Ufton Court wedding photographer 1

What a weekend of celebrations this was for Luke & Chrissy’s beautiful wedding at Ufton Court.  Having known the guys for a few years and been on snowboard holidays with Luke I knew it was going to be a fun wedding and the most raucous of parties to see out the night…. and it didn’t disappoint.

Please describe the proposal

Luke whisked me away to Paris for the weekend. We stayed in a beautiful boutique hotel and saw all the sights, despite the weather being awful! We made our way to the Eiffel Tower and me being me, I stupidly said to Luke whilst queuing at the bottom “I wonder how many people have got engaged at the top”….little did I know Luke was going to drop the big Q!

Luke got stopped at security and had his bag searched which almost gave the game away, the other telltale sign was his face in the selfie we took just before he proposed, he was as white as a ghost. Luke pulled me in close whilst overlooking the beautiful view and said “will you do me the honour of being my wife”, I replied “are you joking”, I then burst into tears and of course said YES!

The ring is beautiful, he had it specially made by a jeweler in Hatton Garden. We then celebrated with the most expensive plastic flute of champagne.

How did you first meet?

We met on Tinder….we are a Tinder success story…not sure how many of us are about!

The dress – where did you find it, and what was it like? Who did you take with you dress shopping and how did you find the whole experience?

I was very nervous about dress shopping, I am quite insecure so I was very worried that I wasn’t going to find anything that looked wow on me. I had a trial dress run with some close friends in Putney and found some lovely dresses but nothing was jumping out at me. I traveled to Hereford a couple of weeks after to look at dresses with my eldest sister and Mum. We went to a family friend’s bridal shop and it was such a lovely afternoon, although we were slightly late as we got a bit carried away with the prosecco beforehand!

Dave was amazing, he made me feel at ease and made me try on lots of different dresses and styles. I finally tried on the most beautiful dress, it looked stunning and I felt incredible in it, there were a few adjustments needed but Dave came up with lots of ideas of how we could make the dress look, even more, wow with removing some of the necklines and adding a gorgeous beaded belt, I knew instantly it was the one and my Mum and sister loved it.

What were the reasons for choose to have your beautiful wedding at Ufton Court?

We had looked at a few wedding venues, all were beautiful in their own way but nothing jumped out at us. A couple of weeks after, my Mum came across Ufton Court. When I spoke to Luke about it, Luke had said he went there on a school trip when he was younger. We instantly booked a viewing and went to see it the weekend after. Luke and I fell in love with the venue, it had lots of character as well as a gorgeous barn which was the informal feel we were going for. Both our parents also really loved Ufton Court.

The staff were super friendly and helpful, the gardens were stunning and they had lots of areas where we could have different parts of the day. The final deciding factor was that Ufton Court do not profit from their weddings and all of the money goes back in the educational trust, this meant a lot to us as not only are Luke’s Mum and sister are both teachers, it is also a great cause.

When planning your wedding, did you have any help or did you do it mostly yourselves? What were the most important aspects for you (eg. the photographer, the food, the decor…)?

I did most of the planning myself as I have a background in event management and wedding planning so it was a dream come true to plan my own Wedding. Luke had a big say in most parts, especially the food, booze, music and of course the sweet table, which he thoroughly enjoyed due to his major sweet tooth! Our amazing friend Jade who also works in events helped with the decorations and organized all of the beautiful flowers.

One of the most important aspects of the day for us was the food, we had a smokehouse barbecue which was served on platters on every table, we wanted our guests to enjoy the food and for anyone with dietary requirements to not feel like they had missed out. The other big factor for us was to make sure our friends and family had a fun, booze-filled day with lots of dancing so we made sure there were plenty of games, including space hoppers and connect 4, lots of alcohol and a great DJ who played the guest’s song requests all night.

What was your wedding inspiration? (think decor, overall theme and feel of the day, etc)

Our inspiration for the day was to make sure that our guests, as well as us, had the most amazing day full of fun and laughter. We didn’t have a theme and we tried to keep everything very informal. Ufton Court is a beautiful venue so we didn’t go mad on the decorations, we kept it very natural with beautiful flowers and had the most amazing retro chandeliers fitted by a local company in the barn.

Our guests came away from the wedding saying it was the best wedding they had ever been to and for us that was just magical to hear. It would’ve been a bit embarrassing if it was a shambles considering the bride’s expertise!

Describe some of your favourite wedding details and how you came up with them.

One of our favorite wedding moments was the first dance, we spent many nights going through song after song! We then decided to do a mix-up song starting off with “My Girl” and then going into the well-known garage song “Little bit of luck”.

We have never seen so many people get on the dancefloor so quickly! One of our other favorite details was our guest wood, one of our best men, Lewis, found the most beautiful piece of oak and prepared it ready for everyone to sign, we now have the wood up in our house and we love looking and reading all of our guest’s comments and well wishes, some sentimental, some rude…you can tell at which parts of the day people were writing their messages and their level of drunkness.

Bride: What advice would you give to future brides for their wedding day?

I would say to relax and enjoy the moment. I think the pressure for everything to be amazing can sometimes consume the special and memorable time it should be!

Groom: What advice would you give to future grooms for their wedding day?

Stay calm, spend as much time with your future wife throughout the day as possible and don’t fret about your speech just speak from the heart and it will flow naturally.

Any advice for those planning their wedding now?

The venue is key, food plays a huge part, enjoy the planning and don’t argue about the table plan! Also, do what you both want to do and try not to listen to the many opinions you receive.

What’s your top tip for saving money?

We got married on a Thursday, it saved lots of money and we made a fun couple of days out of the celebration. Do your research and don’t always go for the first quote you receive. Try to do some things yourself like invitations, decorations, table plans, etc.

… and which elements of your wedding are you glad you spent more on?

We are glad we spent the most amount of money on the food and good quality wine for our guests to enjoy and of course the stunning venue!

What’s the best thing about being married?

Knowing that we get to spend the rest of our lives with each other!!

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If you planning to have a beautiful wedding at Ufton Court then please do not hesitate to contact me for a quote or to view more photographs head over to my blog.

Suppliers: Wedding Venue: Ufton Court | Dress: Bridal Suite | Makeup: Olivia Mills| Hair: Olivia Mills| | Bridesmaid dress: Marks and Spencers | Grooms suit: Moss Bros and Next | Flowers: Longacres | Entertainment: DJ Sam Lewis Wall | Wedding Cake: Marks and Spencers

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