Richard and Jade’s Chilled Summer Wedding

Richard and Jade’s beautiful intimate Cornish Wedding

A Cornish engagement in St Ives was just the beginning of Richard and Jade’s wedding journey, which – due to the pandemic – saw them plan, postpone, rearrange and cancel their wedding near their home in Suffolk, before booking, rearranging and finally getting married at Camel Studio in July 2021!

“After all that, actually getting married was a massive relief!” says Richard. “You learn a lot from all the rescheduling, and in the end we realised we just wanted to be married to each other. We kept downsizing until it ended up with eight of us; just Jade and myself, our parents and siblings.”

Finding the Perfect Wedding Venue

Finding Camel Studio online, they loved that everything was in one place, including the ceremony spaces, barn and accommodation, as well as a separate gorgeous bridal suite. “For the amount of people we having, it was perfect,” says Richard. Booking the venue after a virtual show-around with Helen, Richard got to work planning. 

“I’d done a lot of looking at Camel Studio on social media to get more of an image of what it was like, so even when Jade was a bit nervous, I was quietly confident we’d found the right place. We didn’t see it in person until the day before our wedding, and when we arrived, I couldn’t believe how nice it was. What a happy relief!” he says. “Jade was so happy too, and it was so much nicer than we’d hoped for. The views are incredible, as it’s quite high up, and the styling is minimal, clean, fresh and modern.”

In the lead-up to the wedding, it was owner Helen’s help that kept the planning smooth. “We found the experience really good – Helen was always there when we needed, with answers to any of our questions. On the day, she was here, there and everywhere… She’s so capable!”

Originally planning a wedding of 50, the couple kept having to be flexible as Covid restrictions affected their numbers. “We cut it down to 30, then to 15,” says Richard. “As the date got closer, we just wanted to get married, so cut it down to eight. We were a bit more confident then, but it wasn’t until the morning of the wedding itself that we finally believed it would happen.” 

Arriving at Camel Studio

Relaxing over a welcome meal the night before the wedding, the families didn’t have to do any setting up or organising, and could just unwind and play table tennis. “I stayed in the bridal suite that night, and got ready there in the morning, which worked really well,” says Richard. “Jade got ready in the house and we had a screen across the kitchen so we could access all the areas we needed without seeing each other.”

Getting ready and re-writing his speech onto paper – “Jade’s pet hate is how much time I spend on my phone so I knew I couldn’t read my speech from it!” – Richard calmed his nerves with a few more rounds of table tennis with his dad, and Jade’s dad and brother. “I wasn’t nervous about getting married as we’ve been together for 13 years, so this was just cementing our relationship, but there was some anxiety about whether it would ever actually happen, after all the times we’d had to reschedule.”

Their Stunning Ceremony & Day

After a blast of rain, the sun came out just in time for their outdoor ceremony – beginning with something that Richard will never forget. “That ‘turning around moment’, when I looked back and saw Jade walking down the aisle, that really got me,” says Richard. “I composed and calmed myself, then we had a lovely ceremony that didn’t feel like it was over too quickly. I really enjoyed it.”

With a few stand-out parts including a Friends moment when Jade was accidentally called ‘Rachel’ by the registrar, and a poignant poetry reading, it was a ceremony full of laughter and tears. “We had a poem at the end, which was a bit of a collaboration between Jade and her granddad, who’s sadly passed away,” says Richard. “He used to write poems, and we’d managed to get his poetry book without Jade’s dad knowing. Jade slightly rewrote parts of one poem but kept it as original as possible, then we surprised everyone with it at the end of the ceremony. It was lovely and there was a lot of crying.”

Next it was time for some music and outdoor drinks to celebrate, as well as photos around Camel Studio’s grounds, before speeches and a “really really good meal” in the barn. “We had starters of baked camembert with a choice of three toppings, lamb cutlets or spring veg strudel with potato dauphinoise and spring vegetables, and sticky toffee pudding for dessert. The food was so amazing!”

After the meal, the couple thought it might be hard to keep eight of them up and dancing for the remainder of the night, so had a much better idea: karaoke! “It was such a good way to spend the rest of the evening!” says Richard. “We’re not good singers, we were terrible really, but there was no shame, it was just all about the fun.” After classics including S Club 7, Jimi Hendrix and Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ – “It was just after the World Cup, after all!”– the evening wound down at about 11pm, when the newlyweds retired to the bridal suite, and the rest of the guests had a few more drinks in the house. 

Describing the whole day as “easy and chilled”, Richard and Jade are so pleased they opted for a small wedding at Camel Studio. “We absolutely did the right things for us. Looking back, we would have felt so uncomfortable having a big wedding, or being pulled from pillar to post; we would have hated it. Instead, it was all so relaxed and chilled-out, which was all we wanted. We got the wedding that was right for us, and on reflection we wouldn’t have done it any differently.”

And their guests and friends were all in total agreement too. “A few people have told us if they could have their wedding again, they’d keep it small,” says Richard. “There’s just so much more flexibility, and no stress at all. Our wedding was even better than we expected, and so much of that was because it was so personal, intimate and chilled.” 

Richard and Jade’s Advice for Anyone Planning an Intimate Wedding

Richard ends with some sage advice for those thinking of downsizing or having a small wedding. “Just do it. Don’t have the stress. Do it for yourselves, and don’t worry about what a wedding is to other people,” he says. “Your wedding is your day, and it will be amazing regardless of how many people you have.

And to those considering Camel Studio? “It’s honestly perfect. It all just works so well there, and the support you get from Helen and Dave is unreal, nothing is too much of a problem,” he reveals. “They just want you to have the best day. And we absolutely did!”x

Venue: Camel Studio - www.camelstudio.co.uk
Photography: Liberty Pearl Photography -  libertypearlphotography.com
Coordination: Phoebe Rubinace of Piccolo Weddings - www.piccoloweddings.com
Flowers: Twigs & Greens - twigsandgreens.co.uk
Hair & make-up: Emily’s Beauty Studio - emilysbeautystudio.net