Glitz and Elegance for a Traditional Wedding Blog from Cain Manor in Hampshire

Henry and Claire were mar­ried at Cain Manor in Hamp­shire, and my friend and spon­sor Mar­tin Price Pho­tog­ra­phy has sub­mit­ted their wed­ding to share with us all today. The beau­ti­ful bride and gor­geous groom have writ­ten a wed­ding report which is at the end of the fea­ture — a must-read for all brides and grooms in the Hamp­shire area.

And if you’re plan­ning a grace­ful, ele­gant, and styling Eng­lish wed­ding then the look of Claire and Henry’s big day is bound to inspire you! Pure ele­gance and time­less styling at its best… enjoy! Claire x

A time­lessly beau­ti­ful and tra­di­tional wed­ding blog from Hamp­shire — Claire and Henry

Wed­ding venue:

St John’s Church, Churt, Sur­rey fol­lowed by a recep­tion at Cain Manor.

Wed­ding photographer:

Mar­tin Price Photography

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

Tra­di­tional with a hint of glitz

Invi­ta­tions and recep­tion stationery:

The Let­ter Press of Cirences­ter — one of my favorite UK wed­ding sta­tion­ers, whose invi­ta­tions and envelopes I’ve had the plea­sure of writ­ing in cal­lig­ra­phy many times! Claire x

What did you both wear?

My dress was bought at Con­fetti & Lace (Farn­ham) for the fab­ric and then com­pletely re-designed by their tai­lor, Deb­bie Bot­tomly (who was absolutely fan­tas­tic!). For acces­sories, I treated myself to a pair of glit­tery navy blue shoes from Kate Spade and match­ing hand­bag from Anya Hind­march (my some­thing blue!). To fin­ish it off, I bor­rowed my mother-in-law’s fur jacket to keep me warm. In the evening I added a navy blue sash to the dress for a dif­fer­ent look to see in the New Year.

Henry wore a morn­ing suit with corn­flower blue waist­coats and a navy and white polka dot tie.

Wed­ding readings:

Colos­sians Chap­ter 3, verses 12–17 and John, Chap­ter 2, verses 1–11. Our hymns were ‘Tell out my soul, the great­ness of the Lord’, ‘Guide me O, Thou Great Redeemer’ and ‘I vow to thee my country’.

Tell us a lit­tle about your wed­ding venue styling and details:

Cain Manor (Bijou wed­dings) is a cosy coun­try house which we had exclu­sive use of and it also has a few bed­rooms, so you really feel like it is a home away from home. It was per­fect for a win­ter wed­ding with big oak beams and open fires. As it was New Year’s Eve we went for a sil­ver sparkly theme so had lots of fairy lights, sil­ver sequin table­cloths and big glit­ter ‘C’ ‘&’ ‘H’ let­ters on the wall. We went for min­i­mal flow­ers at the recep­tion venue and instead had bay trees wrapped with fairy lights in amongst the tables.

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

The Every­day Peo­ple band.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

All of it! Get­ting ready, say­ing ‘I do’, leav­ing the church in Henry’s Cater­ham that he races and which is his pride and joy, the fan­tas­tic food, speeches and the first dance.

Wed­ding day advice:

Savour every moment. Relax and enjoy it. Don’t stress about the small things.

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

• Mar­tin Price was fan­tas­tic and exactly what we were look­ing for in a pho­tog­ra­pher. He com­pletely blended in and you wouldn’t have known he was there. We wanted plenty of can­did shots of our day rather than too many for­mal pho­tos and he stuck to the brief per­fectly. We now have a great set of images in exactly the style we were after that we will trea­sure forever.
• I had my hair styled by Capella Hair­dressers in Cam­ber­ley, who came to my par­ents’ house on the morn­ing of the wed­ding. They were fan­tas­tic and I was so pleased with mine and my bridesmaid’s hair.
• Lon­gacres in Bagshot, Sur­rey made our bou­quets and but­ton­holes, which were beau­ti­ful and lasted so well all day. They had the vision and made exactly what I wanted from my poor descrip­tion and even poorer knowl­edge of flowers!
• Cas­tle Street Flow­ers in Farn­ham sup­plied the bay trees and pedestal for the church. They deliv­ered and set up the bay trees and col­lected them again after the wed­ding, mak­ing it com­pletely has­sle free for us.
• Dur­ing the plan­ning phase we did feel like we were on a wed­ding fac­tory line with Bijou wed­dings and we were not really made to feel like it was our spe­cial day unless we stuck to their very strict para­me­ters. That said, the day ran like clock­work and they did an amaz­ing job in set­ting up the venue and the ser­vice was great. The food was incred­i­ble and all of our guests commented!