Today Cwtchers we have the beautiful Suzanne from our amazing lush lister iGency on the blog- she sent this through on how she was feeling two weeks before her big day… She is getting married today! Yes today!!! From us all at Cwtch HQ we want to wish you all the luck in the world and hope you and Ryan have the most amazing day!!
Hey Brides to be!!
Hope your wedding arrangements are all coming along beautifully. I am getting married on 23rd sept…(shock horror it’s a Wednesday!) and we have been way to chilled about the whole thing until now!! NOW I AM STRESSING ;))
Ryan my partner and I run The iGency – a live entertainment agency based in South Wales, we are also in a wedding band called iPop I am a singer and he is a drummer. Check out the band here
We have been flat out with work over the ‘wedding season’ and have not really had much of a chance to get things together. We only set the date in May!
We got engaged in March 2014 after the birth of our beautiful little girl Seren Elvie…we have been together almost 8 years but having the baby made us want to make our little family official. The proposal was far from romantic…Ryan was away on tour he arrived back the day after my 30th Birthday…with no card or prezzie. I didn’t say anything because I am not really one for birthday fuss… but he was definitely skating on thin ice ;)) The next day he had to rush of early to a “rehearsal”…little did I know he was stopping off on the way to pick me up a rock!! The following morning with a baby on the boob, greasy hair and cereal in my teeth he popped the question…in his own special way he thought it was romantic ;) On a positive note… If he wanted to marry me looking like that it surely must be love!
We love working in the wedding industry iPop play at over 100 weddings and events every year and The iGency our entertainment agency supply bands to hundreds more. As we play at so many weddings I did not want ours to feel like work, so we needed to choose something a little different.
We both wanted to get married abroad but I wanted my Nan to be able to come…also I found it so difficult to begin the search process. I couldn’t even decide on a country, never mind a venue..So we gave up on that idea.
I have racked up quite a nice list of all our fave wedding venues around the UK so we began thinking about them but for one reason or another none of them were exciting us… Here is the list of my faves by the way…in case any of you are interested.
Aynhoe Park – Banbury
Cowley Manor – Gloucestershire
Axnoller Farm – Dorset
Coombe Lodge – Somerset
Wasing Park – Reading
Celtic Manor – Newport
The Grove – Watford
Hedsor House – Buckinghamshire
Elmore Court – Gloucestershire
My fave choice in Wales was Sosban…gorgeous food, fab space and the manager is a dream to work with.
We met a great guy when we were out in Lebanon performing with iPop one summer…he seen us play at Iris a glamorous roof top terrace in down town Beirut and invited us to his equally glamorous restaurant Salmontini. It was literally the best restaurant I had ever been to a cool vibe, with food to die for!!! He recently opened the same restaurant in London we went for dinner one night and fell in love…we decided it was the one!
We are getting married at Chelsea registry office then heading back to the restaurant in the heart of Belgravia. We are real foodies so it was important to us that our wedding menu was top class. I can’t wait to get stuck into our wedding meal ;)
We decided upon a Wednesday wedding because lots of our friends are in the music industry and we all work at weekends, if we would have done a Saturday we would have probably had no guests :) You can also get better prices from most vendors if you choose an off peak date… The iGency always offer a discount for mid week events…for you reference all bands love a mid week wedding be sure to negotiate!!
On to the frock… I was adamant that I would not spend a fortune on a dress…ADAMANT! Until I tried on my little beauty ;) I tried it on before checking the price tag…disastrous move…then of course I fell in love. The event was made even more special as the day I went to the shop my mum & dad were visiting from Watford, my Nan was down from Liverpool & my best friend was visiting from Abu Dhabi (this never happens)….they all agreed it was the one! I did have a major panic after I left the shop… it was way more that I wanted to spend and I worried that I had just got caught up in the moment…in fact I called the shop and postponed the first fitting!! I did a bit more searching but it had stolen my heart…nothing compared ;) I knew I wanted something a little different…but I didn’t know what until I tried this dress on..it is exactly what I was after. I asked the designer if she could make me a mini version for my little girl too..….I have just seen the finished article…we are going to be twins…she looks too cute!!!
Because of our line of work lots of people have asked what entertainment we will be having…I think live music is such an important part of the evening. It can really make or break the night. It is so important that you go for top quality acts, don’t just go for the cheapest option, people will remember the entertainment for years to come, book the best you can afford. As our venue is so intimate there is no room to have a full band so we have selected a number of our favourite solo artists and DJ to perform through the night…to keep us rocking until the early hours :) We are very lucky that we have such a fantastic team of talent to call upon. The iGency can offer bespoke solutions for your event too if your venue is out of the ordinary or if you just fancy something unusual we can come up with some ideas for you.
We are around 2 weeks away and I still have loads of little bits to do… lastminute.com !!! I decided I didn’t want a table plan…but my bridesmaid’s convinced me I should have one…so I am going to get cracking with that now…oh joy! Hopefully it will all come together… I look forward to sharing the photos & post wedding tips with you.
Best of luck.
Suz x
