Our Wedding At Ashridge House!

26th May 2023, I married my best friend at the beautiful Ashridge House.

From the moment I woke up, to the moment Matt and I buzzed into our honeymoon lodge at the venue around 2am, it was comprehensively the best day of our lives. We were treated to amazing sunshine and blue skies all day, the morning was calm and relaxed getting ready and I had a lovely emotional moment with a first look with my dad. Walking down the magnificent main hall grand staircase, to see Matt looking up at me was an incredibly special point. Getting married in front of all our friends and family was so beautiful, we both couldn’t stop laughing and smiling the whole day. The food was amazing, everyone looked incredible, and dancing the night away was so much fun!




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The Proposal and Place

Matt proposed on the Ashridge estate, up Steps Hill. We have spent many a weekend or time after work walking around Ashridge. I grew up around Ashridge and spent much of my childhood playing in the woods or having memories of the grounds. We also felt that Ashridge House was so “us”. It is grand and traditional, but beautiful with each room having the most stunning individual décor. Both of us wanted a traditional English wedding. When we looked around the venue, our wedding executive told us that 2023 was pretty booked up but a last-minute cancellation had dropped in the day before, so if the 26th May 2023 was of interest, it was now newly available. Matt and I looked at each other, and in unison said “that’s our 8 year anniversary”. We knew it was meant to be and it was the only place for us to get married.

Our invites and envelopes, all hand wax-stamped with a little bee

Planning

Once we’d set the date for our wedding, we had just a year to plan and save! I created the Instagram account @YouHadMeAtHarrow which documented all the ins and outs of the day, and ended up with a twenty-six page “Wedding Bible” which I used to help plan and refer to in the run up to the wedding day.

We love colours – our house is full of greens, oranges, wildflower colours. Matt is an entomologist so we chose a little illustrated bee as our “logo” for the day and plenty of colourful, whimsical wildflowers. We took this through the stationary, the bridesmaid dresses and groomsmen and fathers ties and buttonholes, as well as all the flower bouquets, meadows and arrangements.

The Day

The sun shone from the early hours, as my maid of honour Chloe and I drove to the house at 6am.

The day was beautifully captured by our photographer, Steph Kiely and videographer, ByLumiere. I got ready in the east wing of the house with my eight bridesmaids and mum. The incredible Carly Cox did my hair, and I did my own makeup, whilst the girls had their makeup done by Kirsty Louise MUA. Once dressed in my Suzanne Neville dress and veil from Ellie Sanderson, details adorned and flowers in hand, I was ready to go. Matt was meanwhile greeting guests in the foyer and great hall in readiness. He opted to wear a rented morning suit from Fogarty Formal Hire, with a waistcoat, ivory tie and pocket square.

My sister’s boyfriend is in a fantastic string quartet, who kindly agreed to play modern songs in a classical style thoughout the day and as I walked down the aisle to Madonna’s Crazy for You.

During the ceremony, my mum recited an extract from Les Misérables, while Matt’s mum, Sarah, read a self-penned poem. We included our grandparents, some of whom were sadly unable to be at the wedding, with framed photos on the mantelpiece overlooking where we said our vows.

Once the confetti was thrown and we moved into the drinks reception, our guests were able to be treated by our fantastic live painter, SP Wedding Art who painted their portraits on card, which could be taken home as a favour. It was one of our best last minute additions to the day!

After the photos, I had to go put suncream on it was so sunny!! This time out provided a great breather with my bridesmaids to take everything in.

We danced into our wedding breakfast, and were treated to a four-course meal starting with an English heritage tomato tart, followed by a choice of roast sirloin of beef, braised shin cottage pie or an aubergine cannelloni stuffed with ratatouille Provençale and a pastry encased caramelised apple dessert which was divine (although I could only eat half as my corset was rather tight)! The children’s menu included cheesy garlic bread, prime cheese burger, French fries and salad and dessert was a mini knickerbocker glory. On the tables, we had little personalised Love Hearts which said “Just Married” and “Eve and Matt 26th May 2023, thank you for celebrating with us!”. The little’uns had entertainment packs for the meal which included colouring books and games, pencils, bubbles, sweets and playdough.

We were super lucky to have our friend Lee as DJ and Halo Lighting set up an incredible light display with mirrorballs, neon poles and an amazing multicoloured DJ booth. We also had the super talented live saxophonist, Dom Plays Sax to play our second song and an hour set!

Finally the evening was rounded off with a super fun photobooth from Boothhire UK – we have so many photos on our fridge from the booth, it was such a fun addition for guests!

We decided to have some bonding time ahead of the wedding and made our own wedding cake! It did take the whole day but we know it tasted great and saved a bit of cash! I painted the wedding toppers to look like us, to make it even more personal.

The day after we arranged a BBQ with our family and friends to prolong the celebration (as we knew the day would go so fast!) this was such a good decision and meant we could chatter and catchup with everyone after such a fantastic day.