Robin & Hannah's Wedding | Blue Juice

We absolutely loved the band and so many of our guests have said they were the best event band they've ever seen!

Our wedding began with a small ceremony in a tiny wooden chapel on the edge of a cliff near to where we first met. Twenty-seven of our closest friends and family attended the intimate ceremony. The reception was held at Athelhampton House in Dorset, near to where we live and the perfect venue for a winter wedding with it's huge Christmas tree and open log fire.

The chapel (St Catherine-by-the-sea, Holworth) was decorated with holly, mistletoe and pine cones. After the ceremony, 119 guests joined us for mulled wine, winter pimms and mince pies followed by afternoon tea in the coach house and another 90 guests joined us for the evening reception.

At Athelhampton the theme was Christmas, gold and pine cones! My bridesmaid wore gold, our 12 tables were named after the twelve days of Christmas, holly and small pine cones covered in gold glitter glue marked out the place settings and the table centrepiece was a hurricane vase with a candle and gold covered pine cones. My bouquet had pine cones, roses, eucalyptus and thistles.

I found Function Central via an online search for Dorset wedding bands. We knew of a couple of good local bands who had played at friends' weddings but we wanted to choose someone new for us all to dance to! Function Central were really helpful and very professional – their communication was great, from the moment I sent my initial enquiry.

I never thought I would hire a band that I hadn't previously seen live but as soon as I saw Blue Juice online I knew they were the band for us! Rob and I have quite different tastes in music but we both really enjoy funk and soul. Blue Juice had such a good set-list that appealed to guests of all ages.

We absolutely loved the band and so many of our guests have said they were the best event band they've ever seen. We chose Let's Stay Together by Al Green as our first dance and Blue Juice performed it brilliantly. The dancefloor was packed from start to finish.

Favourite moments of there day included our ceremony at the chapel, sloe gin and pastries by the sea, our time together on the beach for photos after the ceremony, all three speeches and dancing all night to Blue Juice. A particular highlight was the band's performance of Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody" at the end of the night.

My advice to other couples getting married would be: surround yourself with people you like and trust (including your suppliers). Delegate to friends and family - they really do want to help so make use of their talents! Ask your friends for their recommendations (photographer, florist etc).

Suppliers:

We were so incredibly happy with all our suppliers - each and every one of them a genius!

Matt Austin Images (photographer) - we are absolutely in love with our photos - Matt captured the day perfectly and I can't stop looking at them. How we are going to reduce them down to a sensible amount for an album is a mystery!

Kate Walker Bridal, Honiton (dress) - Kate was recommended to me by a friend - I liked her from the moment I met her and she was so clever in helping me find a style that suited my body shape.

West Dorset Wedding Flowers - I didn't have a clear idea what I wanted but had seen a few bouquets I liked on pinterest. I showed the pictures to Jessie and trusted her completely to create something beautiful and she didn't let me down!

Athelhampton House - all the staff at Athelhampton were brilliant. They did absolutely everything to make sure we had a perfect day and took away so much of the stresses of wedding planning by thinking of everything. I can't recommend them highly enough.