New Forest Marquee Wedding - Elegant and Pretty - Real Wedding of Catherine and Will

Now this wedding has taken a long time for us to blog about.  Having recently received the disk of images from the hugely popular Surrey based photographer Gill Flett we couldn’t wait to blog about it and share these images with you.  The wedding of Cate and Will was such an elegant affair and one of the most stunning brides that we have to say we have ever seen.  Cate looked radiant in her lace gown which was understated and simple and suited her style perfectly.  

We were recommended by a fellow wedding planner to work with Cate and Will (for which we are thankful to have had the recommendation) to help plan the last few weeks of their wedding and manage their day.  Things were a little complex when we became involved with a lot of plans left to be made so close to the wedding.  Cate and Will had done a great job to select the most stunning venue – a marquee based wedding on the lawns of Exbury Gardens in the New Forest but with Cate and Will living out of the area and having busy jobs and their family and friends travelling to spend their day with them there was a lot to do in a very short space of time.

Our initial meeting on site with me was a long one and it was clear that Cate wanted to hand over the reigns to someone to take the burden away from her and I was very happy to do that.  We spent a long time running through all the details of the day which Cate had planned so far with her Mother and her Husband to be.  Cate and Will had had a lot of interest in the similarities between themselves and “the” Kate and Will whose nuptials were coming up shortly before our couples and they had been featured in magazines and there was a lot of buzz about it. 

I spent a long few days confirming plans with marquee company and furniture hire companies  and arranging last minute loos (the job is so glamorous!) and liaising with the catering company to ensure that we could pull this wedding together as there were a lot of things left to finalise.  The weather for this wedding was thankfully gloriously kind to us and after a few weeks leading up to this wedding of lots of planning.  The day itself went like a dream.  The day started with me being on site early to finish off the 3 days I had spent on site overseeing the marquee going up and he internal works being completed.  The cake arrived and was set up and looked amazing.  Flowers courtesy of the amazing Garden Inn arrived and were perfectly suited to Cate’s chic and elegant theme with vintage touches.  

The catering team came on site and we completed the table set up and place cards went out and whilst the catering team started on the food for the day I went off to the Church to greet the arrival of Groom and Groomsmen to ensure all were ship shape ready for the ceremony and to greet the arrival of the Bride.

After the ceremony and back at the marquee guests were treated to plenty of Pimms after the ceremony and after the bride and groom welcomed them into the marquee they dined on venison and sea bass.

This is a small selection of our favourite images from the day courtesy of Gill Flett who was an absolute pleasure to work with

Cate and Will used us for a last minute rescue service for their marquee wedding and this is what they felt about our service. 

"Melanie, I wanted to email you and say what a fantastic job you did at our wedding. I know we weren't an easy one to deal with exactly but you handled it as if it was a piece of cake (which I know it was not!). I honestly don't think the wedding would have taken place had you not been there to deal with the various catastrophes and iron out all the other little details I'd not thought of. Instead, I enjoyed every minute of the day which I honestly didn't expect. It was all just so beautiful, everything ran so smoothly and you turned the marquee from an ugly duckling in to a swan under some pretty mean circumstances - I do not know how you remain so calm! I also noticed all the little extras like the paper lanterns and candles that you'd put out, which made such a difference. I can't tell you how highly I recommend you. You literally thought of everything. You were wonderful!"

Our advice is to get a planner in early especially for your marquee wedding.  Marquee based weddings are actually a lot harder to arrange, involve a lot more planning and consideration and a lot more can go wrong.  We had to work extremely hard and fast to pull together a lot of details for Cate and Will to ensure that their day went without a hitch and it was a true blessing that the weather was kind to them.  They had been let down by a number of suppliers sadly and if we had not have been able to step in last minute Cate would have been one stressed out bride on her day which is such a shame.  Take our advice and get a planner in early.  A good planner will not only save you time and stress but will not work on a commission basis with suppliers so will pass all commissions on to you as discounts so you should save money along the way.  Use an expert to get your plans organised early and well. 


If you would like any help with planning or rescuing your wedding, marquee or venue based, please contact us