Your Devon and Cornwall Wedding - July/August 2020 (Issue 26)

For my bouquet, I had a mixture of white flowers with green foliage and eucalyptus. I made sure that it contained white freesias which were my grandmother’s favourite flowers. Unfortunately, she is no longer with us so it was important to me that she was included in our day. Our table centrepieces featured ceramic log slices topped with a glass jar holding candles and small vases of gypsophila. “Before the wedding breakfast, we had two close friends who arranged a game of ‘heads up’ to encourage the guests to get involved. The last one standing won a magnum of champagne for their table! Another close family friend who is an amazing pianist played some of our favourite songs which resulted in an impromptu sing-along!” - Joanna and Ryan Our lace chair covers looked so pretty. We decided that we would mix up our guests at each table to encourage them to chat and share different stories as to how they knew us both. It worked well and everyone got on. I (Ryan) am from South Africa so we had many guests visiting from there which meant choosing a venue that could accommodate our friends and family for a long weekend was extremely important to us. Each of our tables was named after a country that we had visited together. We also had beautiful pew ends in the church made by my (Joanna’s) auntie using gypsophila and eucalyptus. The buttonholes and bouquets and hairpieces for our bridesmaids and flowergirls were made using gypsophila. After the beautiful ceremony whilst we were signing the marriage register, a close friend sang The Way You Look Tonight which was special to both of us and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house! “We incorporated South African elements into our catering choices, with a themed braai (barbecue) including corn, boerewors (sausages) and a selection of meats and salads inspired by the country. At midnight, we served a cheese board and traditional South African biltong. Our three-course wedding breakfast featured some of our favourite dishes for the starter and dessert. For the main course, each table had a large roasting joint with all the trimmings and a designated carver wearing a custom-made apron with our wedding logo on who was responsible for serving the meat.” - Joanna and Ryan REAL WEDDINGS 35 