Real Life Weddings at The Manor House

We met via mutual friends at a house party.  Those friends later married, and it was at that wedding where we were Maid of Honour and Best Man where we got to talking a little more.  Scott then asked me out on a date the next day.  Strangely enough our friends were Maid of Honour and Usher at our wedding.

The proposal was actually at The Manor House in the Italian Gardens.  Scott had booked us into to the hotel for the weekend and he secretly discussed with hotel staff, who were great at giving him ideas about the best spots to propose.  Whilst Scott was nervously walking around the Italian gardens trying to find a quiet spot the hotel staff decorated our cottage (Sidelands ) with rose petals, chocolates and champagne.  Needless to say it was very romantic and I was crying happy tears on multiple occasions.  We then finished off the evening by going to the Castle Inn and celebrating with a dinner whilst calling family and friends.

Can I say everything? We love the building itself and its location with picturesque surroundings as well as all of the facilities.  The rooms are absolutely stunning and each one has its own unique character which we and our wedding guests loved so much.  Whenever we visited the hotel in the run up to the wedding we would always try to stay in a different room to experience as many of them as we could.  All of our wedding guests were particularly impressed with the fact that the baths had TVs – especially our niece and nephew who now want one at home.

But most off all it was the staff that makes the experience of staying at the hotel so special.  They are so friendly and attentive to your needs, they always go the extra mile which makes you feel extra special.  Nothing was too much trouble for them.

We wanted our day to be as fun as possible and so we had little touches that helped with that.  We booked the hotel exclusively on the Saturday so that just our family and friends shared in our day.

Our day ran so smoothly because of our photographers Nicola & Glenn, Videographers Mr & Mrs Productions but most importantly our toastmaster Simon who did an amazing job of keeping our guests entertained and to time on the day.  I would highly recommend these three things at a minimum for your wedding.

We had a pianist who would play covers of popular songs during the drinks reception, speciality cocktails (Pimms and Old Fashions), with canapes. 

We also had a caricaturist who did our table plan and place settings which went down very well with our guests.  I made truffles for each of our guests as well as little hangover kits for their rooms once the wedding had finished.  We had gorgeous flowers from Jill Jeffries and balloons suspended from the ceiling and arches by Bubble Gum balloons. 

Our cake was stunning and done by the fairy cakery, we had no cake left as our guests enjoyed it so much.  We are so glad we kept the top tier for ourselves to eat after.  But the manor house very kindly kept a little of each tier for us to take home too so we got to experience it all.  The 3 course meal for the Wedding breakfast was enjoyed by all our guests the particularly liked the Ham Hock Ballotine and the White Chocolate cheesecake.

For the evening Cahoots decorated the Dunstaville with lights and draping and well as a light up dance floor which looked amazing.  We had a magic mirror so that guests could take funny photos and a glow in the dark ice cream bar by Fluffy Puffin with the most incredible flavour ice creams as well as chocolate chilli roulette.  We opted for a DJ who kept all of our guests dancing until 1am.

Cassie and James with his team at the Manor house helped with setting up all of our little touches and worked with all of our suppliers to make our dream come to life.

It was an Ivory Stella York dress, which was A line with a sweetheart neckline, the boutique I got it from had made custom lace spaghetti straps that I could remove in the evening to party the night away.  It was covered in floral lace and corseted at the back.  Not what I had planned on getting originally but I fell in love with it when I put it on.  It floated like I was on a cloud!  I also had a cathedral length veil with tiny little gems on them that glistened in the light, just to give me a little hint of sparkle.

There is so much that happened, it’s so hard to pick just one.  But having all of our friends cheering for us as we entered the wedding breakfast as Mr & Mrs Hillier was very special.  When we sat down at the wedding breakfast and saw all our loved ones in the room it was fantastic.  Especially after having to delay our wedding for the 3^rd time due to COVID, finally getting to have our moment and sharing it with friends and family was amazing

Because our original wedding date was supposed to be in 2020, we had to re-schedule to 2021 and then 2022.  Our friends, family and suppliers were so supportive, our friends threw us a surprise garden party before the wedding to help celebrate the fact we were getting married which was very special and allowed us to get excited about our big day again.

Have a special email account just for your wedding communications and use a wedding website to monitor your RSVPs

Make sure you take a moment with your wife / partner on the day to take everything in

Save the top tier of your wedding cake to eat with a glass of champagne when you get home to open your cards and gifts.

Photographer @weddingsbynicolandglen
Flowers & styling @jilljeffriesflowers
Videographer @mrmrsproductions
Wedding Dress @victoriasbridalboutique
Suits @wellsuitedltd
Wedding Cake @thefairycakery
Hair @creativecurls_bykatie
Make up @makeupbybeckyflynn
Pianist @richsullypiano
Magic Mirror Photo @theweddingplayers
Ice Cream @fluffypuffin2017
Styling @vowedandamazed