Sabrina & Simon's Wedding | Marie S harp & flute duo

We were absolutely over the moon with Marie!

Our wedding was held at Braxted Park, Witham Essex. We chose this venue because of its beautiful, pictureqsue surroundings, huge lake and spectacular gardens. The venue is also just under one hour from our home in North London and easy enough for our guests to drive to.

Braxted Park has two beautiful options for ceremonies; an outdoor location and an indoor location in case of rain. As it was dry we were able to hold our civil ceremony outdoors in the Knotted Garden, which was glorious!

We went for a traditional, vintage theme with whites and sky blues for the day. We then moved on to royal blue and a colourful Asian theme for the evening.

We wanted it to be a hugely family-orientated event, and we had over 30 children attending. So we had lots of garden games and we made kids' goody bags filled with games and drawings/colouring books to keep them occupied.

We found Function Central whilst searching online for wedding entertainment. We liked the variety of entertainment on offer by Function Central; they have a wide range of genres and instruments. We knew we wanted a harpist even before we started researching the types of entertainment on offer. We found Marie in Function Central's classical musicians section.

We wanted a harp and flute duo to provide an elegant, beautiful musical backdrop to our civil ceremony and drinks reception/canapes. We were absolutely over the moon with Marie and her flautist. The music was beautiful and our guests thoroughly enjoyed this during the civil ceremony and during the drinks reception prior to the wedding breakfast. Marie played an eclectic range of music, from Bollywood to movie songs and played all our favourites that we had sent to her prior to the big day. This included the music during the bridal entrance, the signing of the register, and the recessional.

We then chose a 9-piece band for our evening do with a soul/R&B feel to get our guests onto the dancefloor. We also had a 5 minute drum procession from Asian drummers (dhol players) to lead the bridal party procession and to kick-start the evening do, just before our first dance.

Our favourite moments were reading our personalised vows, and the confetti moment! The civil ceremony itself was perfect, complemented hugely by the harp/flute duo who matched our theme and the vintage/elegant feel we wanted exactly.

Regarding advice I'd give to other couples, we'd strongly encourage organisers, and brides/grooms to keep a database of all the different suppliers for each individual component of the big day. This helps with the day-to-day organisation, booking and paying everyone. We maintained an excel spreadsheet for all the costs, the different suppliers (we had a total of 19 on the day), and tracked payments to make sure we had everything covered in a timely manner. We would also advise using a wedding planner on the day – we didn't have one and in retrospect this would have been a very good idea, particularly if a couple is hosting an event for over 230 people. This would have reduced our stress levels on the day.

We would also recommend Function Central going forward for musical entertainment! The agency was very clear in all of our communications that we had in the lead up to the event, and we knew exactly what service we were getting on the day. They were very prompt in replying to emails and answering our questions.

Suppliers:

Venue: Braxted Park, Essex

Photographer - Andy Griffin: (fantastic guy, really attentive, on time, big personality and we got on so well with him the entire day! He really ran around for us to make sure we got the best shots given the weather at each point in the day. Really listened to us and repsonded to our emails in the run up efficiently)

Videographer: Floating Castle (Joseph is another fantastic guy, really attentive, sort of disappeared into the background as a videographer should! Responded really quickly to all of our emails in the lead up to the wedding

Cake: Cake Flair -Sally's cake was exceptional - tasty, beautiful, and she even created a mini bride and groom for myself and my husband that looked like us!

Florist: TJ Floral Designer (TJ is an exceptional lady, with a great team who were so attentive to our needs and what we wanted. They were very cost efficient and knew what our financial budgets were, and matched it perfectly with the most beautiful arrangements we could have imagined. They also supported with other decorations on the day not required from them, and were on time with everything. They also responded to our emails / requests really quickly. Their bridal bouquet / bridesmaid bouquets were phenomenal - vintage but elegant with hints of blues and whites as I had requested).

Dress: Wedding Dress Factory Outlet (I bought off the shopfloor of this store in Bromley, Kent. I then personalised this with my own material across the neckline and added a belt.

Seamstress: Sue's Sewing. Our seamstress was great - a local person called Sue in Enfield. Great / quick service.

Garden Games Hire in Essex: Great service, fantastic games loved by adults and kids alike. Kept guests busy while we were away taking photos for a couple of hours during the drinks and canapes reception prior to the wedding breakfast.