24 Bride: Cally Ann Ware, thony Law, 26 An r he Groom: Christop Home: Braintree h, Bocking, Essex. Venue: St Mary’s Churc n Fennes for the receptio Date: March 4th 2010
Next it was time to choose the dress. I found the gown of my dreams at Abigails Collection, Colchester- a beautiful Alfred Angelo strapless dress with crystal beading on the bust and crystal detail throughout the dress. For my bridesmaids I chose stunning Hilary Morgan candy pink dresses with beading on the bust similar to mine. My friends sister did the flowers for us- the bridesmaids had 10 white roses in a bouquet and I had 15 candy pink roses all with diamanté pins in them, hand tied. Chris chose a full black morning suit with tails and cream waistcoat and tie. He looked lush! We hired all the suits from Abigail’s Collection in Colchester too.
Cally and Chris may have met as teenagers, but their love was strong enough to last as they grew up, and precious enough to make official with a stunning wedding last year…
Many people have said to me that first love doesn’t last, that it’s too intense to make it to the alter, but for Chris and I the fact that we met so young just strengthened our relationship. We met when I was 15 and Chris was 16, in the six week summer holidays back in 2001. Chris was in year 11 and I was in year 10 and though I had seen him around we didn’t meet until a mutual friend introduced us. I was smitten from the start. I loved his laid back nature and funny sense of humour. Being so young our first date wasn’t romantic. We went to an under 18’s club called Zeus with a group of friends for a foam party! Like many young couples we really dated in a group initially. Our first ‘grown up’ date was a meal for Chris’s 17th birthday when I was really thrown into the deep end by meeting his mum and dad! Luckily we seemed to get on. Even back then I knew that Chris was the one for me, and despite people telling me that we might change as we got older, I could never imagine life without him. We are and always will be best friends as well as boyfriend and girlfriend so it seemed natural that a few years later – in March 2005 – we moved in together into the little house that we still share today. By this time I was working as an advertising sales executive and Chris was a plumber. We hadn’t really discussed marriage. In fact I could never really see myself being married. Things were so perfect I didn’t want to tempt fate by changing things. With this ring… On Saturday 21st February 2009, Chris took me to my favourite restaurant Le Talbooth in Dedham for a meal, I thought it was just a ploy to cheer me up
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as earlier that day one of my best friends left to go travelling and I was upset as I knew I wouldn’t see her for a whole year. At the end of the meal he presented me with a Tiffany box and said ‘There’s something in here for you’ at which point I replied ‘I bet it’s that Tiffany charm I’ve been after for a while’. I collect Tiffany charms for my bracelet so I automatically thought it was for that! He said ‘Well, have a look’ and when I opened the box it was a heart charm that had inscribed on it ‘Marry me’. In disbelief I looked up at him (thinking he didn’t realise that it said that on it!) he then walked around to where I was sitting and got down on one knee with a beautiful three diamond trilogy yellow gold ring. I said yes straight away and we both cried our eyes out! First things first… It was with great excitement that Chris and I informed our parents of our news, even though my dad already knew, as keeping with tradition Chris had already asked him for my hand in marriage. After that it was onto booking best men and bridesmaids. For someone who couldn’t see herself being married I really went to town. I had seven bridesmaids!! My two gorgeous sisters Shelley and Krissy were my chief bridesmaids. I also had Chris’ two sisters- Hannah and Samantha as well as my three closest friends- Amie, Suzy and Kristina. Chris chose his best friend Steven Clack to be his best man along with my brother Jason as chief usher and several of Chris’ close friends as ushers. The venue we chose was the Fennes Estate in Bocking near Braintree we fell in love with it the minute we walked round and booked our wedding on the spot for March 4th 2010.
Bring on the hens.. My hen weekend on 29th January 2010 was in Liverpool, 17 of us went for an 80’s themed weekend of pampering and partying. The girls even surprised me with a pink limo to take us up there, they had thought of everything. It was honestly one of the best weekends of my life - we had sooo much fun! Chris’ stag weekend was in Brighton. He went the same weekend as me for the same amount of time as me- and from what I have heard and seen from the pictures he had a really good weekend too! The Big Day The night before our wedding I stayed at my mums and five of my bridesmaids stayed with me - my two sisters and my three best friends. We had a really fun girly night drinking champagne and playing music, Chris even surprised me with a foot spa that he had given my sisters as a present to give me the night before our wedding – this went down extremely well!!! The ceremony was planned for 12 noon – I wanted a fairly early ceremony so I could have a longer day. I’d been warned that the day goes really quickly so I wanted to get as much joy out of it as I could. Despite the midday start I was up at 4.30am as the hairdresser (a family friend- Jessica Wilson) was coming at 5am to start everyone’s hair! We were all so excited that we had no trouble getting up. After having our hair and make-up by Karen Pyman from Bride Beautiful done we started to get into our dresses in my mum’s living room. That was a really emotional moment for me as the girls looked amazing, it was the first time I had seen the whole look pulled together complete with flowers and make-up and I couldn’t have been happier. It was at that moment that I realised I was actually getting married that day after all those months of planning the day was finally here and happening! I could not wait to get into my dress and as it was being secured, my dad arrived at the front door. My mum made him stay in the dining room until I was completely ready and when he walked into the room everyone became overwhelmed with emotion! We then had a limo journey to Fennes, where lots of pictures were taken of everyone by both our photographer- Carol Ann Photography and our videographer Tom Needham Photography. The bridesmaids and my mum then headed off to the church in the limo, followed by my dad and I in an amazing horse and carriage - pulled by two white shire horses. That whole journey is a complete blur now, but the two things that stick in my mind were that we literally couldn’t even look at each without both starting to cry- it was just so emotional, passers-by even seemed to stop and wave at us as we rode by. When we arrived at the church a really sweet little boy said ‘Mummy, look at that princess!’ that made me well up again.
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Real Weddings
The service The church service was really special. We had over 118 guests and there was a really nice atmosphere. I felt extremely overwhelmed as I walked down the aisle to Wagner’s Bridal Chorus. We were married by a really nice vicar (The Very Reverend Canon Philip Need) who we had got to know personally over the year leading up to our wedding, so that made it really special! We only had one reading during the service by my Grandad - it was really important for us that he was involved as he is very much head of our family and my grandparent’s marriage is certainly something we will aspire to as we get older (they have been married for over 65 years!!). Both our dads were the witnesses on our marriage certificate. The Reception… After the service, Chris and I went in the horse and carriage back to Fennes, we were greeted with beautiful swarovski crystal champagne flutes bought for us by my brother and sisters – this was a really nice surprise, finishing touches like this was what made our day so special. For our wedding breakfast we chose tomato soup followed by traditional roast turkey with all the trimmings and for dessert champagne cheesecake! The chefs at Fennes did such a fantastic job and all of the guests seemed to enjoy it too which was the most important thing! To keep everyone entertained during the meal we had a ‘ bride and groom’ quiz on everyone’s name places for when they first sat down at the table- it was 10 multiple questions about Chris and I, The winner won a bottle of champagne! I also put together party bags to keep all the children entertained as it was a long time for them to be sitting down. Between the main course and desert Chris and I took ten minutes out on our own and went for a walk around the grounds. That was really special for us because it gave us a chance to reflect on the day and have a bit of time to ourselves, it is definitely something I would recommend to other couples as it is easy to get swept along with the day’s events. Like with most weddings the speeches are definitely one of the most memorable parts of the day, my Dads speech had everyone in stitches and tears at the same time – I was shocked when he recited stories that I wasn’t even aware he knew about. I had also arranged a little surprise for Chris which was given to him during the speeches – a personal letter to Chris from Arsene Wenger the manager of Chris’ favourite football team Arsenal. Later we cut the cake and along came another surprise from my siblings, this time in the form of a personalised cake knife. The cake by Cake Cuisine, Hatfield Heath was a three tier white cake with pink roses and diamante’s. We had fruit filling for the 1st tier, chocolate for the 2nd tier and sponge for the 3rd tier- it looked and tasted amazing. We then welcomed a further 70 guests for our evening reception. As guests arrived they could read all of the ‘acceptance’ cards from family and friends which I had stuck to an easel, people had said some really lovely things so I really wanted to do something special with them. We also had a caricaturist in the evening for 3 hours which went down really well with the guests. We used Fennes resident dj and had our first dance to All My Life by KCI and JoJo which is a song that came out the year Chris and I met.
RECREATE CALLY AND CHRIS’S WEDDING Dress, bridesmaid dresses and groom’s suit – Alfred Angelo, Abigail’s Collection, Colchester www.abigailscollection.co.uk Venue – Fennes www.fennes.co.uk Make-up – Karen Pyman – Bride Beautiful in Chelmsford www.bride-beautiful.com Photography – Carol Ann Photography www.carolannphotography.co.uk Videography – Tom Needham Photography www.tomneedhamphotography.co.uk Catering – Fennes www.fennes.co.uk Entertainment – Fennes resident DJ www.fennes.co.uk Cake – Cake Cuisine, Hatfield Heath www.cakecuisine.co.uk
The Future… We spent the night at the bridal cottage at the Fennes reflecting on what was the happiest day of our lives. I felt slightly lost the next morning, after all the excitement from the day before! But luckily a few days after our wedding on 7th March 2010 we headed to Heathrow airport to catch a plane to Dubai where we boarded a ship which would take us on an eight day cruise around the United Arab Emirates – it was amazing! I felt like the luckiest woman alive to have married such a wonderful man and to be starting my new life with him beside me. I know that whatever happens in the future my first love will be beside me till the end.
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