Lois and Alan's Winter Evening Reception

How you met...

We actually met online, I wasn’t very keen on online dating but had left a profile open and Alan messaged me. After asking me multiple times to meet and go on a date I finally said yes! The rest is history we spent so much time together and very quickly realized we got on so well and wanted all the same things in life. Lockdown began and Alan moved in, at the time you could only see people in your (bubble) so we agreed that this way we could still see each other. Things may not have moved so quickly if Covid didn’t make the whole world close down. But we’re so glad it did.

The proposal…

It was Christmas Day 2021. We had just had our first baby and brought our first home together. He dressed our little girl in a baby grow that said 'mummy will you marry my daddy' and asked me if I could get her changed, when I noticed and turned around he was down on one knee with a beautiful ring! 

How Dodmoor as a venue stood out to us…

I went to Dodmoor years ago when my friend was looking for venues for her wedding. I’d told her about another venue near by and we accidentally went to the wrong place turns out the wrong place was Dodmoor and I remembered how beautiful it was. So I booked a viewing and we knew instantly we wanted to book it. It’s the prettiest venue with so many fairy lights and had everything we wanted.

It’s a beautiful venue, the fairy lights and lovely barns really are something special. The price for holding an evening reception was amazing! And how accommodating Mark was, agreeing that we could arrive any time after 11am on the day was lovely, this meant it really felt like our actual wedding day to us, as it allowed time to have photos in the day time etc.. 

The vision and theme for the day…

We actually got married the day before at a small private ceremony. We always knew we wanted to celebrate with our wider family and friends by having an evening reception. We knew as soon as we looked around that it was the most perfect venue for this. 

The evening was absolutely perfect, everything we wanted & more! 

The plan/idea you felt really worked on the day?

Having an evening reception at a real wedding venue instead of using a pub or function room really made it feel like a real wedding day to us. 

The outfits...

Me and my friends went for a day out at wed2b to get an idea of what I liked. Choosing a dress was done very last minute as I was going to be 6 months pregnant at the time of our wedding so the dress was brought very last minute to ensure it was going to fit. I didn’t end up buying the dress from wed2b as the only one I liked was too big and didn’t fit well, later that day I was showing my mum photos of ones I had tried on, and realized I actually loved one of the dresses more than I thought. 

So I decided to look online for it and found the exact dress in the right size brand new with tags on Vinted! My £900 dress was selling for £400!! I was worried about making such an expensive purchase on a site like Vinted but the seller was so reassuring and everything went smoothly. She was such a nice lady and even sent it in the original wed2b box that they charge £100 for so all in all the £1000 it would have cost ended up costing me £400 

So with this bargain I brought it straight away!! And I’m so glad I did. My dress was my absolute favourite thing about our wedding. It was so pretty and I got so many compliments. Alan’s suit was slightly different (velvet suit jacket) the bridesmaids dresses and groomsmen suits were all from next/marks and Spencer.

The food...

For evening food, we used one of Dodmoor’s recommended supplies Ian Brodie (hog roast without the hog) we sampled this food on an open evening and knew straight away we were going to use him. 

Alan’s favourite food has to be burgers! Ian was very accommodating as we did ask for extras like crackling and also asked for a mix of meat so we had hog roast meat and beef burgers. Our food went down so well everyone absolutely loved it, we got so many compliments. I wish we could use him again for something else! 

Our favourite part of the day...

My favourite part of the day was seeing everything set up, everything I’d been stressed about and booking for months all came to life. It was even better when it got dark, as it was all lit up with lovely fairy lights and looked so pretty. We got some beautiful wedding photos! 

The plan that worked really well on the day...

Having an evening reception at a real wedding venue instead of using a pub or function room really made it feel like a real wedding day to us. 

The entertainment...

We had a magician - Chris Webb magic. Who was a massive hit for all of our guest he was definitely the most talked about subject the next day. Great for all ages we are really glad we booked him! 

For music we used DJ Mike Readings who exceeded our expectations of just booking a dj. I was hoping to have a band but it was proving difficult to find one with availability during the Christmas period. But I don’t regret only having Mike as he was brilliant! He uses a very easy app where you get to choose lots of your favourite music, you get to give detailed answers to his questions on the app to ensure you get exactly what you want and don’t want. His app made the whole process really easy. 

Personal touches that reflected us as a couple…

The Christmas tree, as we both love Christmas!

The magician - Chris Webb. Myself and Alan love to laugh! He was amazing and the guests thoroughly enjoyed watching him preform. He had tricks for all age groups and was a great choice for entertainment. 

Our music choices were personally chosen by us, so we thoroughly enjoyed the evening celebrations.

Suppliers we used and would recommend!

Ian Brodie catering - best hog roast ever! Very accommodating and reasonably priced.

Chris Webb our magician - We met Chris at the wedding opening evening, he was so funny and friendly and very good at magic! We knew as soon as we left we would be booking him! He went down so well with guests of every age! He was so accommodating & even made the trip when he had other family arrangements later that evening. 

Our tip to other couples…

Definitely attend the open evenings! We found our magician through there, tested drinks, sampled our food, and would have booked a DJ through that evening aswell if he wasn’t already booked! 

All the stress is so worth it! Try and enjoy your day without worrying about anything. Everything slots into place like it should. 

Thank you so much to Lois and Alan for reliving their special evening with us. It is so nice to showcase all different kinds of weddings at Dodmoor House. Thank you also to Prime Focus Photography for their gorgeous photos!