A power cut, two groomsmen splitting their trousers and relentless rain throughout their wedding day and yet newlyweds Lauryn and Matty McCullough still wouldn’t change a thing.
Like many brides, pre-wedding nerves caused Lauryn, of Liverpool, to have an unsettled night before the big day on 20th September, but the rain outside probably didn’t help either.
“I must’ve woken up about 3:30am, I had our daughter in the room with us and she slept an absolute dream that night, but I was up with the nerves, adrenaline, everything,” said Lauryn, who along with her bridal party and make-up artist stayed in five of our nine luxury bedrooms the night before the wedding.
The bride-to-be messaged her maid of honour, Sophie Peel, in the room next door, and they both soon realised that the electric was off. As it later transpired, a tree in a field nearby had fallen and brought down electric cables with it, leaving 95 houses in Ainstable without power
"Something wasn't quite right"
Meanwhile, Heather Glen owner Judith woke up at 6:15am to a feeling that “something wasn’t quite right”. She was soon on the phone to Electricity North West, who said they were working towards getting the electric back up as soon as possible, aiming for midday.
Judith sprang into action, ever the optimist that not even a power cut could stand in the way of a Heather Glen wedding. Judith’s first port of call was speaking to the bridal party. She knocked on the bedroom door of Cheshire based make-up artist, Sara Aspinall .
“My first thought was that we should be fine with natural light, but I went back to my room and realised it was pitch black,” said Sara. “Nothing like this has happened before in the last six to seven years of me doing weddings.”
"Judith will do anything for anybody"
By this point, the electric had been restored to some properties in the village. Fast thinking Judith headed down to friends Wendy and Willie MacGillivray’s in the village, hoping they’d agree to letting the wedding party get ready at their house. The couple had only just got back from their Portugal honeymoon having themselves had their own wedding at Heather Glen just two weeks beforehand.
“My husband and I weren’t even up, we were still in bed,” said Wendy. “He went to make a cup of tea and the next thing I could hear him talking to somebody and I thought ‘who on Earth is he talking to at this time of the morning’. Then he came through and said ‘you better get up’.”
Wendy dived out of bed to organise for the impending bridal party, along with a violinist in tow, who were shortly followed by a tray of tasty bacon sandwiches sent down from Heather Glen.
“They came in and took over the kitchen,” said Wendy. “The girls were lovely, the bride was a lovely girl.”
Wendy’s Saturday plans had been to make quiches for the village harvest supper that evening, but that was put on hold while she hosted the bridal party.
“The whole day was just crazy. It was quite exciting to be part of it and meet these people and they were so excited. Judith will do anything for anybody. She’s a very good friend and she knows I’d do anything to help her. They made our wedding day so special, Heather Glen’s a lovely place.”
Action stations
While the bridal party were enjoying their morning getting ready at Wendy’s house, back at our all-inclusive wedding venue, it was action stations. The ceremony room was decorated by Judith and the help of Westmorland & Furness ceremony team, and in the kitchen, food was prepared for the afternoon, and candles were placed around the hotel in case the electricity didn’t come back on in time. Judith also taxi’d photographers Milk & Cuddles Photography to Wendy and Willie’s to capture the bridal party’s morning.
Ever the laid back bride, Lauryn wasn’t phased one bit, knowing her wedding day was in the best hands. “It was always whatever happens will happen, we’re here, as long as we’ve got a registrar, our daughter here, as long as Matty can get here, we can go ahead. We kept saying on the phone to each other ‘if we have to order Dominoes pizza, we order Dominoes’.”
Just to add to the drama, Lauryn received a phone call while getting ready, saying groomsman Jack Sindall had split his trousers. Luckily, the violinist could help, and used one of the handy sewing kits laid out in the Heather Glen bedrooms to sew the trousers back together again. Later on in the day, Jack’s brother Bobby, who was also a groomsman, also split his trousers, but by this point, with the drinks flowing and the day at a more relaxed pace, Lauryn said it didn’t matter so much.
“We take everything in our stride”
“I’ve never been the type of person that will get stressed out, I’ve worked in places where I’ve done weddings before and worked in theatre where when things go wrong, you’ve got to think of things on the fly. Judith’s just my type of person with that, she just absolutely takes things in her stride,” she said.
The bridal party headed back to Heather Glen just before midday to get dressed in their wedding attire, and much to everyone’s delight, the electricity came back on time, meaning Lauryn could walk down the aisle 20 minutes fashionably late, as is her bridal right!
“Electricity North West were fabulous,” said Judith. “They kept in touch with us, updating all day, they knew the situation we were in. Those guys were all on the job.”
Lauryn described her wedding day as “perfect”, despite the constant rain, which she “loved”, and a couple of further slight mishaps, like one of the groomsmen falling through a table when he decided to dance on it!
Bride Lauryn's top five wedding planning tips
1. Choose a venue that is perfect for you
People have different priorities in mind when choosing a venue.
Ours was to have good food in abundance, be able to do the whole day in one place, have an exclusive use venue making it ours for the day and have fantastic hosts who made us feel comfortable in the venue.
Heather Glen ticked all these boxes and more with the owner, Judith, being incredibly accommodating, nothing was too much for her which made this the perfect venue for us. Make sure to keep your priorities in mind when choosing your venue!
The day can feel like such a whirlwind so my husband and I took a moment during the wedding breakfast to appreciate the day and everyone that had come along to celebrate with us.
We put down our knife and fork whilst having our main course, sat back and took a moment together to look around the room at all of our friends and family that were there with us. That moment has stuck in my mind and I can remember every smile on their faces as they chatted with each other, the smell of incredible food and the song that was playing.
In that moment, I could really feel the love and happiness that was in the room and I am so happy to have that memory just simply by putting down my knife and fork.
Don’t be afraid to ask bridal party members, family or friends to help out with planning and executing the day.
The last thing you want is to be overwhelmed by the small things, so getting people to take charge of rounding up family members for photos or getting everyone to sign the guest book will help you to fully enjoy your day.
No matter how much you plan, one thing (or about 10 in my case!) will go wrong, but it’s these imperfect moments that you will come to cherish, often leading to the best photos, laughs and memories, making your day feel truly unique!
