What was it like to work with me?
Rowan was absolutely incredible! We had met her previously at James’ brothers wedding and absolutely loved the photos and the atmosphere. We loved the informal look of her photos and the colour and we both separately thought of Rowan when talking about a photographer for our wedding. We had a couple of video calls to talk about what we wanted and the process.
What was your original wedding plan?
We are really lucky and essentially got to do a mini version of our original wedding – church ceremony followed by marquee in the garden. We just had 10 guests instead of 200! We tried to keep things the same as much as we could; we still filled the church with beautiful flowers, of course we had a photographer and we all looked the part.
When did you realise you were going to have to change plans? How did that feel?
As soon as lockdown started we were fairly sure we wouldn’t be able to do the original plan. We decided that for us getting married was more important than a large wedding, but agreed that we would only get married if our immediate family could be there. We decided quite early on to keep the numbers small as we would not know if changes would be made on guidance (which did happen….multiple times)!. This meant that the best man and a bridesmaid couldn’t come, but they were really understanding and wanted us to get married even if they couldn’t be there!
How did you make allowances for your wedding to take place under current covid-guidelines?
We accepted that we would only have 10 guests (immediate family). We decided to make the wedding feel more intimate and actually we realised that this would make the wedding much more relaxed, which was a relief!. As part of this we didn’t want to stream the wedding as we felt it would be artificial.
How did you feel on your wedding day given that you had to change your plans?
I actually felt a bit relieved. There was no pressure…it didn’t matter if things ran late, we didn’t need to worry about logistics. We knew we would be getting married and we knew we would get to spend the special day with our families.
How did you add your personalities and individual style to your small wedding?
James had always dreamed of catering the wedding (he loves cooking, and he’s amazing at it too!) This wasn’t possible when catering for 150-200 people, but was for 12! He did slow BBQ pulled pork and lamb shoulder, and family helped with the rest of the food.
We love our dogs, and although there was a limit on people there was no limit on dogs! We had three with us, the girls had flower collars, the boy had a bow tie to match the ushers. They were so well behaved in the church and were amazing for the photos.
What’s your advice to other couples planning a small wedding after rescheduling?
For us we felt it highlighted the reason we were getting married -for the marriage, not for the ‘big wedding’. Obviously its disappointing not being able to share with everyone, but there are so many advantages. I didn’t feel stressed, the whole day was relaxed and about family. Its cheaper. We actually got to spend some time at the hotel on the wedding night rather than arriving after midnight. There was no waiting around!
If we could do it all over again we would have another small wedding! We’re planning on having a first anniversary party next year to celebrate with everyone, but the wedding itself was perfect!
