Laura + Tom | April 2024
“Sarah was a dream to work with from start to finish. From the initial call and meeting in person, to writing the script and delivering the ceremony, Sarah was the perfect balance of sincere and hilarious, professional but relaxed.”
Laura and Tom’s wedding was my 15th as a celebrant, and I get a thrill every time from how different each ceremony feels. Every wedding I’ve done has felt unique, and I expect (hope!) that will still be the case when I’ve done 115. If I’m lucky enough to get to that point!
Photography by mega babe Chloe Caldwell
For Laura and Tom it was all woven around their story of having been together since the tender age of 15 (that number again). I noted in my welcome to the guests that most people present will have always known them as a pair, but this occasion was the chance to learn even more about them - what drew them together and what keeps them together.
Another aspect that made their wedding special were the travel elements, like plane-ticket-style invites, far-flung destination postcards to pop in a postbox with well wishes, world foods for the canapes; Tom’s a pilot and there was a big contingent of pilots in the room. I did my best flight attendant impression (God love their friends for laughing at my dad jokes), pointing out the different exits for the bride and groom and confetti line, asking phones to be on airplane mode, and announcing that the seatbelt signs were off. The party was starting.
Letting passengers know where the emergency exits are located
We held a little ring warming ceremony in the wedding - with Tom and Laura’s rings passed around for all their friends and family to hold and imbue with love, luck and blessings. I love including a ring warming as it’s a sweet and simple way to involve everyone present - especially because then in the vows I asked the guests for their own “We do!” in support of supporting the marriage.
Weaving Laura and Tom’s personalities and passions into the wedding was so fun, as they were open with me about their shared love of travel and being out in nature with their dog Finn (who couldn’t be present but had the bar named after him). One of the more gorgeous and poignant parts of the ceremony was including literature-loving Laura’s poetry choices. Some couples choose one reading, some two, and often they ask for my advice (which I love to give! It’s good fun, choosing pieces that might reflect their relationship). But Laura? Laura had hand-selected five poems, they were all exquisite, and it allowed plenty of opportunity for friends and family to take part at the front.
Here are two, which I thought you might enjoy…
The Problem With Travel by Ada Limon
Every time I'm in an airport,
I think I should drastically
change my life: Kill the kid stuff,
start to act my numbers, set fire
to the clutter and creep below
the radar like an escaped canine
sneaking along the fence line.
I'd be cable-knitted to the hilt,
beautiful beyond buying, believe in
the maker and fix my problems
with prayer and property.
Then, I think of you, home
with the dog, the field full
of purple pop-ups-- we're small and
flawed, but I want to be
who I am, going where
I'm going, all over again.
This Poem Means Something, by Charlie Brogan
I’ll never be a morning person,
I’ll always feel groggy and confused,
but I like the way ‘night owl’ sounds witchy
as though my evenings are filled with rituals,
casting spells over my cold brew
in my manky joggers.
Every morning, when I hear you
through a dream washing last nights dishes
when I feel warm, wet kisses planted
on my cheeks as I sleep through another alarm -
I worry you think I’m lazy. I worry about that
when I hear your deep exhale after another
morning workout, as the shower rain falls
that you must think my morning stench,
my hot open mouth, the alarms
that get snoozed seven times over
are off putting. But then I imagine
the water gliding over your freckled skin,
I smell the coffee in the distance
in the kitchen that is half mine,
I picture the ink black coffee pot
we bought that day in Brockley
(when it was cold and we held hands)
full to the brim with our weekly shop
Colombian roast, and I don’t know,
I guess I just drift off,
It’s like a dream.
It was a beautiful day in a ridiculously beautiful venue outside Guildford, celebrating a teenage love that had evolved into a grown-up partnership, as lyrical, lovely and lasting as poetry.
“We had so many compliments all afternoon about you and the ceremony”