Hazel Gap Barn Wedding Photography – Jess & Sam

Bride and Groom Q&A

How did you guys meet?

We met at school when Sam was doing work experience with the P.E department and helped with my class.. it’s sounds worse than it is, he’s only a year older than me. We met a couple of times after that and he saved me in his phone as ‘Jess who don’t stop talking’. Sam finally asked me out via MSN when he was 16 and I was 15 and we’ve been on and off since then.. luckily we stayed on and are now happily married with a 21 month old son.

Tell me a bit about yourselves

Sam absolutely loves football and supports Manchester United. Sadly he broke his leg/ankle playing football in 2020 so can’t play anymore, however he watches every game going.

Jess loves playing netball and going for walks.

We also love spending time together as a family.

How did the proposal go down?

To start with, Sam hates going for walks so it’s very out of the ordinary for him to want to go. Knowing I’d clock on to this, he asked my sister to message me and arrange a walk with her and my brother in law at East Carlton Park. We were on our way when my sister messaged to say she had morning sickness and couldn’t make it (she was 3 months pregnant at the time). Sam said we might as well walk as we were nearly there. When we got there, Sam put on a huge back pack and said it was to carry his breakfast.. this is where I started thinking something might happen as he was adamant he had to bring it even though his breakfast was just a jammy dodger lol. Half way through the walk Sam put on a huge jumper, despite it being a mild day and him already sweating, he then said he wanted to sit down and have his breakfast. We found somewhere to stop and Sam gave me a present. At first I thought it was a book to do with pregnancy (I had found out I was pregnant the weekend before) but when I opened it Sam had made me a book about our relationship. The last page was a picture of Sam in a red jumper (hence him putting the jumper on) saying he had a question to ask me.. and when I looked Sam was on one knee. I cried my eyes out, said YES and then rang my sister who obviously already knew what was going on. The heavens then opened so we sprinted back to the car. We decided to go to Sam’s mums house to tell them about the engagement and then onto my mums house. What I didn’t know is Sam had planned a surprise engagement party with both of our families at his mums house. It was perfect and we celebrated all afternoon. Sam did a toast and told them all that I was pregnant too and it was amazing to have so much to celebrate.

How did you choose your Hazel Gap Barn as your wedding venue?

I had been searching online for a barn venue near to where we live in Market Harborough, however I couldn’t see anything I liked. I stumbled across Hazel Gap Barn in Nottinghamshire online and fell in love with it. I went to visit it shortly after with Sam and my sister and we decided to go for it.

What sort of experience did you want your guests to have?

We wanted guests to have fun, enjoy the food and have a good dance. We had great feedback about the food and the venue.

Can you describe some of the details and stylings, did your wedding have a theme?

We didn’t go for a big obvious theme, we wanted to keep it quite simple. We had white and green flowers and the bridesmaids had sage green dresses. The invites and table menus also had a white and green theme.

What was you best decision during the wedding planning?

Without sounding cliché, our best decision was to get a good photographer and videographer. We knew that we wanted to feel comfortable on the day and not be fretting about directing photos etc.

What was the hardest decision?

Probably table planning and Covid. It was hard to sort all of our guests onto tables where they would be with similar people. We had some people drop out last minute, however in the grand scheme of things we were pretty lucky that more people didn’t have to miss the day due to covid.

What were your favourite memories of the day?

We loved all of it but I think sitting down for the meal and getting to properly chat and relax was the best. We were happy taking it all in and seeing all of our loved ones together, especially after the year we’d all had with covid.

What advice would you have for any couples planning their wedding?

– Make a spreadsheet of costs so you can see what you’re playing for clearly and all laid out.
– It’s worth over budgeting as you sometimes have unexpected costs / decide to buy extra things last minute.
– It can be easy to argue about different decisions but remember the day is about celebrating you as a couple and that it will all be worth it on the day.
– The last couple of weeks leading up to the wedding are the most stressful. Accept help from bridesmaids with whatever you can to make you life less stressful where possible.
– The night before the wedding, relax. What’s done is done. You can’t control the weather etc so just roll with it and enjoy