Aynhoe Park Wedding - Kim & David

Aynhoe Park Wedding – Kim & David

In 2017, I received an email enquiry from Kim and David who were looking for a planner to create their UK destination wedding, they were looking for someone who ‘got them and their crazy ideas’. Following that email occurred a surreal Skype call with talk of elephants and monkeys and I knew that this was to be no ordinary wedding!

K+D are known for their surprises amongst their friends and their UK destination wedding was to be their biggest surprise to date.

Asking guests to fly into London from around the world meant that the venue needed to be amazing and that was when I decided Aynhoe Park could be the one! We went ahead and booked with K+D only seeing Aynhoe in person the week of their actual wedding when they flew in from Australia. The minute they walked through the door they fell in love with its quirkiness and the warm vibe that the house wraps you in when you walk through the front doors. You cannot help but be drawn into it charms.

Fast forward 10 months of planning and the only information guests were given on their invitations was to be at London King’s Cross station to meet the planning team at 10.30am on the morning of the wedding – they were told to bring an overnight bag and to be wearing their wedding outfits! It was then our task to get 96 guests to Oxfordshire with no clues as to the final destination. This in addition to them trying to trick the wedding location out of us during the pre wedding photo shoots and a spot of social media stalking!.

Our brief was that they wanted their guests to have FUN and yes that’s fun in capitals. On arrival at Aynhoe, guests were escorted to their rooms by the fabulous Aynhoe butler team and then gathered in the entrance hall for a pre-ceremony drinks and canapés reception whilst Kim and the girls made the final touches to their bridal prep.

They wanted a fun, inclusive ceremony (nobody was to be bored!) which saw guests drinking Patron XO Café Tequila shots (yes really!) served by the Aynhoe Butler team. Acoustic trio Fiddlin’ About led the bridal party out across the lawn and then during the ceremony they had everyone up dancing to Blurred Lines. Katie Matthews was the perfect Celebrant for K&D, perfecting a unique ceremony that was both emotional and filled with laughter. Top that off with a ring warming which saw us all praying that the rings stayed attached to the Batman cushion they were on (they didn’t!).

The amazing floral tree sculpture backdrop for the ceremony was created by The Flower Story along with the rest of the wedding flowers (excluding the Supergirl flower girl’s crown, which was rustled up 10 mins before the ceremony by the bridesmaids!). K+D decided to let Aynhoe and its treasures speak for themselves and therefore had minimal florals inside.

The reception whilst originally planned to be held on the South lawn overlooking the deer park was held in the Orangery due to the inclement weather. With an assortment of drinks available including a whisky bar, entertainment was by Fiddlin’ About and Sleight of Hand Artist, Dean Maudsley (who literally had the guests screaming in surprise!).

For the evening reception, we had a couple of surprises up our sleeves that had been tricky to keep due to the number of people and logistics involved! The Groomsmen and Woman had a video they wanted to showcase during their speech which was a surprise to K+D. As Kim then thought they were about to launch into their first dance routine, David surprised her by asking her to take a seat and then proceeded to sing a song he had written accompanied by guitar and another hilarious video.

After a choreographed first dance with dry ice (they wanted to add a dramatic effect and with confetti cannons out the dry ice was in!) the party began before heading to the downstairs bar at midnight with the last ones still standing at 6am!

Kim and David, there are no words to describe your wedding, we were truly honoured to take you on your planning journey. You and your guests will forever be in our planning hearts. Huge thanks to the awesome Lina & Tom Photography for the amazing photos that capture the spirit of the entire day and to Richard of White Dress Films for capturing the day on film.

K+ D you were amazing and may you enjoy many more adventures (if we ever make it to Australia we are hooking up for drinks for sure! Lets do it all again for the 10th Anniversary ….)