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Oli & Jess’s Wedding | The Carriage Hall

We are delighted to share with you the fabulous wedding of Jess & Oli who tied the knot at The Carriage Hall in Plumtree, Nottinghamshire. We love the shot of the beautiful bouquet on the Union Jack chair plus the cake and THAT DRESS!! We also love, love, love Jess’s favourite part of the day… read on and find out more!

How did Oli pop the question?
I woke up on Monday 11 April 2016 to find a sign taped to the front door telling me I wasn’t going to work – the best Monday morning ever! Oli had secretly arranged for me to be off work using the excuse of my birthday the following day and whisked me away to the Gilpin Hotel in the Lake District. Knowing I would hate any public proposal, he proposed in our lodge following a champagne afternoon tea. He followed this up with a dinner that evening and a lakeside couples’ massage the next day.

When did you get married?
We got married on 14 July 2017. We were fairly relaxed regarding the date other than we knew we wanted a summer wedding.

How did you choose your wedding venue?
We held our ceremony and reception at the Carriage Hall in Plumtree. Finding a location was more difficult than we thought it would be. We knew we wanted somewhere modern and not a converted barn! The most important thing to us was great food and we knew the Carriage Hall would deliver on this (which it did!). From start to finish we can’t fault the Carriage Hall for anything and the staff were so accommodating.

The Carriage Hall Wedding Fair | Nottinghams NG12 5NA

Who did you choose for your beauty team?
The dream team Ali Gunn (make-up artist) and James White (hair stylist) worked their magic and made myself, my sisters (who were my bridesmaids) and the mother of the bride, shine!

Tell us something about your dress.
I had no idea what I wanted and probably tried on 25+ dresses before I found “the one”. I wore Andraea, a Maggie Sottero dress from Nora Eve in Chesterfield. I think it was fate – I’d loved a picture of the dress in a magazine so when it was hanging at the top of the stairs in the last dress shop I went to I had to try it on!

What did Oli wear?
Oli wore a custom navy suit from Hugo Boss.

What did your bridesmaids and the groomsmen wear?
My bridesmaids wore a multiway blush pink silk/jersey dress from Coast. The ability to tie the dress to each bridesmaid came in handy. We had to buy the dresses a year in advance due to one of my bridesmaids living abroad so I didn’t have any fears it wouldn’t fit!. Our best man, usher and father of the bride all wore navy suits from M&S.

How did you get to your venue?
We hired two vintage cars from Regency Cars in Chesterfield. The drivers were great, on time and accommodating with putting the roof up and down so that we weren’t windswept.

What style did you choose for your wedding? Did you have a theme?
We didn’t have a particular theme – our main focus was to have a relaxed wedding where our guests would have fun and enjoy themselves! We decided on navy and blush pink as we wanted something understated which the entire bridal party would be happy wearing.

Who was your photographer?
Andrew Acford from A Big Neon Glitter Photography. We loved Andrew’s style of photos, attention to detail and how he managed to capture people’s emotions throughout the day. He also managed to put everyone at ease, including us during the pre-wedding shoot, and went the extra mile to make sure we had all the shots we wanted (including one which involved risking his life in the middle of a very busy and fast country road!)

Your flowers were beautiful. Who created them for you?
Flowers By Philippa provided the flowers. She managed to create exactly what we wanted without us having any ideas about flowers at all! 

Did your family get involved with any of the planning?
My mum and I created flower centrepieces using wooden boxes that my dad created. Oli’s grandma also kindly prepared some flowers in vases to use for the ceremony tables.  

Did you hand out wedding favours?
Yes – we gave out miniature bottles of port, to thank people for being “port” of our special day! 

Who made the cake?
We had a lemon cake created by the very talented Knot & Bird in West Bridgeford – delicious and it looked incredible.

You mentioned food was a really important part of your day. What did you serve your guests?
Guests had a choice of steak or lamb for the main courses, followed by a choice of lemon posset or chocolate peanut butter tart for dessert. We also had a hog roast, cheese stack with crackers and chutneys (kindly provided by Oli’s mum) and toasting marshmallows for the evening guests. We knew the Carriage Hall had a reputation for excellent wedding food and it excelled itself!

How did you entertain your guests?
Other than some garden games in the afternoon (including a giant kerplunk, croquet and cricket kit!), we simply opted for a DJ rather than a live band for the evening to get our friends on the dancefloor! Instead of a photo booth, we had a polaroid camera and my dad had made a large wooden photo frame with string running across it. We asked guests to take a photo home and to leave one on our frame using wooden pegs. Having the photo frame up on our wall is a constant reminder of what a great day we had and we look at the photos more often than we do our guest book.

Where did you spend your wedding night?
We stayed at Langar near the Hall – an absolutely beautiful 5* cottage with all the extra touches you could want on your wedding day!

What was your favourite part of the day?
The DJ played our first dance song again at the end of the night. Most of the guests had left by this point and the two of us had the dancefloor to ourselves.

Did you go on honeymoon?
Yes! We went to Rhodes for some much needed relaxation!

Finally advice do you have for other couples?
Make time for each other on your wedding day away from all your guests.

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