Victoria & Perry's Wedding Story
We found Missenden Abbey online searching for venues and we fell in love with the pictures; we loved the 12th Century feel and the stained glass windows. We also loved the flow of all the rooms and the marquee as we wanted our wedding in one place.
We arranged a viewing with Natasha and we both knew instantly we wanted to get married at this beautiful venue. We loved the grounds and could picture all our guests with us sharing our day.
We had seen other venues but just didn’t get the feeling we got as we did with the Abbey. We knew before we left, we were booking. I think before I had got home, we had emailed Natasha to secure our booking in 2 years. Natasha was so helpful from talking us through booking our registrar and recommending suppliers.
Our theme was shabby chic and blush pink, we picked the colour based on a pastel summer colour.
I wanted to feel beautiful on my wedding day so wanted full glam for hair and make up to compliment my dress. My make-up artist, Georgia, exceeded my expectations and my hair stylist, Zoe listened to everything I wanted.
I picked my dress on the 25th June 2021, exactly 1 year leading up to wedding I found my Maggie Sottero gown at Pure Couture Bridal in Beaconsfield. The dress was perfect in every way in a beautiful blush ivory and chapel length veil. Perry has always said he’d love for me to embrace my figure and be proud of my weight loss, so I picked a dress I knew he would love.
The groomsmen all had matching tailcoat suits and the company, Formally Yours, made our vison come alive from supporting with colour matching and sizing. The bridesmaids all had matching blush dresses with delicate lace detail to match my dress.
Our florist, Taniece from Hire Heaven made sure my whole vison was brought to life after explaining I wanted blush pink, gypsophila and ivory. The beautiful flower arch and stair garland blew us away on the day and we also had fresh flowers on the tables to match our shabby chic theme.
On our wedding day I was calm and just felt so excited. My sons, Harry and Charlie, came up to the Abbey suite to see me before I walked down the aisle and I will remember that moment seeing them so smart in their suits. My son Harry walked me down the aisle, which was a precious moment as he was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs and he looked so proud.
We wanted a natural feel with photos and our photographer Caroline Rushton was just amazing. She was with us from 11.30am, right through to the first dance.
We chose the barbeque option for our wedding breakfast which we loved as it had something for everyone.
We booked our 4-tier cake through Sugar Designs and Rachel was amazing matching our theme to our cake design.
We booked the amazing Singing Waiter Masters who performed after the main meal and we were all up dancing and singing. We have guests still talking about the Singing Waiters now and saying how amazing they were. We booked them as wanted some extra fun and laughter.
The speeches had us all in laughter and tears. Perry’s speech was heartfelt, and I have never felt so proud looking at my husband as he was so nervous leading up to it, but he was just amazing. Sam Lawrence the best man, fitted 15 years of friendship in 7 minutes so perfectly.
The evening disco entertainment with Colin Spence was fantastic and we booked a photo booth and light up letters.
For our first dance we chose John Legend – All of Me, which was also played on the harp when I walked down the aisle. Jeanette Cordery was just amazing playing the harp for the guests as they were seated for the ceremony.
We want to thank all our family who contributed towards our wedding from Michelle and Darren Day who contributed and helped with planning, coming to the cake and flower consultations. All the advice and support from them was amazing, and we found involving Perry’s parents really brought us all closer. Michelle Day and Becka Matthews both came to pick my wedding dress with me. My sisters Roni O’Connor and Michelle Anderson both brought my bridal shoes and veil, along with jewellery. Becka, my maid of honour, planned my hen weekend and helped me plan the wedding from advice and ideas.
I wish I’d known that I can’t stick to budget! Perry tried to rein me in on many occasions, but I was just so excited and wanted it all to be perfect. We wanted our wedding to reflect us – fun and romantic. Every time I wanted to book something, Perry would smile and say if it’s your vision let’s do it and we worked so hard to make it happen. Some weeks Perry worked 7 days to just make it all possible.
We would like to thank all the staff at Missenden Abbey from the kind receptionists and catering staff and all waiters and bar staff. Without you all, the day would not have been so perfect.
The person who made it all amazing was Natasha, throughout the 2 years, from the moment we booked to the day we got married Natasha was nothing but amazing. Every email I sent was answered quickly and all my questions answered instantly. I have never met such a passionate coordinator who wanted to make our day so special. We both feel sad that it is now over as we won’t get to plan anymore with Natasha, but we enjoyed every moment. We would highly recommend Missenden Abbey as a wedding venue as everything we needed was on site, so our guests could spend the full day with us, stay over and have breakfast with us the following morning. On the day the sun was shining and we had amazing pictures but one thing that’s sticks out was how professional the staff were. We had a barbeque set in the garden but the staff could see the clouds forming and gently checked if we were ok for the barbeque to be taken inside in case the rain came… well, they moved in and the heavens opened so we couldn’t have been happier as they were thinking ahead. This is just one example how amazing and professional they are at the Abbey, not only did they help us have the most amazing day, they really cared about us, and our guests, so thank you so much.
