S&F Wedding - The venue

Gate Street Barn

After the proposal we were focused on setting the date and finding our dream venue. We both wanted to get married down south, near Guildford, rather than Scotland (where Fraser is from) or Hull (where I'm from) as we knew it would be difficult to select suppliers and organise everything from afar. We also loved the idea of getting married in the area we now call home and having all our friends and family see what a beautiful part of the country we live in. 

Before Fraser even proposed I'd done a few secret searches of wedding venues in and around Guildford (who doesn't?) and stumbled across Gate Street Barn (GSB). Just from the images on their website I got a feeling that this venue was a major contender. I've never told him about my secret searches; I just made it look like I found it when I was looking, legitimately, at venues. No doubt, I'm busted now!

It turned out though that Fraser also loved the look of the venue and was up for visiting it sooner rather than later. So we booked a viewing with the lovely ladies at Gate Street.

I should say, at this point, there were so many positives about GSB including:

• The beautiful setting; 
• It's licensed to hold civil ceremonies, which meant the whole day in one place; 
• A beautiful interior which could be decorated to our liking/theme; 
• No corkage charge; 
• A huge supplier list; 
• A bridal suite to get ready in in the morning; 
• A 15 minute drive from our house; 
• Endless positive reviews and comments from couples and guests alike

Photo: VLA Photography

What wasn't to love? We donned our best poker faces and greeted Jane, the owner, at the office, who was beyond lovely. Positive sign no. 1. Beautiful bridal suite. Positive sign no. 2. Amazing, amazing barn with beautiful high beams, beautiful chairs, beautiful floor, twinkling fairy lights, sensational chandeliers... ❤️ Positive sign no.3. A separate area called The Pheasantry housing the bar and where guests gather when they're turning the barn area around, filled with hanging hops - perfect for all our beer loving friends. Positive sign no.4. The grounds and the huge fire pit, which would be great for our autumn wedding. Positive sign no.5.

By this point, I was doing pretty well with my poker face. Fraser, on the other hand, was squealing with excitement... we were sold! What I particularly liked was that Jane was not pushy at all - she clearly stated their booking policy and left it at that. The team don't really need to give it the hard sell as it's such a beautiful venue - it does all the talking itself.

Still beautiful in the rain

 

23.11.14

We didn't visit any other venues. Our hearts were set on GSB. A few days later we confirmed our booking and ticked 'venue' firmly off our list. 23.11.14. The countdown had begun...  

Some words of advice when choosing your wedding venue:

• When you visit your venue imagine it's your big day there and then. It really does help you think about how the day might run and what you and your guests will experience.
• Ask lots of questions! Go with a list. Main things at this point are terms and conditions, cancellation policies, payment terms, understanding if there's any hidden extras and what is/is not permitted.
• Search the Internet for wedding photographs at your venue - I did this a lot and got a really good feel for how people had decorated the venue, good locations for photographs, different suppliers and what they could offer. Search wedding blogs too to get a good idea of others' personal experiences of getting married at the venue.
• Know your budget - that way, if you fall in love with a venue that is outside of your budget, you should be prepared to make sacrifices elsewhere. The venue is a deal breaker, I think.
• Be prepared to negotiate (not for everyone; but if you don't ask, you don't get). I left that to my husband as he's pretty good at that sort of thing... 
• Go with your heart - you'll know what's right for you both. Any niggling doubts are a sign - deal with them. Don't settle for less than you're worth. It's YOUR big day!

 

S&F Wedding - The engagement...

So, I should probably start from the beginning for my Wedding Wednesday series. The engagement. Let's go back to August 2013...

At that point Fraser and I had been together nearly five years and we knew we wanted to get married at some point but we had no firm thoughts on when. I'd begun to tease him a little about proposing, mainly due to the fact that everyone was getting married around us. We were attending three or four weddings a year at that point so marriage was not too far from our radar. My sister had been teasing Fraser quite a lot; in fact, one Christmas she'd written a gift tag pretending to be from Fraser saying "Will you marry me?" Bless him, he nearly had a heart attack!

I think like most men, Fraser didn't want to be pressurised into proposing and wanted to do it when the time was right for him and in his own way. Cue 9th August 2013.

He'd asked me to book the Friday off work and said that he wanted to take me on a surprise day out. His reasoning for this was that he'd been away with work quite a bit and planned to be away over the coming months. Fair enough. Did it cross my mind that he was going to propose? Initially yes, but his reason was so valid that I couldn't decide for certain. I did bombard him with lots of questions, number one being:
S - "Are you going to propose?" 
F - "NO!" Of course he had a full response prepared to throw me off the scent, and he did just that. Good man.
S - "Do I need a passport?"
F - "NO!" 
I think I was more disappointed that I wasn't going abroad than the fact I wasn't being proposed to. After many more questions, all I managed to get out of him was that I needed to pack an overnight bag, pack swimwear and some smart evening wear. My mind immediately went to 'spa day', to which I reassured myself further that Fraser was definitely not going to propose. That just wasn't his style, right?
9th August arrived and off we went in the car; still with no idea where we were heading. A3, M25, signs for Staines - Staines? - what the hell is in Staines? 

Luckily we weren't heading for Staines, we were heading for the gorgeous Runnymede hotel, set on the banks of the River Thames, near Windsor. As soon as we drove up I knew Fraser was definitely not going to propose. It was all just so cliche and, dare I say it, predictable (pah, how wrong was I?). We checked in, went up to the room, dumped our bags and checked out what the hotel had to offer. Fraser did confess that he thought we were long overdue some quality 'Shaz' (Shona+Fraz) time, and he'd heard good things about the hotel, so took the plunge. Yes, the hotel had a spa, and it even had an outdoor swimming pool (amazing). The weather was beautiful that day too, so we headed straight outdoors and grabbed our sun loungers. 

After we'd sunbathed, visited the sauna and steam room, we went back to the room and got ready for dinner. Still no proposal.
Dinner was absolutely delicious. I have no recollection of what we had; I just remember Fraser tipping the pepper pot over his main and the lid coming off - a mound of pepper landing on top of his dinner. I found that quite hilarious, the server was mortified but the chef did an excellent job of preparing a new dish within minutes. Now, I do remember dessert, because I LOVE trifle. Still no proposal though.

After dinner, we retired to the bar and had quite a number of drinks. Still no proposal. We both started to feel a little tipsy, so retired to the room. I went to the bathroom and unbeknown to me, this is when Fraser did his 'prep' (he put out the proposal card on the dresser). By the time I'd faffed around in the bathroom I was pretty tired. I laid on the bed feeling a little tipsy and tired, not noticing the card for at least 40 mins. On reflection, I do recall Fraser acting rather strangely during those 40 minutes - up and down like a yo-yo, waving his arms around whilst stood in front of the dresser. Nope, I didn't have a clue. FINALLY, I noticed...
S - "Is that a card? For me?"
F - "Yes, why don't you open it"
<opens card>
<sees message>

THE proposal! It caught me completely off guard. 
S - "Are you serious?"
F - "Yeah, so how about it?"
S - "YES, YES, YES!"
<wipes tears from eyes>
What I loved about the proposal was that Fraser never actually said those four little words - will you marry me? - instead, he left it to that one image to do all the talking. He also combined two of my favourite things into his proposal - photography and a (greetings) card (I love cards more than presents). It was perfect! Truly perfect. I love the fact I have a physical memory and keepsake from the proposal, and not just a ring - although Fraser didn't have a ring for the proposal as I'd told him not to buy one. I'm not a big fan of jewellery and am rather fussy when I do wear it, so I wanted to personally try rings on and thought choosing it together would be much more fun than Fraser hoping he'd made a right choice alone.
Of course, we went ring shopping the next day and I made my choice quite quickly (see photo at top of page). I knew instantly it was right for me: simple, understated, practical yet different to some of the more traditional engagement rings out there.

After calling family and friends to announce the news, I knew what I had to do next...

Let the planning commence!

Shones
xoxo

Happy New Year! Happy New Blog!

Hello there...

Firstly, welcome to my blog. This is all very new for me, although it's something that I've wanted to do for a while now after stumbling across some fantastic blogs, which have inspired me. So, here goes.

Secondly, I realise that readers will no doubt want to know a little about me before investing time in reading my ramblings. I'll keep it short for now, as I hope you'll get to know me better in time through my writing. So, let me introduce myself.  My name is Shona. I currently have two surnames, as I'm recently married. I'm stuck in that limbo land of not quite deciding which name to stick with. Watson (maiden name) or Bruce (married name). Personally, I'm going with Bruce. Professionally, I'm sticking with Watson. So, that shouldn't be too confusing.

I got married to my wonderfully, crazy husband on 23rd November 2014 at the beautiful Gate Street Barn in Surrey. A truly wonderful and magical day, which will undoubtedly feature heavily on my blog in the very near future.

By trade, I am an Organisational Psychologist which involves working with a range of organisations helping them improve - among other things - human performance, safety performance, working relationships, competence, leadership, processes and systems. It's a VERY interesting job and it has been fascinating seeing very different organisations struggle with the same problems and issues - people!

Psychology is therefore a big part of my life, and in my time pondering about what might make my blog interesting, and a little bit different, the answer was there all along. Psychology. I'm not saying that all my ramblings will be about theories of psychology and statistical significance of experimental results (there's a place and time for that and it's not here!). I'm saying that I am keen to bring elements of psychological thinking to everyday writing. Curious? I am...

I don't have a particular structure to how I'll write or present my blog, as my brain doesn't really work in that way. Normally, I'm pretty spontaneous, however I was thinking that {Wedding Wednesdays} could work. Apart from that, let's see what crosses my path, inspires me, engages my curiosity or annoys the hell out of me!

I promise to get started with wedding related posts in the next week or so. Let's start with something exciting! And please bear with me while I find my way through the bloggers landscape...

Shones
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