After having to postpone their original wedding date due to COVID restrictions, Jen and Mark finally had their beautiful day with us on 14th August 2021. From homegrown flowers and all night outdoor silent disco dancing, to food festival-style catering... their relaxed wedding was definitely worth waiting for!
The proposal
Mark proposed at Whitley Court on 2nd January 2021. I thought he was being a bit weird the day before but he was actually designing a huge treasure hunt around the grounds of the house, just using Google Maps and the English Heritage website!
COVID
We knew we wanted a church wedding as we are both Christians and it was important to us to have that part of the day. The restrictions didn’t lift in time though for us to have that and the reception at Belcote Farm in the way we wanted, so we ended up having a wedding in July at the church and the afterparty at Belcote Farm a month later.
Why did you choose Belcote Farm?
We knew we wanted a relaxed atmosphere and to be able to bless our friends and family with lovely food. I had a lot of Pinterest boards saved and we knew Belcote Farm was going to be pretty close to them!
The dress
I ended up owning five dresses – the joy of the pandemic and not being able to try them on! – but ended up wearing Maggie Sottero’s Mallory Dawn dress. It was pretty big and I was referred to as ‘the cloud’ all day. It didn’t stop me enjoying the silent disco though!
Styling and decor
We have lots of friends who have got married over the last few years so we borrowed some bunting from them, and another friend made some with our names on which was a lovely gift. When we sent out the invitations, we included some sunflower seeds for all our guests so there were a lot of them around, as well as other homegrown flowers. We wanted as many people as possible included in the wedding and this felt like a good way to do it.
Catering
After dating for a few months, Mark mentioned if he ever got married he would want a friend who runs a smoked meat business to cater for his wedding. When we got engaged, the email to ask if he could do the date was one of the first we sent out! The food was the thing a lot of people comment on still now – having a variety of vendors meant everyone got something they liked and we felt we could support local businesses too. We had Indian, pizza, smoked meat, ice cream, crepes and a coffee van!
Standout moments from the day
The number of people who said that it was the best wedding they’d been to! One of our favourite moments was having everyone dancing outside at the end of the evening. We shared marshmallows around the fire pit and there was a beautiful atmosphere.
Advice to other couples
We really valued splitting the day up. We had the ceremony a month before then followed it with a wedding blessing and celebration at Belcote Farm. It felt like we could enjoy everything and weren’t exhausted!
Check out the people who made great things happen:
Photographer: Lewis Bishop Photography
Caterers: Love My Event (vintage ice cream bike), Platinum Pancakes, Full of Chaat, The Wedding Pizza Company, Burning Plough Smoked Meats, Jo’s Coffee