Abbie and Rory’s wonderfully laid-back celebrant-led wedding ceremony took place by the lake at the dreamily romantic Cornish Tipis on Saturday 29 June 2024…
…. And it was a day full of laughter, love and warmth, in the most stunning of settings!
Abbie and Rory booked us 18 months ahead of their big day - and Abbie later confessed that she didn’t appreciate that independent celebrants still couldn’t actually do the legal paperwork for their wedding! But luckily this proved not to be a deal breaker, as our couple soon realised that booking an independent celebrant would give them the personality and bespoke quality they actually wanted from their ceremony.
Phew! Because we were super excited - apart from working with such an adorable couple - this would be our second visit of the year to Cornish Tipis. Our first was a very private elopement, with just the couple and their Mums; Abbie and Rory, by contrast, were inviting over 100 people to their wedding by the waterside!
Which brought a couple of challenges: being on the reasonably steep banks of the spring-fed lake there was very limited seating, so this would be our first standing ceremony for a very large number of people. And also, we’d be using our PA, which wasn’t a problem for us, but was a first for Cornish Tipis, as they’d never had an officiant bring a PA before. (But as we always say, there’s nothing worse than hearing a registrar - or celebrant! - bark their way through the gentle words of a ceremony! Our only worry was making sure none of our equipment fell off the narrow boardwalk!)
Practicalities aside, the enjoyable process of getting to know our couple started in the Spring, and as with so many of our couples, Abbie and Rory chose to complete our fun (but in-depth and initially a little daunting!) questionnaire. And they revealed that they had really enjoyed it, which we always know is a good sign - if a couple loves this part, and takes their time over the questions and answers, then they are going to have a brilliant ceremony! And with all this in hand, the three of us had a really good chat, to unveil some more detail about their relationship, which having spanned almost ten years, meant there was lots to talk about!
And while our couple decided that they didn't want any ‘additions’ to their celebrant-led ceremony, they were intrigued by the idea of surprise readings - and so trusted us to liaise with their sisters for some really unique content on the day. More on that in a moment!
Happily, writing the ceremony was a real joy, there were so many lovely memories to reflect on, some laugh-out-loud anecdotes, and some words and thoughts we knew would make everyone smile and possibly cry at. So it was reassuring when we received this feedback: “We went to our favourite pub on Friday to read through the first draft - safe to say we were both crying and laughing throughout! We cannot tell you how much we love it and how much we feel it captures us! We honestly had no amendments, we just loved it so much!”
This made us smile. A lot!
And as the wedding season got underway, it really wasn’t long until the end of June arrived, and the arrival of a crazily hot spell, followed by some rather less reliable weather, which had us wondering whether we might be undercover on the big day, so fingers were crossed in anticipation. But when the last Saturday in June arrived at last, it was accompanied by the most fleeting of showers early on, before we agreed it was all systems go for a ceremony by the lake!
We arrived at Cornish Tipis and were delighted to meet Abbie and her crew getting ready; it was so lovely to have a little chat and a hug before the day progressed any further. Then it was down to the lake to meet Rory and his boys - all of whom seemed incredibly relaxed but ready to party! There was also time to meet Abbie’s sister Beth, and Rory’s sister Hannah, who we’d been liaising with in the lead up, and who had prepared just the best surprise for our couple - an engaging, warm and funny reading from one of the short books of the Frog and Toad series, one of Abbie and Beth’s favourite reads growing up. And this was to be accompanied by an unexpected unveiling of the cutest homemade banner, commemorating
A and R’s big day!
With all guests having arrived at the ceremony location via the pretty woodland paths, Abbie and her parents made their (surprise) entrance the only way you can at Cornish Tipis - by boat! - accompanied by the most beautiful piece of music, Arrival of the Birds by The Cinematic Orchestra, which with swallows and dragonflies dipping into the water, set the scene so very perfectly, and in this most romantic of settings, there might have been a few tissues handed out at this point..
Then once safely onto the pier, the curtain lifted on the ceremony, taking our couple and guests on a trip down memory lane, remembering what had brought these two lovely human beings to this day - the high risk strategy of moving from friends to boyfriend and girlfriend, the first date (and first kiss) at London Bridge, a relationship built on a shared love of vinyl records, The Apprentice, curiosities and weird objects, alongside live music, cosy fireplaces, old man pubs and antique furniture - and of course, an imperfectly perfect proposal story which had us all feeling awkward and delighted in equal measures! This was topped by the wonderful reading by Beth and Hannah, and declaring Abbie and Rory’s hopes for the future - a ‘proper’ house, complete with a garden, a fat cat, and perhaps a couple of blonde haired, scruffy kids.
With vows exchanged and rings safely on one another fingers, there was much celebrating among the guests before our couple set off to their reception by boat, with the words of On Melancholy Hill by Gorillaz echoing across the water…
What a day! And seeing the photos, how they partied later on! But barely 24 hours had passed when Abbie sent us the sweetest message on Instagram: “Lisa you were so unbelievable! We had so many comments from people saying how amazing the ceremony was - we just wanted to say thank you thank you thank you. We couldn’t have asked for a better celebrant.”
And, if this wasn’t thanks enough, they wrote the kindest review for us:
“Wow – where do we begin! From the get go, Lisa was warm, friendly, funny, welcoming, and seemed genuinely interested in the two of us as a couple. She spent so much time before the big day making sure that the ceremony was suited to us, and making it perfect – which it absolutely was! Me and my partner were really keen on a laid back ceremony which focused on the two of us and our story, rather than your traditional ceremonies – Lisa completely ran with this and we were blown away by how well she captured “us”! She also took responsibility for aspects that we didn’t expect her to (like liaising with our sisters for a
surprise reading as we couldn’t decide on a reading ourselves). On the day itself, Lisa was super chilled (trust me, you need this on the morning of!), and delivered the most amazing ceremony! We had guests approach us throughout the day commenting on how amazing she had been. Honestly, by the wedding, I felt that we were having the ceremony with someone we had known for a while rather than a stranger we had only met over video calls. We cannot recommend Lisa enough – and if you are undecided on who to book, let this be your sign that the search is over! :)”
The thing is, this: as a celebrant, very occasionally you are lucky enough to work with a couple who just get ‘it’. They get everything about it. They love the process. They love the ceremony. They love that a celebrant is as invested as they are. And this truly is such a magical meeting of minds… but clients rarely know how much it means to us when it happens. Yes, we might have delivered over 250 ceremonies - but the really special ones we can name and remember in a heartbeat. And this summer, we added Abbie and Rory to that list.
Thank you both so much for booking us.
(Photography by Lyra and Moth)
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