first light
We plan weddings in Britain and Europe. Around forty a year, which is fewer than we could take and about right.
kettle on, someone’s already awake
Not a list of everywhere we’d travel. These are the regions where we know the registrar, the good florist, which lane floods, and who to ring on a Sunday. Anywhere else, we’ll say so and price the learning in.
doors open, nobody dressed yet
Most weddings sit between two of these. Knowing which two is the single most useful thing you can work out early — it decides the venue, and the venue decides almost everything else.
Hard lines, soft food.
Candles low, flowers loose.
Planned around what’s in bloom that week.
Wind is part of it. Plan for the wind.
Done properly.
Three days, one town, everybody staying put.
Under forty. Everyone knows everyone by pudding.
Long dresses, short speeches, a band that can play.
Two families, two sets of rules, one long day.
One flower. One candle. Get the food right.
the first real question
Ten questions, about three minutes. You’ll get two styles, a shape for the day, and the three things we’d do first.
everyone standing, nobody sitting down
the hour everyone photographs
Filter it by style, season, colour or venue. Keep what you like — no account, it stays in your browser — and bring the list to the first call.
One long table, under lights
Suffolk · summer
Flowers from twenty miles
Suffolk · spring
The hour before
Norfolk · autumn
Cypress and gravel
Provence · summer
A barn with the doors open
Norfolk · summer
Two plain bands
London · winter
The walk back down
Suffolk · summer
Sharing plates down the middle
Suffolk · summer
two hundred plates, one service
The marker on the left is how far out the work usually starts. It’s a guide, not a rule — we’ve picked up a wedding six days before now, and it was fine.
From the first idea to the last song.
You’ve started. We’ll take it from here.
You planned it. We’ll run it.
A weekend, not a wedding.
The look, held together.
A shortlist worth its name.
somebody’s doing sums on a napkin
Move either one. The lines move with them — guest count changes the shape of a budget far more than the total does.
About £158 a head on food, drink, paper and transport.
The one number that moves most with guest count. Assume drinks are half of it.
Ask what’s included. Chairs, tables and cleaning are often not.
The only thing you keep. Most couples move money here, not away from it.
four minutes each, we asked
We had eleven months and both of us were working six days a week. I don’t remember making most of the decisions, which sounds bad and was in fact the entire point.
Who’s speaking
Sample quotes. Written to show the shape of a real one.
last dance
Tell us when, and roughly where. We’ll tell you what’s possible and what it costs, and you can decide from there.
