Grace and Ben met at a birthday party. “I’d just returned from Las Vegas, and Ben was travelling there in a few months, so we were chatting about things to do and places to go for the majority of the barbecue,” says Grace.
“After the party, I added Ben on Facebook. After several attempts and last-minute cancellations, we finally went on our first date 18 months later. The thing that attracted me to Ben was his sense of humour. I left the date with my jaw aching from how much I’d smiled and laughed the entire evening.”
For Grace, the proposal was a complete surprise. “He popped the question three weeks into lockdown in April 2020,” shares the bride. “Every year, my family have a big Easter egg hunt, and the more obscure the hiding place, the better. I was sad that we weren’t able to get together, so Ben suggested we do our own hunt, get dressed up and make the most of the day. After finding my Easter egg, I realised it was already open, and there was a small letter inside the egg telling me to turn around. Behind me, Ben was down on one knee in our garden. To make it even more special, he had FaceTimed my parents so they were able to be there (virtually), and he recorded the whole thing from our bedroom window, so we can look back on it forever.”
"I always knew I wanted to get married at St Mary's Church in Kingswinford as it's just around the corner from my parent's home and has special meaning to me," explains Grace. "We didn't want our guests to have to travel far from the ceremony to the reception, so when we found Brockencote Hall Hotel and saw they had accommodation, we knew it was a winner. As soon as we were able to visit in person, we fell in love. The sweeping drive, grounds and stunning exterior were an absolute dream and fitted in with everything we envisaged for our day."
The couple gave their guests scratch cards as favours that doubled as place names. "We placed them in small black envelopes and wrote each person's name in silver calligraphy with a penny attached," adds the bride. "My dad loves scratch cards, and every Christmas, he would use them as place settings, so it felt like a fun nod to a family tradition. Plus, if someone won big, the bar tab was on them!"
The couple gave their guests scratch cards as favours that doubled as place names. "We placed them in small black envelopes and wrote each person's name in silver calligraphy with a penny attached," adds the bride. "My dad loves scratch cards, and every Christmas, he would use them as place settings, so it felt like a fun nod to a family tradition. Plus, if someone won big, the bar tab was on them!"
Grace and Ben chose to have white and green flowers from The Secret Garden Weddings. “Ben is from Leeds, so I knew I wanted lots of white roses to tie in with his hometown,” reveals the bride. “We had the most stunning top table arrangement and chose climbers for outside the church door with lots of greenery, which made a fantastic entrance. The florist also did a beautiful gypsophila wreath for my mum’s front door, which lasted six weeks after the wedding.”
"Our cake was a last-minute purchase as we had always said we weren't too concerned about having one, but I'm so glad we did," says Grace. "We chose a three-tier design made up of buttercream and raspberry jam. It was covered in white icing, but the bottom tier had individually piped flowers to give it some texture."
The lovebirds hired transport from Class Act Wedding Cars. "I chose to walk from my parent's house to the church, and our driver crawled alongside on the other side of the road," shares the bride. "When we did eventually use the white Mercedes to transport us to Brockencote Hall Hotel, the service was top notch. We had a glass of champagne and got to enjoy half an hour alone."
"Behind our top table, we had the most fantastic moongate, which was complete with a neon sign," explains Grace. "As we sat in front of the windows and the sun started to set, this proved a great backdrop to our meal and made the perfect photo opportunity later on in the night."
Brockencote Hall Hotel provided the catering. "With Ben being from Yorkshire, it was always going to be roast, and he was very specific that it needed to include Yorkshire puddings," laughs the bride. "For our starter, we wanted to go for something light that would suit the time of year, and the chef put together a melted Camembert parcel with salad and salsa with fried walnuts on top, which was absolute perfection. The chef created a chocolate mousse for dessert. In the evening, we had bacon sandwiches and potato wedges as well as a dessert bar of our favourite things – Krispy Kreme doughnuts, chocolate teacakes, white and black chocolate cupcakes and blondies from our favourite bakery."
"I wore an Essense of Australia dress called D2771 from Wedding Belles of Four Oaks," recalls Grace. "It was the complete opposite of everything I thought I wanted. I envisaged a simple satin ballgown with a dramatic back but never got the wow feeling from any of them. When I finally tried this dress on, I didn't want to take it off and was distracted for the rest of the appointment, just thinking back to that dress! I just knew that's what I wanted to get married in. I styled it with a simple fingertip veil, as the dress is so detailed and the train is so long I didn't want to take away from it. I had Jimmy Choo shoes, which felt bridal enough, but I knew I can wear them again and again. For jewellery, my parents bought me three cluster diamond earrings to wear, and Ben gifted me an encased diamond Tiffany & Co necklace to match."
Ben decided to wear a tux from Peter Posh Formal Suit Hire. "When I saw him in the tux, my jaw dropped at how handsome he looked," adds the bride. "He was keen to not stand out too much in comparison to the groomsmen, so we made subtle tweaks such as him having black buttons on his shirt and a different buttonhole."
"The bridesmaids wore dresses from ASOS," Grace reveals. "The hunt for theirs took longer than my dress search! It was difficult as for most of the year restrictions were still in place, so we couldn't get together. I hadn't seen the bridesmaid dresses on any of the girls until the wedding! I knew I wanted something simple but a little sexy since my dress was so fitted. They were a pale green leaning towards grey colour with a cowl neck, which flattered the girls, and had a large slit up the front."
"We thought after the last 18 months everyone would just enjoy seeing each other and chatting, so before the meal, we just allowed everyone to enjoy each other's company," says the bride. "After the meal, we had a DJ from Chamberlain Events and then as a surprise to everyone, we had an ABBA tribute band called Strictly ABBA. The music went quiet, and my bridesmaids were saying 'what's going on?' Then suddenly out they came. It was fantastic and such a great surprise for everyone!"
"We felt so in love," shares Grace. "It sounds like a cliché, but to be marrying each other surrounded by all of our family and friends was a surreal, but amazing feeling. We just felt so much love in the room. Aside from marrying Ben, the best moment for me was getting to walk from my parent's house round to the church. All of their neighbours, who I've grown up around, came to wave me off. To walk along the road and have cars beeping was such a funny experience. It also allowed for my dad and I to enjoy the experience rather than being overly emotional. For Ben, he loved every moment, but a huge standout was at the very end of the night where we sat with all our best friends in the bar, just chatting and laughing."
“Whilst we all sat at the end of the wedding in the bar, two of our friends got an Uber round trip to McDonald’s and turned back up with loads of chicken nuggets meals,” explains the bride. “It was such a funny end to the night and just perfect for us!”
"Our wedding stylist, Lesley at White Fern Weddings, was absolutely unreal, she was there for every query, question and worry," Grace adds. "I was so flippant with what I wanted, and she managed to create something magical. Staci at Brockencote Hall Hotel was also fantastic, and nothing was too much trouble for her. I genuinely miss chatting to her! A shout out must go to the best man for his speech as well, Ben had been best man for him a few months prior, and they both did each other proud with lovely, heartfelt speeches."
"We've always wanted to go to New Zealand on our honeymoon, but obviously this wasn't possible with travel restrictions," recalls the bride. "Around a week before the wedding, we booked a last-minute trip to Paphos, Cyprus. It felt so lovely to just be together and relax, after not only the wedding but the last 18 months. We only had four days there, but that was more than enough and made our love bubble last longer."
