WEDDINGS Celebrating Jacqueline

WE MARRIED at ‘OUR SPECIAL PLACE!’

For Jacqueline Bellamy and Eric Gledhill, the opportunity to marry at their special place was too good to delay, and the couple say that whilst their wedding had fewer guests, it was more enjoyable and intimate as a result...

Wedding Photographer: Rachael Connerton, 01664 822342, www.rachaelconnertonphotography.co.uk.

This month’s featured couple Jacqueline and Eric have really taken their chosen wedding reception venue to their hearts. They actually live a little way out of the county, but first visited the area to see one of Jacqueline’s four daughters, who was working and living in Leicester. “She was getting married, and we arranged a hen weekend together which included taking afternoon tea at a country house hotel,” says Jacqueline. “That place was Stapleford Park and from the moment we pulled up I thought it was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. That was about seven years ago, and having told Eric about when I returned from that first visit, he and I have returned at least once a year ever since.” “I’ve known Eric for about 20 years, and we’ve been together for eight years now. Back in 2019 we were travelling down to Leicester and stopped on the way to see our friends Jim and Dee.” “I couldn’t believe it but Eric proposed to me there and the four of us celebrated our engagement together. It was perfect! We carried on to Stapleford Park and ended up celebrating our engagement there.” “We hadn’t made any firm plans but I think we both knew in the back of our minds that we’d love to marry at our favourite place. During the course of our wedding planning, lockdown came along and we had to discuss whether we continued to plan our wedding – albeit smaller than we were anticipating – or accept that we would have to defer until 2021 or perhaps 2022.” “We didn’t see the point in waiting and on a lovely sunny day in spring, at home during lockdown, we called Stapleford Park to enquire about the availability of wedding dates. We discussed dates and within less than an hour we had our 2020 date booked!”

“We both know quite a few people and once you begin to plan your wedding there’s a concern that if you invite someone, you necessarily have to invite someone else, we added up the number of guests we’d like to invite and it would have meant a wedding for over 200 people!”

“Both of us had been married before and it made us question what sort of an occasion we wanted. And in fact we both realised that our wedding was about us, not about others, so we accepted that we could have a really small but very intimate and enjoyable wedding with just eight people. That’s what we did... and we’re really glad.”

“Or guests were Jim & Dee Harrod, who were there to celebrate our proposal too, and our good friends John & Elaine Rounds, then my daughter Elizabeth accompanied by our son-in-law Thomas and our flower girl, my two-year old granddaughter Matilda.”

“I didn’t feel completely certain that I wanted to wear a wedding dress, and was looking for a white suit instead. But I wondered if it wouldn’t feel special enough, as though I wasn’t ‘dressed up’ enough.”

“I started looking around and found an ‘A’-line wedding dress by Pronovias with lace overlay and a separate skirt. I knew as soon as I tried it on that I’d made the right decision.”

“We decided not to have a wedding cake as we thought that once lockdown was over we’d have a larger party for all of our friends and family instead, and perhaps commission a wedding cake then.” >>

WEDDING SUPPLIERS

JACQUELINE BELLAMY AND ERIC GLEDHILL

Wedding Ceremony & Reception: Stapleford Park, Melton Mowbray, 01572 787000, www.staplefordpark.com. Wedding Dress: Pronovias, www.pronovias.com. Photographer: Rachael Connerton 01664 822342, www.rachael connertonphotography.co.uk. Harpist: Xenia Horne, 07866 568872, ukharpists.com. n

>> “We did use a great local florist, though. Stapleford Park gave us a list of some local wedding suppliers which was really useful as we aren’t local.” “My dress was a sort of off-white ivory with a bit of a peach blush so we chose sage as our other highlight colour, and the florist was able to work with that scheme.” “The other local supplier that we were really really happy with was our photographer, Rachael Connerton. I really can’t praise her enough, she was heaven to work with from start to finish and she made me feel so confident as I was walking down the stairs to the ceremony.” “We married in the Morning Room at the hotel, and then we had our photographs taken, before we enjoyed a evening meal in the hotel’s Harborough Room. As always it was absolutely delicious!” “Because the hotel was subject to lockdown it opened on Wednesday and then closed on Sunday evening, so we stayed there the whole time. We’re planning a honeymoon to Oxford when restrictions are eased and we’re able to travel again, because the city is somewhere that neither of us have actually visited and somewhere we’d like to tick off our bucket list!” “Our wedding was absolutely perfect, perhaps more so because it was so intimate and relaxed, not a large event with hundreds of people to see and speak to. We’re really glad we were able to marry at ‘our special place,’ and we’re so grateful to the staff who really made us feel special!” n

Images: Rachael Connerton, 01664 822342, rachaelconnertonphotography.co.uk.