When Chloe and Simon emailed to enquire about my availability for a December wedding at Bredenbury Court Barns, I couldn’t be more excited! This was because Bredenbury Court was one of the newest wedding venues in Herefordshire and I had only been there in the summer. Therefore, the prospect of a winter wedding in their glazed walled oak barn seemed extremely appealing.
Barns are structures very well suited to the magical atmosphere of a winter wedding. The main reason for this is that the wood makes the space seem so inviting and comfortable! Sometimes all you need to add to it are strings of warm white fairy lights and you are basically there.
What Simon and Chloe had planned for their wedding theme made me think of a white Christmas wedding with a classy, clean and bright touch. Firstly, for the tables they opted for white crockery, silver cutlery and clear glassware. As their wedding took place between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, white Christmas crackers were waiting patiently to be pulled with a bang at the start of dinner. In addition to these, each floral centrepiece had tones of white (baby’s breath), ivory (roses) and silver green (eucalyptus and spruce) with a touch of blue thistle. But I better let Simon and Chloe tell you more about their day, as they kindly wrote the following for this blogpost:
Three words to describe your wedding day
Exciting, special and memorable.
When planning your wedding, how did you go about choosing a venue that would suit your wedding well?
We started by looking at a lot of wedding venues and found it difficult to find one that would be suitable for a December wedding. In the end, we found Bredenbury Court which was perfect.
Tell me about your decor & colour theme: where did you get ideas from?
The venue was impressive in itself and we wanted our decoration to compliment our venue and so we went with a winter theme with a classy edge.
3 tips for future brides and grooms on bringing your own character into your wedding and making the day unique:
Our top tips would be:
1) Enjoy every minute of your day… it will be over in a flash!
2) You get lots of advice from different people but it is your day and focus on what you both want for your day.
3) Do spend the time researching your photographer as when its all been and gone, the photos you get will be what you have to remember the day and cherish for the rest of your life!
If you were to do it again, is there anything that you would do differently?
If we were to do it again Chloe would worry less about the little things because ultimately it did not matter and everybody had a great day!
Do you have any advice for future couples on choosing their photographer?
Our top tip for choosing a photographer would be (as well as to research) to take the time to get to know your photographer, and for them to get to know you. Maybe you can do this through a engagement shoot! We did this with Cat and it helped us to become more comfortable and confident in front of the camera, and also allowed Cat to know what we would like. We believe it made our wedding photos that little bit better.
What importance does photography hold for you?
For us the most important thing from a photographer was that the photos were natural and captured the joy, happiness and excitement of the day, while at the same time telling the story of the day and catch the small details that are important and sometimes can be missed in the inevitable busy nature of the day. This is exactly why we chose Cat Beardsley Photography. On our Wedding day (and after) she went above and beyond what we could have asked for and the photos we have to remember our day are everything we could have wished for. The comments from friends and family have been nothing but complimentary and we are so pleased with them all!
Venue: Bredenbury Court
Decor / Wedding stylist: We decorated it ourselves
Catering: Jenkinsons Caterers
DJ/ Band: DJ SAM I AM and The Electrics
Wedding planner: Ourselves
Dress: Hagley Bridal Studio
Shoes: Rainbow Club Shoes
Jewellery: John Lewis and Marlow’s (Jewellery Quarter)
Make-up: Makeup by Eve O’Mahoney
Hair: Wayne Holmes from Paintbox Salon
Chauffeur: Family friend
Cake: Marks and Spencer and family members
Florist: The Flower Garden
Men’s suits / shoes: Duncan James Menswear
Love Letters – Penny Lane Hire Event Ltd
Photographer: Cat Beardsley Photography
