Mr + Mrs Peasey
2nd February 2018︱Woodhall Manor
Instagram: @vanessapeasey94︱Photos: Sharon Cudworth Photography
James and Vanessa married in Winter at a stunning Manor House in Suffolk, with a geometric theme and pops of berry tones. Bride Vanessa also carried a gorgeous Faux bouquet, made by her florist. The bride has shared some lovely stories of their relationship and special day, including that their photographer was also their midwife who helped with the birth of their daughter.
How did you meet eachother?
James and I met through our mutual best friend Tristan - funny story really, I ended up getting a job at the golf club where Tristan had asked me to come and be the 'Saturday girl' for. James had recently been made the head pro there and needed someone to cover the pro shop hours while he was coaching members (Tristan instantly thought of me as i had just finished my first year at university and had come home for the summer and needed a job, so he recommend me) you could say it was love at first sight in many respects because the moment James walked in with Isla on his hip (his daughter age 3 at the time) that was it... 2 weeks later we were hooked on each other.
Tristan being Tristan did warn both James and I to stay away from each other perhaps as James was technically my boss, but I think secretly Tristan knew we would end up with each other because after 2 weeks of being in each others company that was it!
Talk to us about your lovely proposal...
James proposed Christmas day morning 2016, in true James style he woke me up super early before the girls were even awake. He handed me 4 presents, all cryptic clues.. First one i opened was a cuddly toy, which to me looked like a sheep, it was in fact a 'ewe' (you), next was a photo of Mary Berry (marry) the next was a photo of Will from the inbetweeners (will) and at this point i started to get the gist, the last present i opened was a mirror with a post it notes on it stating 'say what you see in the reflection' (me). so of course lined up in the correct order it spelt out 'Will you marry me'... to which i turned to James as he was sat with the ring open in a box holding towards me with a huge cheeky grin on his face! Of course i immediately said YES!
Did you have a particular colour theme?
I LOVE Pinterest and was obsessed with searching colour schemes and it was hard initially to make a clear decision and stick with it all the way through - at times I felt I did go off plan and relaxed to just what I thought looked good as I soon realised I didn't really want everything too matchy matchy!
The palette ended up being soft nudes, rose gold, grey and a hint of a dark berry tone somewhere between a deep pink and burgundy. I feel like if you look at my beautiful bouquet you'll get the feel for the colour scheme
Where did you find inspiration?
Pinterest - I bloody love it although sometimes it's too inspirational, it took me a long time to find things in the flesh that I had seen on there!
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue...
- Something Old: a snipping of lace from my grandmothers wedding dress, the same from James' grandmother's wedding dress and a piece of material cut from my mothers wedding dress along with a cutting from my mother in-laws wedding dress, all made into a beautiful ring pillow made by my mother in law! One of our nephews carried it down the aisle, it was beautiful and it's still very much cherished!
- Something new: my earrings bought by my mother for me to wear on the day
- Something Borrowed + Something Blue: was my mothers garter she lent me on the day.
What would be your one piece of advice for future brides and grooms?
Go on your honeymoon straight after your wedding! it was the best thing we did, you avoid immediate wedding blues and it keeps the momentum going. Theres no feeling like it!!
What songs did you choose for the special moments of your day?
- Ceremony: harpist playing 'love me like you do'
- Father-Daughter Dance: should have been: 'god only knows' by the beach boys think i may have been rather heavily alcohol induced by this point so can't remember if this actually happened but me and my dad definitely had a boogie together i remember that much!
- First Dance: Live band playing a mash up of Ed Sheeran - Perfect and 'The Thong Song'... very James and Vanessa
Best wedding splurge?
My shoes! Courtesy of my Hen's and my bridesmaids. My bridesmaid Holly worked for Jimmy Choo at the time and so she used her friends and family discount to buy them for me and my girl gang all contributed! Hol, bobbie my mum and sis went to the London flagship store and had the proper royal treatment in the bridal suite, Champaign was drank the sales assistance was a legend and it was such a luxury experience!
We want to hear all about your stunning gown!
So... if you ask my mum she would say it took me ages, being dragged to about 4 or 5 bridal dress shops and seeing me in around 50 odd dresses bless her, but of course its a brides prerogative to be able to try on as many dresses as she fancies and have the 'fairytale experience' which I felt I certainly did have! I definitely did have a clear vision of what I wanted and with it being quite a fresh style at the time having not seen any dresses of its kind physically in the shops it did take a little while to find.
I knew I wanted a slim line, fitted, low back, long train dress with the option of sleeves (with it being a winter wedding) and I wouldn't stop until I found it! We ended up in 'The Taylor's Cat' Cambridge, where I had managed to locate the Martina Liana dress that I had been eyeing up online! Of course the moment I tried it on in front of my entourage (mum, nan, sis and bestie) they were all in agreement - the price tag however was somewhat over budget but when its clearly a 'yes to the dress' we made it work and I was so lucky that my nan, mum and husband all contributed to the cost of it! It was magical.
Were there any surprises on the day?
There were a few surprises, James and I had organised to play with the band that we had at our wedding. We knew the main guitarist as he had been teaching James how to play guitar and as I had sung in the past we thought it would be really funny if we joined them so we did and it was like a mini Janessa concert it was fab!
The other surprise was that my mum had organised for my cousins, Dad and daughter to sing and play guitar together on stage in the evening it was super special and a lovely touch.
What kind of ceremony did you opt for?
We had a registrar ceremony and I've got to say of all the weddings I've been to, she was the best registrar I've come across - she was brilliant, beautifully spoken, had some banter with the guests, she never fluffed her lines and was just a delight! We had two readings 2 poems if I remember rightly one read by a good friend at the time and one read by my mother.
What was the most emotional moment of the day?
Our vows! Well trying to get mine out, James and I wrote our own and so we didn't hear each others until the day. It was mainly because he went first so, of course, hearing the lovely things he said about me, to then have to read mine straight after was pretty emotional. You can hear my voice wobble as I tear up in the middle of reading them on our wedding video, I cringe every time I watch that bit! It was a lovely, very real moment though.
Did you have anything unusual at your wedding?
My parents sneaked in a little digital photo frame of embarrassing photos of me growing up, this was located on the table near the cakes that housed photos of loved ones that were gone but not forgotten, the guest book and the card box etc
Tell us about the cake...
We were lucky enough to have our cake gifted to us by the wonderful 'Duncans butchers and bakery', where both my sister and I worked as young teenagers when we first got Saturday jobs! A lovely family run business Sue knew exactly what I wanted having known me for years, something out of the ordinary and non-traditional. In 3 different flavours, she created 3 tiers standing separate from each other on stands that my dad mades out of geometric shape rose gold wire with fairly lights covered in ivy. There was a heavy dusting of edible rose gold glitter in different patterns on each cake on the crisp white icing - with a mere touch of traditionalism beautifully handcrafted icing flowers in dusty pink and deep pink/burgundy on top. The cakes tasted incredible; one carrot cake (my favourite), one chocolate with oreo cream filling (for the kids) and one victoria sponge (mainly for the olds).
What food options did you go for?
We had a traditional wedding breakfast, and gave our guests a choice in their invites so they got to choose from a few starters, few mains and deserts. It was all very yummy and luxury. The evening food was delicious and fun, street food style. The best part about the food was the venue offered us a tasting many months before the big day and wow! James and I shook hands with the chef because we were so impressed with the taste, presentation and choice that was before us. We found it very hard to decide what to offer our guests it was all SO delicious, that was a really great part of the wedding planning!
Who were your bride and groom squad?
Bride squad (Nicknames are in brackets i just couldn't resist): My sister Steph was my maid of honour, then Gabbie (Gib), Sophie, Becky, Ellie, Bobbie (Bobs), Holly (Hols), Lorna and of course my two darling daughters Isla and Miela! People find it hilarious how many bridesmaids I had but you know what, all these girls are incredible friends to me and there was just no choosing a few of them, all you have to do is glance at them to see how beautiful they are inside and out!
Groom Squad - awesome boys that I as well as James are so fond of! Best man Craig (Nibbles), then groomsmen Tristan (T-Bag) he was actually part of the bride squad as well, he walked down the aisle first out of my bridesmaids he was the one who kick started 'Janessa'. Jake (Yacob), Phil (hanton), Craig (upside-down), James (Jimbo).
Who was your favourite wedding supplier?
Photographer! Sharon Cuddworth is so very talented and the story that goes along with her is very special to us. She's a midwife by trade and organically grew her love for photography to what is now her very successful business. When she came on shift when I was in labour with our daughter MielaSilva, we had no idea the friend she would later become. She and James were chatting away while I was mid-contraction, when they found that James knew of Sharon's husband. A few weeks later in my postpartum period I stalked her on Facebook and sent her a private message thanking her and the NHS for their service to me. We met up with our families a few times, our husbands chatted, our kids played and we sat drinking wine reminiscing about MielaSilvas entrance to the world. This then lead me to discover her photography work, her images were beautiful and once James had proposed I knew it was Sharon who was meant to be our photographer! She's since snapped me pregnant when I carried our newest addition to our family our daughter EdenReeva and we've been on family holidays with the Cuddworths - a beautiful friendship to come from special milestones in our lives.
Is there anything you wish you'd done differently?
We second guessed our first dance song and wished we had opted for the more upbeat song that we heard all through our first holiday in Turkey together where we really knew we were each others 'the one', it was 'Ai Se Eu Te Pego' - Michel Telo. The chorus gets us every time and takes us back to that holiday and such happy early memories of our life together! It might be in Portuguese but its still a tune! Michel Tele does have an English version, its cute but not as cool as the original!
Tell us about your wedding favours...
To try and tie in my theme of geometric shapes my mother talented in-law being very crafty and thrifty that she is, she made me the most beautiful geo-diamond shaped boxes in the colours of our wedding with a slice of glitter on them and she filled them with sweeties for the guests. I have a photo of the huge pile of them that took her days to make and they just look so visually pleasing! Each guest had one of these on their place setting along with a bottle cork with a black and white photo of them in and also a little name tag in a hexagon shape with glitter round the edges that i made. All three items looks lush on the tables for each place setting.
The table centrepieces were hand-made by my family and I, that was a lot of fun actually apart from transporting them from our house to the venue without them falling apart - that was a mission! They were made up of cut tree stumps Jimbo cut for us, glass jars and bottles sprayed with rose gold paint and glitter a few candles and lots of faux flowers I chose from a lovely faux flower outlet.
Talk to us about your honeymoon!
Our honeymoon was INCREDIBLE and it's only thanks to our amazing friends and family who made it happen for us. Mauritius was such a treat, the hotel, the food, the view, the ocean, I mean wow! We went on an excursion where we swam with Doliphins in the wild, in the middle of the ocean! It was the scariest thing I've ever done (jump off a boat in the the middle of open water to swim with and see firsthand these amazing animals in their natural habitat). The boat then took us to a desert island with the clearest warmest water you ever did see and feel, where a BBQ was cooked for us and we drank rum. We loved this trip so much we did it twice during our stay!
Top money saving tip:
All my wedding flowers were faux! Huge cost saving here and also because it was a winter wedding (and I didn't want generic winter flowers) this was brilliant! My florist was a very inspirational lady who put so much effort into making sure I got exactly what I wanted. She even went above and beyond and made my youngest daughter at the time a special bridesmaids teddy bear that she dressed to the colour scheme it was beautiful and such a lovely touch!
The amount of compliments I get for my wedding flowers and people can't believe it when I tell them my flowers were faux, that's all down to my wonderful florist. Once she had mapped out what the bouquets were going to look like, especially mine as it was rather a statement piece, I then went off those to source and incorporate other faux flowers for the centrepieces which i wanted to do myself.
Photography: Sharon Cudworth PhotographyVenue: Woodhall ManorRegistrar: Linda Munns, Woodbridge officeDress: Martina Liana from The Taylors CatAccessories: Lavender and JudeShoes: Jimmy Choos!Wedding rings: Ernest JonesBridesmaids dresses: ASOSHair: Hayley and Angelina - Paul Henri | Hair SalonMake-up: Victoria BradfieldGroom’s outfit: CoesFlowers: Beautiful AngelsCake: Duncan’s BakeryVideography: Steve Hood Films
From Brides, With Love xo
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