The inspiration for James and Cherry’s wedding was “doing it our way”, which for them meant colourful, informal and relaxed. They focused their attention to doing what they love – eating, drinking and dancing, and spent less time on the formal stuff. Doing the legal bit days before gave them the freedom for their day that they so craved. “We couldn’t even tell you the date we officially got married!” explained Cherry. “For us it was just a box ticking exercise – our wedding anniversary will always be the day we made a promise in front of our friends and family.”
Their day was held on a working farm, with an outdoor ceremony and reception in a marquee on the grounds right after. Cherry wore a navy ombre sequin dress from Phase Eight, with Monsoon shoes and beautiful dried flower bouquet and matching flower crown from Folkey Dokey. James’ outfit and their adorable blush pink flower girl outfits were from Next.
For their ceremony, Cherry and James employed a little help from their family and friends to make the moment all that more meaningful. As well as the ceremony backdrop made by Cherry’s father, and glittery hearts they DIY’d to decorate the aisle, it was officiated by a good friend, with readings from other friends and James’ brother. Cherry and James then said their vows that they had written together and exchanged their rings. “I was the bride who does not like being the centre of attention (oh the irony!)” said Cherry, “so we wanted the ceremony to be short but without losing its significance. I think we achieved this!”
It was also important to Cherry and James that they took away some of the financial strain placed on guests attending a wedding, and so managed to stretch their £8,000 budget to include free-flowing food and drink. Therefore catering was their biggest expense of the day. The managed to save money by asking for favours from talented friends, who were delighted to gift them with performances and DJ sets (and even a secret song from a very famous ska punk band for their video guestbook!) “Don’t be afraid to ask people you know for favours,” laughed Cherry, “you could save yourself a fortune, even if they do swear you to secrecy and bribe you with free gig tickets to keep it under wraps!”
Freebies and bribery aside, Cherry and James’ fondest moment of the day was when they stood at the top of the terrace after dark. “With our sleepy daughter in our arms, we looked down over the terrace illuminated by festoon lights, disco in full swing inside, and watched all our loved ones laughing, drinking, chatting and dancing. At that moment, we turned and said to each other, this is exactly what we had pictured through the months of planning and stresses – it was all for this.”
