For Tamsyn & Daryl a chance meeting at University led to a 12 year romance before Daryl proposed! At first they thought they might get married in France but when they stumbled across South Farm they loved the garden, grounds, home-grown food and our sustainable values. South Farm felt like the perfect wedding venue for their special day. Tamsyn and Daryl chose an amazing colour scheme with beautiful seasonal flowers for their wedding day. Read all about how they planned their wedding and how they felt on the big day itself!
Date of your wedding: 2nd September 2022
Time of your ceremony: 2pm
Location of your ceremony: The Summer House
Tell us how and when you first met!
We first met at university in our final year when the whole year had to attend a lecture and we both saw each other across the room. We then chatted for a couple of weeks and decided to hand in our last pieces of work together. We had a quick romance for the final weeks of university and then both went back to our hometowns; Myself up north and Daryl down south.
A year later I finally moved to London and we got back in touch and 12 years later Daryl finally proposed.
Which parts of the venue you used for your big day?
We had the ceremony in the Summer House, drinks reception in the garden and evening dancing in the Horse Barn.
Which was your favourite spot for wedding photos?
In front of the house – the beautiful yellow and blue were the perfect backdrop for our flowers, groomsman outfits and bridesmaids which made everything so colourful for the photos.
Tell us about any special colour schemes / themes you had for your wedding day or how you styled your big day?
We worked with the fantastic Studio Dine & Rooted in Rosemary to help style our entire wedding. With all the different areas around South Farm and different colours in each area we were unsure how to tie it all together, but Callie and her team were perfect in coordinating everything,
While considering what flowers were in season and my love for dahlias and roses we decided to go with pinks, peaches, orange & hints of yellow and eucalyptus.
Callie also created beautiful wooden backdrop so that we could move our ceremony flowers and use for behind the top table. We also used teal & burnt orange to balance the lighter tones and used this with the glassware, napkins and the beautiful draping we hung across the Tudor Barn. This then carried through to the Horse barn where we had large balloons across the ceiling.
How did you first hear about South Farm and what made you choose our venue for your wedding day?
We simply found South Farm on a google search for barn weddings in the Hertfordshire area. We had originally planned a wedding in France (as I’m half French) but after covid we decided to have it in England and when we saw the house, we thought we could have the best of both.
We didn’t view any other venues other than South Farm and after being shown the venue and the pricing we automatically knew it was the venue for us. The garden and grounds, the sustainability, the beautiful house, and the high-quality food on offer sold it for us!
The food and the sustainable way in which it is grown and used was a big thing for us and we hadn’t seen any menu as exciting.
The different areas around South Farm were also great as it’s a long day we didn’t want to have one room which would be turned around for each part of the day and instead wanted to create a journey throughout so that we could share different moments in different areas and keep the momentum going as guest see each area. Not to mention they’re all beautiful!
Tell us some detail about your special day?
When I arrived, I quickly set up Callie and her team and introduced her to Hayley our SF Events Manager (Who was fantastic she made everything run smoothly and constantly checking in with both of us and everyone else, she was brilliant) so that they could start dressing the summerhouse and Tudor barn. I also greeted Clare our photographer who did a quick recce while we waited for the bridal suite to be ready.
We then started the day in the Granary with Makeup by Sam and her team having our makeup done until the bridal suite was ready. The housekeeping staff were so lovely and kept us updated with their progress. As soon as it was ready, we moved across to have our hair done.
Then the nightmare happened where a mysterious stain had appeared on my dress! (I still think it was one of my bridesman ????) But the housekeeping team came to the rescue and with some stain remover and the steamer we’d brought we managed to get it out ????
Once we were all ready, we took some photos and my Dad came to join us and then we had a quick peak through the curtains to see everyone arriving which got me excited!
However, when it was finally time I suddenly became quite nervous and it hit me it was happening. My dad did well to distract me as well as the bridesmaids.
Walking down the aisle I couldn’t help but look at Daryl waiting for me, I couldn’t stop smiling. I did also have a quick look at the guests and the beautiful flowers as I was so excited to see them too.
The ceremony was PERFECT even if I messed up the vows. It was the part of the wedding we were dreading as neither of us like to be the center of attention, but the registrars had made us feel at ease and we forgot about everyone around us. My mum’s speech was also a big hit, with her being a retired teacher and her love for amateur dramatics she stole the show with a reading of ‘What I know about love’ by Dolly Alderton.
The weather held out and we had a fabulous drinks reception in the garden, everyone loved the canapes and asking what the Elderlini’s were. We snuck off to take some photos and we had so much fun with Clare our photographer she made everyone feel comfortable that we all had so much fun, and the photos turned out brilliantly.
We then quickly went through to see the Tudor barn before Callie and her team had to head off and oh my goodness! It almost made me cry; everything we had worked so hard on together over the past year looked incredible and even better than we’d imagined, and we couldn’t wait for everyone else to see it!
THE FOOD – the moment we’d waited for. We were so excited for the food and it was all amazing. Every single one of our guests came to us to say it was the best food they had ever had at a wedding and it was 5* and we agree!
We then had the cake cutting however we had a Croquembouche which the lovely Jemz Cakes had baked for us, it was great and we picked off a profiterole each – it was delicious and then we went to party! The Neo Roots Band got the party started and were fantastic they played three sets and had a great mix of classics and modern hits. The 90’s section was definitely the winner and who doesn’t get up to Proud Mary to dance to as well.
We called it a night at midnight with sore feet and heart’s bursting with love to have had such an amazing day with everyone.
How did you feel on the day?
We were absolutely calm in the morning, it didn’t feel real as we’d been planning it for over a year it didn’t feel as though it was finally here, even though we were at South Farm getting ready. We don’t think it properly hit us until the music started and we both saw each other.
The rest of the day we were just so happy seeing everybody and having the best day with everyone we love and we have never laughed so much!
What was your most memorable moment from your wedding?
We think the first time we saw each other during the ceremony as we both couldn’t stop smiling and it was a lovely moment to start the day off. Then second was the speeches (including my mum’s reading) they were all brilliant and everyone did so well through all the nerves everyone had, had.
How did you choose your ceremony / first dance music?
It took a long time for us to find the right song to come down the aisle to but finally we remembered that they had done a great cover of ‘Simply the Best’ by Tina Turner in the series Schitt’s Creek and we knew it was perfect. Then we wanted something fun to come out to and Beyonce’s ‘Love on Top’ was perfect to celebrate to and get the drinks reception started.
We have very different tastes in music and anything we do both like it’s not particularly suited for a first dance. However my favourite artist is Rufus Wainwright and his song ‘Out of the Game’ although has nothing to do with love or marriage we have fond memories of singing along in the car and jokingly calling each other a ‘sucker’ and so decided to choose this song as we have great memories with it and we knew we could both be silly to it – again not particularly wanting that attention on us we could just forget about everyone watching and have fun with it.
How many bridesmaids did you have and how did you ask them to be your bridesmaids?
I had 5 bridesmaids and I simply called them to ask them to be with me on the day which was a lot of fun.
How did you pick your best men and ushers?
I have a group chat with all my best-friends from school so it was an easy decision to include them all.
How many speeches did you have and do you have any advice for anyone giving a speech?
We had Father of the bride, Groom and Best-Man speech.
Practice, practice, practice, you’ll know it almost off by heart by the time you get to do it an any worries you might have of stumbling are put to rest as it will just flow more naturally.
What did you wear?
Daryl wore the fitted check bee suit from Gucci – the gold bee details added that little extra.
Tamsyn wore the silk Coco dress from & for love bought from Halo & Wren.
Is there anything you would have done differently?
Absolutely nothing – it was perfect!
What are your top tips for other couples?
Try to take yourself away just for a moment to take it all in, the day goes so quickly, and it can be hard to remember everything but we found just having a moment away from things really helped us to reflect and bank those memories a little better.
Where did you go/where do you plan to go on honeymoon?
We plan to travel around Canada in 2024 but as a mini moon we went over to Seville where we enjoyed lots of food and the beautiful architecture.
Suppliers – who did you use?
Photographer: Clare Smith Photography
Dress: Halo & Wren
Grooms outfits: Gucci
Groomsman outfits: Selected Homme
Bridesmaid dresses: Coast
Cake: Jemz Cakes
Hair & Makeup: Makeup By Sam
Stylist: Studio Dine
Draping: Boomting, Bunting
Flowers: Rooted in Rosemary
Balloons: Amethyst Decorations
Entertainment: The Neoroots Function Band
We loved hearing the story of Tamsyn and Daryl’s wedding day – from when they very first met right up to how they felt on the big day itself. We love the stunning colour theme they chose and that they were so excited about the wedding food! It is clear just by looking at their photo how happy they were and how right South Farm felt so right for their special day. We wish them every happiness for the future ❤️
If you are looking to book your dream wedding just get in touch. We’d love to hear all about your wedding plans and to show you around our converted barn wedding venue set in stunning gardens on the borders of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. We have an fantastic choice of ceremony and reception spaces to suit weddings large and small and offer exclusive use for your wedding day so you can enjoy our eco friendly wedding venue in complete privacy! Contact us today to book a showround or discuss our availability.
