for their marquee reception. “We positioned it so that our guests could enjoy a view of White Horse Hill in the background,” Charlotte tells us. “We held our drinks reception in a wooded area that we decorated with vases filled with flowers and also green paper lanterns. We lit up this area for when our guests left at the end of the night too which looked magical.” The couple chose a timeless white, cream and green colour theme for their marquee reception. “I wanted to put a personalised touch on things so for the table plan, I bought a large white mirror from The Range and printed the names for each table on card and stuck these to the mirror,” Charlotte says. “For our welcome sign, I made a collage of our favourite photos and ordered a welcome sticker from Etsy with our wedding date and ‘welcome to our wedding’ printed on. We positioned these on two easels that were displayed as our guests walked into the marquee.” Charlotte and Jerry used numbers instead of names for their 18 tables and purchased handmade place names from Etsy. “We coordinated them with our theme by using green card, cream ribbon and calligraphy writing,” Charlotte describes. “For our centrepieces, we wanted to keep things simple so had a green glass bottle from Hobbycraft on each table holding the numbers with three bud vases filled with pretty white and green flowers surrounding each bottle. I told my florist our chosen colour theme and let her work her magic. She created a gorgeous archway for the church doorway, along with beautiful bouquets for myself and my bridesmaids and mini bouquets for our flowergirls. I have two very talented bridesmaids who decorated a hoop that was suspended above the round bar in the marquee. They collected all of the greenery from their gardens and made the most stunning display.” Charlotte and Jerry chose a tall two-tier cake decorated with a bow that Charlotte’s mother-in-law made using offcuts from the bridesmaids’ dresses. “The top tier was a chocolate one and the bottom tier was vanilla and strawberry-flavoured,” Charlotte says. “We served our cake as dessert along with cream and fresh berries.” From the very start of planning their wedding, Charlotte and Jerry wanted to have their good friend Jake, the owner of Quintin Catering, as their wedding caterer. “He let us have full control over our menu,” Charlotte tells us. “Half of our guests were Irish so we wanted to try and please everybody. For starters, our guests had a choice of tomato and mozzarella bruschetta or smoked salmon and prawn salad. For the main course, there was a filet of beef with chips and dauphinoise potatoes along with vegetables, peppercorn and béarnaise sauce, or seabass. The canapés were mini Yorkshire puddings with beef brisket, tempura prawns with sweet chilli sauce and tomato and mozzarella arancini balls. Our evening food, also catered by Jake, was mini fish and chips and homemade sourdough pizzas - we also had a cheese and sweet treat table. We had one shot available at the bar for the evening which was a Baby Guinness (a blend of Tia Maria and Baileys) as a nod to our Irish guests! We loved seeing everyone having such a good time. It meant so much to us to have our guests tell us how good the food was. Seeing our large marquee full of love and laughter was an incredible feeling.” LOOKING THE PART Charlotte visited The Bridal Dress Company in Newbury with her mum with no idea what style she was looking for. “I tried on five different gowns and fell in love with the second one as soon as I put it on!” She tells us. “It was a stunning lace off-the-shoulder design called Elissa by Justin Alexander. The train was beautiful and sparkled as I walked and I styled it with a long pearl-studded veil, a pair of diamond and pearl earrings, and a diamond bracelet gifted to me by my sister who was my maid-of-honour.” One of Charlotte’s best friends is a make-up artist based in Manchester. “She was part of my glam squad, along with Georgia of Gee Hair & Beauty, and we chose Hollywood waves for the 47 REAL WEDDINGS
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