Katie & Jaimie’s Navy Wedding

Your Names: Katie & Jaimie
Date of Wedding: 11th August 2021
Photographer: Che Birch-Hayes

We met at Hanley Castle High School in Year 7. We were both in the same friendship group for many years and our friendship grew stronger and we became closer. In 2011, we started our relationship and here we are 10 years later.

Jaimie’s proposal was a complete surprise – I really thought it would have been the following year! We went away to Northumberland, my favourite place in the world and where I used to go with my family once a year. We were walking on the beach with our dog, Amber, really relaxed and taking in the sea air, when Amber decided to chase some birds up the beach and not come back. Rather dramatically, we ran up the beach after her, calling her name repeatedly. Amber eventually decided she wasn’t going to catch the birds and came back to us! At this point, my emotions were all over the place: I was angry at Amber for running away but relieved she came back. Jaimie said we should head back as we were going out for tea – not an unusual thing to take place as that’s what the holiday to me was. Amber redeemed herself and was very good on the walk back. Jaimie started to slow down and look at Bamburgh Castle, just in time for the lights to turn on in the evening. We had a photo and looked at all the lighthouses towards the Farne Island and that’s when I turned back around, and he was on one knee! Truly magical and such a surprise! The funniest thing about the proposal was he nearly put the ring on Amber’s collar as she had been so well behaved so far – I think he would have been running up the beach a bit quicker if that had been the case!

I took my mum and sister to try on some dresses. I knew I wanted something figure-hugging and had seen some beautiful dresses with fine embroidery. We went to a small chapel-like shop in Birmingham and tried on 4 dresses – all the dresses had something I liked, but they weren’t the one. My sister had a browse and brought one dress to me that she thought matched my desire, so I tried that on. It was a size 22, and I am a size 8 so the very, kind lady pinned me in so when I walked out, my mum and sister could sort of see the ‘real thing’. Well, it must have been pinned well as both my mum and sister said, in unison, YES! Unfortunately, the shop didn’t have any smaller sizes, so I researched which shops near me could sell or get in a Sophia Tolli – Megan dress. Luckily for me, Taffeta and Lace in Gloucester ordered me one in and everything went smoothly from then. I was very lucky as we were supposed to get married in April, but by the time we did get married in August, Sophia Tolli had brought out the matching veil for my dress – it was meant to be.

We chose Bredenbury Court Barns because we felt like it represented us as a couple. The style of furniture and decorations with the Stag and Antlers was just lovely. We loved how everything was in one place and how our guests didn’t have to move around too much. The Oak Barn was also beautiful – we had so much space, the open glass allowed us to see the Malvern Hills and we had a large dance floor!

Our ceremony was very special to us. My Grandad taught me how to play the piano so for my mum’s Christmas present many years ago, I recorded some songs for her, one of which was I’Giorni by Ludovico Einaudi. I walked down to the aisle to my recording of that song. This song also meant a lot to me as I had piano lessons with Lynette Webster to learn this song and she performed the signing of the register songs with her Capriccio Quartet. She helped sort my dress out at the top of the aisle too!

After our receiving line, our guests were greeted in the bar to a drink and a performance from Ben Drummond. The acoustic love songs he sang and played on his guitar were incredible and he really helped provide superb entertainment in that difficult gap – after ceremony and before wedding breakfast. He even played Baby Shark for my flower girl to have a dance to.

For the cake, my mum made me it. She spent months making individual flowers and rose petals out of icing- rolling and folding them into shape.  It was beautiful!

I asked many family members and friends to help me with the flowers. We spent two days preparing each flower and arranging them in different vases ready to be taken over in the morning. Being in my mum’s garden, in a marquee, drinking prosecco and eating food with my friends and family is a memory I will cherish forever.

Jaimie and I organised having Singing Waiters for our guests. We had 3 ‘waiters’ who helped Jenkinson’s staff serve drinks and canapés after the ceremony, talking to the guests with a Russian accent and fake Russian names. After our dessert and before speeches, they ‘asked’ if they could sing a traditional love song to the bride and groom. All of our guests were shocked but loved it. The ‘waiters’ performed 8-9 songs, which had all of our guests up singing and dancing with them. I had to choose 3 guests for the waiters to sing to, all were very comical. At the end of their performance, they announced they weren’t actually from Russia and that we had organised it with them. All of our guests thought they were really from Russia and laughed because of the conversations they had with them when being served canapes. They were absolutely phenomenal, and I highly recommend them.

Firstly, the food was exceptional – it is one of the key things our guests remember. We provided our guests with canapés while we were taking photographs on the lawn, 3 per person, which was plenty. For the wedding breakfast, we started with a salmon tart, followed by a pork roast dinner and finished with a chocolate brownie. For our evening guests, we had a pork roll and a ploughman’s.

All of Me by John Legend.

Jaimie’s – seeing Katie come down the aisle.

Katie’s – The ‘I Do’ kiss

Remember to stand back and take it in. It goes so incredibly fast and one thing someone told me to do was to stand with Jaimie and just spend a few moments looking around and taking in everything.