Category Archive
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Merry Christmas
Just to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all the team at Verbena. We are taking our final orders today before the festive holiday and we will then be taking a well earned break. We have lots of plans for 2010 for Verbena and are looking forward to putting plans into action when we return in January. Lots of new products and ideas will follow so do keep up with the blog in 2010 for lots of wedding inspiration.
I wish you all the best for a wonderful Christmas and look forward to working with you in the New Year.
Best wishes
Kate
Couple’s Fake Wedding Cake Shock
A newlywed couple have been awarded £310 compensation after finding their wedding cake was made of polystyrene.
Bride Aimee West bought the three-tier sponge cake decorated with white and dark chocolate icing and flowers for their reception near Llanelli.
But just before she and new husband Tony cut through a layer of chocolate white polystyrene was found underneath.
Creative Cakes, which said there had been a mix-up, was told to compensate the couple by a small claims court.
Mrs West, 27, said: “It was a terrible shock – I felt so embarrassed in front of all our family and friends.
“It was a lovely occasion and the ceremony was going to be the icing on the cake – only there was no cake.”
The couple were wed in Cyprus a week earlier then flew home for their reception at a hotel in Pembrey.
They said when they ordered the cake they paid £270 up front to confectioners Creative Cakes.
But just four hours before the evening reception was due to start Mrs West said she discovered the cake company had forgotten to bake it.
She said: “They admitted their mistake and said ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get you a cake’.”
“They turned up that evening and the cake was put on a table for all to see.
“We were just about to cut it when someone discovered the cake people had left four layers of sponge cake in the hotel reception.
“That set alarm bells ringing and when my mother checked the cake she found it was made of polystyrene.”
District Judge Marjorie Taylor gave Creative Cakes three months to repay the couple plus their costs.
Mrs West said after the case: “We are delighted to have been given our money back.
“We could have asked for compensation for cutting the cake in front of all our guests but we wouldn’t be able to put a figure on that.”
Karen Williams, who runs Creative Cakes from her home in Llanelli, blamed it all on a mix-up.
She said: “By the time Aimee contacted me it was too late to make the proper cake.
“I would never have the time to bake a cake and ice it in that time.
“I explained I would be delivering an artificial cake – they are quite common at weddings these days.
“I offered them a refund so there was no reason to take me to the small claims court.”
Taken from the BBC News website. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news
A History of the English Marriage
The Telegraph have just published a history of the English marriage which makes for an interesting read – here is the article below:
Newspaper headlines scream that marriage is in crisis and on the way out. Yet the idea that in the past the English were all respectably married could not be further from the truth. The English marriage has lurched from crisis to crisis through the centuries, not least in ‘respectable’ Victorian times when shortly after the introduction of divorce – three centuries after Scotland and the rest of Protestant Europe – the question of “Is Marriage a Failure?” prompted 27,000 letters to the Editor of The Daily Telegraph.
The most recent headlines have been provoked by the case of the divorcing millionaire businessman, Scot Young, whose soon-to-be ex-wife is accusing him of feigning mental illness as an excuse for not being able to disclose his current financial position.
“This husband ought to hear the clanging of prison gates,” threatens Mrs Young’s lawyer. If the poor man really is ill, this seems a particularly brutal response on the part of a wife who has allegedly received the sort of sum most people can only dream of in the period since the couple separated. But then the English marriage has always been mercenary.
Budget-blowing expense on the actual wedding itself is a relatively new phenomenon. Princess Michael of Kent, mother of recent groom Lord Frederick Windsor, may have dismissed £40,000 as a risible amount to spend on the nuptials, while the latest celebrity extravaganza, the Ben Caring-Elle Perfect wedding, brought the Bolshoi from Russia to perform part of Swan Lake and had guests consuming Beluga caviar on individual plates of ice.
But society weddings used to be quiet, private affairs and all classes considered expensive weddings vulgar and unnecessary. How refreshing, then, that Ken Livingstone travelled to his wedding this week by tube and wore a seven-year-old suit.
It is surprising perhaps that the white wedding is still in vogue. There is nothing truly traditional about it. It was invented by the Victorians to show that the lady was rich enough to have a dress that was used only once. Victorian fathers “gave” their daughters away wearing virginal white and a veil as a substitute for her long hair worn use, originally the symbol of virginity.
This begs the question why the modern independent woman feels obliged to wear the same attire. Before the Victorians, English brides were more pragmatic; they simply wore their best gown, which was unlikely to be white and was expected to do many years’ service.
When the state started taxing marriage in the 1690s, the vicar of Tetbury in Gloucestershire carried out a survey of his parishioners to find out how many had been married in church. He was covering his back – clergymen who failed to ensure that their parishioners were officially married were penalised. He discovered that half of them had not been married in church, but clandestinely, making private vows to each other, or married in a private dwelling by some roving clergyman. They were living in stable, but irregular unions.
Given the choice, those unencumbered by property preferred to avoid the expense and rigmarole of an official church wedding and spend their money on drinking to celebrate the new partnership. Dodging the newly imposed tax and resentment at the state’s interference in their private business provided further incentives to live in “common law unions” that had no basis in law and did not carry property rights. As long as a couple considered themselves “married in the sight of God” and was “reputed lawful man and wife amongst their neighbours” the forms of ceremony mattered little to them.
Since then living together in such unions, at least among the poor, has been more common than we think. It was only during the First World War when “common law wives” applied for their partner’s pay and pensions that the question of official marriage became an issue.
The original purpose of being married at the door of the church and later in the church porch – the medieval equivalent of the modern wedding marquee – was so that the ceremony took place before the whole congregation or community. The marriage was to be as public as possible in order to forestall any future questioning as to its validity.
Illogically, however, a clandestine marriage – where a couple exchanged vows privately or in a sham ceremony – was illicit, but still valid in the eyes of the Church. Well into the eighteenth century thousands of couples had no idea whether or not they were legally married. Nor did it particularly matter, as long as property and inheritance were not involved.
Clandestine marriage led to all sorts of abuses, from the kidnapping, drugging, forced marriage and rape of heiresses by fortune hunters to under-age, same-sex, incestuous or bigamous unions. Bigamy was common in a society where divorce was denied. Given the dubious nature of the paperwork and lack of witnesses, it was all too easy to walk away from a clandestine marriage and marry again.
Indeed, it was the case of one particular man-eater, the beautiful, litigious Con Phillips, whose busy marital and amorous career, involving one legal husband and seven others, which more than any other exposed the flaws in the system and convinced Lord Hardwicke to tighten up the law in 1753. The upshot of this was an exodus of defrocked clergyman across the border to Scotland, where clandestine marriage was still valid, followed by a steady flow of couples eloping to Gretna Green.
The same casual attitude applied to sexual morality. Upper-class marriages involved property and meant that an unmarried girl’s chastity had to be guarded at all costs. But chastity mattered less to others. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, when Victorian notions of respectability filtered down to the labouring class, a surprisingly high proportion of English brides were pregnant on their wedding day. Pre-marital sex was a sort of fertility test and pregnancy did not so much precipitate as anticipate the wedding; or, as a Norfolk farmer explained to his vicar, “You would not buy a horse without trying it first”.
In the 1950s, a Royal Commission identified as the single most important factor in marital breakdown the idealisation of the individual pursuit of sexual gratification and personal pleasure at the expense of a sense of reciprocal obligations and duties towards spouses, children and society as a whole.
Not only did our ancestors know that they had to work at their marriage because there was no easy escape, but they saw the family as a microcosm of society, whose good order would contribute to the whole. Adulterers were severely and publicly punished – theoretically by death during the Commonwealth in the 1650s – because they had brought down God’s wrath on the whole of society.
Adultery, nevertheless, was rife in a society where arranged marriages between couples who had barely met were the norm among the propertied class and divorce was impossible, except for the tiny elite who could afford a parliamentary divorce. Today, adultery often leads to divorce and remarriage, but in the past there was no such option. Marriage was for life, but then how long was life? Most marriages were cut short by death with the average marriage lasting eleven years, roughly the same figure as today when it is more likely to be terminated by divorce than death.
Multiple marriages were rife, with men routinely marrying two or three times, rather like some of their modern counterparts. Extended families with step children and half siblings were as common as they are today. Fortuitously, the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 coincided with a rise in life expectancy, just at the time when a new emphasis on the importance of love within marriage was placing a greater strain on it.
Our ancestors’ priorities were different from ours and their expectations from marriage lower and more realistic. The idea of marriage being based on romantic love or sexual passion would have baffled and appalled them. A good marriage had to be laid on firm, practical foundations. The diarist Samuel Pepys was exceptional for his time and class in that he married spontaneously, for love, a girl without money. Others weighed up the pros and cons of a marriage very carefully. Compatibility was the priority; love, or at least a deep affection, might, and often did, come later.
Touchingly, it is very often in their diaries that men who have been bereaved reveal what their wives meant to them. One refers to his other half as his “only friend … the centre of my worldly happiness”, while another mourned his wife who was “for ever my friend, my long cherished companion in all my various changes of life, she who had my entire confidence, she who gave me hers, and had loved me most sincerely for thirty-seven years”.
Now more than ever, when couples are still trying to adjust to women’s new-found equality, and when marriage is easier to enter and to end than ever before, we should not ignore the collective wisdom of the past.
The 12 trends for Winter Weddings 2009
I’ve just read this great ideas article from WeddingPath. Thought I’d share the inspiration with you:
Two thousand brides every month join WeddingPath (weddingpath.co.uk) – the UK’s best loved wedding website – to chat about their wedding plans, celebrate the ups and downs of being engaged, discuss all of the new bridal fashions and trends whilst building their own free online wedding website. WeddingPath has its ear-to-the-ground when it comes to top wedding trends for Winter 2009.
One: Themes
Winter and the festive period lends itself perfectly as a romantic, family orientated and cosy wedding theme. Consider a less-is-more approach to your colour palette, silver and white with crystal accents can add some serious glamour to your winter wedding. Seasonal invitations could be white with silver snowflakes or a wedding invitation that has an embossed look of snow. The venue could be decorated with snowflakes and icicles and mini wedding bells incorporated into your bridal bouquet. The flower girl could throw a dusting of imitation snow on the ground and snow cones of confetti ‘snow’ handed to your guests. The bridesmaids would look beautiful in silver, champagne or ice blue with little touches of snowy looking white fur. Your wedding gown could be dressed up with a winter white furry coat. Snowflake wedding accessories are a great winter wonderland touch for your reception along with a snowflake winter wonderland wedding cake. It’s even possible to hire a snow machine, ice rink and create a forest of trees if you really want to!
Two: Black and White
The elegant black and white winter wedding is very classy and is a popular trend for 2009. Why not ask all of your guests to wear black and white whilst the bride stands out in a bold burgundy or sumptuous fabric. The theme could be continued by use of black and white photography, using projections of old cine film or possibly a casino and black tie dress for all.
Three: Calligraphy
Using stylised lettering or creating a monogram of your initials is a real growing trend in the industry. The monogram, acting like a logo, used to brand napkins, invitations, candles and tableware. Using calligraphy on the wedding cake is becoming increasingly popular and a step away from the plain white icing, floral and chocolate indulgencies.
Four: Going Vintage
This eco-sound and vintage trend has seen us through 2009. A vintage theme, or even just a couple of vintage touches is great for your budget but is also very hot for winter 2009. Easy vintage winter wedding trends on a budget includes borrowing family heirlooms, adapting family owned wedding dresses, using your parents’ wedding topper, vintage bridesmaid gowns and vintage glassware used as centre pieces or vintage serving dishes.
Five: The Dress
Ball gowns and long gloves are back in style in 2009 and a winter wedding is the most appropriate time of the year to step into this look. The classic winter wedding ideas are usually focused around a winter wonderland theme, so a ball gown fits right into the opulence and glitter that is a winter wedding.
Six: Pared Down Wedding Cakes
Wedding cakes have gone through a series of trends in the last few years, in many cases being disassembled entirely. The layered wedding cake is back and the current winter wedding trend is thankfully a little more budget friendly. Compact, but ornate wedding cakes made up of just a couple tiers are one of the biggest trends right now and are a great way to save money. These smaller cakes can be just as impressive and personal just like the cupcake trend or larger cakes that have been used for years. Play up the season with a white, vintage-style cake, dusted with edible silver powder. For accents, have your baker add a white sugar ribbon and crystal drops cascading down one side of the cake.
Seven: Beverage Additions
A welcome touch on winter bridal menus has seen the addition of hot chocolate with marshmallows, winter Pimms, hot cider and other warm winter favourites gaining in popularity. You could serve up white hot chocolate in small espresso cups and eggnog in small punch glasses for your guests as they arrive.
Eight: The Flowers
Red roses, calla lilies, and amaryllis are decidedly winter wedding flowers, but if you step outside the flower box you’ll find a variety of options for winter blooms. Consider fuller flowers, such as white hydrangeas and soft ranunculus. White boutonnieres can be handsome when they’re accented with greenery, but they also look great with a simple white ribbon. Add sparkle to your bouquet by wrapping the stems in ribbon embellished with crystals.
Nine: The Décor
Go beyond glowing candles to add both warmth and romance to your reception venue. If you want to heighten the drama, bring in the icy outdoors with ice-carved vases on your reception tables. Have your florist fill the vases with tall winter-white branches and hanging crystals to reflect the light from the tables. Surround the centre pieces with votive candles, and top your tables with white table linens and frosted glass china.
Ten: Favours
Food wedding favours are always a hit, but if cookies or truffles seem passé, try new treat ideas to send your guests home satisfied. Give out small packages of chocolate-covered cranberries or roasted chestnuts. An over-the-top idea that will undoubtedly impress: have your caterer set up a hot chocolate and marshmallow station to top off the evening or go for a candy station.
Eleven: Honeymoons
While many couples flee the blustery weather for warmer and sandier locales for their honeymoon, a winter wedding can segue perfectly into a snowy escape. Embrace the season and rent a cozy log cabin for a week in Lake Placid, or join the jet-setters at a luxurious hotel in Aspen for some serious skiing, wining, dining and snuggling.
Twelve: Your own wedding website
Like these ideas? On average 70 brides a day are signing up to Weddingpath.co.uk. WeddingPath is the ultimate tool for building your own free wedding website at the same time as giving you access to vast amounts of online information including vendor’s lists and suppliers. No invitation is complete without a web address these days! You can use your website to give wedding guests maps, accommodation listings and transport – all with live links – as well as keeping a message board and a PhotoShare page where family and friends can add their pictures after the big day, giving the couple a unique keepsake album in addition to their professional wedding photography. You are also able to interact on the Wedding Talk Forum with other WeddingPathers exchanging information, hints and valuable tips – just like these!
Unique Ideas For Wedding Invitations
Your wedding invitations set the tone of your wedding and inform the guests a lot about the wedding that you have planned. With a little imagination and a few of these great ideas you can create wedding invitations that are unique to your special day.
Think outside of the traditional paper invitations. Creating a CD with your favourite songs and the invitation details on the cover is a novel way of introducing your wedding and very thoughtful.
Your wedding invitations don’t have to be square or rectangular. If you’re having a butterfly theme have your wedding invitations cut into the shape of a butterfly. Or cut them into the shape of a bride and groom or wedding cake if you aren’t having any theme to your wedding.
If you have any children attending your wedding ask one of them to draw a picture of the bride & groom that you can copy and print onto your invitation covers. This will provide guests with a wedding invitation that they will want to treasure and is sure to amuse.
Base your wedding invitations on the location of your wedding. Ask your photographer to take a shot of either your church or reception venue to mount onto the front of your invitations. This is a lovely introduction to your wedding day.
Use your initials as the basis of your wedding invitation design. If you’re making your own invitations choose an elaborate font to create a simple design for the front of the invitations. This is a cheap way of creating a simple but effective unique invitation.
Choose a favourite photo of yourselves as the basis of your wedding invitation design. This will create an invitation that is obviously unique to you and that your guests will love to receive.
There is a great selection of unique wedding invitations at http://www.verbenastationery.co.uk/index.php?cmd=18&CID=1
Creating a Guest Book for your Wedding
A wedding guest book is a great way of keeping those precious memories of your big day. Here are a few tips to make sure that you don’t end up with a blank guest book at the end of your wedding day.
A good idea is to nominate a member of your bridal party to go round and make sure that everyone has put a comment in your book. If you leave it to your guests, there are bound to be some who forget.
Recently it has become popular to leave a Polaroid camera with your guest book for guests to add their picture as well as a comment. It is even possible to buy a guest book with slots in it for Polaroid pictures. This not only provides you with an amusing guest book but will also make sure that you have a picture of everyone that attended your wedding. This will be a great accompaniment to your wedding photo album.
It is a nice idea to have a guest book that matches your wedding photo album and there are plenty of sets on the market for you to choose from. If you keep the colour scheme the same as your wedding colours you will have a beautiful momento set to keep.
If you want guests to write something more than the usual sentiments, add a note on the front cover of your guest book asking guests to comment on their memories of the couple or something similar. This will give you a guest book with interesting and amusing comments to look back on.
And don’t forget to provide pens for guests to write with. A pot of pens is always a good idea as they get dropped and lost so easily.
If you end up with a guest book that is only half full then use the rest as a journal for your honeymoon or add any photographs that guests have taken on the day.
How to Choose your Wedding Invitations
Choosing your wedding invitations can seem like a daunting task so take a look at these great tips to help you make the right choice for your big day.
Wedding invitations can vary in price enormously. A good starting point in choosing your wedding invitations is to set a budget for your wedding stationery, then break that down into your wedding invitations and any other items of stationery that you might need. Printed invitations are generally at the cheaper end of the market, although there are some beautiful invitations on offer. Handmade invitations are next in line and for those of you with a big budget, bespoke wedding invitations are the most expensive on the market. And don’t forget that postage costs can add up quickly if you are sending a lot of invitations, so, this should also be accounted for in your budget.
Keep in mind that your wedding invitations are the first glimpse that your guests will have of your wedding style. If you are having a beach wedding, it might not be as appropriate to have formal wedding invitations.
If you are having a particular colour or theme for your wedding, this will really help you narrow down your choice of invitations. Or reflecting your wedding flowers is also a great idea. There are some beautiful flower wedding invitations on the market in a vast array of colours and flower types.
Or you could choose wedding invitations that reflect your personal style rather than your wedding. You could choose to reflect your hobbies or pick a photograph that has special memories. Or if you have any children in your family, ask them to draw you a picture to copy onto the front of your invitations. Whatever you choose make sure that it is unique to you.
How to Decorate your Wedding Tables
Beautiful wedding table decorations can really add the extra wow factor to your wedding reception. Here are some top tips to decorate your wedding tables.
Fabulous wedding table decorations don’t have to cost a fortune. Buying a bag of wedding confetti looks great scattered over the tables or, paper rose petals are as effective and won’t break your budget.
Using your wedding favours as part of your table decorations is a great way to save some space on your tables. Placing them on a tiered cake stand will look beautiful.
There are some beautiful table cloths on the market these days so don’t just stick with white. If you choose a coloured or patterned cloth you can create the wow factor without adding any other table decorations. There are many sites where you can hire table cloths so you can be really adventurous in your choice.
Flowers arrangements make wonderful table centrepieces. But, you don’t have to stick to flowers to have a stunning centrepiece. Cookie bouquets are becoming fashionable and make a fantastic addition to your wedding table decorations. They are also edible so won’t go to waste! An arrangement of tall candles can also make wonderful table centrepieces. Candles can also double as wedding table decorations and wedding gifts for your bridal party.
Crackers don’t have to be just for Christmas. Crackers can be bought in a huge array of colours and patterns and make a beautiful addition to your wedding tables. Remember that not all the people on your wedding tables will know each other and crackers are a great way to get people talking.
Placecard holders also make great wedding table decorations. They can be sourced in all sorts of shapes and colours to match your wedding theme. Guests can also take them home to use as photo holders to help remember your big day.
With a bit of imagination you can easily create wonderful wedding table decorations whatever your budget.
Chic but Cheap Weddings
I’ve just read an interesting article in The Times with tips on producing a Chic but Cheap Wedding. I thought I’d share it with you for a bit of inspiration in these tough economic times:
Ahmed Boyer’s fiancée wanted it all and Boyer was getting desperate. His bride-to-be requested 500 guests and a brand new car for the short drive to the wedding service. She demanded a Chanel gown and a Caribbean honeymoon. Four bank robberies and a stolen £300,000 later, Boyer found himself not at the altar, but in court. “The wedding was costing a lot of money and I realised that I would never be able to pay for it,” the 36-year-old Austrian pleaded last month before being sentenced to prison. “The money from the first robbery went in a day so I just kept going.”
As this year’s wedding season approaches, many may be able to identify with Boyer’s plight. According to You & Your Wedding magazine, which has been calculating these things for more than a decade, for the first time in 2008 the average cost of a British wedding topped £20,000: the average dress cost £1,200, the average ring £2,090 and the average honeymoon a whopping £3,860.
Factor in the omnipresent credit crunch and the increasing number of couples – 53 per cent and growing – who now shoulder the brunt of the wedding costs without the help of parents, and you have a recipe for debt and disaster.
However, it doesn’t have to be this way. “I’ve been so pleasantly surprised by what we can get for our money,” says Laura Burgess, who has a budget of £8,000 for her marriage to Andrew Greenman, 34, in June. A wedding on a budget, she has discovered, does not have to be a budget wedding, and can be pulled off without a plastic tiara, fake flower or dodgy DJ in sight.
Instead, 27-year-old Burgess has cut costs by keeping things local and personal. The ceremony will be held in an old town hall in Woodbridge, Suffolk, and the reception in an ancient tithe barn. Both venues are owned by the local council or parish, and neither relies on weddings as their main source of income. More importantly, neither comes with the attached suppliers that rack up the bills at private halls and hotels.
“We went to see a private barn run specifically for weddings, but it cost £5,000 in the high season – just for the barn,” says Burgess. “And then on top of that, you had to use the owner’s selected caterer. But we wanted to use suppliers who we had a connection with and who would give us a good deal.” The tithe barn costs £500 to rent and Laura’s Suffolk-inspired, seasonal menu works out at £26 a head, or just over £2,000 for 80 guests.
Emma Dunscombe, 34, enjoyed a similarly cheap yet chic wedding by keeping things local in Devon last autumn. She and her husband, Ben, had spent their childhood summers on the South Coast and their families owned cottages there in tiny villages on either side of an estuary outside Salcombe. “The cottage we chose is very small and very basic, but I didn’t need a fancy hotel,” she says. “It was such a happy day.”
As she and her bridesmaids prepared, the groom and his family sailed across the water on a boat lent to them without charge by the local sailing club. It was a short walk to the church and then on to the village hall next door – £190 for 109 guests, including tables and chairs. The whole wedding cost around half the UK average. “We decorated the tables with accessories from the local market and tea lights,” says Dunscombe. “It was all a bit hodge-podge but it looked enchanting and it was never about being extravagant. We just wanted a meaningful wedding and the village church and hall was so sentimental for both of us.”
Perhaps she was inspired by her younger brother and his wife who, a month earlier, had carried off a feat of budget ingenuity to give themselves the wedding of their dreams. “We were thinking about having our wedding in London,” Robin Moscoso, 31, says. But, as for many couples, a city wedding, with the inflated prices that comes with it would have been prohibitively expensive. “So we asked ourselves, ‘If we could go anywhere, where would our perfect wedding be?’ We love surfing and the sea, so decided that it would be in a room overlooking the ocean.”
Moscoso and his wife, Carmel, found a room in a beach hotel in the small north Devon town of Woolacombe where they had spent many happy holidays together. They invited 35 of their closest family and friends (“It was easy not to invite people,” says Robin, “because most didn’t want to trek down to Devon anyway,”) and paid for everything – a pub dinner on Friday, a “real breakfast” in a café on Saturday morning, an afternoon group surfing lesson and a three-course dinner at a local restaurant that evening – for just over £6,000.
“We’d been to so many friends’ weddings in big venues that come with their own caterers and florists, all at a premium ‘wedding price’,” he says. “But we found every element of our wedding ourselves and used different people and businesses for each. It took a lot of effort, but that’s how you save the pennies.”
Other couples have found that an effective route to cost-cutting is to go green. “Planning an ethical wedding can definitely save you money,” says Ria Lockie, the founder of The Ethical Occasions Company. “It involves using local resources, skills and talents, dumping all the unnecessary trimmings, and working closely – and doing deals – with local businesses.”
Not only do you get more bang for your buck this way, says Lockie, but you get exactly what you want on the day. The proof is in 35-year-old Lockie’s eco-wedding to her husband, David, last June: a bespoke three-day extravaganza for just over £10,000.
The ceremony took place in a field belonging to Pekes Manor, just outside Lewes, East Sussex. The guests sat on long, wooden benches, and Lockie’s bouquet overflowed with bright blue cornflowers and other wild hedgerow flowers gathered by a local, professional forager. “I didn’t even know such a thing existed,” admits Lockie. “But I knew what I wanted and I knew it had to be out there. The internet should be your best friend when planning a wedding.” She suggests that an even cheaper option for flowers, usually one of the most expensive aspects of a wedding, would be to approach a landowner directly, ask for permission to pick flowers, and then enlist the guidance of a local agricultural college student.
The reception was held in three open marquees hired from a carbon-neutral company at considerable cost. Although they used the tents for myriad parties and meals over the long weekend, Lockie was determined to make up for the indulgence, giving pots of herbs as wedding favours, creating place-names out of pebbles and a gold pen, and filling old wine bottles with home-made elderflower cordial for the tables. As the celebrations continued into the night, Lockie and her husband let off flying paper lanterns – biodegradable, of course – at a fraction of the cost of fireworks.
But the ultimate saving came on food. Apart from the main wedding lunch, the food over the three days was brought almost entirely by the guests in a series of bring-your-own barbecues and picnics. “We wanted our guests to feel like they were a part of the whole thing,” Lockie explains, “and we felt the best way to do that was to make people feel like they had a role in it.”
Alternatively, some have gone to the other extreme and cut most guests out altogether, travelling abroad with a selected few to places with guaranteed good weather, sandy beaches and none of the bloated prices that so mar the British wedding industry.
Andreas Palikiras, the marketing director of Ionian Weddings, a London-based Greek Islands specialist, says that the company has seen a 60 per cent increase in bookings over the past few months. “Many couples are coming to us because the cost of a UK wedding is spiralling out of control,” he says. He describes a wedding on Lefkada island in May that will cost only€1,600 (£1,452) for a beach ceremony, boat reception and 20 guests.
Jaine Fleetwood, 29, went even farther. She and her fiancé are living temporarily in Australia but decided that they could save money by marrying there rather than coming home. They have paid just A$400 (£182) for a ceremony in a corner of the Sydney Botanic Gardens and their guests, a few friends, no family, will be bringing their own picnics.
“It’s probably the cheapest wedding you’ll ever hear of,” says Jaine. “Cheap but still very chic.”
