Matt and Sean
Why Ufton Court?
It was actually the first and only venue that we visited! We had originally planned to get married abroad but the logistics of this made us reconsider getting married in the UK instead. When we started to look around and book appointments, Ufton Court had a cancellation that same weekend so we took that as a sign! We got ourselves down there to have a look around and immediately fell in love with the venue itself and the amazing team who took us through all of the potential ways we could arrange our day to unfold and it made us feel reassured that we would be looked-after throughout the whole journey.
Wedding Style
We didn't have a specific theme but we tried to keep the styling sympathetic to the venue so stuck with rustic elements that were provided by both Ufton Court themselves, combined with a beautiful lighting arrangement from Oakwood Events, and we also had some additional decorative items from Pink Frog.
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The Ceremony
We opted to go for a celebrant on the day itself (the wonderful Tash from Nova Verde Celebrations) as it meant we could tailor our ceremony to be exactly how we wanted it to be. For us this meant a ceremony that talked about our love for each other and the friends and family that have been there to watch it blossom and grow, along with plenty of audience participation (and full champagne flutes throughout!).
The Flowers
We opted for a variety of white flowers mixed with extra amounts of green foliage courtesy of AddStyle UK and coupled these arrangements with extra-high stands so that the flowers added height to the table layouts but also ensured that they didn't block peoples' views when interacting across the tables too! We utilised our arrangements in a number of places throughout the day so that nothing went to waste and ensured that they went home with our guests afterwards so that they could continue to enjoy them in their homes!
Food and Drink
Our catering was taken care of by the brilliant Foster's Catering. We wanted our meal to be a more social affair so opted for the Spanish sharing menu as we felt it would encourage our guests to interact more. This was then paired with wines and beers from Spain and South Africa. The menu provided options for everyone, tasted incredible and allowed us to pay homage to countries which are important to both of us - South Africa as Matt's country of birth and Spain as the country Sean's family now reside in.
The Cake
We had a cupcake tower! Made by the wonderful Muffin Top Cakes in Basingstoke, we chose this as it meant we could have a variety of flavours for our guests to choose from (we can highly recommend the salted caramel, lemon meringue, ferrero rocher and vanilla & raspberry flavours!). We had a small, double-height cake at the top of the tower which we cut in the evening.
The Entertainment
We had a DJ in the evening courtesy of Pink Frog and as part of our wedding RSVP we asked every guest what song would make them get up and dance - this formed the majority of our playlist for the night and ensured the dance floor wasn't empty from the moment the music started playing right til the party had to come to a close.
The Photographer
One of our best people had followed Alistair at Ideal Imaging's work for some time and so he was the clear choice for our photography on the day. His work perfectly captures what we envisaged for the day - the moments that showed how much love, joy and happiness we always wanted our day to be focused on. Even though it ended up raining practically all day, Alistair was there braving all of the worst elements to help capture all of the special moments, including some at the end of the night in the pouring rain with just a white umbrella that have become some of our favourite pictures ever. We also can't forget to mention our amazing videographer, Tony from Four Three Films who was also out there the whole time helping to capture all of our special moments
Advice to future couples
Take every opportunity to make your day exactly what you both want it to be (even if it means not sticking with tradition!), don't stress about the things that you have no control over (like the weather!) and try to take as many opportunities as you can to take a step back and celebrate, recognise and appreciate how incredibly amazing your wedding day is because it's over in a heartbeat (although the beautiful memories, pictures and videos are always there to remind you too!).
