Those post wedding blues have definitely hit, and made more fun with COVID…thank you.
I cannot believe it has already been a week since I was putting on my dress and strangely feeling super calm (which was totally unlike me).
Our day, after an extra year of waiting, couldn’t have been more perfect for us.
We were surrounded by our most loved people, were married at an amazing venue and had so many small businesses and suppliers along for the ride with us. Creating my own signage was the last piece that made it so personalised to us.
I wanted to share the suppliers and small businesses I used throughout the plans, from on the day help to small businesses who helped make my visions come to life.
Venue:
There were a few key things we wanted from our venue; location to not be too far, ability to stay on the grounds from start to finish and a rustic barn vibe.
Cooling Castle Barns had it all!
With 3 connecting barns on the land, we were able to have the ceremony, wedding breakfast and reception in the same place which was a huge bonus as we really didn’t want to travel around.
They have a beautiful Moat House that is a private space for the Bride and Bridal party to get ready in the morning. We arrived from 8am and had food, drinks and dressing gowns brought up to help us prepare whilst getting ready.
Along with their 15 on-site bedrooms, we were able to host our family members so that they didn't need to travel after the wedding. Having breakfast with people the next morning, seeing so many happy and grateful faces was a great feeling.
This venue not only had all the amenities you could need, their staff went above and beyond to make sure you weren’t stressed and covered everything they could all day.
Check them out here.
Photography & Videography:
Finding the right photographer and Videographer for you can take a while but it is so so important.
We picked suppliers whose style we loved and who we connected with easily when we spoke with them. You want people around you on the day that are going to make you feel at ease and Hannah & Ed definitely did that!
I highly recommend having both of these suppliers if you can, as they are the memories that will stay forever.
Check out Hannahs Photography here.
Check out Ed's Videography here.
Florist:
Flowers was something originally I planned on doing myself and oh boy am I glad I found Georgia because that would have been another stress I couldn’t add on.
I worked with a local florist in Bromley, Kent area and Georgia was more than happy to have several conversations with me, asking questions I wouldn’t have thought of to make sure my ideas would come to life and even helped with my change of style as we postponed.
I also decided to letter onto a silk ribbon from (silk & purl) which Georgia added to my bouquet.
It featured a quote from a favourite country song, ‘the shires - I just want to love you. It was such a sweet touch.
Check out Georgia's work here.
Magician:
Having some mid-day entertainment from Tom was exactly what we needed.
We chose the ice-breaker package which covered the 2 hours between the ceremony and dinner.
It was a chance our guests could mingle and have fun whilst we were off with the Photographer and Videographer.
All of our guests loved the magician they weren't expecting and had a great time.
Check out Tom here.
Hair & Make-up:
Now choosing your hair & make-up for the big day can be stressful but I felt so at ease with Ebony.
She understood exactly what style I wanted to go with and for someone who doesn’t wear make-up often, made me feel so beautiful in a subtle glowing way.
Ebony is amazing at understanding what needs to be done on the day and brought 2 assistants along for our 7 Bridesmaids. Everyone loved it!
Check out Ebony's work here.
Cake:
We aren’t huge cake lovers but we knew we still wanted something for our guests. We decided on a small 1 tier cake surrounded by cupcakes and it was dreamy!
Mel knew exactly what I wanted and she created the most beautiful simple, naked cake for us, featuring flowers from our florist arrangements.
In the evening we put out the cupcakes on our sweet table, along with decorated biscuits and everyone lapped them up!
Check Mel out here
Venue Decoration:
Cooling already has such a beautiful backdrop but we did want to add some of our own elements.
We worked with Chic Weddings to add a beautiful artificial heart that hung in our ceremony room and string fairy lights in the main barn which was just the extra special touch the room needed.
They have an amazing selection of venue decorations from chair covers, backdrops and table decorations and are so accommodating with your ideas.
Check out Chic's range here.
Dresses:
Dress shopping is one of the most exciting parts of wedding planning but can also be super overwhelming with the amount of choices.
I decided to go to Wed2Be initially to try on lots of styles, as they don’t have an appointment schedule. This helped me feel less pressured to find ‘the dress’ and just try on styles I liked.
When I knew what I wanted, I visited Bell'Amore in Bexleyheath, Kent and found ‘the one!’ I didn’t believe when people said, when you know you know, but I really did. The lovely staff there made everything so comfortable and easy the whole way through the journey from picking it, fitting and hyping me up on collection day.
My bridesmaids chose a dress that best suited them from Wed2Be. They have a selection of 6 dresses and I let them choose which one they wanted so that they were comfortable on the day.
Having the mix of dresses looked so lovely in photos.
Our flower girl dresses were the most adorable things from a lovely small business called BelleVieByBelleVie.
They absolutely loved them and constantly asked when they could wear their princess dresses leading up to the big day. I would definitely recommend this wonderful business.
Gifts:
I knew I wanted to shop from small businesses as much as I could for our gifts and I found some wonderful things along the way.
My most precious gift was a personalised poem by the amazing Clare from claredesigns_
She prompted me for memories and pointers before pulling together such a special personalised Poem that I gave my parents on the morning of the big day.
Here are the other small businesses I used;
Cufflinks - WithLoveFromDesign, Etsy
Bridal Bracelet - GolfyJewellery, Etsy
Flower Girl Bracelet - Jewels4girls, Etsy
Bridesmaid Bracelet - Bloom Boutique
Groomsmen Flasks - CVEngraving, Etsy
Mother Necklace - MessageCardJewelry, Etsy / CustomChic801
Personalised Ring Box - SimplyUniqueUK, Etsy
Bouquet Ribbon - SilkandPurl, Etsy
Personlaised Tie Pin - Peneloptom, Etsy
I hope this helps you with ideas or suppliers for your big day!