A blush wedding dress, a second evening dress, a colour-pop balloon installation, a wandering band, a gin bar, a donut tower cake, a glitter bar, and an ice cream van! (This wedding was so much fun, I literally couldn’t fit all the fun in the title…!) Wedding coordinator and planning support by Devine Bride.
Melissa is a lawyer… and it showed! From the moment I met her and Jim in the pub to chat about how I could help, she was meticulous from the outset! But mainly because all she really wanted was for her guests to have the best time ever, and for her and Jim to have the best fun ever getting hitched that day. She 100% achieved this by making sure their wedding was full of fun, entertainment, and surprises!
We got on like a house on fire – meticulous organisation in the name of helping other people have fun is exactly what I’m all about. I say it ALL the time, but it takes a lot of finesse and strict organisation on the inside, to make a wedding look relaxed and fun on the outside. And that’s of course where I come in! Although Melissa and Jim had hosted venues, they had a lot of moving parts, quite a few suppliers to be kept on track, a few separate styling briefs, and just wanted to relax and enjoy their day, so invested in a wedding coordinator (🙋🏼). I also ended up providing them with a bit more planning support in the lead up, too. Which was super beneficial on both sides, for me to be fully immersed in all of Melissa + Jim’s amazing ideas.
When I went with the couple to scope out their reception venue during our planning process, the train line went down to only a single track at Buxted train station; it was all very cute and I had scenes from The Famous Five going through my head… But little did sleepy, quaint, Buxted know what Londoners Melissa and Jim had in store for it on their wedding weekend! An entrance and aisle of balloons at their church set the tone for the day, and two massive balloon installations injected fun into their reception venue – which was otherwise a beautiful but quite reserved country house hotel venue in Buxted. It was all the perfect juxtaposition. And loads of fun.
Blush pink ran through the whole day, from Melissa’s flowers and gorgeous (first!) wedding dress, to Jim’s tie and waistcoat, to the balloons and retro cinema ticket reels used by the florist for styling the centrepieces. Melissa is a lawyer for film and tv, and Jim is a film and tv studies teacher, so they had this as a theme for their wedding breakfast – spun in the couple’s own fun style, of course!
Due to logical/standard space and time restrictions, there were quite a few parts that could only be set up before or after certain events throughout the day, or surprises that could only be coordinated in line with other parts or people – which was absolutely my purpose and pleasure that day, as well as coordinating guests and suppliers, and tending to the couple. The hotel staff were amazing, and well oiled and well used to running weddings, but there were quite a few finishing touches that needed done, and a few intricacies that Melissa and I spent time over in the lead up to ensure I could make it perfect for them on the day. Special shout out goes to Marc at Buxted Park Hotel, who’s role was sort of an amalgamation of Head of Staff, Maître d’, Master of Ceremonies, and Wedding Manager – he was fun but very efficient to work with on the day, in the right proportions!
I thought the flow of this wedding worked particularly well… Although of course my role was wedding coordinator on the day…! But given the type of reception venue, we managed to position and harmonise each supplier for maximum use and exposure = maximum fun. The wandering band was a highlight for me as they immediately buzzed up the atmosphere of the whole day – and even got everyone on their feet dancing at the dinner tables!! (Which wasn’t actually the plan btw, but they were so good, and the guests LOVED them!) They read the party brilliantly, and the fact they were wandering really meant the ambience and fun atmosphere carried us from drinks reception right through until the speeches. They were playing for guests on arrival back from the church, and as they were wandering, I was able to gently nudge them along/outside/to the bar as needed to keep the atmosphere going throughout. We also positioned the Glitter Bar right outside the doors from the wedding breakfast, so it was seen immediately – and used accordingly! (The trouble with some glitter bars and photo booths is that they sometimes aren’t well signposted or are tucked away in a corner somewhere.)
Above all though, the real highlight for me on the day was seeing how much fun the couple had, which basically means I’ve done my job. I loved seeing them relax into all the love they were being showered with that day, and just enjoy the day they had poured so much into to plan.
Wedding Coordination + Planning Support by Devine Bride.
“You need Devine Bride. Whatever your budget, style, event.. Laura will escalate it to another level and make the planning process even more special. She is a powerhouse of wedding and party inspo and wisdom with her finger on the pulse of what works, what people want and what makes the perfect wedding for her clients.
We didn’t need a party planner and had a hotel wedding venue with experienced staff on hand.. but we had so many extra bits and pieces to set up and unable to do so ourselves were wondering what the answer was… discovering DB and the ability to choose a pic-n-mix package of services was incredible. Laura travels outside London, will meet up outside work hours, tailor her services to you, be able to answer/find the answer to every question you can think of and provide a service that to be honest is just priceless.
Laura set-up our wedding and helped run the day and turned our wildest dreams into a reality with no fuss as our wedding coordinator. She ran everything like clockwork whilst also tweaking decorations, checking on guests and troubleshooting anything that needed it. She charmed some of the less flexible staff at our venue and if we needed anything tweaking as the day went on she sorted it without us needing to be involved at all – it honestly made the difference between us having a great day and the best day of our lives.
As a control freak I wasnt sure how I would feel about handing over the setup of all our decorations and ideas to somone else but Laura got me, and she did a way better job than I could have done. She whipped our whole family into shape and over delivered on everything. And had fun with us along the way.
We adore her and are so proud watching her business grow – whether you have loads of ideas or none, are a nightmare like me or hands off… Devine Bride is the woman you need. I spent most of our honeymoon missing her and wondering what else we could ask her to help with.”
Photos kindly from Samuel George.
CONTACTS AND SUPPLIERS
Wedding Coordinator: @devinebride 💁🏼♀️
Venue: Buxted Park
Photographer: Samuel George
Chairs and Tree Centrepieces: Bows Hire
Florist: Orchard Nursery
Balloons: Bubblegum Balloons
Mini Golf: The Prop Boutique
Ice Cream Van: Vera The Vanilla Pod
Band: Wandering Hands
DJ: Disco Fever
Glitter Bar: The Glitter Squad
Cake: Groom’s Mum + Krispy Kreme (+ assembled + styled by Devine Bride)
Wedding Dress – Day: Cambridge Bridal Studio
Wedding Dress – Evening: Felicity Westmacott
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Please email any hellos or enquiries to laura@devinebride.co.uk
