Mr and Mrs Platts

Mr and Mrs Platts married at The Old Vicarage on 30th August 2019.

Leanne and Tom secured their wedding at The Old Vicarage for Friday 20th August 2019. They attended our open day which is where they chose a few of their suppliers!

Leanne, Tom and their close family and friends had booked exclusivity the night before the wedding on the Thursday evening. Guests checked in at 4pm which allowed Leanne and her mum to put all of their decorations up and make sure the venue was perfect before they made their way down to our lovely local restaurant The Piano, which is a very intimate family run Italian restaurant that looks over the Southwell Minster Cathedral.

The morning of the wedding, was a lovely relaxed atmosphere… I think this is one advantage of having exclusivity the night before, it means that all your nearest and dearest are here at the venue and they can have breakfast together before getting ready! All the suppliers start to arrive which we think makes the morning exciting, it’s so lovely to see our couples’ visions coming together! Leanne and Tom chose to use Gigil & Bloom as their florist, the flowers were just perfect for the season and to compliment the neutral colours at TOV. Leanne’s bouquet was made up of the most beautiful white roses, Brunia, Wax flower, oxypetlaum, rosemary, populous berries, Veronica and bombastic spray roses… It smelt just as beautiful as it looked!

The glam squad for Leanne and her bridal party was perfect! They arrived nice and early and set up our Vicarage make-up and hair chairs. Penny Stokes did their makeup and Tilly Octavia did their hair! They were the dream team in getting all the girls ready for the day! Leanne wore the most beautiful Maggie Sotterodress which she bought from Bradgate Brides in Leicester!

We welcomed 41 daytime guests to Leanne and Tom’s special day, it was a lovely number and there was a lovely atmosphere, especially in the garden where people were enjoying a beautiful English summer day.

As you know, each wedding is always so different at The Old Vicarage and something that we loved that Tom and Leanne wanted to do was a reveal before the ceremony. So, this is where the bride and groom see each other before the ceremony. It was a lot of preparation to ensure that no guests saw the bride, but it worked so well and now we have seen the images it’s such a lovely idea. They chose to have the moment in the garden near the lavender, it’s really nice to have a this time together before the excitement begins and also, it meant that during the ceremony they were a little bit less emotional than they probably would have been without seeing each other beforehand.

It is always a pleasure having Highly Strung who are a string quartet at The Old Vicarage, they suit our venue so well and they create such a beautiful atmosphere to start the day. The ceremony started at 1.30pm, all guest seated and anticipating the arrival of the bridal party and the beautiful bride! Leanne walked down the aisle to Pachelbel – Canon and they walked back up the aisle as the new Mr and Mrs Platts to Bruno Mars – Marry you.

Matt Horan was the newlyweds wedding photographer, it’s no secret that we love Matt and his style of photography! You know an amazing photographer when you literally want to use all 1000 wedding images! We can’t recommend Matt Horan enough, he has a calm nature which is exactly what you need on your wedding day and as you can all see from the images, they’re just perfection.

The advantage to living in Nottinghamshire is that we have so many wonderful wedding suppliers that are chosen by our couples and it’s just amazing to see local suppliers being supported. Leanne and Tom chose to use The Ruddington Cake Company who created the most delicious naked cake which has been dressed by Gigil & Bloom.

One of our most asked questions is about stationary, we have a handful of great independent stationary companies but we also can’t recommend online designs enough. Leanne and Tom bought all of their stationary from a company on Etsy and they would highly recommend using them again. You can save yourself a fortune on stationary this way. If you are going to choose the online route, our only advice is to be very organised as sometimes the lead times on delivery can take a while and ALWAYS order samples! You need to make sure that the quality of paper and print is what you are looking for!

We allocate 30 minutes for speeches; this is typically based on 3 speeches however you are more than welcome to have more or less of an allocated time. Leanne and Tom chose the order of speeches to be the following, Geoff who is the father of the bride, Tom, the groom obviously and Sam who is the Grooms brother AKA the best man!

We organise the speeches to happen before the wedding breakfast which we think works really well for two reasons… One, the people who are making the speeches may be very nervous so can get them out of the way before they settle down to eat and this way, they can enjoy their meal instead of worrying about their speech. Two, is that all your images of the wedding breakfast tables will be beautiful and clean and make lovely images instead of gravy stained tablecloths!

At The Old Vicarage we ask you to opt one of your guests to be your Master of Ceremony. This person can be anyone out of your wedding party, it’s a really fun or sentimental roll for one of your guests! It definitely breaks the ice between all of your friends and family before speeches, making them feel a lot more relaxed. Some people choose family member, one of the groomsmen or a close friend… Leanne and Tom chose Mark who is Leanne’s uncle.

Canapés

Sticky pressed pork with bourbon smoked BBQ glaze and apple slaw.

Baby mozzarella, pesto and air-dried tomato bruschetta.

Mini sweet chilli fish cakes with a Thai dipping sauce.

Salt and pepper chicken skewer with a sweet plum sauce.

Starter

Air-dried heritage tomato bruschetta with buffalo mozzarella, green basil pesto, rocket leaf and Parma ham.

Main

Rosemary roasted chicken with dauphinoise potato, wilted greens, béarnaise sauce and a chicken wing jus.

Dessert

Glazed lemon tart with raspberry meringue and coulis.

We asked the new Mr and Mrs Platts what their best moment was and if they had any advice for new Vicarage couples, and this is what they said…

“We were willing to break traditions and we decided to do a ‘first look’ in the beautiful grounds of TOV. The team did a great job of keeping us out of our guests view and this is a moment that will stay with us forever. Seeing each other for the first time on our wedding day was truly special”.

Advice to new couples

“Don’t worry about how other people will feel, you can’t please everyone and your guests will entertain themselves. I did a bride to be meditation in the morning of the wedding day and this really helped me to remember what is important and to enjoy every single second on what can be a very overwhelming day”.

The new Mr and Mrs Platts Testimonial

“Our wedding day was perfect and we would not change a single thing. Not only is the venue absolutely stunning, the food is incredible and the staff are amazing too. Everything ran smoothly and throughout the day, TOV team gave us advise and kept us updated with the timings of the day which meant that we could relax and enjoy the day without worrying. All of our guests commented on how beautiful and enjoyable the day was and we can’t thank TOV team enough”.