Inside: A Magical Wedding In Herfordshire

The Story

Our wedding story started as a complete surprise, to us and everyone around us, long story short, unbeknownst to us, we had the same girlfriend at the same time… We met for the first time five years ago, as ‘just friends’, at the less than glamorous ‘Yard bar’ in Soho. Our first ‘date’ lasted 3-5 working days, true lesbian style, and we’ve been inseparable ever since, had two proposals and a lot of inventive covid dates.

Rheanne proposed to Jess at the Rectory Hotel in the Cotswolds where we spend every anniversary, every year Rheanne takes a photo of Jess in the exact same spot, with the exact same cocktail knowing that one day, she would propose in the spot. Rheanne infamously never actually asked Jess to marry her, just nervously showed the ring saying ‘do you want it then’?

A couple of weeks later, Jess took Rheanne to Oakley Court in Windsor for her birthday and rented a boat to propose back, however true Rheanne style she wouldn’t stop the boat to give her a chance to do it.

Jess found THE ring on Vintage Pink and tactically showed it to Rheanne 100 times, Rheanne said she hated the ring, Jess saw it was sold, and told Rheanne she felt sorry for her because she’d never find a ring she loved as much, Rheanne then proposed with that exact ring.

Rheanne’s ring is also vintage and also has always been way too big yet Rheanne refuses to send it off to be resized because she can’t go a day without it. You can usually find it next to our kitchen sink as she’s too scared to wash up in it in case it goes down the sink.

Jess’ is art-deco in style, square cut emerald with two square cut diamonds on either side. Rheanne’s is also an emerald with a diamond halo. We love that they have some similarities but are totally different in style.

Venue

One of our best men, Matthew found Sandon Manor online. Rheanne wasn’t sure but Jess instantly took a liking to it so dragged her mum to visit and fell in love with it. Without Rheanne knowing, Jess reserved a date a whole YEAR earlier than planned, so thankfully when Rheanne visited she loved it too.

The main thing we liked about the venue was all the different areas it has, it ticked all the boxes of a traditional manor with stylish interiors and plenty of daylight, a magical ceremony hall, beautiful gardens, and a courtyard for the reception. We knew we didn’t want a gazebo and portaloos so the stunning medieval barn provided a perfect place for our meal and dancing.

On Friday our bridal party met us at the venue where we all excitedly drank prosecco in the garden, then had an early night ready for the next day. Saturday morning started early and felt pretty chilled (for everyone but us) and there was a constant buzz around which was lovely. We decided we would get ready together, until we got into our dresses.

We always knew we wanted another more relaxed event the day after, so we got a hog roast van in a pub garden and went back to our venue for a boozy, teary, and beautiful evening, filled with singing, dancing, and drinking games with our best friends and family – it was perfection and actually ended up being one of our favourite moments of the whole weekend.

Fashion

Rheanne’s dress – Grace loves Lace / Goldie

Jess’s dress – Custom made by Natalie

Rheanne had her ‘it’s the one’ moment in the first shop she visited, but the same didn’t go for Jess, the whole process was a nightmare! She panic-bought a dress that a couple of days later realised she didn’t like so had the amazing Natalie redesign the dress, you wouldn’t believe what it looked like before – she was a life-saver. Funnily enough, we bought some cheap wedding shoes from ASOS, just to try our dresses on with but then ended up both re-buying them for the day – we knew they wouldn’t last on our feet very long so didn’t see the point in spending loads on them. Rheanne changed into a pair of square-toe Aldo heels for the evening – they were higher so she could finally be taller than Jess for once!

Jess’s something blue was a garter gifted by her mum and Rheanne’s was a tiny piece of blue thread her Nan sewed into the inside seam of her dress.

Jewellery

Rheanne wore Na-kd earrings and a Monica Vinader bracelet that Jess bought Rheanne on the morning of the wedding, engraved with her new initials.

Jess wore her diamond necklace which was a 21st birthday gift, PDPAOLA earrings, and her granny’s diamond eternity ring which was her borrowed.

Bridal Party

We didn’t want our bridesmaids to be in the same dress as we wanted them all to be in something they felt comfortable in as they’re all so different. We gave them a green colour scheme and let them choose their own dresses. Our boys all wore linen suits, again that they chose themselves.

We left a hand-stitched linen bag made by R’s Nan on everyone’s bed which contained a friendship bracelet, under eye mask, a paper fan, cosy socks, Candy Kittens, paracetamol and most importantly, candles which were custom made by Tina & Ian at Cera, made for us in our wedding theme colours with our favourite scent – plum, cassis and amber.

Tablescape

Our colour theme for the tables and stationary was orange and a bright blue so we designed all of our own stationary with the help of Ollie’s photoshop expertise. MOH Amelia drew all the designs for the menu which were different elements of what we were eating, and Rheanne hand-wrote everything. We had disposable cameras on the tables, and Best Man Tris came up with different scenarios to take photos of which went on the back of the name cards, examples being – ‘someone doing the titanic hold’ or ‘smallest person and tallest person’, we loved it because would get people together who may not otherwise have spoken to!

We put our table names (which were all the names of our favourite pubs) into corks and stood up in French vintage liquor bottles. Our wedding favour were linen napkins which were so special as Matthew hand-embroidered all 100 of them with everyone’s initials in orange thread – everyone is completely obsessed with them, and rightfully so!

Our florist Nic did our flowers in our orange and blue scheme, all in clusters in different little glass bottles that Jess’ mum has been collecting for nearly a year.

Food & Drink

Carte Blanche were our amazing caterers who did the best job, we couldn’t believe how great everything was when they’d cooked for so many people. As a big foodie household, we wanted something we would choose to eat ourselves at home, so we went for a burrata salad to start, followed by a preserved lemon, feta and sundried tomato stuffed chicken and salsa verde.

Rheanne’s Nan baked not one but three wedding cakes, we couldn’t decide so went for a chocolate and sour cherry cake, lemon and elderflower wedding cake, and a huge pavlova filled with berries.

Clii Cremant and canapes were served at the reception, canape highlights were miso cod and beef carpaccio.

Entertainment

Bridesmaid aisle song – Isn’t She Lovely by Tom Misch

Rheanne and Jess aisle song – Songbird by Fleetwood Mac

Rheanne and Jess walking down aisle together – I’m coming out by Diana Ross

First dance song – Beyond by Leon Bridges

Beauty Regime & Wellness

We don’t wear a lot of makeup usually so both went for quite a natural look (apart from Rheanne desperately wanting sparkly eyeshadow – she got what she wanted) and wanted someone we knew to be with us on the day, so got Rheanne’s friends Pri and Hannah for hair and makeup who made us feel chilled and it was so nice having a familiar face there on the day.

We both used the Face Gym Pro in the morning, which provided us with loads of laughs as it electrocutes your face into having spasms – hilarious.

Favourite Wedding Gifts

We had a list on The Wedding Shop which we’ve had so many generous gifts from. Jess’ amazing parents gifted us the venue – that’s the greatest gift we could ever imagine!

Honeymoon

We went straight off to our minimoon at Elmley Nature Reserve in Kent, we needed some downtime after the hectic weekend and the food was incredible (get the corn ribs – they’re tdf.)

We’re honeymooning in Greece in September, island-hopping between Santorini, Milos and Sifnos. We haven’t been abroad just the two of us since pre-covid which is crazy!

Advice

Write your own personal vows – it was so special and so many people have commented on how beautiful it was to hear.
If you can, have your family and bridal party stay with you the day before and after the wedding, it relieves a lot of the pressure, then is fun to do a de-brief the following day.
Controversial one, but spend the night before with your partner, we wouldn’t have slept without each other and it was so nice to wake up together feeling excited!