“I dropped a tear in the ocean….”

Ben and I first met on Valentine’s Day 2014. We had been messaging back and forth online for a couple of months and Ben had asked if we could meet. Before I would commit to a real date, I insisted on meeting Ben for five minutes outside my house, just to make sure that he was who he said he was! He rocked up in a suit, with a single red rose and sat with me, chatting in his car for the best part of an hour. Even then, when it came to saying goodbye, I didn’t want him to leave.

Fast forward 7yrs and we have a gorgeous 3yr old son and have finally got married on our 3rd attempt! Our original date was the 29th March 2020. Lockdown came in 6 days before. It was so heart-breaking. Only two weeks prior to that I had been partying on my Hen do in London and Ben had been dressed as a carrot on his Stag do in Bournemouth! Now we weren’t even allowed to see our friends and family, let alone stand up in a room and say our vows in front of 80 of them.

The day came and went. We drowned our sorrows for a month or so before picking ourselves up and looking ahead to a future date. We booked the 23rd December 2020 and had become excited for a Christmas wedding (especially as we had got engaged on Christmas Day 2018). But four days before, Boris announced that near enough the whole country was being put in tier 4 and none of our guests could attend. Upset and frustrated, we decided to cancel altogether. We received a full refund from our venue and our suppliers kindly offered us vouchers to use as and when we decided to try again.

We finally said ‘I do’ on the 20th June 2021 and it was the most perfect day we could have asked for, third time lucky and totally worth the wait. 

The build-up to the wedding however, had been incredibly stressful! Two of my four bridesmaids got in touch to say they wouldn’t be able to make it, my brother also wasn’t able to be there and the weather looked set to be atrocious! Only a week before the big day, a child at our son’s nursery tested positive for Covid and those in contact were told to self-isolate for ten days. Luckily, our son was in a different bubble but it spooked us enough to keep him home from nursery on the lead up to the wedding, which meant we had no child free time to get things sorted!

So, when the morning of the wedding finally arrived, as nervous as I was, there was also a part of me that was relieved... We’d made it. I had no more messages of non-attendance beeping through my phone. No more last-minute announcements from big Boris were going to spoil our day. All of our suppliers were able to make it. This was it, we could finally become husband and wife.

We wanted a fresh start and, for our third attempt, had decided to get married at a different venue. This turned out to be the best decision we ever made. Highfield Park was stunning and the staff exceeded all our expectations. They went above and beyond to make sure we had a day we would treasure forever. From a BBQ wedding breakfast, to sparklers on the terrace, a pub quiz in the evening, and even sourcing batteries for our fairy lights, nothing was too much trouble for Highfield. As a bride who suffers with generalised anxiety disorder, this was the dream. We could make the wedding however we wanted it to be, and I felt at home in this gorgeous place.

My advice to any bride searching for their perfect venue would be not to get so swept up in the grandeur of a place that you forget the importance of the staff in making your wedding day. They will be the ones running your day. They will collect you for your interview with the registrar, greet you with a drink after you’ve said your vows, introduce you and your partner as ‘husband and wife’ to your guests; they will be there from start to finish and it is so important to have staff who care and want to make your day special.

We had a chocolate themed wedding. With tables named after chocolate bars, chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert and brownies for favours (each table had it’s own flavour of brownie which matched the name of the table!) 

We chose lilac and cream colours for the day, and our florist, Kathy, of Flowers in a Jar, did us proud with her dressing of the venue - it was absolutely beautiful. We had so many zoom meetings with Kathy, I’ve lost count of the amount of times we spoke, but she happily adapted to our ever-changing plans and everything she did for us was always with intricacy and great attention to detail. My silk bouquet now sits proudly in a vase in our living room, and is a stunning reminder of the magical day we had.

We have had a sneak preview of our photos from the day and they are truly breath-taking. DM Photography got some cracking shots and both Dan and Lewis even joined in with the pub quiz in the evening!

The groomsmen all looked super dapper in their suits, and I know I am biased, but my son looked so adorable in his little tail coat. He walked up the aisle with a sign which read ‘Daddy here comes Mummy’!! We had already picked up all of the suits from Black Tie at Christmas and returned them when we were unable to go ahead. Black Tie were so kind and allowed us to have the suits back again for our June date at no extra charge.

I must also mention the beautiful women who made me feel like a million dollars on my wedding day…

Emma at Boo Bridal was very patient with me - I was an absolute nightmare bride to be. I was indecisive, anxious, self- conscious and incredibly annoying when it came to picking my dress!!! Even once I’d decided on my dress, paid a deposit and left the boutique, I still wasn’t sure. I went back several times, trying on other dresses, but eventually came back to the first one I’d ordered! Emma listened to my hang ups and transformed my dress with her beautiful seam-stressing, adding lace to the bits I wanted covered! Her workmanship is second to none and on the day, everyone believed my dress had started out that way. She made me a truly bespoke dress which wowed everyone. My Dad said to me on the day that he had imagined my dress and what it would be like, but nothing in his mind had come close to the beauty of the dress I actually wore.

And then there’s Adele of Rosie Blush Beauty. I was so lucky to have found her. My makeup stayed in place all day, with no need for touch ups. My hair was exactly as I wanted it to be. Adele even did some Reiki therapy with me before the ceremony to help put me at ease, and she stayed with me until I was in that room saying my vows. She was wonderful. 

The therapy obviously did the trick, and once I’d said my vows, I felt calm and able to enjoy every second of the day. I even had the confidence to stand up and give a speech! I had written one as a gift for Ben when I thought we would be getting married without a wedding party at Christmas (numbers being restricted to 15, it would have been just family). It seemed wrong that there would be no best man speech, so I thought I would write something for my husband to be and now that it was written, I felt it needed to be heard. I was caught up in my prompt cards but some of the female guests later told me that they were holding back tears while I was speaking.

Towards the end of my speech, I spoke about an anniversary card that my Dad had given to my Mum when I was a little girl. The card had a picture of the sea on the front, with a single tear drop falling into it, and one simple line scrawled across the front which read, ‘I dropped a tear into the ocean, when they find it, I’ll stop loving you.’ I borrowed this sentiment and finally got to say those words to my handsome new husband. 

I hope that all the brides who have spent the last year wishing to do the same, get their long-awaited day. In the end, love conquers all and our day couldn’t have been more special ❤️

Dress: Boo Bridal

Suits: Black Tie

Bridesmaid dresses: JJ’s House

Flowers: Flowers in a Jar

Venue: Highfield Park

Makeup & Hair: Rosie Blush

Photographer: DM Photography