How we met...
We have been together since 2002! We don’t like to rush things... It took us 10 years to move in together, 14 years for Pat to propose and 17 years to finally put a ring on it! We were 18 when we met, working together at Tesco. Sue had a huge crush on Pat and finally plucked up the courage to ask him out on a date. There were a few hurdles along the way as she struggled to get the right phone number for him. She planned to ask him out on his last day at Tesco but bottled it! When she finally got the right phone number she sent him a cheeky text asking him out on a date and thankfully he said yes!
The proposal...
Pat (finally) proposed during a holiday in Torreguadiaro, Spain with our close friends. He only decided to do it when he landed in Spain so had to concoct a devious plan to leave Sue and the group and go ring shopping with our friend Jo who lived in Spain. Jo owns a business in Gibraltar and they told everyone that they were going into Gibraltar to move some furniture at her office…
That evening we all went out for some delicious tapas at Pura Tapa in the local village. We then all headed down to one of the local beach bars, Bahia Limon and enjoyed a few drinks. About an hour in, Pat stood up and started thanking Jo and Emma for having us all and how special it had been to all be together. To be honest, Sue was thinking “What is he doing, we are still here for another two days!” Then suddenly he was down on one knee popping the question under a full moon. It was so special as all of Sue’s closest friends were there and there was a lot of screaming and tears. The perfect proposal! We went back to the beach bar on our honeymoon and some of the same people were with us that were at the proposal - it was lovely to go back and visit where the magic happened in July 2016.
The dress was...
PERFECT! It’s one of the hardest thing to do, picking ‘the dress’, as you have this idea in your head of what you want and what you will look like but then you start trying on dresses and all those ideas go out of the window! Sue picked her ‘Ella Rose’ dress by Kenneth Winston with her Mum, Auntie Jen and Bridesmaid Michelle, at The Butterfly Boutique in Bicester. It suited the theme perfectly, a long floaty gown, fitted at the bust and skimming over the bottom and thighs. A beautiful and elegant dress which was so comfortable!
Our favourite part of the day...
The whole day was perfect thanks to the fabulous team at Dodmoor House, so it’s really difficult to pinpoint our favourite moment. It was just amazing to be surrounded by all the people we love and celebrate! If we had to pick one part though it would be the party in the evening, with everyone dancing and having fun. We used Terry at Smooth Moves for our DJ and it was an amazing moment at the end of the night when we all stood in a big circle signing Champagne Supernova by Oasis, the last song of the night. It got a bit emotional!
The idea that we felt really worked on the day...
Keeping the day fairly relaxed and informal worked well for us, and we never took anything too seriously. We are a very laid back and un-materialistic couple that just like hanging out with our family and friends, and we wanted our wedding to reflect this.
We had a black and white theme with a splash of 50 shades of yellow! The bridesmaids all wore a black dress of their choice which many people questioned during the planning, saying “BLACK, for a wedding!??” but when it all came together on the day, it just looked amazing. The whole wedding party looked gorgeous and the colour theme throughout the wedding looked awesome. It’s hard to imagine it on paper but it’s so amazing to see when it all comes together.
Where we feel our budget was well spent...
The food and drink was definitely where we spent the budget wisely! Food was really important to us and we knew from the start we didn’t want the traditional sit down three course meal. We found two brilliant caterers, The Paella Pan for the wedding breakfast and Stu’s Oven for pizza in the evening. The tapas and paella during the wedding breakfast gave the wedding breakfast a relaxed vibe, and people naturally chatted and mingled more which is what we wanted. Both caterers were small set up’s and street food caterers, which meant we got delicious food for a fraction of the cost. Plus we asked our friends and family to make a variety of cakes for pudding so we didn’t spend a penny on cake!
We also used the Dodmoor House drinks package that we highly recommend, as it means you can control your budget and the guests will never be without a drink!
We kept the flowers simple too which worked really well, and the wild flowers looked beautiful and kept in tone with the chilled, relaxed wedding which we wanted. We used Sarah Walther & Ros Ely who are two fabulous ladies that are retired, but are florists part time and an Auntie of one of Sue’s best mates! Plus we made most of the decorations ourselves and asked friends to help which saved us a heap of money!
Finally, if we could give a tip to other couples...
It’s YOUR day and you only get to do it once. Don’t be afraid to put your stamp on it, think outside the box, and don’t worry about what other people think. Don’t sweat the small stuff because at the end of the day, your friends and family are there to watch you get married and celebrate with you. Invest in a good photographer and videographer so you can reminisce for years to come. Our photographer Sam Bennett captured the day perfectly and our videographer Jedrzej Politowski is fairly new on the wedding circuit, but we are so pleased that we booked him as he captured moments of the day that we had both forgotten! Enjoy the planning and enjoy the day, it’s all over so quickly.
Special thanks to Sue and Pat for sharing their story, and to Sam Bennett Photography for the photos x
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