WPC Real Wedding: Francesca & Rupert's Intimate Herefordshire Wedding

The personal touch all the way through. Everyone at The Wedding Present Company is so welcoming and bubbly you feel like you are talking and meeting with friends. 

We were rather last minute with creating out list and then had a very last minute wedding date change (with 3 days to pull it all together!) The Wedding Present Company were super efficient and supportive and the flexibility with altering the list all the way through made it all the better.

Issy Granger and Club Matters.

I stock my products (handmade hammered silver plated jugs) with The Wedding Present Company and know from the other side how great they are to work with. We also had some very positive recommendations from some friends who had their wedding lists with them, so we knew this was the place for us to have our wedding gift list.

We have been together for nearly 6 years (how time flies!). Rupert proposed on a beautiful walk from Cheskie's parents home towards one of our favourite spots in Herefordshire - a stunning suspension bridge over the River Wye. Half way through the walk, there is beautiful pond - as I was getting excited about the tad poles, Rupert attached a little pouch to our dog (rather risky!), asked me to call her and then got down on one knee. We later found out that this pond was built by my grandfather, decades ago - we had no idea and this made it all the more special.

We got engaged the week before lockdown. Our initial plan when first discussing our wedding, was to have a 120 person wedding on the 10th of October 2020. We felt optimismic (perhaps naively!) that by October things would be ok. We held off making any firm plans but as the summer progressed we decided it would be safer to drop the numbers to 70 people. (Rupert's family all live abroad and we were eager to not have the full party without them). After Boris' announcement on the 14th August, we dropped our numbers to 30 people on our original planned date of the 10th October. Then, on 22nd September, new wedding rules were announced that as of the coming Monday, only 15 people would be allowed to attend weddings. We then made the rather mad decision of bringing the wedding forward to that weekend of the 26th of September. The venue was always to be at home - originally with a marquee but as the numbers dropped to 30 people we had a barn that we could clear out and use.

Numbers! And facemasks.... We had to make sure that within the chapel we could safely distance people - we had to leave whole pews empty between bubbles.

We got married at home, in Herefordshire.

My mother and friends did the flowers and decor for both the Church and the barn where we had the reception.

The tables were decorated with simple details to make it feel special such as a hand dried rose and calligraphy place name at each setting.

I wore a Jenny Packham Wedding Dress.

I wore a little vintage fur jacket in the evening when it was a little colder.

My friends did my hair and make up on the moning of our wedding. 

Friends and Family did our wonderful food! We got meat from The Native Butcher. We got the wine from Wine Embargo and Nothing But The Grape.

Richard Skins did our photographs. We were so thrilled with how he captured the atmosphere of the day.

We hope so! Perhaps in a year or two - we are not rushing into any planning yet.

We did - this was very important to us as most of the grooms family were unable to make it. Sadly, on the day, a satellite went down and the streaming did not work. But we have a recording!

Oh my goodness where to start. Everything! I was totally blown away by how much time our friends and family put in to making our wedding come together - we had 3 days and when looking at what they all achieved you'd have thought it was done in 3 months. 

Our highlights were:

• Seeing Rupert beaming in the 3rd and final hymn
• The Confetti moment!
• Our first dance to Jailhouse Rock outside under festoon lighting from West Country Marquees
• My brother and the best man having a dance off
• Standing outside the chapel with my siblings and mother before going in.

Remember why you are getting married. The most stressful thing we found was the uncertainty and all the change, but when it came to it, I can honestly say that being surround by the core of your closest people is unbelievably special. We have had a lockdown engagement and covid wedding but I can truly say that when looking back on it those are not things that define any of this special time. That is already fading into the background - the love surrounding it all has totally taken over.

Wedding List: The Wedding Present Company

Flowers: The bride and her bridesmaids

Festoon Lighting: West Country Marquees

Bridal Fashion: Jenny Packham

Catering: Friends and Family 

Meat: The Native Butcher

Wine: Wine Embargo & Nothing But The Grape

Photography: Richard Skins