What made you pic St Nic's Church and Thrumpton Hall?

"We knew we wanted to get married at St Nics church Nottingham, it had been Cat's home church since she moved to Nottingham as a student in 2010, and the plan was for it to be our first home church as a married couple. Plus it was where Jeremy's parents got married in 1990, so we could show all our family how much it had changed in 30 years!

Our reception venue shortlist was really quite short because we knew we wanted to have about 200 people there, and Nottinghamshire doesn't have a huge number of venues that can accommodate that many.

We wanted a Ceilidh too, which helped narrow things down further, and as Jeremy had already been to a wedding there a couple of years ago which had a successful Ceilidh, we knew Thrumpton Hall would be able to meet that need! Further open day visits to Thrumpton and a couple of other venues and we were confident that Thrumpton Hall was the best suited to what we wanted. COVID scuppered all of those plans of course, but the beautiful house interiors meant we were able to have beautiful gatherings within the limit of 15 people in place at the time. There was also a lovely bonus in that we think we were the last couple to have our wedding reception there, as Thrumpton Hall is no longer operating as a wedding venue."

Your wedding plans at St Nic's Church changed a bit didn't they!

"We were originally going to get married on October 24 2020. We picked October because we got engaged in January, and felt a 9 month engagement gave us enough time to get everything sorted, but wasn't going to drag on. Then COVID happened!! We stuck with the 24th October throughout all the changing restrictions until about a month before, when we picked up rumours that there would be a big increase in restrictions around the half term period, which could scupper our (already very altered) plans. So on the last Sunday in September we decided to try and push the wedding forwards, and after 2 hours of crazy phone calls and emails, we had rescheduled the whole thing forward to October 10 (The one good thing about COVID meant all our suppliers were free on this date and so could accommodate our last minute madness!!)"

Tell me something about your wedding that you didn't expect?

"EVERYTHING!!! We estimate that we made changes to our plans for this wedding somewhere in the region of 30-35 times in the 9 months between engagement and marriage! Eventually the initial plan of a big church service at St Nic's followed by a Wedding Breakfast at Thrumpton at full capacity, and finishing with 200 people at a Ceilidh became the wonderful day we had."

The Night before at Thrumpton Hall

"The night before we had a dinner reception at Thrumpton with our bridesmaids, groomsmen and one of the two groomswomen (unfortunately the other was not able to make it over from her home in Switzerland due to quarantines in place at the time). This was one of the highlights of the entire weekend, including playing games together in the very sumptuous library. Cat and her bridesmaids stayed the night and got ready at Thrumpton, while Jeremy's team groom met up again on the morning for cooked breakfast at his place."

A smaller wedding than planned but St Nic's were wonderful

"Our church service was a much smaller affair than first planned, with just our parents, Jeremy's brother, Cat's sister and Jeremy's grandparents present in the building. Thanks to the wonderful tech team at St Nics, our wedding was then streamed out over Zoom to the remaining 200 or so invitees. Our Aunts and Uncles who had made the trip over to Nottingham for the day were in the upper room of the pub over the road, who very kindly streamed the service for them on the big screen like a football match!

Our Bridesmaids and Team Groom each had a watch party, and we know of a few other watch parties that took place across the city and up and down the country.
We had canapes, a Wedding Breakfast and then drinks to finish including a video call to Switzerland, before a sparkler send-off (one of the few elements of the original plan which still remained on the day!!)"

Tell me a bit about the outfits and details of your day

"Cat went wedding dress shopping, loving the idea of a pink dress, but understood that they were very rare. So when she managed to find one in her first (and only) wedding dress shop, she just had to have it. She bought herself some pink sparkly shoes to match! Jeremy had the exact other problem, he wanted a dark blue suit, so which one to go for?! The jazzy peacock lining sold the Ted Baker ones we went for. Our bridesmaids dresses and the groomsmen's ties were forest green, they matched the reds and oranges of the flowers."

Friends helping out

"We had a friend design our wedding stationery that featured table centres of important places to us. The central design was our 'Teddies on a Train' - with the steam train being the one that rail-mad Jeremy had his first turn as a trainee engineman on, and two teddies because the both of us are very fond of our many soft toys. This was then duplicated as the cake topper, with Jeremy's keen modeller of an uncle making a model kit of the train, and Jeremy learning miniature clay sculpture to make the teddies. The cake itself was made by Jeremy's very talented aunt.
One of Cat's bridesmaids loaned her a bracelet which she had worn on her wedding day. Jeremy wore a personalised pocket watch that Cat had bought him for the occasion. Cat hand-sewed a suit to match Team Groom for her childhood cuddly chimp, and made several bow ties for other key cuddlies."

Travelling to and from St Nic's Church in style

"We ended up travelling to and from the venue on the day on a historic London Bus (one of many components not on the original plan)! The company produced a personalised destination board for the occasion. They gave us this upon our arrival at the venue, and we were able to have it in the entrance hall for our guests to sign."

Thank you so much!

"Thank You! You were so great throughout the entire engagement process with the many changes we made to the plan. Including changing the date, no mean feat even in COVID times! On the day you were wonderfully flexible and great at working with us to ensure our day was captured so beautifully."

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