Gemma and Ian’s August Wedding
One of our favourite styles of blog post has to be the chance to reminisce with a bride and groom regarding their special wedding day.
Here we chat to Gemma and Ian about their wedding planning experience and how the wonderful wedding day itself exceeded all their expectations.
I hope you enjoy hearing their story and viewing a selection of their official wedding photos. (Karen – Wedding Coordinator)
When did the proposal take place and how did it happen?
We got engaged in March 2018. The groom organised a surprise day out – something we’ve done few times before so it didn’t seem unusual. After a day of fun activities, he proposed…and then once we’d called around our immediate families to tell them the exciting news, we celebrated with champagne and a riverboat cruise on the Thames.
Did you have an ideal venue in mind before you began your search? How did you research your venue?
We didn’t have a definitive idea beforehand. So we just started googling wedding venues in Essex and emailed the ones we liked the look of.
How many venues did you visit and why did you choose Layer Marney Tower?
We visited about four venues in total, but it wasn’t a difficult decision. As soon as we drove through the gates at Layer Marney Tower, saw the animals roaming the fields and the magnificent tower in front of us, we knew it was the one. It was perfect in every way and better than we could have ever imagined.
How far in advance did you book your wedding day?
As we were wanting to get married on a Saturday the following Summer, we knew places would fill up quickly. So once we’d decided Layer Marney Tower was our perfect venue, we booked it straight away to avoid disappointment! It was approximately 17 months from the initial booking of the venue to our wedding day.
Did you have a theme?
With the Groom being such as big Aston Villa fan, there was no room for negotiation with the colour scheme being claret and blue. This was only allowed by the bride with the condition of there being no further football references…
There wasn’t really a specific theme to the day, we just picked things that we really like, (the bride’s favourite animal is an owl, so we had one deliver the rings) or things we thoughts would be fun for our guests, (we made our own raspberry vodka and personalised every bottle label and also set up a “diary room” in the bar for them to leave video guestbook messages).
How did you choose which suppliers you used?
We met the falconry supplier and DJ at wedding open days before we’d even chosen our venue. Our photographer Andy Chambers was a recommended supplier at Layer Marney Tower and we loved his albums online. Hair and makeup for the bride was through friend’s recommendations. The wedding cake and flowers were through family or friends.