Combining tradition with modern glamour

It’s time to revisit our marketing coordinator Sophie Marsden’s wedding plans and hear how they are coming along since her first blog a few months ago.

Sophie and her fiancée Josh live in Cranswick, East Yorkshire, with their two young children, Alesha and Harvey. Their wedding date is set for Saturday June 6, 2020, and preparations are in full swing.

In this second of a series of blogs we will be featuring leading up to the big day, Sophie talks about her decision to have a church wedding, and why you sometimes need to work around unexpected obstacles!

A personal choice

I’ve always been fairly traditional when it comes to weddings, and so a church ceremony has always been on the cards for me. I don’t practise a religion as such and wouldn’t say I’m particularly spiritual, but the formality of a church ceremony really appeals to me as does the beauty of such buildings. There’s just something about a church that, for me, deeply reflects the significance of our vows to each other. I’m not criticising other types of wedding venues in any way, it’s just one of the many personal choices that every couple needs to consider. Josh is also pretty traditional and likes the idea of a church ceremony, although I think he was just happy to go with the flow!

We chose St Mary’s Church in the picturesque village of South Dalton because it’s an area that holds special memories for me – as a child I used to go conkering with my family on the South Dalton estate, and the local Michelin-starred restaurant, the Pipe and Glass, is one of our favourites. In fact, Josh is planning on popping there for a pre-wedding drink with his ushers and best man (well, I’m hoping it’s just one drink and not several – I’d like us to walk down the aisle, not stagger!).

I did wonder if the church would only marry people who lived in the village, but this wasn’t a problem and they were more than happy to book us in. We will need to attend a number of Sunday services leading up to the wedding, and there will be lots of details for us to agree nearer the time such as whether we have an organist, bell-ringers, and hymns.

St Mary’s is the perfect size for our wedding party too, it will comfortably seat more than our 50 guests but it retains that small and intimate feeling. It’s a beautiful example of Victorian architecture with such a pretty interior; there are a few options around flowers and décor but I know we’ll plump for something simple. I’m picturing two large flower arrangements on top of the pillars on either side of the altar, which we can then relocate to our marquee.

Creative marquee planning

The ceremony will take place at 1pm, then we will all travel to the private home where our reception will be held. Guests will enjoy canapes and arrival drinks on a lovely patio as we have photographs taken in the gardens, then we will move on into the marquee for a seated meal.

Our main marquee will contain a fabulous round bar with a statement chandelier above it plus a comfortable chill-out area, round dining tables, and a traditional top table. I know a lot of couples are swaying more towards the long tables these days, but for me a top table suits our more traditional approach to the celebration and also fits with the overall glamorous look and feel that we’re going for.

Two adjoining extensions will house a cool dancefloor with sparkling mirror ball, ready for the evening disco fun, and a catering area. Here’s a tip for anyone planning their marquee layout – be sure to do a full recce of the land where you will be siting the marquee, and take into account any trees, bushes or other features that could affect your plans! We had a lovely but rather awkwardly positioned tree to factor in, which meant Chrysta and Tony at Village Farm Marquees had to come up with some creative layout ideas. I’m very happy with the end result, and you can always rely on the VFM team to think outside the box when it comes to troubleshooting.

Source of inspiration

I’ll be talking more about the styling details of my big day in future blogs, but I can reveal that my theme is most definitely ‘glamour’! I’ve always been attracted to glamorous, high end weddings, and have found Pinterest to be a wonderful source of inspiration, as I know many other brides-to-be do. I used key search terms such as ‘wedding inspiration’, ‘glamorous weddings’ and ‘marquee wedding ideas’ to hone in on images that really helped me develop a vision for my own special day. Instagram is also a good source of ideas (VFM has its own Insta page too, providing lots of ideas for anyone thinking of having a marquee-based wedding or other event – check it out here ).

It’s now just under a year until my wedding day, and although it seems like a long way away, I know that the time will just fly by. There’s still lots of things to finalise so keep an eye out for my next blog in a few months’ time where I’ll let you know how I’m getting on!