Weddings - A good walk, sing song, exchange of rings...
Bee and I were married 24 years ago, before Instagram, before social media, if that’s even conceivable. We had around 240 guests, although Bee swears it was 300! We were married in the middle of an ancient oak forest, a couple of miles inland from Newport, Pembrokeshire. There was a clearing with a stone barn, a cow shed and a pig pen, luxury as the four Yorkshiremen would say.
It did take lots of planning, but any successful wedding requires lots and lots of preparation. I thought the planning went really smoothly, but that’s probably because Bee and her mum did most of it. Which is why she’s the one who talks to brides and grooms when they come to us to discuss their wedding.
It can be a daunting prospect for some, most of our clients are really young and have never organised an event on such a scale. In short, they need help, and we love to help take away the pressure of what can be an overwhelming marathon of decision making. We have 11 years of experience, and over 400 weddings under our belts, so rest assured that your event will run like clockwork.
We allow for several meetings to discuss your wedding food, but if you find yourselves undecided on your menu, we suggest a food tasting at our farmhouse. You are welcome to try up to 4 dishes and bring two guests with you, which really helps you to refine your choice in an informal way.
So with the wedding season underway I always say to couples “keep it simple”. Treat it as if you were hosting a lunch party. I am often asked “how do you organise cooking for 120 guests?” and the answer is quite simple, “I don’t, I cook for three groups of 40, it’s less stressful!”
On our wedding day Bee and I invited our guests to walk a mile and a half through the lichen lined woodland, to be greeted on site with lashings of cordials to cool them down, before gathering in front of the barn for an outdoor ceremony.
The drinks reception was across the stream, on a patch of vaguely level ground, and a great excuse to catch up with friends of yore, over a few coupes, for an hour or so. A lunch of paella Valenciana, in the brushed-out cow shed, followed by an intimidating tower of profiteroles for pudding, a Croquembouche as I now know it to be.
A couple too many speeches, a few tears, and a toast to absent friends, before the party kicked off inside the stone barn, with guests grooving to a fantastic, soul band who had driven down from Birmingham that very morning.
The 10,000 watt sound and lighting rig, which had been driven down from Salisbury and set up the day before, kicked in at midnight. The vodka bar opened in the pig pen simultaneously, with my cousin and a few friends helping punters to drinks. The DJ’s played until 8am and ‘Igloos’ were built out of straw bales as emergency sleeping quarters for guests who found themselves stranded, carless and hundreds of miles from home. Bee and I decamped to a camper van, parked in a field overlooking Newport beach at 4am, made a cup of tea and walked down to the cliff tops as day was starting to break.
A good walk, sing song, exchange of rings, drinks, and a catch up, late lunch, speeches, boogie ‘til dawn. That’s my idea of a wedding plan, which back in the day was much simpler to pull off. No Tik Tok, Pinterest or WhatsApp to contend with.
Of course, Bread and Flowers have catered a couple of hundred weddings over the 11 years we’ve been in business and learnt many tricks to keep the show on the road, smoothly and successfully. We try and make things easy for our clients, especially in the food department which can be such a minefield. That’s why we’ve developed all sorts of delicious offerings for the vegans and vegetarians, coeliacs, lactose intolerants, nut allergens, pescatarians, carnivores and insomniacs.
Some may refer to our process as hand holding, while we prefer to call it careful planning. Planning reduces the chance for any errors and everyone involved simply has less to worry about. So if it’s all getting a bit confusing, come and see us and we’ll talk you through your day. We can help you come up with a plan that you will be confident with, that will be executed with meticulous detail, ruthless efficiency, and lashings of good humour by the Bread and Flowers team.