I’m a qualified pilot and wanted to fly in by helicopter, so we were looking for a venue that had space to land. There were several possibilities that met our wider criteria. We wanted to be close to Lake Windermere, but not on the lake itself, as we wanted somewhere a little more exclusive that was not going to be overlooked. We also wanted somewhere that had space for family to stay, and it had to be dog friendly. We narrowed it down to three venues, but it was our visit to Broadoaks Country House, and our conversation with the team that persuaded us that it was the right venue for us. Sadly, the weather was not good enough to be able to fly in on the day, but that meant that there were no limits on how much alcohol could be drunk! We chose a blossom arch from Allure Venue Styling that we used at the front of the ceremony and later behind the top table for the wedding breakfast. Steve and I chose a three-tiered cake made with locally-sourced ingredients. We had to cater for lots of dietary requirements, so we decided to go for three different flavours. Kelly from Wren Cake Design worked the flowers into the design and came up with a wonderful icing pattern, leaving the cake mainly white, but incorporating our chosen colours. We decided early on that we didn’t want anything too heavily themed. We wanted to keep things simple, and show that there is little difference between same sex and ‘traditional’ weddings. We have both lost our fathers and people close to us, so we wanted to make sure that those who were no longer with us were represented on the day through the decorations, colours and flowers. Broadoaks Country House did all the catering on the day. The four-course wedding breakfast was a local twist on French cuisine, and for those guests that still wanted more, there was pizza and chips in the evening, plus wedding cake. Allure Venue Styling put together a sweet cart, which was made up of blue and orange sweets from our childhood. Our centrepieces were glass bowls filled with orange blooms. We opted for dahlias and birds of paradise, which were our fathers’ favourite flowers. 26
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