It was one of those proposal stories where everything you have planned goes wrong…
Describe your wedding memories in 5 words.
Better than we could’ve imagined.
How did he propose?
A fairly long story, but to summarise - it was one of those proposal stories where everything you have planned goes wrong and you have to improvise as you go along! Picture a romantic sunset over the Cornish coast and its dramatic cliffs; the reality was more like fog, cloud, drizzle and a hard fought persuasion just to get Sam out for a following a day hitting up all our favourite spots in Falmouth.
(I couldn't wait for the weather to pass by and do it on another day as we were staying at her parents and they knew I was proposing that day, so it could've quite easily been spoiled by accident!)
Your wedding planning process
How long did you spend planning your day? What were your biggest challenges? What did you enjoy most? How did you research and find suppliers?
Country / Formal but casual and intimate wedding day. Most important thing was having as many friends and family as possible.
Planning started about 10 months before just to get the church, venue and marquee dates lined up and booked -it was looking between a barn / marquee in a field venue to have that laid back feel to it.
Then after Christmas (8 months) we started researching the catering, photographer, suits and dresses etc. We wanted to source suppliers in general that had the quality but were relatively new into the wedding scene. We searched generally by google, as you do, but in the end most of our suppliers came from word-of-mouth recommendations. For example, the caterers had catered for Sam’s work summer party and we were so impressed with the food (particularly the portions!) and the service we got in touch with Rob and Claire from Smoke who were just incredibly helpful and on top of everything throughout the process suggesting things we hadn’t even thought of. And it was also through these guys that we met Mike, our photographer for the day. We met a few photographers, but it was
Mike’s laid back persona and his quality and range of skills and the diversity of shots that gave us confidence he was the choice we wanted.
The rest of the planning came with just constant list making and schedules to make everything was done in time! Although this wasn’t always the case with some printing for the table cards and menus only arriving the week before and my ring arriving 2 days before the day! Cutting it fine is an understatement.
From there on, with setting up the day before, everything came together relatively smoothly (or so it seems now!).
How did it all unfold?
Despite the best intentions of the weather, being the first day to rain in about 8 weeks, it all went surprisingly well and in most cases, better than expected.
The girls stayed at the wedding venue, whilst the boys stayed at our place where we had a 'laid back' breakfast and helping of FIFA of course, this was followed by a pre-wedding pint to calm the nerves at the Red Lion in Lacock with my groomsmen and other early arriving guests!
The next half hour or so was a blur as the nerves built, whilst we set the church up, ensured the music worked and greeted the guests all the while waiting for Sam to arrive. I hadn't thought about the nerves too much until one of my best men and grabbed me and said the car is here, get to the top - that's when the nerves really hit!
Songs you chose to be part of your day
The key songs of the day were:
Church Entrance - Ludovico Einaudi - IlGiorni
Church Exit - Coldplay - Adventure of a Lifetime
First Dance - Halls & Oates - You Make My Dreams (Sam, also being a singer, recorded this version acoustically with a friend playing the guitar to accompany. This was also done as a complete surprise to myself - another one of those personal touches of the day!)
What do you wish you could go back and tell yourselves?
Don’t move house the month before you get married - it was a lot of preparation between the two in the 3-6 months preceding both!
Your favourite photo and why?
After this weekend somehow being the first day in months to rain following the balmy summer we had, it was a little disappointing initially that as soon as we started taking photographs the heavens opened. However, upon walking to the nearest shelter (the pub obviously), Mike captured a beautiful shot of the pair of us walking under the umbrella side by side. This is also the photo most of our friends have always singled out!
Honorable mentions to the motion blurred shot of our first dance in B&W, the large group shot at the venue in which Mike braved climbing a very large step ladder to take and to shot of a quiet moment shared between me and Sam after we had signed the register!
Chris and Sam’s Contacts and Suppliers
Suit Hire - DJ Formal Wear Wedding Suit Hire, Swindon
Catering - Smoke Catering
Evening Food - West Cornwall Pasty Company
Band - The Jim Jams (who Sam used to be apart of)
Photographer - Michael Keane Weddings
Marquee - South West Marquees
Venue - Notton Fields, Lacock
Bouqee - Flowers bought from Whitehall garden centre and arranged by Sam and her Mother.
DIY - On one hand we wanted to keep costs down where possible, but we wanted a handmade and intimate feel to the wedding with as many personal touches as possible. Being an Architect / Artist, I took on all graphic design for the wedding including invites menus, table/place names etc. This involved painting scenes of Lacock (our venue) for the invitations and then images of our favourite places which we used as table names (most involved country pubs, naturally). Sam, also being a creative, hand made paper flowers and bought all items to decorate the tables and centerpieces (with some much appreciated help from friends, as there was a lot to make). Further DIY decoration in the form of metres upon metres of bunting was made by Sam’s mum.