CRUISING THROUGH LIFE

REAL WEDDINGS THROUGH CruisinglifeJack and Carmen Baxter’s beautiful wedding brought together friends and family for a love-filled day

Images courtesy of Alfie Wright, Clique Visuals

Jack and Carmen Baxter met in February 2015 on

Valentine’s weekend. Carmen reveals, “We were both on nights out in the town where we lived at the time with our own friends. These friends knew each other and in passing each other at the pub thought it would be fun if we all continued the night out together, so we did! The next day we became friends on Facebook and started talking from there!”

With the couple having similar interests including a love of travel, it was only right that Jack popped the question on a cruise in Central America. Carmen tells us, “The cruise was two weeks long, so we had the first week on our own before we were joined by Jack’s mum, dad, auntie and uncle on the second week. Jack’s parents brought the ring with them in their luggage so the whole thing was a surprise and well thought out. The proposal was on the black-tie evening! We all decided to go and have some nice photos in our suits and dresses before dinner. Jack’s parents went first so it didn’t look suspicious, then we went for our photo, little did I know Jack’s dad wasn’t taking a photo, he was filming a video and whilst we were posing Jack got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was a big surprise and amazing that we now have the video of it. We celebrated the rest of the evening with lots of prosecco and the stewards also decorated our room with balloons and cute towel love hearts on the bed. Also, very un-romantically we also celebrated rather drunk at the midnight buffet with some fried chicken and a vindaloo curry – who said romance is dead!”

Wedding planning commenced and the big day took place on 21st August, 2021 at The Parsonage Hotel and Spa. Here, Carmen shows us all the little details that made their special day…

We loved the venue the first time we looked around it. We’d previously been to look at a couple of barn venues, but even though they were beautiful, we knew we wanted more of a traditional wedding feel.

For centrepieces, we had a silver mirrored plate as a base, on each plate was a tall perspex vase containing a mixture of real and silk flowers to reflect our colour schemes. We also had votives on the tables filled with water and floating candles.

Our bouquets, buttonholes, flower girl’s flowers and the decorations for the welcome sign and table plan were created by Jack’s mum, Lesley and her friend, Emma who create wedding flowers. They worked together to design the most beautiful arrangements. So many guests commented on the fact they thought they were real!

We also had some flowers on our signing table in the ceremony room, along with a flower wall and some blossom trees, these were from our amazing decorator and looked stunning.

The Parsonage had a gorgeous silver mirror with pretty decoration on the frame that they allowed us to use for the table plan. We bought a white vinyl sticker from a shop on Etsy with all our names on and the table numbers. Finally, we attached some floral decorations to the mirror which matched the bouquets and buttonholes. My mum also created us an easel as a welcome sign which was a similar design.

All girls and mums had matching pyjamas, prosecco glasses and dressing gowns for the morning. All the men had matching socks. Our cake was made by Lesley, Jack’s mum with help from Shirley, Jack’s grandma. It was five tiers, however, only the bottom tier was real cake! It was cleverly disguised so you’d never know, and every single flower and decoration was handmade. We chose fruit cake as it’s traditional.

There were pretty things everywhere; we had fairylights, petals on the aisle runner, crystals scattered on the tables, a sweet cart, and a postbox for cards. In the evening, we also had boxes of flip flops for guests and blankets in case they went outside. We decided to hire a photo booth too, which was so much fun!26

We were lucky to have in-house catering at the venue and had a traditional three-course meal for the wedding breakfast. The Parsonage were great at catering for everyone’s dietary needs including a vegan menu too. In the evening, we had an American style buffet, which consisted of hotdogs, mac ‘n’ cheese and burgers. My dress was bought from Chloe Jane Bridalwear, and the dress was named Zali, by Studio San Patrick. I purchased the dress in a sample sale and took it away that day. It was then taken to Once Upon a Dress seamstress to be altered and made perfect.

I only went to the one bridal shop, and it was the second dress I tried on. I kept going back to it every time I tried on something else, so I knew it was the one. I accessorised it with a handmade veil from Once Upon a Dress, it was cathedral length and had hand-sewn crystals throughout.

Jack is in the RAF, so for the ceremony and wedding breakfasts he wore his number one’s. They looked so smart. He then changed into his suit for the evening. The suits that Jack, the groomsmen, and the dads wore were from a local shop called Creation.

We had different entertainment throughout the day. Before, during and after our ceremony at the drinks reception we had a harpist who sounded incredible! The bridesmaids’ dresses were from a company called TFNC and were a light mauve, dusty pink colour. They had a small train and had low backs. The neckline and the back of the dresses were shaped with pearls and crystals.

We both enjoyed getting ready with our wedding parties in the morning, it was so nice to spend time with the closest friends and family before the big rush. But one of the best things was seeing so many people together again and enjoying themselves after such a hard 18 months because of the pandemic.

We both agree that because we did the legal part the day before, it took a lot of pressure off the big celebration. We were both a bit nervous but after having to postpone for a year we were just so excited it was finally happening! There were a lot of happy tears and laughter throughout the day!

We’d planned to go to The Dominican Republic for our honeymoon but had to change this due to travel restrictions. We’re now hoping to go on a Caribbean cruise to Barbados, we’re so excited and as we got engaged on a cruise it holds fond memories for us. Knowing that we were able to have every single guest there, rather than make cutbacks was the best feeling. We’re both exceptionally lucky and if there was any way that we could do it all over again, we would in a heartbeat. It really was the best day of our lives.

Don’t stress the small things! As cliché as it sounds, the day goes so quickly that you don’t notice them. Don’t worry about the weather, it rained all day, and it didn’t stop us! But most importantly, just find a moment to take it all in and breathe. Having even a few seconds to look around at your partner, venue and guests dancing will make you realise what all the planning was for!

THE LITTLE WHITE BOOK Venue and catering, www.parsonagehotel.co.uk | Photographer, www.cliquevisuals.co.uk Dress, www.chloejanebridalwear.com | Dress alterations, www.onceuponadress.co.uk Jewellery and accessories, www.constancehandcrafted.com | Hair and make-up, www.studiosister.co.uk Suits, www.creationclothing.co.uk | Wedding rings, Ernest Jones | Music, www.hannahtheharp.co.uk Wedding band, www.theblackmarcs.co.uk | Photo booth hire, https://just-the-photo-booth.business.site Wedding decorator, Finish with a Flourish, www.facebook.com/finishwithaflourishvenuedressing