Well I have been very quiet on all social media as well as hugely neglecting my blog. Honestly, we have had a crazy couple of months (with more to come!) but one of the main reasons is that I have been busy arranging our Wedding!!
Friday 16th March was our wedding day! We decided to have a really small wedding for numerous reasons: being nearly 34 weeks pregnant, money and just wanting to be able to actually get married instead of keep saving towards it. We will be having a blessing and celebration in a few months to celebrate with all our friends and family. For now the most important part was to get married though.
Our wedding ceremony was held at The Archbishops Palace in Maidstone followed by going for a buffet at a beautiful country pub Manor Barn Farm in Southfleet. It really was such an intimate occasion with only 22 people in total including myself, Babs and Lola. This made it all the more perfect for us! Our photographer Kate was absolutely amazing and she managed to capture every single special moment of our day! If I could have included all 402 photos on this post I would have as I love them all! All of the photos I’ve included in this post are the professional photos taken by Kate. Kate was also our photographer at Lola’s Christening!
Archbishops Palace
I have always said I would never want to get married at a registry office. They always seemed quite dark and drismal. I think it’s because the ones that I had been in were! Anybody that knows Maidstone will know that the Archbishops Palace is absolutely beautiful though. The complete opposite to everything I had always thought about a registry office. The buildings and grounds are absolutely stunning equally so are each of the rooms!
The Ceremony
When booking our wedding we were sent a choices booklet to choose how we wanted our ceremony. We choose all the options that had the most words – something that I should have really gone through as I realised I couldn’t say a couple of the words!
The music was important to me – as we weren’t having a proper reception it meant there would be no first dance. We wanted to include some meaningful songs to us for the ceremony. Whilst everybody was arriving I had chosen a selection of my favourite classical pieces including Glasgow Love Theme, Pacabels Canon in D and Gymnopedie Number 1. My entrance piece of music was Ellie Goulding How Long will I Love! I’ve heard it a couple of times since and each time it makes me so emotional! Whilst we were signing the register we had chosen Ed Sheeran Thinking Out Loud, Iz Somewhere Over the Rainbow and John Legend All of Me. We had a list of songs that we wanted to walk out to and ended up choosing The Wannadies You and Me Song.
As it was such a small and intimate occasion we decided not to have bridesmaids, best man or usher. Lola was responsible for it all! My Dad walked me down the aisle with Lola as well and Lola was also then the ringbearer. Amazingly she co-operated the entire day but she had been so excited about the lead up to the day! So I certainly think that helped. My brother read a short reading and then my sister and one of Babs’ cousins were witnesseses.
Manor Barn Farm
As there were so few people invited we wanted to find somewhere small and intimate to go to after the ceremony. Manor Farm Barn is in Southfleet was the perfect venue, we hired the downstairs area and we had a beautiful buffet that certainly went down very well! It is so picturesque that it was certainly perfect for the photos as well! I love that we were able to drop everything off first thing in the morning and the staff set everything up for us and then when we left we didn’t need to worry about tidying up.
Family Photos
As this was our last occasion as a family of 3 I really wanted some photos of us as a family. I love knowing that I was nearly 34 weeks pregnant when we got married. Equally I didn’t realise just how pregnant I looked until I saw some of the photos! Kate really did capture some beautiful family moments!
I will be doing another post about what we wore, my hair and make up and other little details!
Naomi xx
It was such an honour to capture your day! Loved reading up on this and I wish you all the best with the birth of Baby 2! Kate Xxx
It looks like it was such a lovely day. The photos are beautiful, and you all look so happy.
Chris and I had The Wannadies as our first dance. It’s a great song, and it still brings a big smile to my face whenever I hear it.
Xxx
Congrats Naomi, Babs and Lola. Such a beautiful family. Have a blissful marriage.
Beautiful wedding pictures by the way.