Our initial wedding date was set for August 6th 2020, however COVID 19 had other plans.
We were on our 6th month countdown to the wedding when covid sent us all into lockdown and like many other brides and grooms, we were anxious as to if this virus would pass or it would affect our wedding day. Throughout the upcoming months to the wedding date, Kirsty was amazing throughout the whole experience, we would be emailing monthly to find the latest updates on the rules at the time. Kirsty was very accommodating with regards to video calls to update and advise about what our options were at the time. As things started easing off in the summer we were a month away from our original date, when we discussed with Kirsty about changing our date to a December wedding. Kirsty and the whole team at Healing were amazing and enabled us to change our date. With this in mind, my now husband and I, had already agreed at the time we will be getting married on 21st December no matter what was going on in the world. Fast track to October 2020, wedding planning became stressful again as we were just awaiting news updates weekly up until the last 2 weeks. Between myself and Kirsty, we would have phone calls about the options of the wedding and what we could do. Unfortunately due to the restrictions around the dates of our wedding, gatherings of large amounts were not allowed to mix as well as restaurants were still not open, so our wedding reception couldn't go ahead. We was absolutely devastated, legally got married on 21st December 2020 in a local church with 15 of our family and friends surrounding us, with the rest of family and friends joining us through a zoom call. As we still wanted to make the most of the day, we arranged with Kirsty and the chef's at Healing to still have, what we would of had as our wedding breakfast, so after we got married at the church, we headed over to Healing Manor to have wedding photos taken on the Manor grounds, then our guests that we had with us on the day collected their 3 course wedding meal, to take home and share over zoom with us. Fortunately my husband and I, were able to spend the night in the bridal suite, so this made our feel even more special considering the rules at the time. Those that ate with us on that date have all agreed how amazing their 3 course wedding meal was and said how amazing their food was, considering it was a 'Take out' wedding meal and it was still hot by the time they had arrived home.
As we still had our deposit down from the original wedding, we finally decided to throw our wedding party on our first anniversary. With covid restrictions starting to ease of and life returning a little bit back to normal, it was nice to get excited about wedding planning again and being in touch with Kirsty and her amazing events team. Again we had several meetings up until the actual party, discussing menu choices, drink requirements and how the evening would go and what we could expect with regards to covid and what the back up plan would be, if things went back into lockdown. However it was in our favour and we FINALLY got to celebrate in The Barn, with our friends and family. Kirsty was amazing, she knew how important it was for us as the couple to see friends and family enjoying themselves, she made sure that our guests had drinks, shots and WKD's in their hands. The team that worked the evening of our wedding made our guests feel safe with regards to wearing masks and hand sanitisers available at different discrete spots within the venue. As the venue was already beautifully decorated ready for Christmas by Jack Loves Jill, we asked Amy just to add additional bits to add to the venue such as extra lighting and it just felt cosy and elegant.
I can't thank Kirsty enough for being there for me during the wedding planning process and the amazing team at Healing Manor to provide the most amazing food and venue we could have picked for our wedding.