Your East Anglian Wedding - Dec/Jan 2019 (Issue 40)

I chose my Halfpenny London dress because it was the one I’d talked about at length with my mum before she passed away in July. I wanted to share the experience with her and for her to be able to visualise what it would look like, even though she couldn’t be there. Dev had a light grey waistcoat and black jacket to stand out from his groomsmen and the bridesmaids’ dresses complemented our red, black and silver colour scheme. As I’m from Australia, I wanted our overseas guests to have a traditional London experience so we had a red double-decker bus to take everyone to the reception. We wanted a venue with a relaxed atmosphere that we could put our own stamp on. As soon as we stepped inside Swynford Manor, we knew it was the one , the staff were so lovely and it felt like nothing was too much trouble. Charlotte Bretton created our tableplan to reflect Swynford Manor and included a hand-drawn picture of the venue with a holly and evergreen border which our guests signed so we could keep it as a memento. We personalised clear Christmas baubles with our initials and the wedding date to give our guests as favours. We wrapped them in black tissue paper with red ribbon and a little hand-written note on each one. REAL WEDDINGS 49 