An Essex Wedding - May/Jun 2019 (Issue 86)

Mum made incredible decorations for the chairs, which involved individually crocheted strips of ribbon. Graeme’s mum helped cut out more than 100 heart shapes from different maps, which we threaded on to twine and hung around the room. We also had pretty paper lanterns. Each table was named after one of the ten marathons I’ve completed, with my race number and a photo on each one. For our favours we gave everyone a random fact; knowledge is a gift too! Instead of a traditional cake, we treated our guests to Colin and Connie Caterpillar cakes from M&S and Greggs doughnuts. The garden and farmhouse at the venue are beautiful and the main building is modern yet rustic, which suited our style. The other draw was the staff; they were so friendly and accommodating and made us feel like we were the only people getting married there. The remit was bright, colourful and personal. We had lots of faux flowers in beer and wine bottles – a special thanks to my dad for drinking so much! – and long twine vines. 42