Sarah & Tony

One of the main highlights of the day for Sarah was leaving the ceremony: ‘We had the ceremony and the reception in the same venue, and we had lots of my husband’s Italian relatives there and quite a lot of them didn’t actually speak English, so they couldn’t really understand the ceremony...

The In-Laws set up very efficiently and the music was outstanding. Right from the start they had all ages dancing!

So when we played the Italian national anthem at the end of the ceremony it included them all and made them feel welcome. Everyone was clapping and cheering!’

Wedding music was very important for Sarah and Tony: ‘We spent a long time choosing music for the ceremony and even the background music for the dinner, and for entering the reception.’

They initially tried to look for a local wedding band, but it was difficult.

'We didn’t get very far with recommendations from friends in the local area... we planned the wedding at fairly short notice, so good bands that we’d heard about weren’t available.’

They found Function Central and the In-Laws online. ‘We found the website really helpful and it was great to see the large range of bands and all the prices up front to compare against our budget.

'The audio and video clips and the testimonials took most of the worry and risk away of hiring a band we hadn't seen, and it was really useful to have the whole set list.’

‘We were looking for a specific style of music and their playlists really appealed to us. We didn’t want cheese – we wanted a good mix from 70s, 80s and 90s, and they had a really good blend across the decades, so that would please everyone.

'We thought The In-Laws were fantastic. The phone call a few weeks before put us at ease - Will was really friendly and happy to adjust their set to suit us. We had a good chat about the types of guests we had invited and the music we liked.

'Everything went brilliantly on the day. The guys set up very efficiently and the music was outstanding. Right from the start they had all ages dancing, as you can see from our photo! And we had lots of great comments from our guests afterwards who wanted to know where we found them.'

Venue choices were limited, but they were delighted with the venue they found.

‘Again, we didn’t have a lot of choice because it was so short notice and because we had a lot of guests... but we were really lucky to find the Frogmill had a day that suited us.

'It’s such a picturesque place and, because we live in the Cotswolds, we really wanted somewhere that represented the Cotswolds.’

They were generally happy with all their suppliers: ‘We had a problem with the suits, but everything else was really good.’

Sarah and Tony hired a bouncy castle from Absolute Bouncy Castles in Tewkesbury for their younger guests, and made them colouring books for the evening reception.

Both adults and children loved the ice-cream cart, which was from Cotswold Hills Ice Cream in Stow-on-the-Wold.

For the adults, they had a quiz about the bride and groom, with the winners getting free drink tokens.

‘We also had a karaoke booth, and they were brilliant – near the end of the night there was a large queue, so we paid them a bit extra to stay for an extra hour longer.’

‘We decided not to have a video of our wedding, because I thought I’d feel really self-conscious knowing that I’d be videoed. But because we had the karaoke booth, we now have everyone on video singing!

'The karaoke booth was a last-minute thing that my husband wanted and I said no, then phoned them up the week before and asked if they were still available and they did it half price!’ The karaoke booth was from JH Video Booth in Watford.

Our beautiful dress was from The Bridal Sale Shop, Gloucester, with lovely flowers by Kelly’s Blooms, Cheltenham and amazing photography by Youngs Photography, Gloucester.

Sarah has some tips for other brides and grooms:

• Ask people who have planned a wedding before for their tips.
• Delegate jobs to other people – it makes the morning of the big day much less stressful.
• Spend less on the things that aren’t so important to you – for example, we bought a cake from Marks and Spencer.
• Have the speeches before the meal, so that you can relax and enjoy the food and drink.

Sarah and Tony’s wedding will also be featured in the January edition of Cotswold Brides Magazine.