Some weddings are a little more nostalgic and Penny & Jason’s wedding day was just one of those. Their wedding venue has an extra special place in my heart, because it’s where Mr Clark and I held our special day almost 6 years ago! The beauty of this venue is it hasn’t changed, it’s timeless infact, because of the nature of the surroundings. It is a unique location, and any time I have the priviledge to work there, it is a true personal delight. So today it is my pleasure to hand over to Penny & Jason, to hear all about their very special wedding day.
Questions answered by both Bride and Groom.
How long have you been together?
We have been together for 4 and a half years.
How did you meet?
We met online.
When & how did you get engaged?
We got engaged in November 2017. We were on holiday in Mexico when we went for a walk along the beach to watch the sunset and that is when Jason got down on one knee. The ring didn’t fit straight away so Jason said we’d go out and get a temporary ring. His luck was in when we went to Walmart and ended up picking up a ring for the equivalent of about 89p! Needless to say it turned my finger green but luckily the actual ring fitted once we got home.
Which date did you chose for your wedding day?
We chose the 14th September for our wedding day. Nothing significant about the day but we knew we wanted early September and couldn’t have the 7th as Thomas was at the Railway Centre.
Where did you hold your ceremony & reception?
Ceremony at St Marys Church Wendover, Reception at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.
What made you choose that location?
The church is ‘my family church’ and where I was christened so there was only one option for me. We visited 2 locations for the reception, and settled on the 2nd one, much to mums annoyance as I think she wanted to look round loads of places.
Once we visited the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, the decision was made. We fell in love with the unique and quirkiness of the centre.
Who was involved in planning your wedding?
Mainly Jason and I, but family and friends helped with making some bits and pieces.
Did you both have Hen/Stag Do’s?
Yes we did. Jason went to Hamburg. I had 2: The first with close friends/bridesmaids/mum, to a cottage in North Wales with a hot tub. It had a regal theme and we went trampolining in a cave! The second more local, with everyone where we played mini golf and did pizza making at Pizza Express.
How many people did you invite to share your special day?
We invited about 125 including children. We ended up with about 110 on the day.
Who were your Bridesmaids?
My sisters. Beverley and Nicola.
Who were your Best Man & Ushers?
Best man was Jason’s best friend Barry and the ushers were my brother and Jason’s 4 brothers (Andrew, Damien, Joe, Tom and Dan.) Unfortunately we were 1 usher down on the day as Dan had a speed boat accident 3 weeks before and was in hospital in Guernsey.
Oh no! I hope he has fully recovered now.
What did you wear?
An Agnes dress from Rose’s Bridal Room. It was ivory in colour with a puddle train. I really struggled with the whole ‘dress shopping thing’ as its totally out of my comfort zone but we eventually got there with the help (and patience) of Carol at Rose’s Bridal Room.
What did the Jason wear?
The groom’s party (groom, best man, ushers, my dad, his dad) wore a grey suit with maroon/burgundy tie and light grey tweed check waist coat with the addition of maroon braces and socks. These were hired from Domino Hire Wear in Thame.
What did your Mum wear?
Mum wore a Fenn Wright Manson dress bought from John Lewis.
What theme/colour scheme did you chose?
Our colour scheme was maroon as we always seem to wear this colour. Burgundy is much more readily available so a lot of stationery, napkins etc, were actually burgundy and not actually ‘maroon’ per se.
How did you feel on the morning of your wedding?
Penny – Surprisingly relaxed. Some friends bought McDonalds round for breakfast and from then it seemed that we were sat around waiting to get going.
Jason – Nervous about the day, but excited and relatively calm knowing that we had done everything we wanted to do to make it a special day.
What did you choose to eat?
We had lamb croquettes to start, chicken Kiev for main and a trio of deserts for pudding. The lamb starter completely stole the show, it was amazing!
Who made speeches?
Groom, Best Man, Father of the Bride via my Brother, as my Dad has speech issues due to a stroke many years ago. I think the speeches included the correct amount of laughter and emotion, especially Jason’s, he broke the unbreakable. Jason’s speech included a tribute to his late Mother and the missing Usher, Dan.
Which song did you choose for your ‘First Dance’ & why?
We chose Tightrope from The Greatest Showman, as our first dance. We knew we wanted a song from the Greatest Showman, as we love the film and we liked the lyrics in this particular song, even though it’s not one of the first songs you think of when you think of the film.
What was your favourite part of the day?
Aside from the marriage bit….we loved eventually being able to see the venue all made up and sharing in the day with family and friends. It was also a really nice and special feeling to hear people talking about ‘the day’ and saying how much they enjoyed it or liked how we did different bits and pieces.
What was your one Wedding Day ‘Must Have’?
Penny – From the get go I really wanted jelly and ice cream for pudding and some of the big light up letters. Jason wasn’t so keen on the jelly but we managed to come to a compromise and had jelly as one of the trio of deserts. We settled on Mr & Mrs Todd as the light up letters and they were a real hit.
Jason – I wanted to have a church wedding and even though it was rather expensive, I knew I wanted to have the fairy light canopy along the platform once we saw how good it looked.
Would you change anything or do you have any advice for currently engaged couples?
I wouldn’t change anything, I honestly can’t think of anything extra that we could have done to make it better. Write lists if its getting too much. Putting it on paper releases it from your mind, we didn’t think about dressing the Groom’s Dad until after everyone had been fitted. We asked him and he wanted to be dressed and we are now so glad that we did.
Would you like to mention any particular wedding suppliers who assisted with your day?
Some of our suppliers who were great were;
Elite Ellis Events – Julie and Mark supplied us the light up letters and the photo pod. We had lots of compliments about how friendly the photo pod attendant was and Mark when he came to collect everything.
Potters Instinct Photography – Kevin was great and managed to get some fab photos of two people who don’t really like having their photos taken. He managed to blend into the day so much so that we barely noticed he was there.
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre – Emma made sure everything was ready for when we arrived from the church and helped to ensure that everything ran smoothly on the day, not to mention hanging 120 metres of bunting for us!
Kingfisher Caterers – Dan met us at the venue the day before to ensure that all of the equipment had been delivered correctly and then was there on the day managing/working the kitchen. The front of house staff were all friendly and helpful and made sure we were all fed and ‘watered.’ The food was absolutely delicious and we still can’t get over how they managed to put that food together in a temporary kitchen.
And then finally, but by no means least… Emma at Signature Flowers. We met with Emma and gave her some rough ideas and along with her team, they managed to transfer these ideas into the amazing flowers that we had. We could never have envisaged how good the flowers would look and they exceeded all expectations. They were more than we ever could have dreamt of.
Where are you going on your honeymoon?
We went to Crete for our ‘mini moon’ the day after the wedding for a week of doing nothing and it was lovely. We are planning on going somewhere in the new year as our ‘actual honeymoon’ with the money that we got as wedding gifts.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading all about Penny & Jason’s special wedding day. On a separate note it’s Christmas Day in just one week’s time! Good luck with all your shopping & planning for the festivities. I shall be back in the New Year to share lots more wedding inspiration and floristry knowledge with you in 2020.
Happy Christmas, Emma xx
