Grad-fest

I love getting an enquiry from a Groom-to-be, there is something I can’t really put into words about it, just makes me warm and fuzzy inside. Matt was and as we have come to know him, still is, Mr Enthusiastic. However, I don’t think that it is possible that he could have been more enthusiastic about anything more than marrying the beautiful Kylie. These two were just born to be together as those of you that know them will vouch for! 

Initially they wanted a central London location with street food stands and live acts on all day. However, not sure their 200 guests plus could have all camped in central London, so they got hold of us and we talked through venue options.

In the end, they opted to bring their family and friends down to our Romsey venue for not only a day, but a weekend away in the beautiful Hampshire countryside. 

They were a scarily relaxed couple, the brief, “ We would like food, a lot of food and when we say a lot of food, think of a huge amount of food per head, and then triple it, our friends eat…a lot. We would like a fully stocked bar with great beer, prosecco and shots, lots of shots, in fact we have a Jager machine we will gift you, our friends drink…a lot. We really want some fantastic bands on that we can all party to day and night, our friends like to party, they like to party…yep you got it…a lot”! 

So there it was, the brief in full, no really it was. The rest of course came as we went along the planning journey of which we sincerely loved every moment of, but these guys were just too cool foe school! I remember asking Kylie what her thoughts were on festival flags colours, her answer, “ Colorful”. 

You know that your couple is loved by their friends and family when they get as many favours done for them as these guys did. One of these being their very own Grad-Fest brew! Their good friend Senan is a brewer and had made a signature IPA as part of their welcome drinks for the guests. To note just a few other favours, their friend Steve was the videographer for the day and created an amazing 1 second video montage, Neera made the wonderful chapattis everyone scoffed down with their curries, Jeanette who baked the most glorious wedding cake with Matt and Kylie on top, (not literally) Matt L for the pickles, Dan for the website and boards,  Kylie Mum June collected pieces of bunting that had been made by guests and stitched them all together, Joe concocted the much needed Bloody Mary’s the morning after! These bloody Marys were so damn good we’ve actually taken on the idea for future wedding festivals and calling them ‘WedMarys’, clever right?! There were so many other lovely nice touches created by their family and friends, sorry if I have missed any of you out! 

As expected Matt and Kylie’s blessing was as unique as the both of them. Kylie arrived in a beautiful vintage VW Beetle owned by the lovely Bazz, with their guests clapping and cheering to greet them in true Wedfest style. After I had re-arranged Kylie’s garter, not often I actually put my hands up a bride’s dress, she stood up donning her vintage gown, so I could really get a proper first glance at her. To be honest, she is one of those girls who could have turned up in a bin bag and still looked stunning. As it happens, she didn’t and I have to say looked like something that had just stepped out of a 1950’s movie set. 

The blessing area at our Romsey venue has the most idyllic back-drop with an arch made out of intertwining birch all set in front of a woodland area, the perfect setting for this beautiful wedding.

I walked the bridal party down to the first archway which had been decorated in foliage and flowers, Kylies and her Father eyes were firmly on me waiting for the signal. At this point I am really glad I had my sunglasses on, as to say I had welled up, would be an understatement. The guests were now silent in anticipation too get a good look at the blushing bride. The signal was given and off they went down the aisle, just as practiced, to a stripped back version of Sweet Female Attitude’s ‘I’ll Bring You Flowers’ performed and rearranged by the incredible Just Millie, the couple are huge old school garage fans so it just made sense to have this little touch on their wedding day. Matt cried (in true Matt form) from the moment he set eyes on Kylie  - I think that was maybe the fourth time he’d already cried that day? Their celebrant - a good friend of theirs Shaun - led the ceremony, quite frankly, he was legendary and I think he should take this up for a living! The ushers, Craig Livingstone and Charlie Beety, were on hand with a bottle of prosecco to keep topping up the HUGE hip flask they had brought Shaun to calm his nerves.

I mean look at the picture, when I say huge I mean huge, it had everyone in stitches. No ordinary wedding song or hymns here either folks, they had everyone upstanding to sing none other than Bob Marley’s ‘One Love’, the whole thing was just magical. I think the ceremony went on for about twenty five minutes and most of us cried for at least fifteen of those. In fact, I still cry when I watch the video outtakes now, straight up! Dan eagle sang a cracking rendition of clean bandit and the whole blessing could not have gone any better, it was everything it should have been, a perfect ceremony to seal these two love birds together even more. 

The Line-up for the day, other than food and more food, was quite incredible with back to back artists and bands from the moment the blessing ended until 11pm that night. The music kicked off on the Haybale stage by the gorgeous Just Millie followed by Dan Eagle, both playing a mixture of their self-penned numbers and covers. They are both incredibly talented musicians who know how to entertain and really get a party started. We are always over the moon when they confirm another wedfest gig for our couples. 

Now try to imagine, just for a moment, now that I have started to describe the couple in some detail what their first dance was. Actually, forget that, you will never guess and neither will you guess what happened during it. The Lovely Lizzi, another fantastic friend of theirs was totally on this along with the bridal party. So let me set the scene, the couple are introduced and the Baywatch theme tune starts to play as their chosen song. Lovelingly they look into each others eyes as all of the guests gather round to oooo and ahhh over the newlyweds and then this…

Yep, you are not seeing things, we stormed the marquee with over a hundred blow up inflatable floats Baywatch style and the guests went wild! That was different eh! You know how we like to embrace our couples individual ideas, that definitely happened!

Next up was RemedySounds, this guy has played every single one of our festivals to date, not only is he massivley talented but he gets the party started like nobody else can, and today was no exception. As the evening drew near the music moved inside with The Butterfly Collective driving mod sound to the main stage with killer tracks from The Who, Weller, The Jam, Small Faces and more. These guys know how to party, they like to party, so they were certainly a perfect band to have on second billing!  Friday I’m In Love as we first knew them headlined the event. Now, a little word on the headliners, when Kylie and Matt first told us about them, we were all a bit confused, so when we found out they going to be performing at Glastonbury, Si and I just had to go and see for ourselves. Their style is ‘Masseoke’ which -if you haven't heard of it before - is karaoke on mass basically. From the moment we saw what they did to a crowd, we were one hundred percent convinced that they were just the perfect combination for the headlining act. They perform all the big classics that everyone wants to hear after a few drinks, but also there’s a huge screen on stage with all of the words on that means the crowd can sing their hearts out along with the band. So although initially we were not quite sure, we were sure as hell proved wrong, they rocked!

Matt and Kylie have a love for Dirty Dancing, the film guys, stop your minds wondering! Of course the classic signature track “I’ve had the time of my life”. So much so that on Kylie hen weekend her girls surprised her with a group lesson for them all to learn a dance routine to be played out on the big day. Girls, you did not disappoint! From the moment I heard Masseoke start to perform this, I knew your time had come! But were you going to actually do the lift, there was a big bit of me that wanted to run in and say nooooo, don’t drop the bride! But you had this didn’t you girls! It was nothing short of spectacular! Then you only went and upped the anti by lifting Matt! As if running in with floats wasn’t enough, this happened and it was epic on every level! 

I feel we need to talk about food a bit more, one of my favorite subjects for those of you that know me. Ok are you ready for this?! Burgers, chicken and chorizo paella, fish chips and mushy peas ( none of those garden peas in sight, pointless small green things nobody eats) Indian chicken curry, hog roast, and cheese toasties. Ladies and gentleman and the good people of Grad-Fest, that was 1450 portions at one wedding. Ok they were half portions, but to be honest, we don’t really do half portions. Matt and Kylie were right, you like your food. On top of that we had the Great British bake off tent open and the cakes were being eaten as quickly as they were being delivered. I am not sure how you all stay looking so mighty fine. But I feel I should congratulate you all and off course The Street Food Catering Company for quite simple a remarkable effort!

A huge part of Kylie’s life is the volunteer work she does for Radio Lollipop back in London, so this was also very prevalent on their wedding day. Guests were asked to donate anything they could during the day for the street food and the final figure was a whopping £220.20. 

In the months running up to the big day, Kylie had planned a little prank on Matt, pulled off with help from the Wedfest crew of course, Matt’s beloved old flip flops (that Kylie hates by the way) had gone ‘missing’ from their house in London, but where on earth could they have gone…?! Well, have a look at the picture below…haha, love it! Matt was ecstatic and spent the rest of the wedding wearing them, much to Kylie’s dismay! 

Following on from Masseoke the silent disco started in full swing, three channels of music being played into the small hours with guests dancing all over the venue from the marquee over the camp fire and fire pits which were roaring.

Grad-Festers, what can I say? You certainly knew how to party, you were all absolutely beautiful people and we enjoyed hosting you all so, so, so much! Thank you for being such a lovely group of people, Matt and Kylie are very lucky to be surrounded by so much love.

Steve, your video’s have been fantastic, you are also a legend and we really hope to work with you again

Matt and Kylie, thank you so much for choosing us! You were a total dream to work with and we were so happy to be part of your big day. I think it’s safe to say it now….We have a Grad-fest baby on the way! Congratulations guys, we are all so happy for you!

Love out

The Wedfest Crew xxx

#LetsCelebrate 

Watch the video here

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