Real Life Weddings: Alex and Nick

If you’re thinking of tying the knot here on the beautiful Bowood Estate, read some of Alex and Nick’s special highlights…

Why did you choose Bowood as your wedding venue?

We chose to get married at a local church that we had a sentimental connection to. We then looked around the area for suitable venues and viewed them. Bowood was actually one of the last ones we looked at and we had begun to lose hope of finding the dream by the time we visited. The first thing that drew us to it was the magnificent entrance with the Golden Gates and long driveway. We were greeted so warmly and given a tour of the venue, which had everything we were looking for. We loved that it had its own bar connected to the main room, and the fact that it opened up straight onto the private terrace overlooking the golf course sold it to us.

The Kerry Suite is versatile and we were able to use a variety of decorative features in order to really personalise it to our style. The space was perfect for what we needed as we were able to shut off part of it for the day and then open it in the evening to reveal the band and dancefloor. Our questions were all answered carefully and we were made to feel that our dream wedding day would really be possible. We were introduced to a large number of our suppliers through Bowood and were impressed with their extensive list of trusted suppliers. The grounds of the hotel are stunning and we were impressed by the hotel itself which we stayed in a number of times before the wedding day. When the wedding had to be postponed due to Covid, everything was made easy for us to change over and our Wedding Co-ordinator remained in contact through-out. She really was fantastic and we couldn’t have asked for anyone better to help us organise the wedding. I can’t imagine having our wedding anywhere but Bowood and none of the other venues even came close to it.

How did you find the planning process?

I loved every second of planning our wedding (even postponing it as this just meant we got an extra year of planning to enjoy). We had a wonderful menu tasting in the Spring before the wedding and found this to be one of the highlights of the process. Bowood allowed us to meet with suppliers at the venue when needed and our Wedding Co-ordinator was always available via email to answer my many questions. Leading up to the wedding we had a detailed handover and were given the time needed to handover and complete the inventory when dropping items off the day before the wedding. Through using trusted suppliers of Bowood we found they were often in communication with our Wedding Co-ordinator directly, and this took a lot of the worry out of it for us.

What are your favourite moments from the day?

The fireworks we had were probably the highlight for us. We love fireworks and had the Cotswold Firework Company put together a pyrotechnic display to 3 songs that we hand-picked. We had these towards the end of the night and everyone commented on how spectacular seeing them light up the sky above the golf course was. Seeing the Kerry Suite fully draped and decorated was also one of our highlights, as seeing everything we had planned over the course of 2 years come together felt quite overwhelming.

What did you love most about Bowood?

The thing that I love most about Bowood was the ability for us to create exactly the wedding we wanted. Bowood offered us the space and expertise, but we were able to customise and create a day that felt truly special and tailored to us.

What advice would you give to future couples planning their wedding?

Enjoy the planning process, don’t let it overwhelm you, and if things don’t go completely to plan then just go with it and don’t let it worry you. I fixated so much on the small details that no one else even noticed, they may seem like they matter at the time, but sometimes it is important to let some things go.