Emma & Michael
Sunday 23rd December 2018
Photography by Natalie J Weddings
Mike asked me to marry him at the top of the Rockefeller Centre in New York in June 2017.
Mike asked me to marry him at the top of the Rockefeller Centre in New York in June 2017. After this, we decided to start a family and have a baby before getting married, and I fell pregnant with our daughter 3 months later. We then decided to get married in December 2018.
So, I needed to find a dress quickly before my bump developed, as it would be too close to the wedding date to start dress shopping once the baby had arrived! My dress was from David’s Bridal – I actually saw the dress for the first time at The National Wedding Show in London and soon after booked an appointment at the Watford store to try it on. It was an elegant, duchess-satin, strapless Zac Posen gown, which I added a sparkly belt and thin straps to. I had been to 3 or 4 other bridal stores, and had found a few other dresses that I liked, but the Zac Posen gown topped them all. I always thought I would want a fit-and-flare style gown and I knew I liked straps, but I hadn’t realised I would go for something so ‘simple’ and understated.
We chose All Saints’ Church in Buckland as our ceremony venue – it’s a small, gorgeous 13th century Church that has a lovely, authentic feel to it. It also felt perfect for our day-guest numbers – just the right size to feel filled but not too cosy!
We chose Missenden Abbey for our Reception, as we loved the feel of the place and the Abbey felt just the right size for our planned guest numbers. We particularly loved the layout of the main rooms, such as how the bar is just off the main ‘Garden Room’ where the dancefloor was in the evening – the place feels big enough but not so vast that guests are too spread out across the rooms.
The grounds are also beautiful, and the food is delicious!
We had a (loose) theme relating to Game of Thrones i.e. our table names were Game of Thrones Family House names, and we had a String Quartet play the theme tune as we walked out of the Church after the wedding ceremony. We chose this theme as Mike and I got together partly due to our mutual love of Game of Thrones.
Our colour theme was black and gold, as it fit well with the time of year (being so close to Christmas). The bridesmaids wore black maxi dresses with added sparkly belts, and Mike and the groomsmen wore black tuxedos with gold ties.
‘The mixture of whites, greens and golds together looked really beautiful and festive.’
Our Florist was Edlesborough Flowers, who created a beautiful bridal bouquet of a mixture of white flowers including avalanche roses, gold gypsophila, gold pine cones and soft greenery. The bridesmaids had a smaller version of the bridal bouquet.
We arrived at Missenden Abbey around 3pm and we were greeted with Prosecco! Our Photographer – the fabulous Natalie J Weddings – took group shots in the Library as, unfortunately; by this point, it was raining too much for us to get the group shots outside. We had our beautiful 3-tier white and gold cake (Coco Loco Cakes) set up in the Garden Room and we had a String Quartet (Manor House Music) playing as guests made their way to the Bar – they sounded incredible. We went in for the Wedding Breakfast around 4.15pm (as we only had 60 guests, we were able to all fit into the main dining room at the Abbey) and had the speeches by my dad, Mike and the two best men.
Our Reception guests began arriving from 7pm and we had the Abbey DJ and the light-up dancefloor in the Garden Room, which looked awesome. One of the surprises of the evening was that we had a booked a Pyro Musical Firework display for 8pm – unfortunately it was still chucking it down with rain, but I had planned for this by sourcing lots of big umbrellas for the guests beforehand. I had my bridesmaids usher everyone outside with umbrellas, and we all watched the awesome firework display set to our chosen song ‘The Power of Love’ by Huey Lewis and the News.
Our first dance – ‘Can’t take my eyes off you’ by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – followed the cake cutting, and then it was dancing (and eating bacon and/or egg sandwiches) all night!
We had such a fantastic day, and so many of our guests commented on the happy, relaxed atmosphere of the day, which was exactly what Mike and I had wanted.
I’m so pleased that we chose Missenden Abbey for our wedding Reception venue. Kathy Cousins really wanted to know our vision and really listened to and did everything I asked of her in preparation for the day. We loved the intimate feel of the Abbey, and so many of our guests have commented not only on the lovely venue itself, the delicious food, the excellent red wine and the awesome DJ, but also on the happy and relaxed feel of the whole day. We chose a great time of year to get married as the Abbey was already decorated for Christmas, with the most gorgeous (and huge!) Christmas tree in the lobby, amongst other pretty and tasteful decorations dotted around the venue. The Abbey also felt the perfect size for our guest numbers, and we loved that we had exclusive hire of the Abbey included in our package. I would definitely highly recommend the Abbey as a wedding Reception venue.
A few suppliers we used –