Mr + Mrs Batchelor
11th September 2020┃Apton Hall, Essex┃Guests: 30
Instagram: @bb_got_wed┃Photos: Camilla J.Hards Photography
If you are part of the insta bride community, then this gorgeous wedding will be very familiar, as Becky shared her wedding journey on the 'gram as @bb_got_wed. The now Mr and Mrs Batchelor married back in September at Apton Hall, a beautifully rustic venue. They opted for a pastel colour theme with pops of warmer purple which made for some beautiful flowers and decor, and the bride stunned in a blush ballgown fit for a princess, with her signature pink hair! Becky tells us all about their fairytale wedding, and what it was like planning during a pandemic...
Tell us about the ceremony...
Registrar wedding. I had 2 readings, 1 by my Mum which was a beautiful poem to the two of us called 'On your Wedding Day' and the 2nd I read myself, 'The Giraffe & The Monkey' it is such an apt poem to mine & Dan's lifestyle and relationship, as hard as it was to hold myself together and read it had to be done!
Something Old: My Nan's engagement ring which is also a sapphire so it was my something old, borrowed & blue too
Something New: My Dress!
Something Blue: I did also have 2 pairs of Charlotte Mills bridal shoes which tick all the boxes for these!
What was your favourite wedding purchase?
Our wedding rings, a part of our day I hold with me every moment and I absolutely love it.
What was the most emotional moment of the day?
Walking down the aisle! Oh my word it was tough!! The emotions were absolutely flying, I was so so excited but I have honeslty never felt my heart beat so fast, I could hear it in my head & feel it all over my body. My mum walked me down the aisle & she could feel it as we linked arms! All of a sudden all those nerves of 'what if I trip' 'where shall I look' 'how do I hold my bouquet' all flew away and all I felt was pure LOVE.
Advice for future brides…
I know they all say it but it really does all come together!! Due to our wedding being in the pandemic there were sooo many things that were beyond my control, couldn't happen or had to be decided by the wedding venue instead that the anxiety and control freak side of me was in such a flap, but I had to realise that I was mid pandemic and getting married was going to be the achievement & I couldn't be in 3000 places at once! The morning of the wedding I gave myself 30 minutes to sort final things out with the venue, florist, cake lady etc and then signed myself off to all responsibilities. My mum made decisions, my tables were laid without me even taking a second thought about them and my decor was arranged by suppliers. We like to think we can do everything but really on the wedding day you want NO responsibilities. Once I dived into bridal prep I didn't make another decision all day and it was perfect!
- Song you walked down the aisle to: Breathe Slow- Alesha Dixon
- Ceremony Songs: Love you til the End - Niamh McGlinchey (PS I love you song) & When You Say Nothing At All - Ronan Keating
- Song for walking back up the aisle as a married couple: From This Moment On - Shania Twain
- First Dance: John Legend - You & I
What was your favourite part of the day?
Sitting at the registrar table, signing our wedding certificate. It was our first conversation as husband & wife and we just joked, laughed and it was the first moment I got to take in the day. Our photos from this moment are so natural and our smiles beam happiness.
Did you have have anything unusual at your wedding?
Once we postponed I said to Dan that I would like to add to the day seeing as we were going to have to wait longer for it so we hired a Charicaturist and it was the best thing we could have done. As we only had 30 guests he managed to draw all of our guests and they all took home cartoon drawings which they all loved, it kept us all entertained!
Worst wedding planning moment: I think that's obvious! My phonecall with the venue whilst I was at work to say my wedding needed to be cancelled and no weddings were going to go ahead in May 2020. I actually held it together on the phone, rebooked for 2nd August as it was the first date they could give me, ended the phonecall and just cried for hours. I couldn't pull myself together and ended up just crying on the shop floor!
Tell us all about the dress…
I always thought I would have a fitted dress but 30 minutes into my first dress shopping appointment and I was in a blush ballgown and loving it!!! After my first shop we knew I was looking for a blush dress, lots of detail on the top, low cut back & biggggggg skirt! Despite knowing what I wanted I struggled a fair amount to find it & unfortunately I ended up going to a shop as a last straw, finding my dream dress but getting very very poor customer service. So despite the beauty in my dress it was one of my least favourite wedding experiences!
Favourite wedding supplier: Photographer, unreal memories from the day!
What food did you have at your wedding?
Our food was insane! I don't think we had a single guest not rave about the food during, after and still to this day! We had paid for most of our original wedding when it got cancelled so once we knew we were going to be having a small guest list we asked our venue to apply the money we had already paid to improving our day for our reduced guest list. So we upgraded our food massively! We gave our guests a choice of starter, main & dessert the week before (we could do it so close to the day due to on going government guidance changes and the small size of the wedding). Our most popular choice was: Starter: Smoked Duck Confit with Truffle Arancini & Creamy Poricni Mushrooms. Main: Roasted Monkfish Fillet & Parma Ham Crisp, Smoked Haddock Fritter with a Creamy Shiitake Mushrom Sauce. Dessert: Salted Caramel Cheesecake with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. We also had a pallet cleanser of champagne sorbet which went down a treat.
Tell us about your wedding cake...
One of my favourite parts of wedding planning!! Me, my mum & my nan went cake tasting and it was such a special day. We all voted for our favourites & then I kept the samples for Dan to try that evening & he voted too! Our top tier which we planned to keep just for the 2 of us was cherry bakewell, so dreamy! 2nd tier was Zesty Orange, yum! 3rd tier champagne & strawberry. I wanted a nake/semi naked cake to match our rustic theme, we chose semi naked so that it kept its moisture a little more. On the day I demanded I had a piece of all 3 tiers!
Best wedding splurge:
My Wedding Ring! - handmade from a picture I found on a Bridal Facebook Page, my jeweller made my dream come to life and I'll forever be grateful.
Is there anything you wish you'd done differently?
I wish I had faith in how amazing our day would've been all along, I honestly had no cares in the world on our wedding day and I went to bed with sore cheeks from smiling. I had no many sleepless nights about things that now seem so small. The pandemic really woke me up to what really matters.
Any surprises on the day: My grandad's trousers fell down! Bless him lol!
Funniest moment of the day: The Best Men's speech about my taste in men!!
What was your favourite wedding planning moment:
Booking our honeymoon, we are yet to go on it and for now it has been permanently cancelled while we try for a baby but I was just so proud to have saved up money and be booked to go on safari in Sri Lanka & have a water villa in the Maldives. It's been an absolute dream and I felt like we had accomplished so much when we booked it! It obviously was too good to be true haha!
What was your first dance song?
John Legend - You & I. We did NO practice, Dan is not a dancing type and refused to even sway with me in the living room before the wedding! The song didn't have any meaning to us before we chose it, I was in one of those moods one day, searching through Spotify for a first dance song and I am one of those people who when they get a good feeling about something my decision is made! I listened and listened to the song over & over and remember getting really nervous asking Dan if we could have it because I had grown so much of a connection to dancing to the song. Luckily he loved it too and we played it many times between then & the wedding. Sunday mornings laying in bed listening away or cooking breakfast at the weekend to it. I loved those moments!
Did you make any Wedding DIYs?
I made my own wedding signs with wood my Nan & Grandad had in their garage, including our table names, order of the day, cake & sweet treat signs, first day yes day best day etc.
Tell us about your wedding favours...
I wanted these to be fun & was actually something Dan had an opinion on. He strictly wanted all our guests to be drunk and just have a massive party! So when I mentioned shots he bloody loved it! I wanted them to match our colour theme & I found Lilac Gin! It was parma violet flavour so it was kinda either love it or hate it but lucky for me my mum didn't want hers so I drank it! I also found that you can get personalised M&M's so each guest got a little bag of those too!
What was your wedding budget – and did you stick to it?
We agreed to spend £10,000 each plus allowed £8000 for the honeymoon. We did stick to it because we saved some money on venue hire etc however all my suppliers still cost the same as I didn't want to reduce the amount of flowers or decor we had.
Top money saving tip: I don't have one because I was a brat and ordered everything wedding related thing I wanted, always had an excuse to tell myself to justify it!
Venue: Apton Hall, Rochford
Photographer: Camilla J Hards
Stationery: creationerystationery
Flowers: Christine's of Hockley
Cake: Sticky Fingers
Décor: Simply Rustic
MUA: Zhana Hawkins - Makeupbyzhana
Hair: Sophie B Hairdressing
Dress: Ronald Joyce
Shoes: Charlotte Mills
Bridesmaids dresses: WED2B
Suits: Anthony's Formal Wear Billericay
Wedding Rings: Bespoke Jeweller in Rayleigh
Entertainment: Steve Hearn Charicature
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