Image © westlondonphotography : The Vineyard Stockcross Real life wedding
Victoria and David Jackson's wedding at The Vineyard Stockcross Berkshire wedding venue
Victoria and David have always enjoyed visiting Michelin starred restaurants and they decided early on that we wanted to share their passion for food with their families and friends at their wedding. A great meal just had to be a big part of their day.
' We'd visited the Vineyard previously together and had been impressed with the food, location, and especially the staff – because we expressed an interest, we were taken on a tour of the kitchens and wine cellars! After visiting a few other venues, we decided to hold our wedding at the Vineyard, despite the fact that it wasn’t local to us, or our families!' explained Victoria.
How and when did you meet?
Friends introduced us when we were both at school. He was 18 and I was 17. He was attending his school leaver’s ball and needed to find someone else to go with after his previous date pulled out!
Where, when and how did he (or you!) propose?
He finally proposed in October 2007, after we’d been going out for 6½ years. I had taken him for a meal for his birthday at the Waterside Inn in Bray, and he handed me the ring under the table at the start of the meal. The staff soon noticed and we were given some complimentary champagne and an extra course!
Did David help with the wedding planning?
David was a help with the planning, although he was a little selective about which items he took an interest in! He works in consulting and treated it all a little bit like a new project; he made a spreadsheet containing the guest list, budget tracking, to-do list, even a table setting planner!
We invited 63 people altogether. We wanted everyone to be present at each part of the day, so we didn’t have a separate evening guest list.
David kept a keen eye on the finances and general organisation, although was often much less interested in colour schemes and flower displays!
Where did you buy your wedding dress?
At a local boutique – ‘New Beginnings’ in Brentwood Essex, it was one of the first dresses I had tried on! I' had gone out for a day with my mum to look for dresses and when I tried it on in the first shop I knew it was ‘the one’.
She wouldn’t let me get it until we had visited some more places and I had tried some more dresses on, but I just kept on comparing every dress to this first one and in the end she gave up and we went back to get it!
Who did you choose as Bridesmaids and what did they wear?
I chose my sister Laura, David’s sister Sarah, and David’s cousin Elizabeth as bridesmaids. They all wore dresses from the same boutique where I had purchased mine. Their dresses were all a simple champagne coloured chiffon full length dress with matching shoes.
David chose two best men, both representing different periods of his life. Tom has been a friend of David’s since primary school, and Mark who lived with David at university. Because he had two best men, we didn’t have any ushers!
Where did you hold your wedding ceremony? .
We had a traditional Catholic mass at St. Joseph’s RC church in Newbury. David and I are both Catholic and we had always wanted a religious ceremony as part of our wedding.
Did your reception have a particular theme in terms of colour or style?
We used the bridesmaids’ dress colour as our main theme. The champagne colour was taken through to the bouquets, ribbons on the favour boxes, and button holes.The table settings included an ‘antique’ coloured rose, which matched with the champagne colour. The chairs were covered with plain white linen with an ivory bow.
What did you choose to have on your menu?
'We first went for a meeting with the chef to discuss our preferences and tastes. We then went for a fantastic testing, where we ate four different starters, main courses, and desserts! It was a tough decision, but in the end we chose a salad of quail to start, followed by turbot with pork belly, and strawberry consommé and black olive to finish.
We also had a pre-dessert of mango cucumber and lime which is one of the Vineyard’s specials. We also had a range of different canapés which were delicious!
Your cake was spectacular! Who made it?
After some internet research we decided that we wanted to give each guest an individual cake, that way if people were to full to eat it then, they would be able to take it home with them! When having tea in Newbury one afternoon, we found a local bakers who made wedding cakes (Hethertons at Kings Coffee House), and we chose the design that we wanted – white and milk chocolate covered sponge cakes with red berries. They came to set it up for us, and it looked amazing!
Were you pleased with your wedding photography?
We were delighted with our choice of wedding photographers, Susan and Godfrey Johnson. From our first meeting and pre-wedding shoot, right through to getting our superb album, everything went really smoothly and was handled so professionally and to such a high standard.
We’d been to previous weddings where the photographs seemed to take such a long time, and seemed to stop the bride and groom from mixing with guests.
Friends and relatives are still so jealous of our album, even people who didn’t attend the wedding have heard about the album and have asked to see it! Having two photographers meant that every moment of the day was captured.
It was also a comfort for us to see photographs taken at the Vineyard on the West London photography website; this meant that Susan and Godfrey knew the venue, and all the perfect spots for photographs!
We were so happy with the way our day was handled, as we felt that we were still spending all of our time with our guests, and yet we still got all the pictures that we had hoped for.
Did you enjoy the quiet time you spent away from your guests, just the two of you being photographed?
It was lovely to spend just five minutes away from all the guests with David in our room. It would not have been something that we would have thought of ourselves, however those few minutes of quiet time gave us time to talk and reflect, and also provided us with some of our favourite photographs.
Did you use the 'helpful people' on West London Photography's website to plan your wedding?
IWe found our make-up artist through the West London photography website; coincidentally, this was the same make-up artist who had been recommended to me through my cousin, who had been married three years before.
Did you experience any 'nightmare' moments in the run up to your wedding or on the day?
IWe had a couple of nightmare moments but what wedding doesn’t! One of the bridesmaid’s dresses was made and sent over from America in the wrong size! In the end this was all resolved, and we received a new dress a week and a half before the wedding, although this didn’t leave too much time for alterations!
Also, our orders of service were delivered to the wrong address in some kind of mix-up. They finally arrived at the venue the evening before the wedding so with no time for us to proofread!
Luckily, everything was fine, and the staff at the Vineyard worked to put the booklets together for us!
Did you have any entertainment during the day or evening?
We had a live band for our evening entertainment provided through the agency Sternberg Clark. The two of us had debated whether this was something that we wanted or not, although in the end we were really glad that we did as everyone seemed to enjoy it!
Tell us about the fireworks!
We had decided that we wanted a small fireworks display at the end the evening. We organised these through Flashpoint Fireworks who had worked at the Vineyard previously, and David’s sister paid for them as a wedding present for us. We were surprised at how long they lasted, it was even better than we had expected it to be!
Where did you spend your first night and honeymoon?
After the wedding we stayed in the bridal suite at the Vineyard. We then went home for a couple of days which gave us the opportunity to send suits back, write thank you cards, and reflect on the day! For our honeymoon we booked a fly-drive with Virgin around west coast USA, going to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Napa Valley and San Francisco.
What was your most memorable moment of the day?
It would be too difficult to pick one moment of the day, it was all so special, from the church service, to the wedding breakfast, photographs, speeches, fireworks and entertainment! Just having family and friends together in one place having a good time was really special for us!
Is there anything you would do differently, or any advice you would give to other brides?
My wedding was exactly what I wanted it to be, and there is not a thing I would do differently!
If giving advice to other brides, I would say to relax and make sure that you remember to enjoy the day! It can be stressful planning, but at some stage you just need to forget about all the planning and remember to have a good time!