Your Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Wedding - April/May 2024 (Issue 44)

I arrived in style with my bridesmaids in a classic VW camper, owned by a friend of the family. “The bright blue sky looked unreal on our special day.” - Holly and James The venue setting is idyllic, with a view of Westbury White Horse in the background. The terrace is licensed for ceremonies and it has a newly renovated interior. It also offered plenty of space, inside and out. Holly and James met through their young children who were at nursery together. “James would read a book out loud in the reception area while waiting to take the children into the nursery, thinking it would impress me,” Holly tells us. “It made me laugh, so I guess it worked!” James proposed during a family holiday to the Costa del Sol in July 2022. “James insisted that we walk to the beach with our four children,” Holly tells us. “The sun was beginning to set so it looked beautiful and James knew that I wouldn’t be able to resist dipping my toes in the sea and paddling, so he took that chance to act quickly and form a heart shape out of a battery-operated string of fairylights that he had smuggled to the beach with him. When I walked back to him from the sea, I saw the illuminated heart and inside, on the sand was a small square-shaped box which James explained was a late birthday present. As I opened it, I was presented with a pair of lovely earrings at which point, James got down on one knee and pulled out a second box containing a ring asking me to marry him! It was a wonderful surprise, I had no idea that James was planning to propose, I’d given up hinting and I didn’t know he had purchased a ring.” Here, Holly tells us all about their Wiltshire wedding at White Horse Country Park decorated with a sage green, blush pink and gold colour theme. It was touch and go with the Great British weather! It had rained all week and the day before the wedding was also wet. I advised our wedding planner to make the judgement call on the morning as to whether the ceremony should be on the terrace as desired, or inside if it rained. The registrar was concerned that it was going to rain and James was sure it was going to brighten up. I was told that James was standing on a chair watching the clouds, saying how he had spent years in the Army sitting in bushes looking at clouds for the weather. They decided to agree on a compromise and move the legal document under shelter in case it rained, but James was right, it stayed dry, and the sky was a stunning shade of blue. Due to the amount of children we have in our family, we wanted somewhere that had a relaxed vibe. We were recommended The View at the White Horse Country Park through a local Facebook page. We decided to have lunch there one day with the children and were convinced it was the right place for us from the start. 32

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