Harriet and Ben’s November Wedding

28th January 2021

There is no doubt that wedding couples are inspired by reading the story of other real life weddings, (and viewing their amazing photographs), so we are thrilled that Harriet has agreed to answer some of our questions about her magical wedding to Ben, which took place at Layer Marney Tower on the most beautiful of November days.

Harriet and Ben certainly had a rollercoaster of a journey to get to their wedding day, thanks to the inconvenience of a worldwide pandemic.  But love conquers all and after some last minute rearrangements, the special day was finally able to take place.  (Karen – Wedding Coordinator).

When did the proposal take place and how did it happen?

It happened on our second anniversary.  We had gone for a walk to Hadleigh Castle, where we had visited on one of our early dates.  On that occasion, Ben had planned a romantic picnic and was planning to use his camping stove, only to find when he came to light it that he didn’t bring a lighter or matches; we still laugh about it to this day.

So when we suggested a walk to the castle, I guessed that we would reminisce about that date only to find that during the sunset walk, Ben produced two tea light candles to represent the two years we had been together.  When he opened the matchbox, the ring was inside and he got down on one knee and popped the question.

Did you have an ideal venue in mind before you began your search?  How did you research your venue?

During our early dating we used to go for a lot of country drives around Colchester as Ben was very proud of where he was from.  As I am originally from South Essex, he wanted to show me all of the wonders of Colchester.  When one day we went over to Layer Marney Tower I was stunned by the beautiful grounds and I knew that if we got married, it would be there.  Low and behold, when we got engaged we both looked at each other and said “Layer Marney Tower”.

How many venues did you visit and why did you choose Layer Marney Tower?

We only visited Layer Marney Tower; it was the only place we could envisage getting married.

How far in advance did you book your wedding day?

Originally we booked 16 months in advance, however due to the pandemic we actually had four different wedding dates.  For us it was fourth times the charm!

Did you have a theme?

We wanted a vintage 1920’s theme so the ground and building suited perfectly.  Of course we had changes across the way where we had to tweak our theme slightly.

How did you choose which suppliers you used?

I did a lot of work myself for the cake, table decorations and flowers as my Mum is a florist.  However we attended every wedding fair at Layer Marney Tower for inspiration where we booked our harpist with Essence Music and discussed our catering with Bouquet Garni.

Have you enlisted help from family and friends with the planning, or was it mainly the bride and groom that made the arrangements?

My Groom had a lucky escape, haha!  Myself and my Mum did the majority of the work with help from my Dad.