Sophie & Rob’s Autumn Wedding at Huntsham Court

A firm favourite in our collection, Huntsham Court captured the hearts of Sophie & Rob and ticked those all important wedding wish list boxes! Their day was a stunning autumnal celebration with a seasonal colour palette and gorgeous dried florals. We’re hearing from the couple AND the venue today, but first over to Sophie & Rob to tell us their story…

Sophie & Rob say…

We had a venue wish list as long as your arm and Huntsham Court knocked it out the park:

• A large, interesting and varied venue – this was really important to us as we were originally getting married in February and wanted a venue that wouldn’t give people cabin fever if they were forced inside for the whole time
• A venue available for the whole weekend, meaning we could extend the celebration over 3 days
• Allows a decent number of guests able to stay at the venue, giving it a feel of one big house party with friends and family
• Has a late licence/no curfew
• No corkage
• No forced caterers or suppliers, although the recommended suppliers were fantastic

Huntsham Court exceeded all our expectations.

The venue itself is absolutely stunning with the most incredible decor – you can tell one of the owners is an interior designer! Not only can it sleep up to 92 people (!!), it does so in luxury, not by bundling lots of people into each room. And on top of all of this, the staff are incredible. Everyone was so friendly, experienced and genuinely wanted to make sure we had the best time. Couldn’t fault a thing!

We knew we wanted Harry Michael Photography from the moment we started wedding planning. OK OK, I knew I wanted Harry from the moment I saw his incredible photos of a friend’s wedding, way before we even got engaged! Harry’s photos speak for themselves, he’s an absolute genius. We wanted photos that captured the fun and all the little moments that you miss as the couple, rather than staged, forced photos. While this is clearly Harry’s forte and we shouldn’t have been surprised when the previews arrived (literally the next day!), we were still completely blown away!

What you don’t realise from the photos is how great Harry is on the day – he’s so relaxed, he’s horizontal and loads of fun to be around. He captures all these incredible photos without staging anything, you don’t notice he’s there until he’s telling you a funny story or helping the boys with their ties. And to top it off, he stays until the last man standing! No leaving after the first dance which is so common. Some of our favourite photos are well into the early hours!

Best part of the day

Impossible to pick one part, we genuinely had the best time from arriving at Huntsham to leaving! The part that we really enjoyed that surprised us the most was the ceremony. We lucked out with our registrar; he was fantastic! The ceremony was full of laughter and tears, we couldn’t have asked for more. Another highlight was the dance floor popping off to New Order’s Blue Monday.

From one couple to another…

Enjoy everything you’ve organised – eat the canapés, enjoy the drinks, have that pudding, wave those sparklers and dance all night! Try to relax and enjoy the day – know that everyone is having fun. Think how much fun you have at other people’s weddings! Don’t sweat the small things, no one will notice, so don’t let them stress you out.

It’s always interesting and exciting to see how couples will decorate the venue for their big day. We see such a wide selection of styling, from huge, blousy flower arches to the simple use of our extensive candelabra collection for the wedding breakfast tables. Sophie and Rob’s approach was one we particularly loved.

The venue is already highly decorated, which can lend itself to going all-out with big installations, or paring it right back and adding simple touches here and there. Sophie and Rob went with dried flowers which was perfect for the time of year and really highlighted the rich, sumptuous colours of the venue. Following discussions about their styling and plans, the couple actually collected the flowers from a Bristol based florist Isa Bloom Floral Design. Using hired brass vases that varied in size, the couple along with the help from some trusted guests, arranged the collection of dried flowers to create beautiful and elegant displays.

Cleverly, the flower arrangements were used across two rooms. A selection were placed on the Great Hall mantle piece for the ceremony, creating a beautiful backdrop that highlighted the bride’s dried flower bouquet beautifully. Once the ceremony had finished, the flowers were then relocated to the tables for the wedding breakfast, where they framed candelabras with ivory coloured candlesticks.

We have to say that as the light went down, the golden glow of the Yellow Room and warm tones of the Library were perfectly complemented by the table decorations, twinkling candlelight and warm atmosphere created by the couple and their guests.

As Sophie chose dried flowers this meant she could keep her bouquet forever and the remaining displays could be handed out to guests as they departed, a perfect final memento from such a special celebration.