Kieran & Caitlin’s late Summer Wedding at Holmewood Hall
Tell us about the proposal – how and where did it happen?
‘Kieran proposed to me the year before on our first holiday abroad with our little boy. We were in Greece and seen as this was a last minute holiday it was a huge shock for me! I remember It so well that day we had been out on a boat trip to a beautiful island, when we got back I remember being so tired and Kieran get persisting that we have a few photos down on the beach after dinner. He kept telling me to make an effort and put a nice dress on. But being me I just had a shower shoved my hair up and put minimal makeup on I really couldn’t be bothered (if only I knew).’
‘So after dinner that evening, we went down to the beach and were taking some selfies of us all. Kieran suggested we walk further down the beach and we sat in a lovely little pergola on the beach on some bean bags, our little 1 year old running around in the sand watching the sun go down. Out of nowhere Kieran began telling me how much I meant to him, I thought he was messing around just taking the mickey out of me! Then he pulled out the ring in a little box, I was in total shock! I think I said something like ‘are you joking me’ ha-ha! He still reminds me of that now! I couldn’t believe it, of course I said yes straight away! It felt so surreal, it wasn’t until I face timed my bestie I got really emotional, it wasn’t the ‘picture perfect’ proposal but it was just perfect for us. I wish I could re-live that moment again and again.’
What was your first step in planning your wedding?
‘After getting engaged the first thing I ordered was this beautiful white and grey wedding planner from amazon so it would be at home for when we got back! I had been looking at wedding ideas on Pinterest for years dreaming about our wedding day and I could not wait to start planning it all.’
Inspiration: Did you use blogs or magazines for ideas?
‘My main inspiration was definitely Pinterest and social media, Instagram. I would spend a lot of time reading and looking through peoples real wedding blogs and getting inspiration from there. I also enjoyed watching YouTube videos of wedding day tips and advice this gave me some lovely ideas too.’
What were your wedding “must have’s”?
‘My wedding must haves were definitely a venue that had the wow factor – and it certainly did, a place where it would just be us on the day and rooms for guests to stay so we could all be together the next morning too, this was important to us.’
‘Our photographer was important to us too, as we wanted as much as possible capturing to be able to re-live the day and ours did not disappoint!’
‘We had a family friend who is a professional singer in the evening and this was a great way to get everyone on the dance floor, it was amazing one of my favourite moments everyone singing and dancing together.’
Wedding budget: how did you organise your wedding budget?
‘We did research on average cost of weddings etc. and family &friends that recently got married. A wedding is one of the biggest expenses you will have as a couple but why not, it’s such a special day and you can get so much out of your money these days!’
Wedding venue: how did you search for a wedding venue?
‘Searching for wedding venues was so much fun, we mainly used the internet to see what venues were in our area, we went to a few beautiful venues and had been searching for months before we came across Holmewood Hall which was just on our doorstep!’
What made you choose Holmewood Hall as your Wedding venue?
‘We came across Holmewood Hall on Facebook, a friend had shared a post about this upcoming wedding venue. The picture of the house was just beautiful and when I saw it was owned by Country House Weddings I knew it was going to be something special. (My favorite celebrity couple got married at one of the venues and that was exactly the sort of wedding I was after!) When we saw it was on our door step a 10 minute drive into the next village we could not believe it! I think we drove there that afternoon to have a nosey!’
‘We booked to look around as soon as we could, I remember driving up the long driveway and I had such a good feeling. One of the first rooms we went in was the gold ceremony room, I had seen this online and fell in love, but when I walked in there and saw it I cried straight away! I knew it was the one straight away, from then on it just got better! The house still was nowhere near finished but we just could see how beautiful it was going to be and it certainly was!’
‘I couldn’t wait to get married there and our guest to have the same reaction on the day.’
Styling your wedding: how did you personalise your big day?
‘The theme for our wedding was very simple, the main colour was white as I wanted it to have an elegant feel. I had so much fun planning and buying all the décor, I was going to hire a venue dresser, but this is something I have enjoyed doing myself for years. I designed all the invitations and signs for the day myself and had them printed out professionally, I was super happy with them all! I really felt the venue itself was so beautiful there really was no need to even dress it very much at all, which was a bonus!’
‘The centerpieces took me a while to find and get right, I wanted to have mirror/silver with white flowers, I tried candlestick holders, different vases all sorts. In the end I brought some silver cubed vases in bulk online, along with loads of artificial white flower bouquets. I chopped the bouquets down so I had individual stems and styled them in the vases. They looked lovely and Anne our wedding planner was brilliant I would take my things down to the venue and we would have a play around styling the tables until it was perfect!’
‘Our wedding cake again was plain and simple, a 3 tier white wedding cake which our florist then dressed it and it again it was perfect!’
Wedding photographer: how did you choose your photographer?
‘We were lucky enough to already know a wedding photographer and I had no doubts that we were going to use her. Roxy is so friendly and a professional photographer and her style is so simple and elegant. Her photos aren’t really ‘posing’ as such, we wanted all the natural special moments of the day and that’s exactly what we got! The venue was lovely and looked after our suppliers really well – thank you!’
Wedding suppliers: how did you choose your suppliers?
‘I went to one or two wedding fairs, but they weren’t really for me. My suppliers were pretty much recommendations, I used Holmewood Hall’s recommended florist and videographer, and other suppliers friends and family had used.’
Describe your wedding attire?
‘My wedding dress was what I had imagined myself in, although I did try a few different styles on. I only actually went to the one shop with my Mum, it was an off the shelf shop so I went home with it that day. I loved my dress when I first put it on however it was missing something, the lady in the shop brought out this beautiful belt covered in pearls and crystals, as soon as she put it on it changed the dress completely! I love it, I had a little walk in it, and then sat down in front of the mirror in it. It was then that I knew it was the one, I could just see myself sitting at the top table in it!’
‘A few weeks after I had it taken for alterations to be made and I remember thinking ‘oh god I don’t like it’. I had still been following all these wedding dress accounts on social media and I would find myself looking at other dresses! So one of my top tips would be not to follow all of those accounts once you have found the one! I still loved my dress the next time I put it on!’
What accessories did you wear on the day?
‘I wore minimal accessories on the day, I chose to wear a pedant pearl necklace that was from my Grandmother when I turned 21 and it was perfect and very special to wear.
‘My underwear was not sexy at all I wore glamorous spanks from F&F to keep my mummy tummy in!’
‘My Husband had arranged a little wedding gift with an emotional letter to me on the morning, he had brought me a beautiful Tiffany bracelet with my new initials on and I cried so much! So, I wore that as well. I did have a white clutch bag with my new initials on for the day so I could keep little bits in there phone, lippy, perfume etc. for the day, my bridesmaid looked after this for me!’
What did your partner wear?
‘We went for navy blue suits, with a light pink nude tie, the same colour as the bridesmaids.’
Tell us about your Bridesmaids, Groomsmen and their outfits?
‘Choose them wisely would be my main advice!’
‘We asked them to be a part of our engagement party, with little notes we had made for them. The groomsmen suits matched the groom however they just had different waistcoats, they all had matching shoes too which looked lovely all together in the photos. The girls wore nude pink dresses which were from the high street and didn’t cost a lot at all!’
What was your biggest wedding splurge?
‘After the venue and honeymoon, it would have been having a videographer. This was so important that we had footage of our big day, it is absolutely beautiful, and I could not thank Mooncast films enough, I love watching it back. ‘
What was your biggest wedding saving?
‘I would say my dress we brought it for just under £600 which is an amazing price in today’s market! The décor was a huge saving as I did it all myself, as this is something I love to do and I always knew I would be doing it myself.’
What was your ceremony like?
‘The ceremony was just perfect, my best friend walked down the aisle with my little boy just before my Dad walked me down. The music we choose to walk down to was an acoustic cover of ‘your still the one’, a perfect song for us. We chose a reading for the registrar to read out. When we were signing the certificates we had Stevie Wonder ‘signed, sealed, delivered’ playing the guests loved it! To walk back out once we were married we had Madness ‘Must be love’ we love this song, it got everyone laughing, singing and dancing along! I love hearing these songs now, especially Stevie Wonder as it was the first one after we were freshly married!’
Tell us about your drinks reception and wedding breakfast
‘For our drinks reception we had cocktails and canapes outside in the sun, the wedding breakfast was absolutely beautiful everyone said really good things about the food.’
‘The speeches were the most memorable, they were brilliant emotional and funny!’
Did you have a band or DJ for your evening reception?
‘We used the resident house DJ, and had a family friend do a set for us in the evening – he won The Voice and has the most amazing voice! Our guests loved this, I would recommend it. Gets everyone up dancing!’
Tell us about your first dance – what song did you chose and why?
‘We won’t lie we hated our first dance! We danced to George Ezra ‘Hold my Girl’ it is a beautiful song, but for us we should have gone for something more upbeat and you could dance too (we wish we had madness – a good band to dance to when you are drunk ha-ha)’
Based on your own experience, give us some top tips:
‘Our day was just perfect in every way, my top tips would be sit back and take in the atmosphere I did this during our wedding breakfast I just looked around and took in the moment of all our guests enjoying themselves. We also took ten minutes away in our room together after the speeches, just the 2 of us and had a drink together I would recommend this. Having couple shots away from the party before the evening guests arrived was lovely, just the two of us taking it all in. Unfortunately we have already lost touch with some of our wedding party which hopefully you don’t experience, but I would say go with your gut having the people that truly care for you and matter to you means so much, this is your day you do not want to spend the day worrying about other people believe me!’
‘Just enjoy the day, take in every moment – it goes so quick!’
Did you go on a honeymoon or mini-moon?
For our honeymoon (well family moon we took our 3 year old son) we went to Jamaica, we went the night after the wedding and it was the best two weeks of our lives it was so special. Being all together and relaxing after planning a wedding was lush, we climbed a waterfall, went swimming with dolphins and our little boy had his birthday out there. It truly was paradise!’
Tell us about your suppliers:
Photographer: Captured by Roxy
Videographer: Mooncast Films
Band/disco/DJ: Singer – Mo Jamil
Wedding attire: Wed2be – wedding dress
Wedding Suits: Burtons
Bridesmaid’s dresses: Missguided
Other outfits: Page boy – River Island
Wedding rings: H Samuel
Wedding cake: Cakes by Laurel
Florist: Keepsakes of Yaxley
