes and had a page in my wedding binder crammed full of cupcake pictures for ideas. Rachael of Rachael's Kitchen loved it and encour­aged us to do many dif­fer­ent types of cup­cakes. They looked and tasted amaz­ing.

Find a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher who really makes you feel com­fort­able and who you get along with very well. Right from the first moment we met Pippa Macken­zie we felt a real bond, we thor­oughly enjoyed our engage­ment shoot at Ram­ster Gar­dens, where we got a chance to see how Pippa worked. The pho­tog­ra­phy was stun­ning for both the engage­ment shoot and the wed­ding itself. At the wed­ding she also con­nected with our guests (which showed in the pho­tog­ra­phy too) and cap­tured all the moments per­fectly. We can really rec­om­mend Pippa and we have done so to any­one who is get­ting mar­ried soon.

A great guide that we found and used was Debrett’s Wed­ding Guide – which had lots of use­ful infor­ma­tion on invi­ta­tions, pho­tog­ra­phy, speeches, roles for the wed­ding party (i.e. brides­maids and ush­ers) and timings.

On the day, remem­ber to smile! The loveli­est thing was sur­round­ing our­selves with those who we hold dear.

The evening before the wed­ding my par­ents, sis­ters (Char­lotte and Rosie), Amie (my Maid of Hon­our and best friend) and I sat fill­ing the organza bags with choco­lates whilst watch­ing Father of the Bride (a film loved by our fam­ily – my sis­ters always said that Steve Mar­tin looked like my Dad).






The speeches were very inti­mate, Matt, his best man Ned, Olivia’s Dad and also Olivia’s Grandpa did a speech.

After the for­mal­i­ties of the speeches and din­ner Olivia and Matt took to the floor, to “Here Comes the Sun” by the Bea­t­les – which has been our song from day one (it fol­lowed us for our first few dates). Our band were John Bull & The Ban­dits, who kept every­one on the floor until the early hours (long after we went to the hotel).

Many of our guests have said how they had a won­der­ful time and how relaxed they were, a lot have said that it is the best wed­ding that they have ever been to – which Matt and I and my par­ents were so thank­ful for. We have so many lovely mem­o­ries and each time we look at the beau­ti­ful pho­tos that Pippa took it brings it all back. It was truly the best day of our lives.

Olivia and Matt’s rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

• Vogue Dia­mond, Brighton — Engage­ment & Wed­ding Rings
• Uttam Bou­tique, Lon­don – Brides­maid Dresses
• Condici & Michael Kors – Mother of the Bride Outfit
• Pas­cal from the Point, Brighton– Brides, Brides­maid & Mother of the Bride Hair
• Sarah Wood­house, Burgess Hill – Brides Makeup
• Pippa Macken­zie – wed­ding photographer
• Vin­tage Flower House, Wivels­field, West Sus­sex – flowers
• Rachael’s Kitchen, Wor­thing, West Sus­sex – cupcakes
• The Angelic Host, Lox­wood, West Sus­sex – Caterers
• Pim­per­nel Asso­ciates, West Sus­sex – Organ­iser on the day / first dance
• Brook­field Mar­quees – West Sus­sex – Marquee
• Place Set­tings, West Sus­sex – equip­ment hire
• GG Print, Lon­don – wed­ding invitations
• Digiset, West Sus­sex – Order of Ser­vice & Evening invitations
• Vin­tage Cars sup­plied through fam­ily friend Luis deGrouchy at Arun Cars, Pul­bor­ough, Sussex
• The Sus­sex Sax­o­phone Quar­tet – music before and dur­ing the wed­ding breakfast
• John Bull & The Ban­dits – evening music

This blog post con­tains a cou­ple of affil­i­ate links (to Ama­zon) — to help me pay the bills.