Rachel & Jamie held their wedding at South Farm this April. It was a perfect Spring day, the sun shone and they enjoyed a beautiful garden ceremony and drinks reception. We love their beautiful colour scheme and the Spring wild flowers they chose which perfectly complimented the spring blossom and flowers in throughout our gardens. Read all about how they met and how they planned their beautiful Spring wedding.
Date of your wedding: 17th April 2023
Time of your ceremony: 2pm
Location of your ceremony: Summer House
We’d love to hear your first date stories or tell us how and when you first met!
We first met at secondary school, on the first day of year 9. Jamie’s French teacher quickly realised that he was much better at French than they had thought, so he was taken out of class to be moved up a set. Simultaneously, Rachel’s French teacher quickly realised that she was not as good at French as they had thought, so she was taken out of class to be moved down a set. We were subsequently sat next to each other in middle-set French and several other classes throughout the year.
We started dating 3 years later in sixth form and our wedding day marked our 12 year anniversary!
Which parts of the venue you used for your big day?
Thankfully the weather allowed us to get married in the Summer House; I think we got the one sunny day in April! Our drinks reception was subsequently held in the sunshine on the Garden Terrace until we moved into the Tudor Barn for dinner and had our evening dancing in the Horse Barn.
Which was your favourite spot for wedding photos?
We had told our photographer, Bea, that we would like some pictures in and amongst blossom and spring flowers, of which there was an abundance! Our favourite pictures were taken on the bridge next to the Summer House with the sun setting behind us. We also had some beautiful pictures taken on the steps up to the horse cart where Rachel’s train could be fully shown off and of course, in front of the South Farm blue front door.
Tell us about any special colour schemes / themes you had for your wedding day or how you styled your big day?
The main colour scheme we chose was our favourite colour, dark teal. This colour matched the stone in Rachel’s engagement ring and was the colour for the bridesmaid dresses and groomsmen cravats.
To complement this colour, we chose to have flowers and decorations in burgundies, blues, corals, oranges and creams. We chose mainly Spring wild flowers to tie in with the time of year and create a flowy, natural feel.
How did you first hear about South Farm and what made you choose our venue for your wedding day?
We first found South Farm on Hitched.com and it was the first and only venue we visited. After one look around South Farm, we knew it was the perfect venue for us. We adored the grounds and gardens, as well as the main house and incredible selection of food.
We loved how we could explore the venue, every secret garden, pond, the small holding and the animal pens. Plus, finding out that 70% of South Farm’s food was grown on site was amazing!
More than anything though, we were so wonderfully impressed by how enthusiastic, cheerful, informative and welcoming the staff at South Farm were; from Liz who gave us our tour, to the cleaning team who chatted to us in every room we stuck our noses into.
Tell us some detail about your special day?
The day before the wedding, Rachel spent the day making our wedding cake whilst the bridesmaids wrapped all of the home-made brownie favours Rachel had made the week before.
We had various little nods to Jamie’s love of motorbikes through the wedding, including our motorbike cake-topper and little wooden motorbike tags on each of our favours.
Jamie’s buttonhole and Rachel’s bouquet both included a sprig of wheat from a bouquet that Jamie had got for her 11 years previously. The whole bouquet of wheat is still on our dresser in a frame at home.
How did you feel on the day?
In the morning at home, all the anticipation left Rachel feeling incredibly nervous, however the second she arrived at South Farm, all the nerves and worries about the running of the day melted away. She was instantly met at the car by a member of the team who welcomed her with a smile and showed her into the Tudor Barn to set up the cake. Those nerves never did re-surface as throughout the day, members of the South Farm team, our suppliers and our wedding party all made sure that everything ran perfectly smoothly.
What was your most memorable moment from your wedding?
By far and away it was the ceremony. It wasn’t stuffy or serious but just very us; light-hearted, happy, funny and allowing us to be as excitable as we wanted to be.
How did you choose your ceremony / first dance music?
As we have quite different taste in music, this posed quite a challenge. We spent hours trawling through ‘first dance’ playlists online until we found one that we both loved, ‘First day of my life’ by Bright Eyes. One thing we both agreed on was that we wanted a harpist for the ceremony and we found Siobhan the London Harpist who was amazing; we chose the ceremony music from her extensive repertoire and Rachel walked down the aisle to ‘Georgia on my mind’ by Ray Charles.
How many bridesmaids did you have and how did you ask them to be your bridesmaids?
Rachel had 3 bridesmaids, her older sister Dani who was Maid of Honour, her best friend since birth, Emma and her other best friend, Daisy. Rachel asked them to be bridesmaids by sending them the below picture (including a guest appearance by our cat):
The letters are made up from the confetti they put in our house for when we got home after we got engaged and the champagne cork from the bottle we popped on the night of our engagement.
How did you pick your best men and ushers?
It was a challenge for Jamie to pick a best man, as all of his close friends are people we’ve know since secondary school – so he picked 2 best men and 3 groomsmen! Ben and Sam, the best men, are twins and rightly joked in their speech about how Jamie did well out of the 2 for 1 offer they had on best men this year.
How many speeches did you have and do you have any advice for anyone giving a speech?
We had 3 speeches, starting with the father of the bride, then the groom, then the best men; tearjerkers the lot of them!
Jamie’s top tips for speech giving: Keep it simple, be yourself, don’t rush and remember, you’re just talking to your friends and family, what’s the worst that could happen?!
What did you wear?
Rachel wore the Becca dress by Morilee, bought at Ivory and Lace Bridal in Towcester.
Jamie wore the Carisbrooke (funnily also the name of the road Rachel grew up on) Navy Herringbone suit, hired from Moss Bros.
Is there anything you would have done differently?
Honestly no, we made the day exactly what we wanted it to be. The old cliché of ‘you can’t please everyone’ served us very well and everyone had such a wonderful time.
What are your top tips for other couples?
- Don’t have your phone with you on the day! All the suppliers had the numbers for our wedding party so we could completely switch off and enjoy the day.
- Don’t scrimp on the flowers, they play a huge part in the decoration and feel of the day.
- Try and savour every moment, the day absolutely flies by!
Where did you go/where do you plan to go on honeymoon?
We had a honeymoon fund instead of a gift registry and this allowed us to book our dream honeymoon to Japan! We’ll be jetting off the day after our 1 year wedding anniversary for 2 weeks. In the meantime however, we snuck off on a 1 week mini-moon to Venice which was incredible.
Suppliers – who did you use?
Photographer: Photography by Bea
Dress: Becca by Morilee, purchased from Ivory and Lace Bridal and altered by Patricia Nowak
Grooms & Groomsmen outfits: Carisbrooke Navy Herringbone Tails hired from Moss Bros.
Bridesmaid dresses: Peacock colour Cocktail Dresses purchased Made to Measure from JJs House
Cake: Made by Rachel
Hair: Hair by Cristina
Makeup: Niki Lawrence Hair and Makeup
Flowers: Julie Cambridge Floral Design
Entertainment: DJ Gary
We loved catching up with Rachel and Jamie to hear all about their wedding day details and how they personalised their day with little touches, like Jamie’s love of motorbikes and the sprig of wheat in Rachel’s bouquet and Jamie’s buttonhole from the bouquet Jamie bought Rachel 11 years ago. It’s so special to see how they weaved such pretty personal touches through their wedding day!
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 Cambridgeshire wedding venue and stunning gardens. We have a fantastic choice of ceremony and reception spaces whether you are hoping for a small, intimate wedding or a large celebration. We offer exclusive use for your wedding day and our flexible, professional team will make sure your dream wedding day runs exactly to plan in our stunning outdoor wedding venue.
