Emily & Dom celebrated their love at South Farm last February with a magical Harry Potter-themed wedding! Emily had discovered South Farm a few years before they got engaged, and when Dom popped the question and Emily said ‘YES,’ she knew this was the place she wanted to get married. They both fell in love with South Farm at first sight, and the rest is a beautiful love story! Discover all the details of their enchanting winter wedding in our latest blog…
Date of your wedding: 10.02.2024
Time of your ceremony: 2pm
Location of your ceremony: The Old Dairy
We’d love to hear how you first met?
We met 14 years ago through a mutual friend, back to the days of MSN and spent pretty much every night chatting away together for a year before we decided being best friends wasn’t enough. Dom asked me to be his girlfriend whilst watching a Harry Potter film in my childhood home on the 30th of March 2011 and fast forward to today where we have moved back into this same childhood home as a two busy making it our own and hopefully having a family of our own in one day.
Which parts of the venue did you use on your big day?
We had our ceremony and drinks reception in The Old Dairy before moving into the Tudor Barn/Horse barn to have our wedding breakfast and celebrate the night away for our wedding reception.
Which was your favourite spot for wedding photos?
Tom was amazing at finding all the perfect spots we didn’t even know existed for our photos. There are so many lovely places, but our favourite has to be the driveway- photos in the dark and rain on our wedding night gave it the final bit of magic to our perfect day- they look insane!
Tell us about any special colour or themes you had and how you styled your big day?
As previously mentioned, Harry Potter has featured throughout our lives right from the beginning of us so when it came to a wedding theme there wasn’t any other option. However, it was finding the perfect balance of wedding/Harry Potter which I think we managed to do just as we had imagined in the end. Unfortunately, Dom wouldn’t agree to having an owl deliver the wedding rings haha!
Following the theme, our wedding colour was Burgundy/red to bring an essence of the Gryffindor Harry Potter House colour to our day. We hired most of our props from Miss Carlyse & Co but having a very supportive and helpful family we managed to do and style everything else ourselves. Lots of Pinterest boards and hours spent we finally got the vision we hoped for! Albeit stressful at the time, looking back at all the laughter and memories we now have by doing it this way is amazing.
Instead of a standard table plan we decided to do Harry Potter books with a personalized note in them for each couple/guest attending our day laid across stacked apple crates. This turned out to be one of the things our guests loved about our wedding day- the personal touches, love and time spent they all really appreciated and it was something they have never seen before. Saying that I am not ready to pick up another Harry Potter book for a while. Some other ways we incorporated Harry Potter throughout our day was- a themed sweet trolley, themed chocolate bars that doubled up as wedding favours and name places, lumos sparklers, cake toppers, book themed table names and all wedding stationery in Harry potter font. Plus our Harry Potter full length welcome sign mirror! I even managed to get Dom a personalized video from Professor Sprout (Miriam Margolyes) in the Harry Potter films to play to him on our wedding morning!
How did you first hear about South Farm and what made you choose our venue for your wedding day?
I had seen South Farm on social media a few years before Dom proposed and I knew from the website alone that I wanted to get married here! So two weeks after he popped the question we were at South Farm for our first viewing. We had intentions to visit a few more wedding venues but we both instantly fell in love with it and our decision had been made. It ticked every single box we were looking for and it did not disappoint- our wedding day was the best day of our lives and that is down to South Farm and every team member who contributed from Evie our wedding planner right down to the bar staff/cleaners!
Tell us some detail about your special day?
From the moment we woke up to the moment we went to bed we loved every single moment of our day! We woke up to blue sky and this held out most of the day until we did our Sparklers in the evening when the heavens opened but the pictures we gained from this weather are some of our favourites. Weather played a massive part of our special day as we both remember Tom running over to us after our speeches before the food was served and telling us about an insane sunset outside! We both shot up and ran outside and Tom was right! As you can see from our photos how talented Tom is! We incorporated both of our favourite foods through the day with an Asian inspired banquet for our wedding breakfast and Burgers for our reception food. We had so many compliments from guests about how yummy the food was.
How did you feel on the day?
So many emotions all in one! Butterflies & excitement and not being able to believe that our wedding day was finally here. We both feared leading up to the day that because we are both emotional people the thought of not being able to get through the ceremony due to us sobbing wouldn’t be ideal haha! Although there were tears, happy ones thank God, it made our day even more special and we went to bed with our mouths aching from the constant smiles we had all day. Being a bit of a control freak I thought I would struggle and not enjoy the day due to stressing about things going to plan. When it came to it, with the help of Evie, the South Farm team and our families it didn’t even cross my mind and the day went perfectly. We wish we could have stayed in our wedding bubble forever.
What was your most memorable moment from your wedding?
There are too many to choose from but one thing we both agreed on would be the love. The love that we felt throughout the day with each other and with our guests was next level. Your wedding day is one of the very few days that you have every person you love all together in one place and that is the thing we will remember for a lifetime! Being lucky enough to have all these special people in our lives there to help us celebrate. We are so grateful that we had Tom as our photographer so we can see all the bits of our wedding day we missed and the reactions of our guests throughout the day- these photos are the memories we will have forever and we can’t stop looking over them and reliving the day.
How did you choose your ceremony and first dance music?
We had never been one of these couples that have a song. So we did think we would struggle finding the perfect one for our first dance that was big enough to fill the shoes of this important song and moment. We are both country music fans and felt like in our general music throughout the day and in the evening we would avoid this due to it not being to everyone’s liking and we wanted all our guests on the dancefloor. So this was the perfect time to incorporate a country song just for us that we could both enjoy in that moment of us two for our first dance- every time the song is played now it takes us back to the Horse Barn dancefloor. So now we finally have our song Brett Young- In case you didn’t know!
Unfortunately, my Grandad passed away so was not able to attend our wedding. We wanted to include him in our big day and one way we decided to do this was as soon as our first dance song came to an end we had the Dj go straight into Sweet Caroline for him. This was his song and his number one karaoke choice so it was perfect. It made us feel like he was there and it got everyone (from 3 to 90 years old so we mean everyone) up on the dancefloor to start the party.
How many bridesmaids did you have and how did you ask them to be your bridesmaids?
I had my two best friends as my bridesmaids and I had a little ceramic heart made asking them both. On the day I also gifted them with Harry Potter themed jackets which looked great in the photos!
How did you pick your best men and ushers?
As I have got two brothers it was super hard to pick between them for my best man so instead they became our Ushers and then had my best friend as the best man who I have known pretty much my whole life.
How many speeches did you have and do you have any advice for anyone giving a speech?
We had the three traditional speeches- the groom, the best man and the father of the bride. Our biggest advice would be always add on extra time – if you think you have loads it still won’t be enough- especially if you are having food after speeches! Just speak from the heart and it will all come naturally- try not to be too scripted and forced. Quality over quantity. Remember emotion is good- just make sure you have tissues handy.
What did you wear?
Emily wore a Madison James Dress & Dom wore a made to measure bespoke Herringbone suit from Trotter & Deane in Cambridge
Is there anything you would have done differently?
NOT A SINGLE THING!!! We have had so many guests say it was the best wedding they have ever been too….I know we are biased but we would have to agree ;)
What are your top tips for other couples?
Pick South Farm for your wedding venue and you will have the wedding of your dreams!
A few tips would be when planning make it your day and do what you want to do – don’t get influenced or feel pressure from other people. Try and make the most of every second as it goes by in a flash! Finally, if you can try and do everything as a couple on the day- you don’t want to get to the end of the day and realise you haven’t seen much of your new husband/wife!
Where did you go on honeymoon?
After the wedding planning we just wanted time to relax and chill so we had a lovely week in Greece at the famous Stella Island resort- it was just perfect!
Suppliers |
Photographer: Tom Halliday
Dress: Shades of White
Grooms & Groomsmen outfits: Groom- Trotter & Deane Groomsmen- Moss Bros Ties- Swagger & Swoon
Bridesmaid dresses: Ever pretty
Cake: Grandma Cupcakes- Ingle House Bakery
Hair & Make-Up: Izzy Wild MUA
Flowers: Passionate Flowers
Entertainment: Magician- Jamie Segrave
Photobooth: Bloopers
DJ: DJ Gary
Live Acoustic: Laura Paperhearts Duo
Hire Props & Styling: Miss Carlysle & Co
We absolutely loved catching up with Emily & Dom to hear all about how they planned their perfect day and created their fabulous Harry Potter-inspired wedding theme! A heartfelt thank you to them both for their incredibly kind words about the entire team at South Farm. We are overjoyed to hear they wouldn’t change a single thing about their stunning day and that South Farm ticked all the boxes from start to finish! Emily & Dom, you kind words truly warm our hearts and inspire us to keep making wedding dreams come true. 💕
If you are looking to book your dream garden wedding venue in Hertfordshire for your 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 wedding venue near Bedfordshire.