Wedding Planning Meeting
at The Ashes Barns
Planning your wedding is a time full of excitement and new experiences. We completely understand that it can also be a little bit daunting, but we want to reassure you that we are here to help you every step of the way. Our wedding specialists will support you throughout the entire process, from the day you make your booking with us, until the very last second of your wedding day.
We’ll discuss the details of your big day at your Wedding Planning Meeting so that we know exactly how you’d like the day to run. We’ll ask lots of questions so that we can understand what’s important to you on the day. That way, you can relax and enjoy every minute of your celebrations while we ensure everything goes to plan. You will be invited to The Ashes Barns for your Wedding Planning Meeting around three months before your wedding. We would love to see you in person, however, don’t worry if this proves difficult, as we can also host these meetings remotely via Zoom for couples who live further afield.
The Wedding Party
During your Wedding Planning Meeting we’ll ask for confirmation of your daytime and evening guest numbers, and we’ll discuss who your chosen key players will be. These are usually the people you can confidently count on to assist you at key moments throughout your special day.
For example, it’s great if we know who is getting ready with you in the Dressing Room, or which of your friends will enjoy announcing you into the Wedding Breakfast Barn.
These kinds of details help us to form a picture of how your day will flow and who you’re counting on within your wedding party to keep you calm, support you, and bring their unique style to your celebrations.
All this information means we can put a detailed plan together well in advance that we’ll share with you online. You can share it with any suppliers who will find it useful to know the timings for the day, such as your photographer. Don’t worry if these need to be tweaked last minute, we can easily adapt.
Wedding Day Timings
During the Wedding Planning Meeting, we will confirm timings and how the full day will run. The starting point for this is your booked ceremony time. We’ll work around this and confirm timings of things like:
- Any live music
- Activities
- Cake-cutting
- First dance
- Number of speeches after dining
It’s a great idea to check out our blog online, which gives a detailed example of how your day may run.
Wedding Suppliers
Your suppliers are one of the most important aspects of your wedding day, and the further in advance you book with them, the better! As they can get booked up very quickly.
It would be great if you could bring a note of the contact details of any suppliers you have booked with to your meeting, just in case we need to directly communicate with them. Suppliers can include:
- Photographers
- Live music
- DJs
- Venue dressers
- Florists
Don’t forget to check out our incredible Handpicked Suppliers list which consists of some of our most trusted and recommended suppliers who we work with consistently!
Personal Touches
We are always excited to hear your creative ideas for dressing the venue. It’s great to discuss this early on to ensure it is feasible and fits in with timings. As the barns are already so effortlessly beautiful, even the simplest personal touches prove so effective.
You’re more than welcome to go all out dressing the venue, if you wish, however please be aware that you would need an independent venue dresser, as your fabulous Event Manager will only have limited time to work their magic on the morning of your wedding.
Music
Your choice of music is such a special aspect of your day, as it represents you both as a couple. In your Wedding Planning Meeting your Event Manager will want to confirm with you your choice of music.
Many couples will choose two songs for entering the ceremony, and two songs to leave, along with a playlist of background music for the guests arrival. We can play this through our fantastic speaker system in the West Barn.
We also love to see couples welcomed into the ceremony to live music. A live string quartet or harpist, set upon the Juliet Balcony in the West Barn, really makes for a grand entrance.
An efficient way of supplying us with your chosen music is by creating a public playlist on Spotify and sharing this with us.
Please follow the link below for more inspiration on wedding playlists.
We hope that this gives you a bit more of an idea of what to expect at your Wedding Planning Meeting and how you can help us, help you. We’re always so excited to hear all your amazing plans, and however you might want your wedding day to look, we’re here to help you make that happen and ensure that you have the Best Day Ever!
Huge thanks go to the fabulous Cris Lowis for sharing his gorgeous snaps of Megan & James' special day.