Crispy and full of Christmas excitement - the Real Wedding of Helen and Miles

In the Autumn of last year we were recommended to Helen and Miles to help them with the last few months of planning for their venue based Christmas wedding.  As a busy professional couple Helen and Miles were looking for some help with arranging the last few suppliers for their wedding – there were a few areas where they were really keen to get the best suppliers on board to make sure their wedding was a true success.  Helen has a particularly good eye for detail and a self confessed “control freak” (which is a common theme amongst our brides!) so it was really important to her that the details on the day with things such as the table set up and décor in the venue for the ceremony and the reception were exactly as she wanted.  What she didn’t want however was to be personally racing around on the morning of her wedding sorting out the little details and wanted to know she could place that with someone on her behalf to pull it all off.  We were delighted to help with recommending various stationery design companies to suit the theme of their day.  Red roses and Christmas feel was very much the angle and after having various samples of both printed and hand made stationery they decided decided on a lovely red rose design from Scissor Paper Stone who we have worked with previously for couples who like a printed and contemporary look.

Next on the list was to recommend a florist.  Helen had some specific ideas for a beautiful Christmas draping arrangement over the door to the Hotel and specifically wanted a dense and deeply romantic bouquet of red roses for herself and together we chose to work with the lovely Laura from Flaura Boutique who worked her magic and created a stunning bouquet for Helen and the most beautiful arrangement to grace the entrance to the Hotel

We then started working on finding a band for Helen and Miles.  With quite different tastes we had a task on our hands to find something that was going to be lively with strong lead vocals and a professional band yet appealing to Helens love of 80s music and Miles – well – not so much!  We recommended a number of great bands and then came across a highly experienced party and function band called Bellissima via a music management agency we work with,   Now yes the name is very similar to our own (no relation!) but the general look that the band had, their wide repertoire and fabulous testimonials and sound and video clips swung it for Helen and Miles and for us.  They promised to offer an evening of strong entertainment with lead singer Belle and having enjoyed their first set on the evening things were really warming up and they did an amazing job!

We then went on to arrange some other details for Helen and Miles' day including venue decor and hair and make-up artist recommendations to complete the plans for the day. Here are some of our favourite images from Helen and Miles day brought to you with kind permission of the couple and Digitally Different Photography:

Helens stunning gown with soft ruffles and off the shoulder design - very elegant - ready and waiting for the bride to dress before the ceremony 

Groom getting ready 

The girls shoes!  

The gorgeous rings - Tiffany - well where else! 

Real fun and emotion during the ceremony.  The guests arrived to the lovely sounds of acoustic guitar which was also played during the signing of the Register

Tables were dressed with the Christmas theme with the tables named after Reindeer!

The newly-weds had a chance for some time alone and a stroll around the lovely grounds 

Love this shot - romantic moment captured.  Next to the Christmas tree

Melanie chatting to the page boy and flower girl (how adorable were they!) before a special appearance - from Father Christmas!  They were eagerly waiting to see what he had for them! Such a great idea and a cute touch

Father Christmas hands out gifts to the children

The band Bellissima start to heat things up on the dance floor!

As planners who specialise in marquee based weddings people often wonder if and why we work on  weddings which are venue based rather than  in a marque – but we often do.  Couples hire us for a venue based wedding in a number of ways and for diferent reasons.  Sometimes wedding co-ordinators in a venue can change regularly during the time between  booking your wedding and your actual day and sometimes that  leads to a lack of continuity with the couple.  That can lead to a nerves on the part of the bride and groom and we are often asked to come on board  to manage the relationship between the couple and the venue.  Sometimes things don’t go so smoothly with the venue and we can help to resolve issues to avoid you “falling out of love” with your venue.  Other times we are drafted in to manage relationships between the couple and family members for venue based weddings,  Its not always about being there on the day to co-ordinate (although all our services include that you don’t have to have that) but couples can find that the lead up to the day itself is fraught with issues with family and having a third party who can mediate can often help to make decisions more easily and quickly.  Our brides (and grooms) find it really helpful to have someone at the end of the phone or email to rant to or ask advice from so we offer that as well.

Helen and Miles’ day felt very special being at Christmas time and Helen’s idea of having “Father Christmas” there to bring out gifts for the children was magical.  I am a right sucker for Christmas so it was a real joy to be involved in this wedding and Digitally Different   have done an amazing job in capturing the fun that the couple and their guests had on the day and it was a real pleasure working with Donna and Alan. 

This is what Helen and Miles had to say about our services :

Dear Melanie, We would like to say a huge thank you to you for making our day so special and run so smoothly. We had never thought of using a wedding planner before, as we wanted to plan the whole thing ourselves! But as you were so highly recommended to us, we didn’t see the harm in meeting with you. Right from our initial meeting, we knew you would be an integral part of our wedding as you knew exactly how to make our vision of the day into a reality. Nothing was ever too much for you, even though it felt like we were bombarding you with emails and questions! Even when we tried to throw you off track with requests for real Reindeer and Seven Dwarfs, you didn’t flinch! I thought I would be the most nervous and stressed out Bride, as the lead up to the wedding was stressful at times, but from the moment I woke up on the morning of our wedding, I was the most chilled out and relaxed I have ever been, even my family and friends were surprised at how calm I was! I put this down in part to the people I had around me, but mostly because I knew you were on hand and had everything under control to make it run smoothly. The whole day from beginning to end was so amazing and you made sure we always had everything we wanted and looked after our guests so well. You were even calm when dealing with the unruly Best Man, which is a challenge in itself! Once again thank you so much for all your help, our only regret is that we didn’t find you sooner so that you could have planned our day from the very beginning, as it would have taken the stress in finding a suitable venue away from us. We hope we get the chance to use you again for another event, and would not hesitate in recommending you to all our friends. Love Helen & Miles x


Such a pleasure to help with this wedding and bring all of their plans together and help create a beautiful day - congratulations Helen and Miles and wishing you lots of luck and love for the future - definitely getting together soon to see that DVD - can't wait! xx