Suzi and Adrian's beautiful day at Combe Manor

The weather was beautiful for the marriage of Suzi and Adrian on the weekend. A drinks reception was set up in the courtyard at Combe Manor where the guests enjoyed deliciously summery mojitos with fresh mint and lime in the sunshine. During the reception, our waiters and waitresses brought canapés to the guests;

Suzi and Adrian chose Mini Yorkshire Puddings with Horseradish and Beef, one of the most popular of our canapés and there were compliments all round from the guests!

There were lots of children at the wedding and this canapé was a huge hit with them; Goats Cheese and Spinach Flat Breads are a hit with everyone!

The canapé selection also included Carrot, Cumin and Spinach Filo Parcels, Devils on Horseback and White Bait with a deliciously creamy Tartar Sauce. All served on slate boards, guests could not resist our beautifully presented treats.

The barn was decorated with twinkling fairy lights and simple table decorations. Combe Manor's barn is full of historic tapestries and so it does not need a huge amount of decorating to look great. 

The tables had bouquets and an array of jars and bottles, topped off with cut out newspaper heart confetti which was a really lovely touch. There is a huge variety of heart confetti on Etsy.com, ranging from tiny pastel hearts to delicate vintage newspaper cut outs.

When the guests were called into the barn for their Wedding Breakfast they made their way to Suzi and Adrian's unique table plan. Each jar was filled with something different, and was tied with a tag featuring the names of everybody on the table and their table number. Some were filled with different nuts, pinecones, shells and stones. It was a really beautiful and natural way to feature the table plan and we loved it.

For their main course, they enjoyed a selection of barbeque platters with delicious local sausages from Vicar's Game, slices of tender lamb, Teriyaki Salmon and a range of fresh salads including a spicy Thai Sum Tom Salad 

For dessert, we served the guests platters of Suzi and Adrian's wedding cake with fresh berries, cream and coulis.

After the meal was served, the Céilidh band began playing traditional Gaelic folk music, encouraging guests to join in with folk dance. The tables were cleared and moved away to make space for all sorts of moves to take place on the dance floor. The Pot Kiln Anywhere opened the bar, where we served local ales, lagers, spirits and wines.

With all the dancing, the guests needed something to keep them going! So our chefs served evening food on slate and wooden boards, featuring a beautiful local cheese tower decorated with figs, pomegranate and grapes. Delicious!

A sweetie buffet was also set up by our staff for the guests to enjoy during the evening. Labelled with vintage luggage tags, the wedding party's favourites were the choice of sweets for the evening. Suzi's top pick was flying saucers, which looked great in a vintage sweets jar. Suzi and Adrian had a fantastic time and so did we. It was an honour to be part of their big day.

Easter Weddings at Ufton Court

After doing a Pinterest board and blog about Easter Weddings, we were very excited to see how last weekend's brides and grooms incorporated the Easter theme into their big day. It was great to see how differently two couples can take the theme and make it their own; Friday's wedding had a mixture of two themes; they had a very traditional Easter theme, but also a record theme too.

Pimms and Buck's Fizz were served in the Archer's Hall along with a selection of nibbles. The Hall was kept plain and simple, with only cream bunting and Ufton's Coat of Arms which hang on the back wall of the Hall. The vinyl records and album covers were placed around the room on the window sills, making sure the hall didn't look too overcrowded. The Easter theme was kept to one small table in the middle of the room which was a table set up for the children to do an Easter egg hunt. There were traditional chicks and eggs in bright and pastel colours, it screamed Easter!

The mixture of themes were also present in Tithe Barn. After reception drinks, the guests made their way to Tithe Barn to enjoy the Wedding Breakfast. The tables were decorated with beautiful Easter flowers, and the table names were records on stands.

The vinyls were put onto a table plan so that the guests could see where they would be seated. We hadn't seen a table plan like this before, it was really fun and unique.

MENU

Starter

Coarse Hampshire Wild Boar and Gresingham Duck Pate with Spiced Apple Chutney, Cornoichons and Mixed Salad

Main 

Lemon and Rosemary Roasted Bass Fillet, Cauliflower Puree, Pommes Anna and Beurre Noisette with Spring Greens

Dessert

Chocolate Wedding Cake, Fresh Fruit, Cream and Coulis 

The evening then took a sweeter turn, with a fun and bright sweets table with cupcakes and classic pick n mix sweets in big retro jars with traditional pink and white bags. Dotted around the cupcakes and sweet jars were the traditional chicks once again, keeping the theme incorporated throughout every aspect of the day. The guests then took to the dance floor and enjoyed a bar full of some of our local favourites like West Berkshire Brewery's Mr Chubbs Lunch Time Bitter.

The wedding on the Saturday didn't have such a strict theme, and subtly introduced Easter through the colour scheme rather than Egg hunts and bunnies. The flowers weren't traditional for Easter, however the delicate pastel colours were exactly those you would expect at an Easter Wedding.

The tables were decorated with brightly coloured napkins with a mismatched jam jar tied with pink ribbon. The guest names were featured on small luggage tags, handwritten in black ink on decorated jars. The idea of the jars was that the guests would go up to the sweet table at the end of the Wedding Breakfast and fill it with their favourite sweets and take it home.

Also on the table were cute little vintage tea cups filled with different coloured roses and textured leaves. The whole style was really charming and pretty.

The weddings showed us that even in the same venue, you can really make a theme yours. Even a theme as traditional as Easter. A lot of people might worry that having an Easter wedding will mean covering your whole venue in chicks and bunnies, but this really was not the case at Ufton Court; even the theme of Easter can be done in a classy, elegant and subtle way.

Easter Inspiration!

With Easter not too far away we've been busy gathering inspiration for all you lovely brides and grooms thinking of having an Easter-themed wedding! We've got everything covered from colour-schemes to cake so if you're struggling with ideas have a scroll down our blog post.

Let's start with the basics - colours. Once you've got the colour scheme sorted it's easier for everything else to fall into place. Whilst searching through pinterest we decided pastel colours were the most effective for this theme. Pastel colours are fun and pretty easy to mix and match, because they're so pale they don't tend to clash! 

Mix and match Bridesmaid dresses - very popular this year!

Using a pastel palette is a good way for you to use a lot of different colours without it looking like a clown's wedding. So if you're undecided on one colour, why not go for pastels? You can incorporate this colour-scheme throughout your wedding, look out for pastel colours throughout this blog post!

Another very important part of your big day (we think it's definitely the most important part) is the food and drink. You can't throw the party of the year without good food and drink, we've come across some lovely looking easter-themed treats. 

We've seen many pick n mix tables over the years, add mini eggs and other themed sweeties for your Easter wedding. 

Whilst scanning pinterest we came across this beautiful blue egg shell themed cake. Something like this would look perfect!

We love the idea of having a cake table full of Easter-themed mini cakes! Here we have mini Simnel cakes and nest cupcakes served in little tea cups. Serve these as dessert after the main, at the Pot Kiln Anywhere we do a delicious lamb shank - perfect for a traditional Easter meal.

Iced biscuits would make the perfect favours for your guests or maybe as a little treat for your bridesmaids/flower girls.

You can have a lot of fun decorating your venue with this theme because there is so much out there. There's decor to suit any venue, here's a few of our favourites.

Simple Bunny Garland

Egg Box Cake Pops

Classy Golden Egg

Hand Decorated Eggs

Even the flowers can be themed, mixed meadow flowers such as poppies and daisies look lovely together. Bulb flowers such as blue bells and daffodils are the iconic Easter flowers and will look perfect in bouquets and on tables!

Gorgeous bouquet of bluebells, it looks so simple but it's so effective. Use Hessian to tie together to make it more rustic! 

Lovely textured meadow flowers

Daffodil Centre in Blue Vase

Stunning mixed bouquet

We hope we've given you plenty of inspiration for your Easter Weddings. We had lots of fun putting this together but we're now desperate for chocolate eggs and cupcakes!

Jenny and Dave's big day

On the Friday the 4th of April we were at Ufton Court once again, for the wedding of Jenny and Dave.

Although it wasn't as gloriously sunny as it had been on the previous event, Ufton Court was full of Spring time vibes. The blossom in the orchard looked beautiful against the main house, and the daffodils were still in full bloom. The garden looked lovely.

Jenny and Dave had their ceremony at Ufton Court. There were pieces of white fabric draped across the rustic timbers, laced with twinkling fairy lights. It brought the ceremony together beautifully, along with the pretty trees and bouquets tied alternately to the aisle seats.

After the ceremony, everyone made their way over to the reception drinks held in the Archer's Hall, which was also dressed in canopy-style fabric. Our waiters and waitresses served Champagne and soft drinks. Over at the far wall of the Archer's Hall was a fantasticly whacky cupcake display; featuring one particular cupcake which caught our eye... A jammy dodger cupcake! They all looked delicious, and we would have loved to devour the whole lot.

What made the cupcake display even more tempting (yes, we know that cupcakes on there own are pretty tempting already) was Lindsey Kitchin (from the White Horse Flower Company)'s stunning flowers. She really wowed us, and the guests at Jenny and Dave's wedding. The flowers were exquisite. Visit the website to see more of Lindsey's creations; http://www.thewhitehorseflowercompany.co.uk/.

During the reception, our chefs served up an array of delicious canapés including the wedding guest's favourite; honey and mustard glazed sausages. After a couple of hours, the guests were called into Tithe Barn to be seated for the Wedding Breakfast.

The barn had been transformed since the ceremony. The tables had been set up by The Pot Kiln Anywhere with cutlery, napkins and glassware. The napkins were held together with candy necklaces which acted as really unique and cute favours for the guests. They each had a small brown, rustic, luggage tag featuring the guest's name.

Lindsey had dressed the barn beautifully in her creative array of flowers. The bride had provided The White Horse Flower Company with higgledy piggledy ceramic vases which worked really well with the flowers Lindsey had picked out.

MENU

Starter

Wild Boar Pâté or Vegetable Terrine 

Main

A selection of Individual Pies;

Venison

Chicken, Leek and Chorizo

Rabbit and Parsnip

Pork and Apple

Served with Creamy Mashed Potato, Mustard Mashed Potato and Broccoli

Dessert

Lemon Cheesecake served with Cream, Coulis and Raspberries 

Vegetable Terrine

Wild Boar Pâté

Individual pie 

Lemon Cheesecake

After the Wedding Breakfasts, guests enjoyed tea and coffee and cupcakes back at the Archer's Hall. After resisting the cupcakes due to being told that the cupcakes were for later, the guests were extremely pleased to be able to tuck in! Jenny and Dave cut the wedding cake, then it was back to the Barn for dancing and drinks, followed later on by bacon rolls for evening food.

It was a lovely Spring time event and the bride, groom and guests seemed to have a fantastic time at Ufton Court.