Your married name:
Hayley Blanche
How did you meet one another?
At work, nearly 8 years ago.
Tell us about the proposal
James proposed whilst on holiday in Thailand.
Why did you choose your wedding venue? Tell us what you loved about it:
Southend Barns was one of the first venues we saw, we absolutely fell in love with it but dismissed it based on the distance away from where most our family and friends live. We continued searching but nothing ever came close to Southend Barns so months later we arranged a second viewing and knew instantly it was the venue for us. For me, the thing I loved the most was the attention to detail, there is nothing that the venue hadn’t thought of. And although it is a barn and has all the laid back charm of one the finish on it is exquisite, I loved the beautiful chandeliers in The Threshing Barn, the fab Cow Shed toiletries in the bathrooms and the stunning Ceremony room and Bridal suite. Also the staff at the venue were amazing from start to end, I miss our email chats!
At what point did you decide you’d like a string quartet?
Although neither of us are musical we knew from the very beginning that we wanted a string quartet playing modern pop music. We wanted guests to tune into the songs and question whether or not that were actually hearing correctly that a string quartet were playing Stevie Wonder/Coldplay/Take That/Queen. TBQ did not disappoint!
Did you have any concerns about having a string quartet?
No!
What have your guests since said about The Bossard Quartet since your wedding?
A very good friend of mine plays the Cello and the Piano, and it was important to me to hear her opinion after the day. She couldn’t speak more highly of TBQ, I think in truth she was in awe of them. All the guests commented on how amazing they were.
Tell us about your other wedding suppliers – who was your photographer? Who did the flowers? Your evening entertainment?:
I couldn’t have asked more from our suppliers, each and every one of them did us proud on the day and a month on I’m still overwhelmed by how perfect the day was and it is all down to our suppliers. Our photographer was the amazing Chris Giles, instantly he was like a member of the wedding party and put us both at ease – his photos are STUNNING too. Our Florist was the amazingly talented Flowercraft, Lindfield, West Sussex. I burst into tears when I saw the flowers for the first time, they exceeded all my expectations. Evening entertainment was Toast DJs, the Dancefloor was full and buzzing the entire night. We also had a photobooth from The Photo Lounge, this went down a storm, everybody loved it and we are still laughing at the photos a month on.
What advice would you give to others who are planning a wedding?
Don’t sweat the small stuff – honestly don’t!!! We agonised over food, drink, decoration etc etc but ultimately the day is w hat you and your guests make it. Also don’t make decisions too early on as the day tends to evolve as the planning goes on.