Meet our latest lovely couple and hear about their gorgeous wedding. Childhood sweethearts Molly and Frazer met when they were just 15 and after a Valentine’s Day first date at the Chelmsford Odeon (sweet!) became boyfriend and girlfriend. They have been together since then, surviving the test of time (and distance) for just over a decade.
How did you get engaged?
In February 2017 we went away to Reykjavic, Iceland. Frazer had a plan to propose under the northern lights, which we had always dreamed of seeing. The northern lights on that night turned out to be very disappointing, so he abandoned the plan and went with plan B… The next day we went to see a waterfall that you can walk behind! When we were inside the waterfall we both got absolutely drenched as we slipped and stumbled our way across the gravel, so plan B was cancelled. Our next stop was a tour of a glacier that lies on top of a volcano. This place turned out to be perfect and so Frazer got down on one knee and finally popped the question.
Aw, perseverance pays off! What kind of wedding did you plan?
When I first began to plan our wedding I was quite naïve to the planning process. Previously I worked as an Events Manager, so I was excited to dip my toes back into the world of events planning. But, as I dove headfirst into blogs and Pinterest and Instagram and wedding fairs I wasn’t truly prepared for the rabbit hole I was falling down. I quickly became overwhelmed with the choices. Did we want Boho? Or festival vibes? Traditional? Quirky? A fusion of both?
Many months of pinning and unpinning and many Google Sheets later, I realised that what I really wanted was for our wedding to be… us.
It meant explaining to lots of people why we wouldn’t be having a cake, or a cold buffet (if I ever have to refuse a dressed salmon again I might drop down dead). And it meant hours of worrying over small details that wedding guests probably wouldn’t even notice. But it was so worth it.
Such good advice. And which song did you have your first dance to?
We absolutely love Ed Sheeran, but it seems that everyone else choosing a first dance song does too, so we decided to go with something a little different. We chose This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) by Natalie Cole; an upbeat song that we knew everyone could have a little boogie to.
What was your favourite part of the day?
This is a very difficult question, because there are so many moments that were so special. When I arrived at our wedding venue with my Mum, sister and Dad, and the door of the camper van was opened I could see everyone I loved smiling in the sunshine, and I could hear our friends playing Canon in D on cello, violin and guitar. That moment for me was just so full of love, and happiness and sunshine and all of my nerves about walking up the aisle in front of everyone washed away.
My Dad also did an amazing speech, as did Frazer and that was so touching because I knew that neither of them were keen on speaking in front of a room of people.
That’s so lovely! So when it came to your gift registry, what made Patchwork stand out for you?
We knew that after getting married we were planning to go on a round-the-world trip that would mean putting all of our belongings into storage and disappearing for a while, so we didn’t want our friends and family to waste their money on gifts that would have no use to us for years to come. But we also knew that when people give gifts they like to feel like they are choosing something to give to you, rather than just gifting money. So Patchwork was the perfect platform for us to create a gift list of experiences rather than things. Plus it doesn’t ask you to choose the companies you want to do these experiences with. This gave us the freedom to redeem the gifts we were given along our route, when we discovered the perfect place to experience them.
What did you want to ask guests to contribute towards and why?
We are planning to be on the road for around 18 months and are visiting countries all around the world so it would have been impossible to plan every stage of our trip before leaving. For this reason we made a list of experiences we knew we wanted to have, such as getting our scuba diving qualification and glacier heli-hiking. We also added more generic things such as a beer on the beach, or a night in a fancy hotel. It’s amazing to have been gifted everything from contributions to the cost of trekking the Inca trail, to a Tuk Tuk driving experience in Sri Lanka and tickets to Hobbiton in New Zealand.
How did you feel when you set off on your travels?
Our friends and family were so generous and we feel so grateful to them for all of the amazing gifts they gave us. It’s so much fun to visit extraordinary places around the world and be able to do incredible things whilst we are there thanks to our loved ones.
What’s the best thing about using Patchwork?
There are a few great things about using Patchwork. Firstly, we had so much fun setting it up and creating our own webpage. Then seeing people’s messages that they had left after purchasing something was lovely. Finally, now that we are on our travels we are able to send a thank you to each person as we redeem their gift, with a photo of us enjoying it.
What did your friends and family think?
We had a great response from everyone when we shared the link to our patchwork on our wedding invitations. Especially my Nanny who had told us she felt it very rude when people ask for honeymoon contributions as a gift but loved the idea of being able to gift something specific for our trip. We have also heard many of our friends recommending this site to their engaged friends as a great option for an attractive and modern gift list.
And finally would you recommend your trip to other honeymooners?
Why not turn your honeymoon into an 18 month round-the-world trip of a lifetime? What better way to celebrate marrying your best friend than to go on an incredible adventure with them? Sure, you could do something painfully sensible like buy a house to get onto the property ladder but there’s always time for that later. A wise man (it’s Albus Dumbledore) once said “Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.” And remember – not all those who wander are lost.
Hooray! Thank you so much Molly and Frazer for sharing your patchwork story with us all!
If this has inspired you to make your own patchwork, find out how here. You can customise one of our readymade patchworks or create one from scratch.
You can also follow more of Molly and Frazer’s big adventure over on Molly’s fabulous blog or follow them on Insta.
Finally, here’s a list of the many lovely suppliers and people who made their day extra special:
Photographer: Three Flowers Photography
Furniture Hire: Anthology Vintage Hire
Florist: Hannah Louise Flowers
Make Up Artist: Lauren Siddons of Be Fabulous
Cake: Miniature cake buffet (plus Krispy Kreme doughnuts) from I’ll Bring Dessert
Caterer: Weirdough Pizza
Mobile Bar: Duck and Pheasant
Ceremony and daytime music provided by our musician friends: Tim, Bryan and Patrick
DJ: Fox and Braces
Grooms outfit and shoes: Vintage Suit Hire Company and Boyds of Bedford
Brides Dress Designer: Lucy Can’t Dance
Brides Accessories: Something Blue clutch from Katie Loxton
Brides Shoes: ASOS
Transport: Little Yellow Bus