Confession – Ali and Holly are great friends of mine. When they asked me if I would be their celebrant for their wedding at Pelham House, I was absolutely delighted! It was immediately clear that they had quite different feelings about the whole wedding thing….Holly had long imagined the day where she would walk down the aisle to the man she had chosen to spend the rest of her life with. Ali on the other hand, would happily have eloped to avoid the gaze of all their friends and family on him at the front of the room.
“My husband and I have quite different styles but Beth picked up on that right away and created a ceremony that brought both of our visions to life whilst ensuring we were comfortable throughout.”
Holly, Bride
One thing that they were both sure of was that they wanted their ceremony to be filled with fun and engaging – these two are both fun, lively and sociable and they wanted that reflected in their ceremony. I sent them a ‘shopping list’ of ideas that we could weave into their ceremony and they selected their favourites:
Selfie idea – early on in the ceremony, we took a moment for them to capture a selfie from the front of the ceremony space, with all their most special people gathered behind them!
Surprise ring bearer – before the ceremony began, I hid Holly’s wedding ring under the chair of an unsuspecting guest. When it came to the part of the ceremony where Ali was going to give Holly the ring, I asked all of their guests to have a feel underneath their chairs creating lots of excited and chatty energy…it was Holly’s cousin who then brought the ring up to the front!
Time capsule – the night before their big day, both of them wrote a love letter to each other, expressing how they were feeling in that very moment. During their ceremony, we boxed these up along with their printed vows and a bottle of their favourite tipple (Rathfinny!), to be opened on their first anniversary. The hope is that they will open the bottle, re-read their vows and open the letters for the first time together while reminiscing on their wonderful day.
In my opinion, the best ceremonies make people smile, laugh and also feel all the feels! So, to balance out all the fun elements in their ceremony, Ali and Holly wrote personal heart-felt vows. I helped to guide them with the format and content of these, making sure that they mirrored each other just enough to ensure that there weren’t any awkward moments on the day. On the day, they both shared words that they truly meant, in the tone and manner best suited to them, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room!!
Their ceremony came together as a wonderful balance of fun and light-hearted moments with the heartfelt emotions and gravitas that such an occasion deserves. There was laughter, tears and such a wonderful amount of energy for two very special and much loved individuals. And it set their days up for all the celebrations that were to come.
And once it was all done….I got to relax in to the role of wedding guest!!
All the fun and emotion captured perfectly by Fazackarley and all the gorgeous floweriness by Holly Florist.
"I could not recommend Beth more; she is professional, creative, warm, supportive and just a really special person to have in your corner on your wedding day."
Holly, Bride
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