Real Weddings: Annie and Christopher

Jun 13, 2024 | Real Weddings

Welcome to our Real Wedding Blog!

We’ve spoken to our couples to find out their top tips, advice and favourite moments of their wedding at Cockliffe Country House in Nottingham. If you’re getting married with us, or simply looking for some wedding day inspiration for your own wedding plans, read on to find out more.

Annie and Christopher

Wedding Date – Saturday 30th September 2023

‘An intimate Autumn wedding with a neutral colour scheme and a blend of Swedish and English traditions’

Annie and Chris’ wedding day was a beautiful blend of Swedish and English cultures and traditions, with them meeting and living in Sweden, but Chris being a local Nottingham man. Their day was truly a celebration of love with their friends and family who have travelled from near and far to be with them. Here, we hear from them how they found their wedding planning journey.

What was your inspiration for your special day?

When it came to flowers and decorations we wanted to go with natural tones like beige, white and a dusty green. But more important for us was to combine our two cultures, the English and the Swedish one. We minimized the number of speeches, which in Sweden can take over the whole wedding and go on for hours. Our intention and aim was to make people mingle and talk to each other instead, since a lot of the people had never met before.

We obviously went with the English cuisine but then we wanted to implement some Swedish tradition. So, we added the snaps on the tables as well as specific Swedish songs that you are supposed to sing together before you drink it. The snaps and the singing is a tradition we usually do in Sweden for our Midsummer celebrations but also at other festive celebrations such as Christmas, Easter or crayfish parties. We though it would fit our celebration perfectly!

What was the best part of your day?

There were so many moments during the day which felt amazing so it´s very hard to pick one. But it was a great feeling to gather all of our friends and family from England and Sweden and to unite them for our special day.

Why did you choose Cockliffe Country House?

We researched for quite some time, we knew we wanted a place which felt intimate and cozy but still exclusive. It was important to us that the place mirrored the English countryside charm, since Chris was brought up in a village close by. We also considered the logistics, somewhere that was close for family and friends from England and an experience for the people travelling in from abroad.

How did you decide which menu was right for your day?

The menu we actually decided last minute, a couple of minutes before our menu meeting. But we had already decided we were going to go with whatever we thought sounded good and not overthink the whole menu layout. Everyone seemed to be very happy with our choices!

What was the hardest part of your wedding planning?

The hardest part was probably doing it remotely from Sweden, we couldn’t try the menu and some decorations had to be bought in England, and some we had to bring over from Sweden. So it was a lot of details and a lot of Excel-work. But it went well!

What were your favourite parts of the venue?

Cockliffe Country House is gorgeous, the garden is beautiful and the room where we had the ceremony and dinner is very pretty with all the fairy lights and the colours. Also, a spacious, pretty bedroom was a bonus for when it was finally time for bed and you had a bit of luxury left for just the two of you.