The preparation begins.... Friday morning, the florist arrived and instantly the ballroom was filled with beautiful smells and the promise of wonderful things.
The flowers were by Marilyn 'The Flower Lady' from South Molton.
She came with a lovely team who were fascinating to watch. Like artists painting a master piece, they kept standing back to decide on the next addition.
Here is their final amazing creation in our drift wood planter.
I loved Lucy's addition of the stone candles to mix beach and English country garden. Tony (Lucy's step dad) made some of these himself... although I think drilling into a stone was pretty tough going!!
These arrangements beautifully framed the fireplaces.
Tony also made these fantastic driftwood candle holders. Is there no end to your talent?!?
The 'crabbing' wedding card bucket kept the beach theme going.
Not to mention the wonderful beach hut table plan.
The combination of little beach huts and natural woodland candles, placed around the house, were an effective way of bringing the two themes together.
Even the bar had a touch of the seaside.
The gorgeous blue buckets of flowers, the woodland candles and the stone place names were perfect.
I really like these hessian chair ties that Gareth and Lucy chose for the chair covers. They looked both elegant and natural.
The cup cakes were by 'Juicy Lucy Cupcakes'
As Lucy is a vet and Gareth a dog lover, a number of the cupcakes had little dogs on them... soooo cute!
Doesn't the final creation look amazing! The guests said they tasted delicious too!
So with the house looking beautiful, all was ready for the wedding weekend to begin. Friday night was dinner at the 'King's Arms'. By all accounts a good time was had by all.
All of the girls got ready in 'Bliss' apartment with hair and makeup by Jai 'The Event Studios' in Exeter. The girls looked really gorgeous!
Last minute veil alterations before......
Lucy's dad arrived, which is always an emotional moment!!
Lucy looked amazing as she stepped out into the sunshine.
The sun shone for the outdoor ceremony that they had hoped for (we couldn't quite imagine it when we were doing the rehearsal on Friday afternoon in the rain huddled under umbrellas!).
These incredible blue bridesmaid's dresses exactly matched the cornflowers in their bouquets.
Gareth and Lucy chose to have their speeches straight after the ceremony in a relaxed garden style.
It worked so well and Gareth looked very comfortable as he sat on the wall. Then onto Canapés on the terrace with flowing bubbly.
Gareth is a chef and so good food is extremely important to him and Lucy. They seemed to have great fun designing the menu with our chef Lee. They started with baked filo confit of duck with a sherry vinegar jus. The main course was a choice of chicken ham and leak pie or steak and stilton pie, which the guests served themselves at the table. This again continued the relaxed informal feel to the day. Thank you to Scott Foley , their lovely photographer, for this photo and the next scrummy picture of the puddings!
Wow....an amazing combination of chocolate torte, lemon tart and iced salted caramel parfait. Now there's a trio!!
The meal was followed by coffee and home made truffles on the terrace. Yum! Then the entire wedding party went in mini buses to the beach and played cricket.... Yes even Lucy!!
Cutting the cake started the evening fun.
Ahhh!! As you can see Gareth changed into his beach wear, I wondered if it was to give him more flexibility for the next dance!!
Dancing beautifully together to 'I've had the time of my life' from Dirty Dancing. Gareth flew into the air whilst we all cheered and held our breath hoping we weren't going to need some heavy duty first aid. Patrick Swayze eat your heart out! (or is it more Jennifer Grey?!)
Gareth and Lucy we wish you all the best for your future together and are so excited you are moving to Devon!!
