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Wedding Stories
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May 2021 wedding planning
Liam and Julie
Your Names and upcoming wedding date:
Julie & Liam, 30/05/2021
When & where you met:
30/05/2015 on a night out in Chicago rock, Liam couldn’t decline my drunken offer to dance
When & where he or she proposed to you:
01/10/2019 on my birthday in Orlando, Florida, just before taking me on a helicopter flight
What you’ve enjoyed most about organising your wedding:
Every single part! As a girl, I think you dream about your magical princess wedding day from a young age, and I’m so excited to finally be planning my fairy tale wedding, every detail is so magical.
What’s been the most difficult thing about organising your wedding:
Convincing Liam to book it, if it was his way, he’d leave it until a week before
Why did you choose Dillington House as your wedding venue:
I visited Dillington house a few years back whilst attending a work function and I fell in love with the place. I knew this was the place I wanted to get married, it’s a beautiful house in the most beautiful grounds. Emily was so helpful and friendly the whole time as well, and Dillington were so accommodating.
Your top tip to a bride or groom-to-be when planning their wedding:
Plan early, you’ll be surprised how quickly things get booked up, you then have more time to enjoy it all. Don’t get stressed by it, everything will fall into place and be the day you’ve dreamt of.
We are all on lock down, what have you been up to?:
Luckily I’ve been able to work from home, on the weekends we have been busy decorating the house and spending time in the garden
Tell us your best/funniest/most romantic wedding story:
Being a bridesmaid for my best friend and for my sister, the most exciting part was the morning. You are all excited & emotional getting ready for your big day and you have the most important people around you! My sister’s makeup didn’t go to plan when she got married and she started hysterically crying, but we calmed her down and in no time, she was looking beautiful as can be.
Where and when your attached photo was taken:
Boston 15/07/2018 celebrating Liam’s 30th
Planning for August 2021
Jennie and Ryan
Your names and upcoming wedding date:
We are Ryan Tuffin and Jennie Stokes and our upcoming date is 28 August 2021.
When & where you met:
We met on the infamous online dating app of tinder in December 2016 and had our first date in January 2017 in the town of sunny Yeovil; film at the cinema, followed by a walk around Ninesprings and finished off with a spot of lunch at Tambourino’s.
When & where he or she proposed to you:
Ryan proposed to Jennie on 18 April 2019 at the beautiful National Trust Prior Park Landscape Garden in Bath. It was during a game of I-spy in which a ‘W’ stood for “Will you marry me?”
What you’ve enjoyed most about organising your wedding:
Jennie has mostly enjoyed designing and making our own wedding stationery as it’s been so fun to get creative. Ryan mostly enjoyed viewing the venues and picturing our day coming together which really excited him.
What’s been the most difficult thing about organising your wedding:
The most difficult thing about organising our wedding has been trying to stay original and true to ourselves and trying not to worry too much about other people and their opinions.
Why did you choose Dillington House as your wedding venue:
Dillington has a bit of everything you could want. It has gorgeous spaces both indoors and outdoors and knowing the coordination of our day would be taken care of put us both at ease. Most of all though we absolutely fell in love with the orangery!
Your top tip to a bride or groom-to-be when planning their wedding:
Remember the day is about the two of you. It’s your day and nobody else’s. Celebrate each other and your love for one another and whatever happens, as long as the two of you are married by the end of it then it was a success.
We are all on lock down, what have you been up to?:
We’ve done lots of wedmin, sorting bits and pieces wherever we can. We’ve even got our Save the Dates ready to send out (we’re sending them earlier than anticipated due of the current situation). We’ve also been taking advantage of the lovely weather and the daily exercise allowance, getting runs and walks in in between work wherever we can.
Tell us your best/funniest/most romantic wedding story:
Both of our parents got engaged whilst they were young and drunk off their faces(!) – and Jennie’s parents had only been together for 2 weeks when her dad popped the question! Both sets of parents are still going strong!
Where and when your attached photo was taken:
The attached photo was taken at Prior Park Gardens when we went back to have some engagement photos taken. This one was our favourite (we also have one with Ryan on Jennie’s back too! )
Planning for September 2020
Emma and Matt
Your Names and upcoming wedding date:
Emma & Matt. Was 19th April 2020, now 20th September 2020 or if that doesn’t go ahead, 18th April 2021.
When & where you met:
We met in 2017 in Costa Coffee in Chard!
When & where did he or she proposed to you:
Matt proposed on the 19th May 2019 at Horner on Exmoor, which is our favourite place. We went for a walk with the dog and a picnic. Matt had hidden the ring in a pack of Cadburys Nibbles!
What you’ve enjoyed most about organising your wedding:
Cake tasting was pretty good! I have to have a gluten free cake as I have coeliac disease, so it was quite difficult finding a cake maker in the first place – I had a couple of suppliers tell me they couldn’t/wouldn’t cater for me. Bea at Silver Cake was excellent, and cake tasting was really fun. It was so difficult to choose our final flavours because her samples were amazing.
What’s been the most difficult thing about organising your wedding:
Despite coronavirus, the most difficult thing has been trying to get our guests together. We’re having a small, intimate wedding with only those who are really special to us there so whenever someone’s said they’re not able to attend, it’s been quite disheartening.
Why did you choose Dillington House as your wedding venue:
We live in Ilminster and wanted somewhere local. We often walk out to Dillington from home with our dog. It’s a beautiful venue.
Your top tip to a bride or groom-to-be when planning their wedding:
No need to overspend. I’ve made a lot of things myself, from the pew ends to the table decorations. Our photographer is someone who is building his portfolio, so was offering a lower price as he is growing his business. And dried flowers! I’m lucky that all my flowers – bouquet, buttonholes – are dried, so will keep even though we’ve had to postpone.
We are all on lock down, what have you been up to?:
Matt has a takeaway business so has still been working, albeit on reduced hours. I’ve been baking, walking the dog, gardening and trying my hand at a bit of landscape painting.
Tell us your best/funniest/most romantic wedding story*:
I’m having “bridesmen” instead of bridesmaids. Shopping with my brother and best mate for their suits in Exeter got us some surprised looks from retailers when we explained what the suits were for.
Where and when your attached photo was taken:
It was taken in the summer of 2017 at Horner. One of our hobbies is trying to find and photograph every species of butterfly in the UK (of which there are 59). We took this photo after we’d finally found the fairly rare heath fritillary. We’d been walking for miles, in the ridiculous heat before we finally caught up with the butterflies coming in to roost so after we’d taken out photos, we sat down to watch them. Our tables are going to be named after some of the butterflies we’ve found together, including the heath fritillary.
Planning for August 2020
Emma and Nathan
Your names and upcoming wedding date:
Emma Littlewood and Nathan Winfield. We will hopefully be getting married Saturday 29th August 2020, we chose bank holiday weekend as we have family travelling from abroad and from all over the country so we wanted everyone to be able to relax over the long weekend.
When & where you met:
Nathan and I have actually been neighbours most of our lives but we never really spoke to each other growing up, a friend request on Facebook broke the ice and got us talking and from there we grew a friendship that blossomed into our relationship! We’ve been together around 8 years now.
When & where he or she proposed to you:
Nathan’s proposal is one of my favourite stories to tell, he did an amazing job and completely surprised me. I bought him tickets to see Russell Howard the comedian for his birthday, before the event I got a phone call saying our tickets had been upgraded due to the equipment blocking our view, when we got there we had centre stage front row seats! At the end of the show the comedian did a question and answer section where Nathan challenged him to an arm wrestle, I sank into my seat thinking Nathan was about to embarrass himself in front of a full audience but to my surprise Russell handed him the mic and nathan made a speech and got down on one knee! A film crew came out and captured the moment so we have the video to keep forever.
What you’ve enjoyed most about organising your wedding?
To be honest I’ve enjoyed all of the organising so far, I’ll admit the covid-19 crisis has caused more stress than I’d have liked in the process but if we are lucky (fingers crossed) and we can go ahead with our wedding date we have everything in mind to be able to continue booking and planning!
What’s been the most difficult thing about organising your wedding?:
I think the most difficult thing to organise is definitely the guest list, there are so many people in your life you want to be able to share it with, so it’s making sure everyone can celebrate with you at some point during the day…
Why did you choose Dillington House as your wedding venue?
I had always had Dillington in the back of my mind since I had seen it years ago, once Nathan and I went for a tour we both knew it was something special and how amazing it would be to be able to celebrate our day here! There are so many gorgeous photo opportunities and the buildings are beautiful! A string of bad luck and events pushed our wedding back a few years so it feels more special to be able to have it at Dillington!
Your top tip to a bride or groom-to-be when planning their day:
I would advise other brides and grooms to not be scared to book things up early (I felt like I was being too keen with some things) but I’m so glad we did now as it means you won’t be disappointed and miss out on something you’d have really liked! Also try to be flexible with your ‘vision’ so that you can incorporate bits that both of you would like…
We’re on lockdown, what have you been up to?:
Well lockdown for me is continuing to be at work, I work for the NHS so it’s all systems go, however I’ve had a little bit of downtime as I’m waiting to be deployed to wherever needed. Nathan works from home currently so I’ve had to dodge various Skype meetings! Seeing as the weather has been nice we have been making the most by tackling our back garden ready for the landscapers to come in once lockdown is over… we can’t wait for summer BBQ’s!
Tell us your best/funniest/most romantic wedding story:
My funniest wedding story is remembering back to when my uncle got married, it came to their first dance and he had gotten a little too drunk and instead of the romantic first dance his new wife spent most of it trying to get him to stop undressing to the music, in front of everyone!!!! Mortified!
Where & when was your attached photo taken?:
The photo below is from a friends wedding last year, this was also an August bank holiday wedding so it officially marked a year to our wedding for us!