After a decidedly damp week and some problems with road works we wondered if we were ever going to make it but here we look back at the real wedding of Fiona and Simon in May 2024.
Where: The White Hart, West Bergholt. https://www.whitehartwestbergholt.com/index
When: May 2024
Who: Fiona and Simon
First Contact: I lived in West Bergholt a couple of years ago, literally two doors away from this pub which is at the ‘Hart’ of its community and always engages the locals with charity fundraisers, quiz nights and local bands. I had seen the landlord Mark and his wife Rachel, walk up the road in front of my house, from the local church to their reception at the pub and thought “How can there be a village wedding I am not a part of??” 🙂
So, I approached Mark and Rachel to see if they would be interested in holding ceremonies within the pub and its gardens – soon enough, I had my first booking.
Simon and Fiona had been looking for wedding venues around the local area, knowing that they didn’t want a big country house affair. After a frustrating morning they stopped in at the pub and got chatting to Mark who suggested they use the White Hart – it was the perfect choice with its old world charm, marquee sized garden and relaxed feeling and obviously, Mark recommended me to conduct the ceremony.
After a zoom call with Fi and Si, I really got a feeling for their personalities and style and was thrilled when they choose me as their celebrant. Handily, they live about ten minutes from me so we arranged an evening meeting where we could get planning and I could meet Simon’s daughter Ella and Fiona’s daughter Tabitha.
Wedding Day: As you know, Celebrant led weddings are still still not legally recognised in England and Wales so our couple booked in to get their legals done a few days before their celebration, although they nearly didn’t make it as they overslept and walked into the registry office just as their names were being called!
On the day of their celebration there was a light drizzle but the marquee was already up and decorated with an abundance of colourful accents and home made touches including Pom-Poms made to decorate chair ends, bunting, flower garlands and seating labels. Fiona had made all the signage and Simon had made the lemon flavoured Vodka shots for the reception and a kids bingo game.
Simon and his grooms men were in good spirits as they greeted guests and took photos whilst catching up with their friends and family, The best man was entrusted with the white gold wedding rings, engraved with their wedding date on the inside, so neither of them had an excuse to forget their anniversary!
Then came a slightly panicked phone call – the minibus that was due to pick the bridal party up from their preparations was stuck in a traffic jam on the a12 and was going to be late getting to pick up the bridesmaids and brides mum. No worries says Mark, we’ve plenty of food and drink on hand, and as I only book one event a day I was happy to wait.
Eventually, the girls were enroute and the bride could be collected by her dad and brought to the venue. The guests were seated, housekeeping briefed and then we were ready to start the show.
Celebrant Led: Fiona and Simon had a really personalised ceremony with the bride played into the ceremony by Rod Stewart’s “Have I told You Lately”, escorted by Tabitha. I started the ceremony with the reading of ‘The Giraffe and The Monkey” which had some of the bridesmaids in tears because of it’s simple romantic message.
I set the scene of how they had met in a bar in town and nurtured their instant attraction to blossom into not only a love story for Fi and Si but the blending of two families. To represent this, Fi and Si were hand-fasted into their promises and then Ella and Tabitha joined them to ‘tie the knot’, demonstrating that this new beginning was as a new family and they were all in it together.Being the amazing Celebrant I am, I even had my nails painted to match the ribbons.
After the handfasting came the signing of a commemorative certificate, this time with the girls as witnesses and then we were off for confetti throwing to the strains of Madness ‘It must be love’. They say its lucky to have the bride arrive late, they say its lucky for there to be rain on the wedding day, the say that disasters happen in threes and all of those were true for this couple but I know that at the heart of everything they do they value each other, work together for a common goal and their family means the world to them and with all that it its core, I just know their marriage will be a long and happy one. Congratulations.
Supplier Love:
Venue & Catering: @WhiteHart-KillicksCuisineLtd
