Lucy & Wayne got married in September 2022 – it was a beautiful sun filled day and they chose an outdoor ceremony setting that felt really special and perfect for them. They had heard a lot about South Farm online and when they visited us for the first time it felt like it was meant to be! Read all about the story of their stunning wedding day in our latest blog…
Date of wedding: 1st September 2022
Time of ceremony: 1pm
Location of ceremony: On the lawns, in front of the pond and the summerhouse
We’d love to hear you how you first met!
Wayne and I went to primary school together, he was a few years above me. I remember his grandad picking him up from school and our grandparents used to chat at the school gates. We weren’t really friends at school but knew of each other. Wayne was a few years above me.
Roll on 15 years later and we both attended a charity night at our local pub and hit it off!
Which parts of the venue did you use for your big day?
We got married on the lawn in front of the pond- so pleased this was the case as I was worried my dress wouldn’t fit inside the summer house. We felt like it was the perfect place to get married as we were close to our family and friends.
I believe we were the first couple to get married on the lawn after the rules changed on having to use a permanent structure for the ceremony. This felt really special!
Our drinks reception was in the garden using the outside bar and our evening dancing was in the horse barn – although some dancing was also seen in the Tudor Barn! ????
Which was your favourite spot for wedding photos?
There are so many to choose from! My top three were walking around the gardens, in front of the house and then in the gravel courtyard for our sparkler photos.
Tell us about any special colour schemes you had for your wedding day and how you styled your big day?
We wanted a loving and warm feel to our wedding so we went for burgundy and peachy colours. We grew a lot of our own dahlia and eucalyptus for our wedding flowers.
Some of our dahlias were late flowering last year and we panicked that we didn’t have enough. We then posted a ‘Dahlias wanted’ post on our community website and lots of people from our local villages donated their homegrown dahlias for us to use on our wedding day.
We have an allotment and growing our own is important to us – this made choosing South Farm easier as we feel like we share the same values.
We made a lot of our own decorations, including the ‘order of the day’ and ‘table plan’ using stencils and pallets. We really enjoyed the creativity of this!
How did you first hear about South Farm and what made you choose our venue for your wedding day?
We had seen people online attending weddings at South Farm and thought it looked beautiful. We live 15 mins from South Farm so it made sense to visit the venue. As soon as we got to South Farm we both fell in love with the venue and the more we were shown around and talked about the venue, the farm, the small holding and food we knew it was for us! (the brownies also helped us to make the decision!)
Tell us some detail about your special day?
We wanted our wedding to show our personalities which is quite difficult to do… We both love our food and loved our tasting evening and we had so much fun choosing our food options.
I love pink and Wayne loves Volkswagen cars- we put these two likes together and hired birdie the VW camper van as our Photo Booth!
How did you feel on the day?
Like it wasn’t real! Quite overwhelmed but more relaxed than I thought I was going to feel because I knew south farm and our suppliers had everything under control.
It was the best day ever and we’d love to do it all again!
What was your most memorable moment from your wedding?
Our vows- the registrar had to pause when she was about to announce us as husband and wife as a spitfire flew over – we are both from Duxford (air museum and planes are a regular thing for us) so we all found this quite funny!
How did you choose your ceremony / first dance music?
We wanted something upbeat but still with a romantic/wedding style so we had instrumental versions of our favourite songs.
How many bridesmaids did you have and how did you ask them to be your bridesmaids?
I had five bridesmaids. It my 30th birthday between the lockdowns and we were allowed to have visitors in the garden. My bridesmaids came over to celebrate my birthday and I sat them ask down on hay bales and gave them all an envelope. In the envelope there were photos of us, a bracelet and a card each asking them to be my bridesmaids. They were all so happy and it was such a lovely moment to have after all the months of lockdown and not seeing each other.
How did you pick your best men and ushers?
Wayne had two best men – his brother and his longest school friend. He went to the pub with them and his groomsmen on separate occasions. He told them he had bought some scratch cards and gave them one each – they then revealed the question ‘will you be my usher?”and they all happily accepted! We also had one Usherette- highly recommend and she kept everyone in order!
How many speeches did you have and do you have any advice for anyone giving a speech?
We had four speeches. We advise to write it all out and practice aloud at home as much as you can. Try and talk as slow as possible and remember to take a breath!
What did you wear?
I wore an essence of Australia dress. I originally paid a deposit on a Lacey dress and then felt a horrible feeling once leaving the shop. I went back and tried on a different dress for size, I asked why I hadn’t tried this particular dress on before. The shop keeper said “because you didn’t want anything plain Lucy’. I cried! I felt so ‘me’ in this plain dress! It also had pockets which was the best thing ever!
Is there anything you would have done differently?
We only wish we had started earlier so we could have longer celebrating as it just goes so fast!
What are your top tips for other couples?
Have 5 mins away from everything to just chat about the day and how you’re feeling. Don’t stress on the day because if anything doesn’t go to plan then its too late to change.
Where did you go on honeymoon?
We went to an adults only hotel in Mexico with our own private pool, it was perfect!
Suppliers – who did you use?
Photographer: Lucie Watson Photography
Videographer: Martin from special occasion videos
Dress: Clare Bridal in Bury St Edmunds
Grooms & Groomsmen outfits: James of Ely
Bridesmaid dresses: Clare Bridal
Cake: Kellys cake kitchen
Hair & Makeup: Elly Jane
Flowers: Julie Cambridge
Entertainment: Birdie Photo Booth
Magician: Lee Smith Magic
Music: DJ Gary
We loved catching up with Lucy & Wayne to hear the story of how they planned their perfect day. We are over the moon that South Farm felt so right for them from their very first visit and they were charmed by our eco friendly values, home grown food and of course our chefs’ home made brownies! We love it when our couples add their own sustainable ideas to their wedding day and we were blown away by their beautiful homegrown flowers!
If you are looking to book your dream wedding day please get in touch. We’d love to hear all about your wedding plans and to show you around our Hertfordshire wedding venue, rustic wedding barns and stunning gardens. Our fantastic choice of ceremony and reception spaces is perfect for intimate weddings or larger guest numbers. There are so many gorgeous spaces to choose from and we offer exclusive use for your wedding day. What’s more, our friendly, experienced team will make sure your perfect wedding day runs perfectly to plan in our garden wedding venue.
