Megan + Alex | August 2023
“Within 30 seconds of talking to Sarah, I knew she was going to be our celebrant! Her warmth, energy and enthusiasm was instantly felt.”
I’m not sure I’ve worked with a couple as chilled as Megan and Alex. One of our planning video calls took place as they were hurtling along on a Spanish train to a festival in Barcelona, in and out of patchy signal, and they couldn’t have been more relaxed. Then cut to their wedding day - at glamping venue Drover’s Rest - and rain drove us from a ceremony set up outdoors to indoors instead, but they didn’t seem fazed. At all.
I love, love, love an outdoor wedding but (selfishly) I’m never disappointed when a wedding moves indoors - the acoustics are better and the vibe is more intimate. Alex and Megan’s ceremony was moved into the Drover’s Rest barn, adorned with burnt orange drapes, and filled with hay bales, flowers…and anticipation.
Photography by Amy Elizabeth Photo, talented behind the camera but also lovely IRL (she lent me her jacket in the pre-ceremony drizzle)
This wedding ceremony will forever go down in my happy memory bank as The One Where I Got to Sing. I don’t have a strong voice solo but throughout school and uni I was always in some geeky choir or two, and there’s little I enjoy more than belting out a banger in a group. Rather than traditional hymns we had something more akin to group-karaoke-meets-school-assembly and it was glorious. We sang Ben E. King classic Stand By Me and The Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book, accompanied by piano and a - proper - singer who kept us all in tune. Ish.
I loved the fact that Alex and Megan wanted a sing-a-long wedding ceremony - it spoke volumes of their fun attitude and it made for such a memorable celebration, getting everyone up on their feet and involved. A big part of my role as a celebrant is making sure the party starts at the beginning of the ceremony…not to have everyone watching the clock waiting for it to end.
Before the bride and groom walked back down the aisle I poured drinks for them to have their first toast as husband and wife. And the bottle itself? Incredibly special - a sparkling wine Alex and Megan had saved from a vineyard in the Cotswolds the day they got engaged.
Enjoying a glass from the bottle from their engagement
It’s weddings like this - full of fun and personal details - that are so memorable for all the guests. And when you add in that the couple themselves really just wanted to be married - and they don’t mind too much how, where or when - it gives the day an infectiously joyful feeling that nothing can go ‘wrong’ when the pair are so right for each other.
“One thing that really touched me - she instantly recognised that our mums may have been a little anxious about the day; Sarah was incredibly kind, sat and had chats with them both individually, that was a truly lovely thing to see.”