{"id":357378,"date":"2024-03-07T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T07:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whimsicalwonderlandweddings.com\/?p=357378"},"modified":"2024-02-14T15:21:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T15:21:50","slug":"stables-at-ffolkes-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/stables-at-ffolkes-wedding\/","title":{"rendered":"Celestial Festival Fun & Colourful Wedding Full Of Personality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, what a treat it is to be sharing WWW readers Verity and Lee’s Stables at Ffolkes<\/a> wedding<\/strong> in Norfolk<\/a>. Their day is a masterclass in creativity and allowing your personality to shine through on your wedding day. Just you wait…<\/p>\n

Their vision started from their special quote “to the moon and stars<\/em>“, which is where the celestial theme emerged. They included starry gold elements, alongside the colourful navy, teal and magenta tones which looked sensational.<\/p>\n

So much of their day was handcrafted too including the streamers and Verity’s dip dye gown. Many of their loved ones came together to lend their creative talents, which I think always makes for a really meaningful<\/em> day.<\/p>\n

Some other lovely touches have to be the involvement of their pet dog, the cocktail-making ceremony ritual, the references to Remembrance Day and the crazy golf! Oh so epic.<\/p>\n

Huge thanks to Cherrelle Blake Photography<\/a> for sharing these superb images of such a fun celebration of Verity and Lee’s love.<\/p>\n

Verity & Lee on WWW<\/h4>\n

There is lots of inspiration and DIY ideas that are different to other websites.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Stables at Ffolkes Wedding<\/h2>\n

The Proposal<\/h3>\n

Lee had planned to propose Christmas 2022 but due to getting a cold and not feeling his best he put it off<\/strong>. Unbeknown to me my family were expecting it to happen still so were acting weird, but I didn\u2019t pick up on it at all.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to the night before my birthday and I made a comment to him about having to wait until 2025 to put a ring on it or I would say no again. I had no idea he planned to do it the following day. He thought I had seen the ring hidden in his bedside cabinet when cleaning, but I hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Next day we had planned a trip to the beach for a walk<\/strong> with our dog Nellie followed by dinner at the Fffolkes. I managed to plan a house visit on the way and I couldn\u2019t understand why Lee was clock-watching as normally he didn\u2019t bother about stuff like that.<\/p>\n

We were walking along the beach I was replying to birthday wishes, I even told my friend Georgie about mine and Lee’s conversation the night before and she thought it was funny I had given him a time limit. Walking along Lee and Nellie kept stopping on the 3rd stop I turned round and saw the ring box<\/strong> before he could even get down on one knee and ask.<\/p>\n

I grabbed the box and screamed yes. Then had to text Georgie straight back to tell her and she was totally shocked!<\/p>\n

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The Vision<\/h3>\n

We are both quirky<\/strong> with our interests. Unlike a lot of brides, I didn\u2019t have a scrapbook or Pinterest with ideas of my perfect day already \u2013 mainly because I didn\u2019t think it would happen.<\/p>\n

I do work in hospitality and have co-ordinated weddings in the past, so I knew I didn\u2019t want the typical traditional wedding. Me and Lee have a saying \u2013 “to the moon and stars” so that was the starting point for the vision. We also wanted it to be really colourful<\/a> and have a festival feel, with music forming a big part of the day.<\/p>\n

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Budget<\/h3>\n

\u00a315,000<\/p>\n

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The Venue<\/h3>\n

Because we knew what we didn\u2019t want, finding a venue was harder than we first thought it would be. We looked at various options but they all had their negatives for one reason or another. We had thought about the Ffolkes<\/strong> originally as that\u2019s where we went after we got engaged but, I thought it would be out of budget. It was on the way back from another venue visit in Norfolk we saw the sign and I decided to send an enquiry as they had a winter offer.<\/p>\n

We booked a visit to The Stables at the Ffolkes<\/strong> in April 2023 and arranged to meet my Mum and Dad for lunch in the pub to discuss our options. They ended up joining us on the venue tour and were really impressed. Becky was fantastic from the minute we met her, we quickly realized we would be able to do everything we wanted at the venue and with the winter offer we could be in budget for the number of guests we wanted to invite.<\/p>\n

So I booked it there and then which everyone was surprised by, then it was a case of picking a date. They had limited availability in 2023 so we chose the latest date possible but it still only gave us 7 months to plan<\/strong> the whole wedding. Oh and we were selling 2 houses and moving in that time also.<\/p>\n

The Ffolkes<\/strong> were really flexible and were able to accommodate all our food and drink asks. We had mulled wine and cider for our drinks reception, as we didn\u2019t have speeches<\/strong> we didn\u2019t have toast drinks so we used the budget to have a second drinks reception \u2013 signature cocktails after the wedding breakfast. This helped to get everyone in the party mood whilst they played crazy golf before a lot of dancing.<\/p>\n

They were able to incorporate a Spanish flair in our starters and we got to select all our favourite flavours for desserts. They even boxed up the evening food for us as a midnight snack as we were too busy dancing to eat. We\u2019ve had so many compliments about the food and drink at the wedding which is a big seal of approval from my guests for me working in hospitality also.<\/p>\n

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The Ceremony & Music<\/h3>\n

We knew at the start of the wedding planning process we wanted a celebrant-led ceremony<\/strong>. We both liked the freedom it gave us and how much of our personality we could show. I already knew Gill from Vidal Ceremonies as I had worked with her on a friend\u2019s wedding and knew her socially.<\/p>\n

Gill got our vision from the first coffee we had with her to tell her our plans. She listened to our ideas and gave us advice on how we could include them in our ceremony. A big thing we wanted to include was our dog Nellie, she walked me up the aisle and signed the certificate (in advance as she got shy). So Nellie could be part of the day we hired a dog chaperone \u2013 Amy from Oh Belle Wedding Day Dogs. It meant we could enjoy our day without worrying about Nellie.<\/p>\n

We also wanted to do something a bit different and include our love of Strictly so we had a cocktail-making contest<\/strong> where our guests could score our efforts.<\/p>\n

All the ceremony songs were either theme tunes from our favourite TV shows\/films or acoustic versions of some of our favourite songs. The giggles from guests when they realized what songs were helped make the day special.<\/p>\n

I walked down the aisle to Still Into You \u2013 Paramore<\/strong> sang by Sara Ashley who also performed in our drinks reception. Our leaving song was Never Going To Give You Up \u2013 Rick Astley<\/strong>. My dad and sister made the confetti<\/a> for this moment from dried hydrangeas in their garden. We also signed the certificate to the Friends theme tune<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

After the ceremony we had a drinks reception and photographs. Sara Ashley played some of our favourite country songs and I have lovely memories of dancing with Lee in the courtyard on our own whilst guests watched on and danced across the field for our couples portraits to Country Roads<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Throughout dinner, I curated a Spotify playlist with all our favourite songs either acoustically or in a Bridgeton classical style. In the evening we had a DJ \u2013 John King and a band – High Point Players, both are friends so it was really special especially when other musicians in the guests got up to play also.<\/p>\n

Our \u2018first dance\u2019 was I Believe in a Thing Called Love \u2013 The Darkness<\/strong>, sang by my friend Kirsty King accompanied by Owen from the band. This is when we got our big confetti moment \u2013 Your Confetti.<\/p>\n

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Your Photographer<\/h3>\n

Capturing the day was really important to us as we knew some of the attendees might not be around forever. We found Cherrelle \u2013 Cherelle Blake Photography on the Ffolkes recommended supplier list. As soon as I googled her website I knew if she was available she would be our photographer.<\/p>\n

I quickly arranged a zoom call with her and Lee also said straight away how she instantly felt like a friend. She was with us throughout the planning process, I would often send her little snaps of what we had made etc and it genuinely felt like she was excited for our wedding as we were.<\/p>\n

We had a pre-wedding shoot with her in September on the beach and it was so much fun, we couldn\u2019t wait to have her by our side on our special day. We used lots of the photos from our pre-shoot as d\u00e9cor on the wedding day. We threw lots of suggestions at her and she had some suggestions of her own as she had worked at the venue before. She really managed to capture the day as it was<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We managed to capture the guests’ point of view of the day through an Instax camera and a QR code on the tables. It was really fun looking at these on the day after the wedding when we got home with a slice of cake.<\/p>\n

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Your Outfits<\/h3>\n

Lee and the groomsmen’s outfits were from Skopes Outlet<\/strong>. The ties we got from Amazon<\/strong> and they came with cufflinks. Lee had customized cufflinks from Etsy<\/strong> with Nellie\u2019s face on one side and our wedding date on the other.<\/p>\n

I knew I didn\u2019t want a traditional ivory dress, but with the timescale, it wouldn\u2019t be possible to get a couture dress within my budget. So I took a risk, bought a dress from ASOS<\/strong> in the sale for less than \u00a3100 and my sister’s friend Justin dyed it for me. Another friend removed the zip and put in a lace-up back for comfort.<\/p>\n

I wore Sketchers<\/strong> trainers so I could keep dancing all day. I also bought a black denim jacket from Shien and asked a local business, Make It Yours<\/strong> to embroider a design on the back which I created in Canva.<\/p>\n

Bridesmaid dresses were from Ever Pretty<\/strong> in the sale, I originally said to the girls that as long as they were navy they could pick whatever dress they felt comfortable in, they happened to all choose the same dress. They just wore their own shoes and accessories in gold.<\/p>\n

All our hair and makeup was created by Amy \u2013 Flamingo Amy Hair and Emma \u2013 Brunetti Artistry. They made us all feel like rockstars and helped me feel at ease on the big day. Everything lasted so well throughout the day into the evening.<\/p>\n

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The Styling & Decor<\/h3>\n

I am very lucky that my sister Hollie \u2013 Hollie Swinscoe Creative is a set designer and stylist and has a wedding stationery business on the side, so we were able to do a lot of the styling and d\u00e9cor<\/strong> ourselves.<\/p>\n

From our little saying of “to the moon and stars” we decided on a Northern Lights-inspired celestial festival theme. The main colours were navy, teal and magenta<\/strong> with gold accents for the \u2018stars\u2019. I got a lot of decorations from Shein, charity shops and Amazon as well as things we already had. We also hired the bigger props including the ceremony moon from Val at Samphire Vintage Props, we found her through a recommendation from Cherrelle.<\/p>\n

My friend Francesca used to be a florist, so she bought all the flowers<\/strong> at cost and helped us create all the arrangements the day before the wedding. As the flowers are silk or dried it meant we were able to gift them to people who couldn\u2019t come to the wedding after and I have kept some which are now on display in our new house.<\/p>\n

As we got married on Remembrance Day<\/strong>, I had a replica of my great-grandad’s medal in my bouquet, poppies in all the arrangements and my jacket to remember both our grandads’ who had served in the military. My friend Janet made us some poppy seed favours to give out to guests to plant on my birthday in January to carry on the theme of remembrance.<\/p>\n

I had a couple of crafting afternoons with my friends and family to create streamers<\/strong> from plastic fencing and plastic tablecloths. It took time and really sore hands but I loved the finished result.<\/p>\n

I bought a custom fabric banner<\/strong> from Banner Department so our main saying was pride of place during dinner. I got an American postbox<\/a> from Amazon and we put our own vinyl decal for all our cards as a hint towards my job.<\/p>\n

My friend Becky \u2013 Cookie Box Bourne made our cakes<\/strong> as our wedding gift. We got a topper<\/a> of our dog made by Becky\u2019s Cake Bakes. This tied in with the favours we made for our guests four-legged family members from Nellie.<\/p>\n

All my friends said they knew they were at our wedding the second they stepped in the door which is exactly what we wanted.<\/p>\n

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The Honeymoon<\/h3>\n

We haven\u2019t managed to book our honeymoon yet, although we plan on continuing the Northern Lights theme with a trip to either Canada or Scandinavia<\/strong>. We are both not sitting on the beach kind of people, we like to get out and explore so I am sure we will have lots of adventures and stories to tell.<\/p>\n

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Memorable Moments<\/h3>\n