Vintage Family-Focused Wedding (Re-)Planned in Four Days!

Kate McCarthy Photography

September 25, 2017

Imagine planning your whole wedding, only to have to RE-PLAN it all just four days before! Well that’s exactly what happened to Chantelle and Simon’s but luckily they kept their cool and still pulled off an amazing day. Less than a week to go and the couple found out their venue wasn’t ready to host them. They quickly jumped into action and managed to rearrange the whole thing. The one silver lining of the unfortunate last minute venue change was that the day, that was originally going to cost £17,000, only ended up costing them just £6000!

“Due to the original venue being cancelled we saved thousands by getting married at the town hall and having the reception at a local venue”, began Chantelle. “In the end it worked out absolutely perfect for us and we wouldn’t have changed a thing. Despite everything that happened we promised not to stress or turn something so special into something negative.”

“We were married on same date that my parents were, 44 years earlier. We decided to have a ‘vintage’ theme, however, we didn’t let it dictate every aspect of the wedding. If something felt right then we would just go with it. My father and I worked on the seating plan which was made from pallets and photo frames. We burned it first and spent a while putting it together. It was a really nice thing to do as a father and daughter before the big day.”

Due to the last minute re-planning, some things they had wanted weren’t possible, but in the end it didn’t matter. “I think every ceremony will always be perfect for each couple regardless of what goes right or wrong. Because of the last minute change over we didn’t have access to our ceremony music which would have devastated me if I’d have realised beforehand but because I was already there and so excited to get married, I realised that it didn’t matter. Once I saw Simon I completely forgot all about it and the ceremony was perfect.”

“I was also five months pregnant. Being pregnant meant that I was forever changing size so the morning of the wedding was the first time I had tried my dress on in around three weeks. My poor mother couldn’t get me in and I was absolutely petrified when she said she couldn’t do it – which you can clearly tell in the pictures! Luckily the photographer knew a trick or two and managed to squeeze me in!”

After everything that happened, their favourite part of the wedding was being able to actually get married. “There was a part of us that thought it might never happen so the best part of the day was once they announced that we were officially married and we had managed to pull it off. The beautiful weather and seeing what an amazing time everyone was having was also perfect.”

“Getting the right photographer was really important. I studied photography for three years so making sure we had the perfect photographer for us was essential. I absolutely love analogue photography so finding a photographer that not only does film photography but is amazing at it was our biggest task. Once we had found Kate we knew she was perfect for our style and preferences and we booked her straight away. We have absolutely no regrets (she was our biggest expense!) and fully believe she was worth every single penny.”

“However all of our vendors were amazing. From personality to professionalism and value for money, each and every single one them was amazing. Even when things were going wrong they were all understanding and pitching in to help re-plan! We genuinely met some of the loveliest people along the way and couldn’t have been more thankful for how our day turned out so thank you to everyone who played a part in our precious day!”

“Our advice for future brides and grooms is do not stress” she concluded. “No matter what happens or what gets thrown your way. Things will go wrong on the day, no matter if they’re little or large but by then there’s no time to change it so just accept it, laugh about it and enjoy the moment because you won’t be able to do a re-run.”

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