Kendall & Robert
“Tell us a little bit about you as a couple, when you met, how long you’ve been together, how/when you got engaged”
We met in college when we were 17 and have been together ever since! We’ve been lucky to be able to grow up together. We celebrated our 11 year anniversary 2 weeks before our wedding. We got engaged in 2017 in Central Park, New York. It was just before Christmas whilst we were on holiday and it was a wonderful surprise. We went to a restaurant called 21 Club that evening to celebrate and, on the way back to our hotel, we stopped to watch the SAKS light show. The whole experience was magical!
“Why did you choose The Waltham Barns for your special day?”
Out of the ten venues we viewed in Essex, Little Channels was by far our favourite. We loved the rustic, country barn feel, particularly the wooden beams. The size of the venue was also an immediate draw. As we were planning a wedding with smaller numbers, the more intimate feel of Little Channels suited us perfectly.
“What was the most memorable part of the day for you?”
The entire day was perfect from start to finish! The ceremony was beautiful. Saying our vows was so special and having our family there for that was really meaningful, especially as we were unsure for a while who would be able to attend due to the Covid restrictions. As our guests had to wear masks during the ceremony, we purchased clear masks for them all to wear as we wanted to ensure we could still see their faces. It worked out so well as we really didn’t notice much of a difference with them wearing the clear masks! We were the first wedding this year at our church so no one was quite sure how it would work or what impact the restrictions would have but it was perfect.
At Little Channels the drinks reception was a perfect opportunity to catch up with our guests and catch our breath. The Wedding Breakfast was amazing and the set up looked beautiful. We had to change our seating layout slightly due to social distancing but as we had such an intimate wedding and we were unable to have the DJ and Photobooth at Little Channels, we were able to space our tables out and really make the most of the space. The food was so delicious and our pianist really impressed our guests. The speeches were so meaningful too.
As we were unable to have the evening party at Little Channels due to the Covid restrictions, we had a sparkler send off after the speeches and cutting the cake which was a great way to end the evening at the venue and we then we then had our evening party in our garden. We had our DJ and Photobooth as planned and we even had our first dance in our garden which was really special. It was so much fun and going back to our garden was a lovely way to end the night.
Despite months of going back and forth not knowing if our wedding would be able to go ahead and, even when we knew the ceremony could go ahead, we still didn’t know if the reception was allowed until a week before the wedding day. No matter what we stayed positive and worked around it all. The most important thing for us was getting married and we weren’t going to let anything stop us! We think our wedding was so much more meaningful as, even with everything going on, we still got married and it was almost exactly as planned and any changes made, we think actually turned out for the better. We feel really lucky that we were able to go ahead with our wedding and we are so happy that we are now actually married!
“What was your thought process behind the colour scheme & themes that were prominent throughout your wedding?”
We wanted to stick with a rustic theme to suit the venue so we kept the colour scheme simple but classy and elegant. We chose white and dusky pink. The colours went perfectly with the exposed brick and wood of both the church and the venue.
We had a number of wooden decorations to keep with the rustic theme such as our guest book, a log spray as our top table centre piece, our cake stand and name places.
We added elements of Beauty and The Beast throughout our wedding including Bell Jars with single pink roses as our guest table centre pieces, rose petals on the tables, giant 6ft roses outside and we stuck with mostly roses for our flower arrangements.
Our wedding invitations also included roses and Beauty and The Beast characters to give our guests a clue and the processional song was ‘Tale as Old as Time’.
Kendall & Robert’s Dream Team:
- Venue & Catering: The Waltham Barns
- Photographer: Jayes Photography
- Videographer: Luxe Wedding Films
- Flowers: Alison White Wedding Flowers
- Décor: Beautiful Things Event Hire, Platinum Event Hire (Flower Wall/Light Up Letters), Occasions Covered (Chair Covers)
- Cake: Cake Cuisine
- Make Up: Ruby Rae Make Up
- Hair: SLG Hair
- Brides Attire: Bellissima Weddings
- Grooms Attire: Slater Menswear
- Stationery: The Paper Doll
- Entertainment: Zoe Alexandria (Pianist), Ali’s Entertainment (DJ), Trez Entertainment (Photobooth)
- Transport: Just Wedding Cars
- Accommodation: Channels Hotel
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