Your Devon and Cornwall Wedding - July/August 2020 (Issue 26)

23  REAL WEDDINGS C hloe and Ian lived in the same village and kept noticing each other from afar before they met. “Two different sets of friends tried to set us up on a blind date,” Chloe tells us. When the couple did eventually enjoy their first date together, it was on 21 st June 2017, two years before they would be married. “We both knew very quickly that we were going to be together because we share a love of walking, being outdoors, a passion for animals and some of the finer things in life while both being pretty down to earth at the same time,” Chloe tells us. “Our early dates were mostly outdoor picnics on the North Devon coast by Abbotsham Cliffs which is where Ian proposed exactly one year later on our anniversary. He had prepared a champagne picnic to celebrate and unbeknown to me had spent the last week fashioning a wooden engagement ring (he’s a creative carpenter) which he presented to me that afternoon when he asked me to marry him! Although I had secretly been hoping that we would get married, it still came as a wonderful surprise and after a few tears I said ‘yes.’” ALL IN THE DETAIL “We’re fortunate to live in a stunning secluded location set in two acres of gardens on the banks of the River Torridge where we are renovating a retreat, Hadlow, designed to provide accommodation for yoga and walking trips so there was no question that we would hold our wedding right there at our home, it was the perfect location!” Chloe says. “We had a legal ceremony at the Torridge Registration Office, followed by a hand-fasting ceremony where we exchanged vows that Ian and I contributed, plus celtic vows that were found by my step-daughter, Beth, the next day at Hadlow. The entire day was such a success that it inspired us to extend our business plan to include small weddings and events.” The couple wanted an informal day with no seating plan or formal wedding breakfast. “We served pizzas with toppings of the guests’ choice from the outdoor pizza oven that Ian built especially for the occasion,” Chloe describes. “Instead of having a wedding list, we suggested that guests might like to bring a gourmet gift to supplement the wedding feast. I got together with my friends Janet and Rhi to make the sponge cake, and on the day, my sister-in-law Deborah supplied the fresh fruit to decorate it with.” The couple’s guests enjoyed their food seated on straw bales placed around the open-sided marquee located down by the picturesque lake. “The beauty of our garden shone through after all of our hard work to prepare it,” Chloe says. “We had flowers for the bouquets to complement our theme that Ian’s sister Jackie arranged, and we had colour coordinated balloons with ribbons to tie in with these and the bridesmaids’ dresses which were deep red, purple and pink.” The couple arranged for their friend Tim to collect the bridal party from the quay in Bideford in his 100-year-old clinker-built boat to take them up the river to the venue. “This was very special, not least because the sun was shining but also because the journey was so leisurely that it enabled all of us to relax and enjoy the ride,” Chloe says. “When I arrived, our celebrant Deborah, Ian’s sister, calmly explained that some of our guests were late due to the recent bad weather halting the clearing of the grass in the car parking field so I was able to sit on the riverbank with a glass of bubbly and wait for everyone to arrive!” DRESSED TO IMPRESS Chloe tells us how her wedding dress was one of the most important factors in their planning. “Having visited numerous bridal shops with my mother and two sisters and finding nothing that I loved, my