Amy and Mark were married on 18th June 2016 at Haughley Park Barn in Suffolk.
How did you meet?
Mark and I met at Bournemouth University. We mixed in the same circles but didn’t really get to know each other properly until our third year when we worked together at a nightclub for a club night called We Are Your Friends. We were friends for around a year before we started dating in October 2010. Just a few weeks after we got together, Mark flew out to Whistler, Canada, to spend six months on a ski season so we have to do the long distance thing before actually doing the dating thing!
How did the proposal happen?
Mark whisked me (and our dog, Sammy) off for a surprise week away to celebrate my 26th birthday. We stayed in an amazing log cabin (complete with our own hot tub!) in Sherwood Forest. On my birthday, we went off exploring for the day, once back at the cabin we lit the log fire, popped open the champagne and jumped in the hot tub. When I got out I put my hand in the pocket of my robe and found a Tiffany & Co box inside! I burst into tears and Mark got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was just perfect.
Where did the wedding take place?
We got married at my childhood parish church, St John the Divine in Elmswell, Suffolk, and then a horse and carriage took us just up the road to Haughley Park Barn, a beautiful barn converted into a wedding venue surrounded by parkland.
What did the bride wear?
My dress was a David Tutera Mon Cheri Lourdes dress, a mocha silk gown with ivory lace over the top and a chapel length train, with a Queen Anne neckline with jewelled sweetheart and little lace cap sleeves and a keyhole back. I accessorised with a chapel-length ivory veil scattered with crystals and a crystal and pearl hair slide, simple pearl drop earrings, a string of pearls (originally my Nan’s and worn by my mum on her wedding day) and sparkly Kurt Geiger Carvella heels.
What did the rest of the Bridal party wear?
My three bridesmaids work mauve floor-length dresses by True Bridesmaid and Hana, my flower girl, wore a beautiful gold-embroidered dress from Monsoon.
Mark wore a grey, tweed three-piece suit with a white shirt, navy tie and pocket square, and brown brogues. His best man, ushers and our dads wore navy three-piece suits. They each had a personalised, engraved pocket watch as gifts for the day.
What was your theme?
Mark and I both grew up in the country and wanted a charming country wedding with DIY details that were very personal to us. In-keeping with the country theme, we had lots of animal details on the day! We booked a beautiful horse and carriage (from The Ostler) as our transport and continued the horse theme (we both grew up with horses) with horseshoes across all of our stationary and horseshoe place names, which were made from real horseshoes. (My mum and mother-in-law collected the shoes from our horses over several years before all 120+ were cleaned and painted by my 91-year-old grandfather – a real labour of love!)
To make the day personal to us we wanted to bring in some of our favourite things so, in honour of Mark’s love of skiing, we created a table plan out of a Whistler piste map and named all of the tables after ski lifts. And due to his love of gin we gave our guests homemade sloe gin (made using sloes we picked from the hedgerows of Suffolk) distilled into small bottles and decorated with stickers using a logo of our initials designed for our stationary. I work for the RSPCA so we also hung little animal charity keyrings on the bottles (and had collection boxes on the bar). I made little goody bags for the kids, which included books, toys, bubbles, a drink, sweets and colouring pencils.
In tribute to how we met, we created a We Are Your Friends station (after the club night we met at), which gave guests the opportunity to decorate themselves with facepaint, glitter and glowsticks!
We made almost everything ourselves from the place names to the favours and including the decorations. We hung fairylights above the dancefloor and used apple crates, hampers, horseshoes, bell jars and candles dotted around the room. We also filled old wellies with wild flowers, foliage and crops from the surrounding fields.
As a tribute to our guests – and the distances many had traveled to be with us on the day – we built a sign naming all of the far-flung places from South Carolina, to Sydney, to Switzerland!
Describe your cake
A family friend made our cake which turned out to be a bit of a surprise for our guests on the day! From the front it looked like a normal five-tier ivory wedding cake decorated with flowers but, when we turned it around, it revealed Mark and I skiing down a special ‘wedding’ ski run with our beloved dog, Sam, waiting for us at the bottom! We had three flavours: fruitcake, lemon sponge and double chocolate; and it must have been tasty because it disappeared so fast that we didn’t even get any!
What were the highlights?
Our first kiss – we jumped the gun and kissed too early so we had to do it twice, it was really funny! And the first dances. My best friend played his own version of Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud for our first dance, which was really emotional, and dancing with my dad was also really special. We mainly jumped around and sang in each other’s faces to a rock song called Heaven by Live. It’s all about a father’s love for his daughter.
Your best buy?
Our Mini Cooper photobooth! Everyone was amazed and spent a lot of time dressing up and jumping in for pictures! It was such a talking point! Or the ice-cream cart we had outside the church. It meant that while we were posing for photos our guests could enjoy a sweet treat!
How did it end?
We had an incredible band called Beat Connection who played two sets and also had a DJ. The night ended with lots of our guests invading the stage to celebrate with the band! The DJ played one of our favourite songs and all of our guests lined the exit with sparklers as we waved goodbye and jumped in a Mercedes to speed off to our hotel for the night!
Where did you go on honeymoon?
We jetted off a few days after the wedding for an incredible two-week, three-stop adventure. Starting at Riviera Maya in Mexico staying at the beautiful, luxurious Secrets Akumal Resort, then after a week we headed for Las Vegas where we stayed at the MGM Grand Signature for three nights and then finished our tour with four nights at the Empire Hotel in New York.
FINER DETAILS
Photographer: Balance Photography (www.balancephotographyweddings.com)
Dress: David Tutera Mon Cheri
Venue: Haughley Park Barn, Suffolk (www.haughleypark.co.uk)
