Jacqueline and Matt tied the knot with us back in January after falling in love with the venue. Take a look at their real life wedding…
The proposal
“Matthew proposed whilst we were on holiday in France on Utah Beach whilst the sun was setting. After 7 years of being together and me waiting for that ring, little did he know, we would be married within 6 months of the proposal”
So you’ve said yes, what was your first step in planning your wedding?
“The very first thing I did was book an appointment with Alice to look around Holmewood Hall! I went to view the venue without my husband and put a deposit down on a last minute date there and then.. Luckily, when Matthew viewed it a week later, he loved the venue just as much as I did.”
How did you organise your wedding budget?
Matthew set a wedding budget, I set a budget of double his and then we went and exceeded both.. So I don’t feel I should give advice on this one! But I did make a spreadsheet which we stopped looking at towards the end as it gave me heart palpitations.
But in the words of Dappy.. No Regrets!
What made you choose Holmewood Hall as your Wedding venue?
“I was blown away from the second I drove through the gates and knew this was my wedding venue. Holmewood Hall is so grand & idyllic. It was the staircase that sealed the deal for me!
Alice didn’t need to sell anything too me. She told me about the amazing deal I could have if I chose a last minute date & then Giulia our wedding planner, calmed me down when I started panicking that 5 months wasn’t long enough to plan a wedding – the girls went above & beyond to help us plan in a limited time.”
What were your wedding “must have’s”?
“‘The Rat Pack Boys’ as singing waiters. We met Jonny & Tommy about 8 years ago when Matthew DJ’d at a wedding that they were performing at. We told them there and then that we would one day have them at our wedding and we stuck to our word all those years later.. they didn’t disappoint!
‘Sarah Sax’ we’d seen videos of Sarah circling on social media & knew we had to have her!
We had always wanted bag pipes as a surprise for my Scottish family members during our ceremony in the church. We had a gentleman from Corby called Mark McLaughlan & he surpassed all of our expectations, it was magical.
Our photographer, Charlotte Wilson, was our first booking after securing the date. We know Charlotte personally & we knew she would capture the day beautifully, which she really did!”
Tell us how you personalised your big day?
“We got married on January 4th so we went for a wintery theme. Lots of burgundy, white roses, pinecones in the bouquets & slippers for guests!
We made our wedding favour’s our self and we had personalized champagne glasses with a white bow around the stem for everyone which doubled up as place names – they looked very classy & saved us a lot of money.
Our cake was the bargain of the century from Lylamaycakeaway on Instagram! We wanted a timeless & classy cake, we went with a white 4 tier cake decorated with wedding flowers from our lovely florist – The Daisy Chain Wedding Florist. Our florist also decorated our venue beautifully with gorgeous candelabras as centrepieces. She also did a garland for our top table which one of my favourite things from the day.”
How did you choose your suppliers?
“I had booked all of our suppliers within a week of securing our date. As we had limited time I just jumped straight on Facebook and did a search, reading lots of reviews. I like to think I was quite a ‘relaxed bride!’ (my husband may say different). I just gave each supplier a rough idea of what I wanted and then put my trust in the professionals and let them have free reign to do what they liked – that helped lower my stress levels as I knew it was being taken care of and safe to say, everyone exceeded all expectations.”
Tell us about the dress?
“I wasn’t sure what kind of dress I wanted as we were having a winter wedding. I had always fancied something with sleeves which I didn’t go for in the end. It is true what they say, when you know, you know! It was the very first dress I touched when I walked into the shop on my first dress shopping trip. It was the last one I tried on whilst there and as soon as I looked in the mirror, I knew it was the one for me – it also had pockets which made it a no brainer?!”
What accessories did you wear on the day?
“I wore a bargain pair of white River Island court heels for the ceremony & photos before swiftly changing into my slippers! I wore a pair of drop earrings that were actually from Tesco, believe it or not. My late nanny’s wedding ring on my right hand as my ‘something borrowed’. My dress was high neck so I didn’t have a necklace and the lovely lady who sewed my bridal belt on recommended against a bracelet as it may snag the satin material of my dress.”
What did Matt wear?
“Matthew has many suits for work and is also a former ballroom dancer, so is also used to wearing tails. Therefore we knew that we wanted something a little special for his wedding day. Matthew went to Souster & Hicks in Woburn, a family run business specialising in tailor made, bespoke wedding suits. They made Matthew the most gorgeous tux jacket, which was burgundy with black lapels that he had designed along side them.
His jacket got just as much attention as the wedding dress!”
Tell us about your Bridesmaids, Groomsmen and their outfits..
“Matthew had two best men and two groomsmen. All of the boys wore black tux’s with a burgundy waistcoat & black bow tie, they all looked very dapper. I had a maid of honour, a bridesmaid, a bridesman and a flower girl.
My girls wore burgundy pleated maxi dresses which were a bargain from Asos & we had so many compliments on them. The girls looked gorgeous.
My bridesman wore the same outfit at the Grooms party and looked so handsome.
My flower girl, my niece, wore a long sleeve white dress with a bow on the back that matched my wedding dress. She looked beautiful despite being poorly on the day.”
What was your biggest wedding splurge?
“Our biggest wedding splurge was all of the entertainment however we wouldn’t change a thing. Our guests loved surprise after surprise with String Fever playing me into the church, then playing again during welcome drinks & canapes and whilst evening guests arrived. Followed by the bagpipes in the church, then the singing waiters and last but not least the surprise of Sarah Sax.. We certainly kept them on their toes!”
What was your biggest wedding saving?
“Our biggest saving and one of the best things we did was finding our amazing videographer ‘Jamie Ferguson Films’. We were unsure if we could stretch the budget any further so we were debating a videographer. Jamie popped up on my Facebook suggestions so I sent him a little message. From the very start, Jamie blew us away with his incredibly competitive prices. So after watching a few of his previous videos, I decided we couldn’t say no and booked him before telling Matthew (a running theme throughout the wedding planning).
Having a videographer was one of the best things we did, our video still brings me to tears and is the perfect reminder of our big day.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBp6Wd26lVQ
What was your ceremony like?
“We got married in St Giles Church next door to Holmewood Hall. Our vicar Becky and the congregation at the church couldn’t have been more welcoming. We even invited them to our wedding reception!
My dad walked me down the aisle to ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ played live by the amazing ‘String Fever’.”
Tell us about your drinks reception and wedding breakfast
“If I’m honest, this drinks & wedding breakfast is all a little bit of a blur of with all of the overwhelming emotions. But everybody assures me the food was to die for! The highlight of the wedding breakfast was the singing waiters! If you have a look at our wedding video, you will see why.”
Did you have a band or DJ for your evening reception?
“We had Jason, Holmewood Hall’s resident DJ along with Sarah Sax. Jason was incredible! We had the best evening & partied all night long.”
Tell us about your first dance – what song did you chose and why?
“My father daughter dance was ‘brown eyed girl’ and our first dance was ‘everybody needs a best friend’ from the movie Ted, both of these were sang by The Rat Pack Boys. We had decided to have that song very early on in our relationship and knew it wasn’t a first dance song the guests were likely to have heard before.”
Based on your own experience, give us some top tips:
“Enjoy every second, it goes so quick!
Don’t stress, what will be will be (and Guilia our wedding planner made sure everything ran smoothly behind the scenes)
Trust the professionals, it’s what they do day in day out – they know what they’re doing.”
Did you go on a honeymoon or mini-moon?
“We went on a little mini-moon to Spain the day after the wedding. Our honeymoon is a week on a yacht in June visiting all the little Greek Islands!”
Purchase & Hire – Tell us who your suppliers were:
Wedding attire: Wed2B
Bridesmaid’s dresses: Asos
Other outfits: Souster & Hicks
Wedding rings: Mitchel & Co
Wedding cake: Lylamaycakeaway
Florist: The Daisy Chain Wedding Florist
Videographer: Jamie Ferguson
Photographer: Charlotte Wilson
Band/Disco/DJ: Holmewood Hall DJ Jason, The Rat Pack Boys, String Fever, Mark McLaughlan Bag Pipes and Sarah Sax
Wedding favours: Homemade
Hair: Lilyrosehairandmakeupstudio
Makeup: Luxe Beauty
