Adam and Dan
Why Ufton Court?
We chose Ufton for a number of reasons. Firstly we wanted a country wedding and the barn and grounds were perfect for this. You can’t fail to be impressed as you drive towards the Manor House the place is truly magical.
The major deal breaker was that we could use the Manor House as part of the package, which would make the day perfect and allow guests to use the whole site.
The final two reasons are being a teacher and the profits going back into the education trust really sat well with us. Finally the venue not charging for corkage settled the deal.
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Wedding Style
Our theme was a country rustic feel to go with the autumn colours that would be present at the site in November. The venue lends itself really well to this theme. The warming twinkling fairy lights with ivy around the rustic beams of the barn added a timeless rustic feel which we wanted to embrace with wedding.
All the decoration was made by ourselves. We decorated over 200 glass jars and spent ages making chair backs from hessian. Even the lavender and bay leaves were cut from our garden and used on our wedding day to decorate the aisle. The seating plan, table names and menus we made by ourselves – this allowed us to make the wedding truly personal.
One of the highlights was the paper lanterns and fairy lights provided by Oakwood Events. They were amazing and they made our photos look immense. The feature to turn to disco lights in the evening just topped off the whole wedding. People are still taking about them now.
The Ceremony
We had a civil ceremony in the tithe barn. The barn looked so impressive and we couldn’t believe how beautiful it looked with all our decorations. We had a mixture of music being played for our guests while they waited, we wanted the wedding to have a real personal touch for start to finish all songs that were close to both our hearts. Our aisle some was “A thousand years” Boyce Avenue version. We had two readings read by our matrons of honours they both picked personalised readings which made the whole event even more unique and personal.
The Dress
I thought I would struggle to find my wedding dress as I am not a very girly girl, I didn’t want a typical dress and didn’t understand how people knew when they had found ‘the one!’.
We didn’t have to worry about a dress but we knew the suits were going to be autumn colours so when we saw both suits we knew they were the ones. Dan’s suit was a tweed mix from Ted Baker and Adam’s suit was a burgundy wool mix from Next.
The Flowers
We used Green Parlour. We were very clear with the flowers and colours we wanted and Green Parlour transformed our ideas into a better and more amazing reality for the wedding. They were fantastic and the flowers were truly to die for. They looked immense with each table having fantastic displays including the top table. The button holes were all unique, we could fail to well up with how amazing they looked when they arrived at the hotel.
Food and Drink
We used Wild Fork. From the tasting we knew they were the company for us as the food was to very high quality. As it was autumn we had game terrine to go with the rustic feel. For mains we had lamb, mash and vegetables with gravy – so warming and yummy. For dessert we had a very controversial dish. Chocolate brownie and beetroot sorbet – but we absolutely loved it! The service provided by Wild Fork was second to none: the waiters in tweed waist coats and the friendliness of the staff from start to finish made our wedding day. Serving our personalised labelled Champagne bottles and Champagne cocktails in their wooding serving boards… our guests were very well fed indeed!
The Cake
For our wedding cake, we chose Vanilla Spice Cake Company. Niki was amazing from start to finish!! We sent her our Pinterest board of ideas and we wanted a three tier cake that had lace to go with the decoration. She then sent us hand drawn designs to choose from and a selection of cakes to taste. We went for two tiers of fruit cake and one tier of ginger cake. They tasted amazing and just looked out of this world.
To go with this we had a cheese tower for the evening, which Wild Fork decorated for us. We got the cheese tower from Ford Farm in Dorchester who delivered this for us.
The Entertainment
We spent ages looking for a piano singer and we found Jon Andrews from Alive Network. He sang both during the champagne reception in the Manor House and during dinner in the barn, his songs and singing were great to the point that some of our guests even got up to dance during dinner! We were sad to see him leave at the end of dinner but luckily we had a close friend who also DJs to take over and entertain for our guests late into the night, Jo Hotbam. We also hired the decks and sound system from Mark Haste who lives on site so he set the system up for us seamlessly.
The Photographer
Our photographer was an ex student of Adams who now is a wedding photographer, Jess Rigley. He taught her over 10 years ago and knew from her work she was the perfect choice. When it was time for photos the sun had come out to really show off the autumn leaves on the trees and the beautiful brickwork of the manor house. Our favourite spot is the photos by the old chiller door and the gates by the sunken garden, which did cause panic when we realised they were locked and wondered how we would get back to the house after the photos. Of course the old stair case at the back if the house were perfect for the group shots. The funniest photo is of some of our guests with the lint roller removing fluff from each other’s outfits.
Advice to future couples
Enjoy every second of the day! You can’t visit Ufton enough before the big day as you will miss it after the wedding. It really is the best day of your lives and Ufton Court really is such a special place.
