Wedding | My recommended suppliers (part 1)

Wedding season is upon us, and if you're planning for this year but not yet chosen or confirmed suppliers, you may be out of luck – the best get snapped up super quickly!

No doubt your venue will have a list of their recommended or preferred suppliers. Of course, you can always choose your own – provided they make communication with your venue and adhere to any rules they may have.

I've contemplated this two-part series for a while now. And I thought it would be a good idea to share who we used for our day, as well as our experience with our suppliers. There was no easy way splitting this up, but read on for part one…

Venue: Greenwoods, Stock

Fun fact – we only looked at one venue. I always knew I'd want to get married in Essex, after all, it's home. We visited literally right before lockdown: 15^th March 2020 – before a second visit, when we could. We also combined our final planning meeting with our menu tasting and met the lovely Kimberley, who dressed our chairs.

Greenwoods have various function rooms to host weddings within the Manor house. There's the Library and Boardroom suites, while outside there's the more modern Garden Suite, complete with a terrace and beautiful views of the grounds. We got married in the Garden Suite, inside – although during the warmer months, there's a gazebo for outdoor ceremonies. It’s such a light and airy venue, which has a partition to separate two areas. While the ceremony was taking place, it was shut off as the dining area was being organised and once we were eating, the ceremony room was transformed for the dance floor and evening area.

As well as complimentary accommodation on the wedding night in the bridal suite, I also stayed the night before and it was palatial. Stunning views of the gardens, the comfiest bed ever, and a gorgeous marble bathroom. It was the ideal place to get ready too – plenty of space for my bridal party as well as hair, makeup, and later, the photographer.

Our wedding coordinator Shannen was so helpful and friendly, and ensured there were no issues on – or prior to – the big day.

Flowers: Stock Florist

Greenwoods’ recommended supplier are local and independent florist, Stock Florist. I had totally swooned over their bouquets and seasonal wreaths on Instagram for months prior to choosing them, but I knew I'd always want Stock to fulfil all my wedding floristry dreams.

To be totally honest, I didn't really know what kind of flowers I wanted, All I knew is that they needed to go with the colour scheme (blush and sage), meaning there would be plenty of foliage and eucalyptus. As long as there were roses included, I would be happy.

The team got my vision straight away and were able to make recommendations – for example, I love peonies, but they're not in season in October. Instead, I had another variation of rose that resembled a peony and that really worked.

We used Stock Florist for:

• Bride’s bouquet
• Bridesmaid’s bouquet
• Mother of the Bride’s corsage
• Men’s buttonholes (Groom, Groomsmen, Page Boy and Bridesman)
• End of row ceremony flowers
• Long and low display (on ceremony table and later moved to the top table)
• Table centrepieces
• Cake flowers
• Confetti (real dried rose petals)

The team were so knowledgeable and friendly both over email and in person, when we could finally visit the shop. Our initial consultation was over zoom, which was difficult only because I didn't know what I wanted at that point and hadn’t really prepared myself for the meeting. However. Once we confirmed everything via email, I knew that it would be fine. When we went to meet the florist in person, it was simply to finalise everything we had agreed and to discuss the smaller details – and I felt less anxious by that point.

And guess what? I still love their Insta grid too!

Cake: Melanie Ferris Cakes

Another of Greenwoods’ recommended suppliers, Melanie's based not too far from Stock Florist and the venue itself. When it came to the cake, I always knew what I wanted – a three tier semi naked cake, decorated with flowers and/or foliage. Having looked at Melanie’s website and Instagram account, I knew she’d be able to make the cake of my dreams.

We went to visit Melanie at home for cake tasting and after consulting with her on what my preferences were, she recommended a light sponge would work best for a semi naked cake. This suited me as neither of us are keen on chocolate cake, and so many aren’t fussed about traditional (rich) fruit cake. We opted for two tiers of Victoria Sponge with Swiss meringue buttercream and raspberry jam, and one of lemon sponge with Swiss meringue buttercream and lemon curd.

Melanie liaised with our florist for the cake flowers, and although I had said I'd like the cascading style, it was still a surprise on the day what the cake actually looked like. It was stunning and exceeded my expectations and vision.

The cake was delicious, and we even managed to eat it all within a week or two of getting married – despite cutting, wrapping, and storing it in the freezer. I took some into work and received plenty of compliments. I'd also love to add that the price was so reasonable, and while I think I'd budgeted £500 for the cake, it was well within that. Highly recommend.

Stationery: Sweet Ophelia Designs

I actually went to Uni with the gorgeous Jess at Sweet Ophelia Designs, and I just knew I'd love to work with her on all my wedding stationery – not just the invitations. Again, I'd stalked her social accounts for months prior to setting a date, and probably even long before we were engaged, too.

Jess was easiest person to collab with. She knew exactly what I wanted straight away. I know I’ve shared a few posts on here already, but I'm not lying when I say when we got our ‘Save the Date’s and the invitation proofs over, I made no design amends. I think for each we only had one round of feedback (like, really minor copyedits), when she allows enough time and resources for three. I was super impressed.

We used Sweet Ophelia Designs for:

• Save the Date cards with envelopes and ‘Save the Date’ wax seals
• Bifold day invitations with envelopes and eucalyptus wax seals
• A5 evening invitations with envelopes and eucalyptus wax seals
• A1 ‘Welcome to our Wedding’ board
• Double sided A1 board for the seating plan and order of the day
• Menu cards
• Name cards
• Table centrepieces (gorgeous watercolour prints)

And I think that was everything…

The whole suite matched our colour scheme using floral motifs, again similar to what we actually went with, and the outcome was just beautiful. I remember vividly when the ‘On the Day’ bits arrived, and I was just overcome with emotion. Jess did an amazing job and was so professional – I could not recommend her enough.

Side note: as well as the six prints we needed for our tables, she designed some additional ones because I have plans of getting them all framed. They really are stunning. I'll have to update the collection with the places we visited on our honeymoon.

Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2 – coming later this week.

Love, Lucy xx