Real Wedding at St Mary's Church

Merriment in May

The setting of Sarah and Wayne’s meeting was a London bar. She was so instantly smitten, she whispered “he’s mine” to her friend before grabbing him and stealing him away from his friends to embark on an impromptu pub-crawl around the capital.



The couple got hitched on May Day, which was also Sarah's sister's 21st birthday. Preparing at her Aunt's house was a frantic affair: the power cut out mid-way through which, combined with a series of other minor mishaps, led to a rush down the aisle – 35 minutes late and minus the bouquets. “I ended up racing down the aisle with my father’s buttonhole!” she says. Meanwhile, one of the ushers raced back to retrieve the flowers.



A medley of Maori, African and Georgian wedding songs were performed by local choir, Global Harmony (in homage to Sarah's Australian and Wayne's South African roots) in the gorgeous setting of St. Mary’s Church in Totnes.



“We wanted a unique reception so we hired the garden of a local estate with stunning views across the rolling hills of Devon and the River Dart.” Sarah bought the flowers (mango calla lilies, cherry brandy roses and kangaroo paw) wholesale for her mother to arrange in accordance with the exotic turquoise and mango orange colour scheme.



Fran of Fran-tastic Paella provided a sumptuous banquet of tapas and white sangria for the guests' arrival followed by bountiful offerings of seafood and meat paellas. She also whipped up bacon and eggs towards the end of the evening on her paella pans to the delight of partygoers.



After the cutting of the cake, the newlyweds took to the dance floor for their first dance to UB40's 'I Can't Help Falling In Love'. A DJ from Your Big Event maintained the party mood on the dance floor into the early hours.





As the couple had so many guests from abroad in attendance, they rented out seven cottages at Pitt Farm and spent the week celebrating with them in supreme chilled-out style.



The couple recalls their favourite details and advice from the day. “We named the tables after famous volcanoes because the volcano erupting in Iceland almost prevented some of our guests from attending!” Yet beyond the mishaps, their day was a resounding success and they urge couples to “keep your sense of humour. If anything goes wrong just laugh and think what a funny story it will make later on. Don’t let little blips stain your day.”





The venue
St Mary’s Church in Totnes

The dress
Victoria Jane from Ring O’Roses
www.roroses.com

Photography
Kirstin Prisk
01209 211821 www.kirstinprisk.co.uk

Copyright WED Magazine 2010