Will and Fran's modern elegant post lockdown summer Wedding at Iscoyd Park

Mr + Mrs Garrett-Levy

19th June 2021 | Iscoyd Park

Instagram: @frangarrettlevy @willgarrettlevy | Guests: 50 | Photos: @ailsareevephotography

Despite many challenges and changing of restrictions, Will and Fran were adamant to hold onto their June 2021 wedding date and with a few changes, and some guest list cute, they made it happen. Beautiful bride Fran was a picture of elegance in a simple gown with gorgeous details - you wouldn’t believe this was an online high street purchase during lockdown!

Tell us all about finding the dress…

I had a slightly different way of finding my perfect dress shall we say! We were planning our wedding day during the height of the pandemic, and I was getting myself into a complete state about finding and shopping for a dress because at that time everything was closed and when things did get back to normal I couldn’t take anyone with me due to travel restrictions and I didn’t feel confident enough to go on my own! So, rather than wallowing I went on to the Ghost bridal website and found a really rather elegant and perfect dress. I of course ran it past my mother first, who loved it, and bought it online right there and then! All in all I didn’t have that rather special wedding dress shopping experience, but I have other incredibly special memories, plus the dress was wonderful (if I do say so myself)! It was very me as it was just very simple but classic! I have always thought of myself as rather a ‘plain Jane’ but everyone has been so complimentary about how I looked on my wedding day which has given me a bit of a boost and I truly felt like a million dollars!

Something Old: A beautiful pink handkerchief which belonged to my late Great-Grandmother! I knew she was with me and all of us every step of the way!  

Something New: My wonderful and oldest friend, whom sadly couldn’t come to our wedding as she lives in Australia, bought me the most fabulous tweed garter! It was so beautiful and such a special surprise, as I had no idea! She facetimed my sister in the morning, who had organised it all with her! It was very apt also, as my mantra is ‘a man in tweed is all you need’ and I knew Will wasn’t going to wear a full tweed suit (that was my dream!) as it was so hot so my garter was perfect! I can’t be too mean about Will as he looked absolutely gorgeously handsome, plus changed his tie to a tweed bow tie in the evening which was amazing!  

Something Borrowed: A beautiful gold necklace from my wonderful mummy! 

Something Blue: I was also totally spoilt by my dearest friend in Australia as she also bought me a stunning ring with a blue gemstone in it! Beautiful and I still wear it every day! 

Tell us about the ceremony...

We had a civil ceremony which was lovely and we had two really kind and hilarious registrars! I can still remember what one of them said when she pronounced us man and wife and said ‘Now you’ll notice that William is on Francesca’s right hand side to walk back down the aisle, because your husband should always stay on the RIGHT side of his wife!!!’ and how right she is! We also had some gorgeous readings, The House at Pooh Corner (A.A. Milne) read by one of my best friends and Apache marriage Blessing (Anon) read by Will’s godmother! Both were read beautifully and had such special words which truly meant a lot to us! Overall it was just the most perfect ceremony and we still can’t stop smiling about it!  

What was the most emotional moment of the day? 

I know it sounds a bit cringey, but knowing that I was going to see the man of my dreams waiting for me at the end of the aisle! After so much stress and turmoil planning for the day, it all comes down to that moment and I knew before walking down that it was all going to be worth it! It was so special also having my father walk me down the aisle, which is a walk that I will never forget! 

Music

All played by our fabulous wedding string quartet @theharmonystringquartet...

Song you walked down the aisle to: Hoppipola - Sigur Ros 

Ceremony Songs: For Once in my Life - Stevie Wonder and Just Like Heave - The Cure

Bridal Exit: Love Story - Taylor Swift 

First Dance: Volare - Gypsy Kings 

What was your favourite part of the day? 

Other than marrying my now husband, it was probably seeing all of our guests so happy and actually being around one another! The night before our wedding was the first time I had seen one of my grandmothers and my mother seeing her for the first time also due to lockdown so it really was such a special occasion all being together! There isn’t one photograph with someone who isn’t smiling! Looking back at the photographs now, it just fills us with joy seeing everyone so so happy! As they say, a picture says a thousand words, so I needn’t go on!  

Advice for future brides… 

Stay calm and give yourself time to plan! You don’t have to do everything at once either! We tried to do a little bit every weekend, but it’s frightening how time flies by so do make sure to enjoy planning for your wedding because it’s over in a flash, but what a marvellous flash it is! 

Funniest wedding photograph: Probably the one of Will dropping is trousers and showing off his rather funky boxers (although I keep calling them knickers which he hates!)! We purchased them from the fabulous @bucolic_blaze as well as different designed ones for the ushers! We wanted to have a proper photograph of all of the ushers wearing them and dropping their trousers as a joke and showing off their different funky boxers but it turned out that some hadn’t changed into them and even worse weren’t wearing any knickers at all so that would have been very unsightly! Will obviously had to do it, and our poor (but extremely talented and lovely) photographer @ailsareevephotography said that was the first time a groom had ever dropped his trousers for a photo – haha! To let you into a little secret also, I have the photograph as my screen saver as it makes me chuckle every time I look at it! 

Tell us about the cake...

Our cake was AMAZING!!! I found a local bakery and cake designer near our venue, and told her our story of meeting! We met rather memorably on the Channel 4 dating show, First Dates! @cakeybitz designed the most perfect wedding cake for us which had the famous red heart and First dates theme all around it! It was also absolutely delicious too, with both vanilla and chocolate sponge layers! 

What was the funniest moment of the day?

To be totally honest, all of our guests didn’t stop smiling for the whole day, but the funniest moment was when Will was doing his perfect and beautiful speech! We had arranged for four bouquets to be presented to our mothers and grandmothers to thank them for all of their amazing help and kindness, and Will was meant to hand them over to each of them during his speech! But, he really had to think on his feet, because the bouquets were nowhere to be seen and hilariously we saw our wedding planners sprinting along side of all of us to go and get them! It was brilliant and actually worked very well because it gave everyone a laugh! 

Favourite wedding planning moment: It’s pretty obvious, saying ‘I DO’!!!!!! 

Worst wedding planning moment: I don’t mean to be negative or speak ill of wedding planning but I am an honest person and truthfully planning our wedding was just bloomin awful! Similarly to all other couples planning their wedding during the pandemic, there were so many never ending hoops we had to jump through, plus because our venue was in North Wales, we had to follow their updates which was equally as painful because they announced their roadmap much later than England and the rules still weren’t clear! It was just as difficult for the venues as well because they were just as in the dark as we were! Quite frankly it was so stressful we almost got divorced before we got married, but all the stress, tears, arguments all paid off in the end because we both had the best day of our lives! I feel emotional just typing this now because it really was the most amazing and special day and even though we had a horrid time planning it, we got through it together! We were so lucky that we didn’t have to postpone our date, unlike so many other couples which we completely feel for, but we did have to sadly uninvite most of our wedding guests due to restrictions on number which was heart-wrenching! Despite this we knew each and every one of them were with us in spirit, and we most certainly raised a glass (or two) for them on the day! 

Tell us about your wedding favours... 

Our wedding favours were all gorgeously hand-made by my mother and sister! They were mini personalized hand-sanitizers which was an ideal gift for everyone! They also looked so professional, I suggested they start up a little business! 

Watch Will and Fran's wedding video below...

Photographer: @ailsareevephotography 

Videographer: @_rockbottomproductions 

Venue: @iscoydpark

Flowers:  @selinagodsal

Cake:  @cakeybitz

MUA: @jessicamairstudios 

Hair: @jessicamairstudios

Dress: @ghostlondonbridal

Shoes: @mandarinashoes 

Bridesmaids dresses:  @ghostlondonbridal @coastfashion 

Flower girl dresses: @phaseeight @monsoon

Suits: @harvieandhudson 

Music: @maximummusicuk_weddings 

From Brides, With Love xo