Lisa & Tim: A Botanical Summer Wedding at Thicket Priory with a Weekend Celebration

We chose Thicket Priory because we were looking for a romantic country house venue where most of our guests could stay on-site and enjoy the celebrations with us for as long as possible. It was important to us that we could stay for two nights, as a lot of our guests were travelling from quite far away. We wanted the option to utilise outdoor space if possible, but also be able to have it all inside if need be, given the fabulous British weather.

We had such great first impressions of Thicket as we drove up the long sweeping driveway. We also loved the décor inside and thought all of the guest rooms were beautiful! We found that many other venues’ guest room designs had been overlooked and were either too dated or too plain, but Thicket’s individually designed rooms were exactly what we were looking for.

Once we met Lil and the rest of their super-professional team, it was obvious that Thicket was perfect for us! It ticked all our boxes and exceeded our expectations.

I knew I wanted a satin long-sleeved gown, but finding one for the height of summer was quite difficult! There were a lot of mesh and lace-sleeved dresses, but finding satin sleeves and a less-is-more classic vibe was hard. I had almost given up when I found the perfect one from Pearl and Eve Bridal, and luckily, I happened to be at a friend’s wedding near Derby, so I was able to try it on – it was definitely worth the journey.

We knew quite early we would want lots of earthy greens, and once our floral ideas came together, the mix-and-match selection of bridesmaid dresses from Azazie was perfect. This meant the girls could pick the dress shapes they felt most comfortable in, and they all looked amazing. For the boys, it was a matter of finding the right suits that complemented everyone and the theme, and the Moss Bros sage suits were ideal. They made it very easy for the groomsmen to try on and collect their suits, even though everyone lives in a different corner of the UK!

For the groom, I always thought it was a bit unusual how they often wear the same suit as the groomsmen, and you can’t tell who is who! Therefore, we decided to get a similar suit in a darker colour, and it happened to be made by Barbour, a company now known worldwide that started in my little hometown of South Shields.

Our décor was mainly our leafy floral arrangements, contrasting a more free and wild floral design against the backdrop of Thicket Priory.

We made a few bespoke/personalised touches, such as a signpost indicating where all our guests had travelled from, ranging from as nearby as York and Leeds to as far as Singapore and Australia.

For our table plan, we chose our favourite places in the world as table names and laid them out as close to a world map as we could. We sat on London (where we met), which was a sweetheart table. For the seating plan, we gave everyone a postcard from their table destination, asked them to write it back to us, and post it in our wedding postbox. After the wedding, we compiled them alongside the pictures taken on each table’s disposable camera and made our guestbook. This was a fun and interactive way for people to find their seats, and it worked really well as a guestbook.

We also made personalised succulents as our combined place cards and wedding favours, so our guests could take home a little leafy piece of the day.

Willow & Bear Floral Design was our florist, and they were the absolute BEST. Helen was so attentive, listened to everything we wanted, and made our dream come true in ways we could never have imagined. We gave her a brief to create ‘tree-like’ structures as our centrepieces, and she made fantastic stands with foliage that looked absolutely incredible.

Don’t even get us started on the stairs! The showstopper of our entire wedding. Helen and her team worked so hard to deliver our vision, and we were so, so happy with the result. The pictures speak for themselves. We were speechless.

We chose Hog & Apple for catering as they are a very high-quality caterer who are used to working at Thicket Priory. We were so impressed by our tasting that we chose all our favourite dishes, with beef chateaubriand or sea bass fillet as the main. They provided all of our catering for the two days, including a summer BBQ on the Friday evening.

Our cake was made by the very talented Soph’s Cakes Leeds, and it tasted as good as it looked, with three different flavours. Sophie came, delivered it to the venue safely, and set it up for us so we didn’t have to worry about a thing.

Our photographer was Photography by Charli. We had met Charli on a somewhat secret shoot a few months prior and knew she was perfect for us. Her approach is all about capturing the day’s candid moments in beautiful warm light, which we loved. Charli and her team were so easy to work with, and they really understand all the stresses that come with wedding days and coordinating guests to the right times and places. They did this effortlessly and captured our day exactly how we wanted it. Her edits are impeccable, and we will look back on her gorgeous photos forever. The video she created for us somehow captures the softer romantic side of our wedding day while still showing off the fun-filled day-long party. We wouldn’t have chosen anyone else!

We loved every second of our wedding day, and it is so difficult to choose our favourite bit. We were so well looked after by Thicket Priory and all of our vendors. Having our band perform a bespoke mash-up of our favourite songs and dancing with all of our loved ones under the same roof was a very special moment.

Sitting on a sweetheart table and eating our wedding breakfast with just the two of us meant we got to spend some quiet time together in the middle of an amazing but very busy day.