Lorna and Nigel described their May wedding as “like your Nan’s 1940s wedding, where family and guests all lent the couple their best china and vases and donated homemade cakes” and I think that couldn’t be more perfect! The wedding was held at St Peter & St Paul’s Church and Orford House Social Club and was full of fun and quirky 1940s and 50s details.
“I could not see us having a traditional wedding in a hotel or posh country house”, explained Lorna “the thought of that scared me actually! We wanted something that was relaxed and based around a live band. We love swing and Lindy Hop dancing and the more we got into the dancing, the more important the music and the dancing became I also wanted somewhere I could do my own décor and not be dictated to, so we had to find a venue that would allow us to do that. We go dancing at Orford House regularly so it was the ideal place for us!”
“I made all the bunting and doily runners and napkins myself with help from my friends, I was buying fabric for months and months beforehand”, Lorna continued. “I used vintage bedlinen for the napkins and bunting and dyed the doilies with tea so they looked old and not too bright. The lampshades were collected via eBay or charity shops. Myself and my friend at work hand-sewed sequins onto the bunting at lunchtimes for weeks so they would catch the light! The order of the day I made by writing on an ornate mirror and I did the same for the table plan.”
The couple spent just £7000 on their wedding. They didn’t have a strict budget but they knew they didn’t want to go overboard or spend a fortune. “We saved money on the food. We wanted something relaxed and we didn’t like the idea of a sit down three course meal costing a fortune so a hog roast ticked all those boxes. We had a tea party instead of dessert and obviously as I run a 1940s style travelling tea room I knew that would be popular. For later in the evening we had a buffet of cheese and biscuits, homemade Cornish pasties made by Nigel’s Mum and quiches. We also had Pimms on arrival and Prosecco for the toast instead of champagne as we both prefer it!”
“There’s hardly anything we would have changed about our wedding”, she concluded. “The only thing maybe is that we would have invited a lot more people in the evening. We’d also like to mention that we had an amazing priest, Father Alex, who really made our wedding, he was so fun and friendly. You could tell he was happy to marry us and we can’t thank him enough for making it so perfect.”
