We met the lovely Lucy and Martin earlier this year when they popped into Adamapple HQ to handpick their bespoke, biodegradable wedding confetti at the Confetti Bar. They chose a gorgeous combination of Sun Dried Pink and Ivory Rose Petals, mixed with Freeze Dried Ivory Carnation and Dried Calendula to match their summery colour scheme.
The couple were due to marry on May 2nd 2020 but due to the Corona Virus pandemic, unfortunately their plans had to change - but that didn't stop the couple from celebrating in style with a Plugged In Wedding from home.
"Our wedding will be re-planned, when we know we are able to, but for now, come and join us virtually as we celebrate what would have been 'we do'."
Lucy was kind enough to tell us about their Plugged In, virtual wedding and how they went about organising it, what their day entailed and how they felt celebrating on their original wedding date with friends and family joining them online.
How did you feel when your original date had to be cancelled?
"We were absolutely gutted, there was a little bit of disbelief too with it all when the vicar called us (I still have the moments where I think ‘can you actually believe this happened?) I was mad and felt really angry at the whole situation also (which I then felt selfish over). If you think planning a wedding is stressful, I can definitely let you know cancelling a wedding is way more stressful. All suppliers, insurance, guests; a really heart breaking task to do! Overall when the realisation hit though, our overriding feeling was just great sadness. We couldn’t wait to being husband and wife. Something we are still a little sad about in honesty... but one day!!"
Did you know you definitely wanted to have some sort of celebration on your original date?
"We were really up and down with what to do. Going through all the cancellation was totally stressing me, we had all the work and none of the fun of the now cancelled day; but we had been counting down to our big day for such a long while."
"I had a search on Facebook for Celebrants and came across the wonderful Becky from Celebrant Ceremonies by Becky. I gave her a call not really knowing what I was asking. 'Can you do a ceremony but not marry us? Can we have something that make the date still significant and feel lovely but not swap rings and ‘fake’ the wedding?' Who knows what I was asking for!!! But Becky was amazing from when I first spoke, so cool with suggestions and making it feel a totally normal thing to be asking."
"The new normal hey! From when we first discussed the ‘shall we go for it’ and decided yes, everything was just so easy and fun from there! It injected some much needed love back into the imminent dates, it was nice to look forward to it rather than fearing the day coming and just being miserable!"
What went into organising a Zoom wedding? You look like you went all out - what were your must-haves?
"We’ll be honest, it was all a bit mad. We had done a couple of Zoom chats but not something like this... first off I wrote a poem to send to guests, informing them of the change and new plan and this detailed at the information guests needed to access the ceremony, times and even dress code!"
"We don’t do things half hearted, a bit of an all or nothing household! So we arranged for caterers who recreated our wedding breakfast, the fab team at Campbell and Rowley. They were incredible!!"
"We decided we would still cut the cake and arranged for the supplier (Lytham Cake Company) doing our wedding cake to make a (much!) smaller version, with a few changes so it’s different for when we do actually wed!!"
"We also arranged some fabulous florals from Margaret Mason. The floral designs for the wedding was absolutely stunning (like really beautiful!!) I knew it had to feature a little. We had some trees we placed for where the ceremony was, I had a bouquet and Martin a button hole. We also had a table design for our wedding breakfast. It was all really lovely."
Did you stream the whole day? Or did you get ready with bridesmaids/friends, and then later stream the 'ceremony' to everyone?
"We didn’t stream the whole day, only the ceremony. I had a surprise the morning of the wedding from one of my best friends. Martin was in on it and it started the day so amazing, I was so emotional even then! She delivered an iPad with messages from all my hen party girls. They all had recorded a little message and it ended with her saying to come down for a glass of champagne."
"A table in my garden had been decorated with balloons, fizz and breakfast. Amazing. After a few glasses I wobbled upstairs (a little late and a lot giddy) to get ready. I had people messaging selfies of their outfits, families all suited and booted at home ready with a glass of fizz and I felt so blessed, people really embraced it. Charlie, our little doggy, had his outfit on so he was the last thing I sorted in before the ceremony."
"When the Zoom session has started everyone was there (but me) I was the other side of the lounge door. I just enjoyed the moment for what it was, laughing to myself at how bonkers it all was. I was in my hallway waiting to hear the music to walk in to my lounge with our dog and make promises to the guy I was suppose to be marrying this day. I couldn’t wait to see Martin too."
"It was fab! We laughed all day. We were giddy in the morning, we had cards for each other, little surprises along the way and we really enjoyed it. My mum had secretly come and decorated the front of the house and left a breakfast hamper for us. We are literally blessed with the best around us. The ceremony was absolutely madness but brilliant, food delicious and we had the right balance of time together after the odd video call with friends and family. Everyone says how quick their wedding day goes, well our non-wedding day flew so I can only imagine how quick the real thing will go!"
Did you get ready with Martin or did you keep what you looked like a surprise?
"We got ready separately. We weren’t wearing our wedding attire. I had two dresses as we were doing a wedding weekender but they were both still in the shops! Although Martin had his suit we wanted to save this for the day. Martin knew I had a dress and my flower crown but we got ready separately. It was exciting and amazing walking towards him. We planned a route in via the garden for me, under the trees and to Martin. We chose music and had tried to run through with Charlie dog, but it all went to pot a little, but who cares!!"
What were your favourite details of the day?
"The little surprises we had for each other was special and just showed us how much we meant to each other. Although we were sad that we wouldn’t be becoming husband and wife we really had made the most of what was suppose to be our day and wanted to provide the best for each other. Friends and family had made such an effort, they really went for it and embraced it- it was mega!!! The surprises from family, house being decorated, video messages from friends and well wishes from neighbours and passers by over fences and through windows."
What tips would you recommend to other couples wanting to do the same?
"Absolutely DO IT!!! Have some Zoom run throughs for those users who might need help accessing and at the start ask everyone to mute their mics at the start (although made for some very funny commentary). If you want it filming set that up on a separate phone or device. We had time-lapse of the day which is fab but thought Zoom would have filmed our screen. It didn’t really! It filmed guests whom were talking and jumped screens.. it was like something from Goggle Box but our own friends and family version, really funny!"
"Don’t feel silly going for it, decoration, food and all the little plans paid off. It will forever be a special day to us now, our promise day. 2 anniversaries- 2 lots of presents I keep telling Martin now!"
"Keep the zoom bit to the short 40 minute, don’t feel you need to get unlimited time. After the ceremony we had some time left to try and chat to people, which was really hard to coordinate that many people and it not be chaos. It was great it finished in a high rather than everyone dropping off etc. It is your special day still after all and you want to make sure you have time for each other. We got the right balance with that and I would encourage the day be for you guys still and not on phones/calls to people all the time. Our guests gave us our time together which was lovely."
"Take the time to capture some special pictures throughout the day. We got some fab ones and are putting some up around the house. I love looking back over them, what a crazy wonderful day it was!! Although we didn’t get married, I thoroughly enjoyed our non wedding day. Life gave us lemons and boy did we make lemonade!"
We're all in this together. Have your 2020 Plugged In Wedding, your way. You'll have one heck of a wedding story to tell!
Celebrate now, party later.
EAT FOOD, TOGETHER
IT'S TIME FOR SPEECHES
HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT
YOUR FIRST DANCE AND AFTER PARTY
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