For couples still fresh from the flushed excitement of a Valentine’s day proposal, the stark reality of organising an engagement party is the tasty amuse bouche to the reality of organising a wedding. The accompanying wedmin can seem a little daunting. Every wedding planner will tell you the three essentials; a budget, a diary and a task list. That’s the easy bit. This first Gentleman_of_Chiddingstone blog is designed to help couples and their parents on their way with how you make those decisions.

My tip is to try and plan a wedding based on who you are as a couple

Twenty years in the @BritishArmy before launching the old family home into the world of weddings and family events taught me that how you make a decision can be just as important as simply making one.

My tip is to try and plan a wedding based on who you are as a couple, not you as George and Amal. Aspirational weddings are not very inspirational. Or worse still planning a wedding someone else wants you to have. I’ve had the privilege of watching over eighty couple get married in this place and I can swear that the best weddings are the ones where whatever attraction and personality has brought you together, is brought out at the wedding for everyone to share.

Your friends and your family want, mostly, to be happy for you and they want to have a good gossip about aspects of the day. Fashionable is often banal, stylish is forever.
Quite early on we had a couple who were called Adam and Eve and that theme of temptation and pleasure ran through the whole day. Place cards in Apples. Jellied snakes for the kids was accompanied by vast quantities of vodka – Adam was from Poland – and the English, not shy of a drink were brought to their knees. The whole day was just a celebration of Adam and Eve: The Blue Grass couple with the cardboard star confetti: Matt and Manuella whose decision at 10am to eat alfresco was *calmly* handled and the international rounders match – England, Matt, vs Spain, Manuella, was testament to their joy and impulsiveness. My advice; marriage is just plain you so start as you mean to go on.

If you want a venue that gives you that freedom of expression do please think of @HoathHouse_wherefateleads.

Richard

Gentleman_of_Chiddingstone