Melissa & Paul’s Winter Wedding

Our Names: Paul and Melissa
Date of Wedding: 10/12/22
Photographer: O&C Photography
Style or Theme: Winter Wedding

We met at work, 8 years ago. We spent many years making the most of living in London with friends before moving in together in 2018. During lockdown we took a bit of a leap of faith and moved out of London to an area we’d only been to once before and got engaged around 6 months later

Surprise! Under the guise of going away for my birthday on a boiling hot day in August 2021, Paul put a decoy postcode in the sat nav so I wouldn’t know where we were going and then took us to an amazing cabin by a lake. There was a table outside, set up with champagne, and he got down on one knee! He then cooked up specially created menu of my favourite things, linked to places we’d been to over the years.

Seven shops and countless dresses later, I went back to buy one of the first dresses I had tried on. I knew it was ‘the one’ before I’d even fully got it on, but I panicked that it was so early in my search and so carried on looking – which helped me realise I was just comparing everything back to that one.

Huge love to my mum and my maid of honour for coming with me to so many appointments!!

Something old – my wedding ring – a family heirloom
Something new – my wedding dress
Something borrowed – a sapphire ring, borrowed from my mum that used to be my grandma’s
Something blue – an aquamarine necklace, a surprise gift from Paul

The second we arrived, we knew Bredenbury was our favourite venue – and we had visited a fair few! The view was incredible, the staff were unbelievably lovely and as we drove through the gate one of our favourite songs came on the radio – which we felt sealed the deal. As our wedding was going to be in the depths of winter, we wanted somewhere where we could happily spend the whole day indoors if it rained. Bredenbury was perfect – The Orangery would be flooded with light for the daytime and the Oak Barn was the ideal party room.

We live absolutely nowhere near Bredenbury, but it felt like we had found somewhere so special and loved exploring the area and getting to know it.

We stayed separately the night before, the bridal party at Castle House in Hereford and the groom’s party at the Baiting House. We went for a 1:30 ceremony to make the most of the daylight and wrote our own vows and had a couple of readings during the ceremony. My mum read our first reading – In My Life by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and our wonderful groomsman Joe read our second reading ‘The Only One in the Room’ – which Paul had written.

Choosing the music and creating playlists for all the sections of the day was a really fun part of the planning, particularly on long car journeys, going through all our favourite songs.

After the ceremony we had champagne and canapés and managed to have photos outside (braving the cold!). We had canopy lights in the Oak Barn so that when it was dark outside and we headed in there for food, speeches and eventually dancing – there were lots of sparkly lights. For our wedding favours, I painted wooden letters with each guest’s initial and threaded them with velvet ribbon to use as Christmas tree decorations.

We wanted to have sparklers and we managed to convince our guests to head outside despite the temperature.

Smoked salmon to start, duo of beef for the main and sticky toffee pudding for dessert. We have to say a huge thank you to Jenkinson’s – the food was delicious, above and beyond our expectations and we’ve had so many people comment how much they enjoyed it!

Richard Ashcroft – Science of Silence…. Followed by our band’s first live song to get everyone on the dancefloor – A Little Respect (the Wheatus version)

It’s impossible to pick just one! But reuniting at the alter after an evening apart really felt magical. Seeing each other and all our friends and family in the Orangery and hearing the music we’d chosen was the moment that felt like the culmination of all the planning. It was actually reality and we were fizzing with excitement for the rest of the day.

All the things we worried about turned out to be completely irrelevant, once the day comes, go with it and have the best time!

We would then love I if you could fill in your dream team suppliers list – this also gives a great shout out to all those who helped make your day magical!

Photographer & Videographer : O&C Photography
Dress: Gillian Million
Shoes: Rainbow Club
Make-up: Nicola Harrison
Hair: Beth at Hair Comes the Bride
Grooms Attire: Moss Bross
Bridesmaid Dresses: Dessy Group
Flowers: Jo at Issy & Bella
Décor/Venue Stylist: Canopy lights from the Cotswold Wedding Company
Entertainment : Truly Medley Deeply