Brace yourselves, this one’s a banger! We were so chuffed to be chosen by Connie and Callum to cover their Fishley hall wedding. Fishley Hall is hidden up in the Norfolk Broads not to far from where we lived over lockdown. It’s our most loved area in the world and Fishley has become a firm favourite of ours appearing in our list of best Norfolk wedding venues.

Real Fishley hall wedding couple – Connie and Callum.

So here’s Connie and Callum to tell us about their Fishley hall wedding in their own words.

‘Callum is a jolly Scotsman. He sings when he’s happy, tells jokes at inappropriate times and loves loudly telling old stories. He’ll watch all and any sport. He likes to picture himself as a hard-nut but most of us know he is a soft-hearted sod. Connie is lucky Cornish Piskey. She is a wedding dress designer, but can turn her hand to making just about anything. Nothing excites her more than a charity shop or car boot sale. We will go to extreme lengths to get people together for a drink, including getting married.’

How did you meet?

‘We have known each other since we were both 16, but were only friends for a very long time. After this we realised the reason we had been such good friends was because there were probably feelings buried deep down. We wanted to spend all our time together and became really close.’

How was the proposal?

‘We went away on a holiday to the coast with our friends. Callum cooked a lovely meal for everyone. He decided to get down on one knee just before we started to eat. This ruined the meal for all, which went cold and Connie cried on to her lasagne.’

What was the vision for your Fishley Hall wedding?

‘Definitely outdoors, with a rustic down to earth feel. Connie saw a huge amount of weddings for her job, and we didn’t want anything too over-done or polished. We wanted little aspects of us dotted throughout, and ended up taking half of our furniture out of our house to decorate the venue.’

When did you start planning the day and how long did it all take?

‘The same week Callum proposed on holiday. We went to look at a wedding venue while we were there. We knew we didn’t want to wait more than a year. This felt like a good idea until around the May before the wedding, where we wished we had more time and money for planning than we had allowed ourselves! We had about 10 months in total.’

So, how was the process of planning a Fishley hall wedding?

‘We started with our venue, then our date, then our photographers. I (Connie) found the planning a labour of love that I looked forward to spending my evenings doing.

We tried to do a lot of it ourselves to save money, which was hard work looking back. Buying and renting an awful lot to fill the space. This ended up being on of the most testing aspects of the planning.

We loved joining the church at Fishley, but getting to the morning services 2 hours away from home was a struggle. We’re so glad we made the effort to join the church though, as it was one of our favourite parts of the day.’

Any planning blunders?

We planned everything around a scorching day in July, with outdoor furniture, fans, parasols and buckets and buckets of ice. On the day, we needed umberellas, wellies and blankets, none of which we had planned for. We also discovered the Sunday before the wedding that no one knew who could play the organ in the church for us.

How was your ceremony?

The ceremony was completely magical, the tiny beautiful church had been lovingly filled with flowers. Our families just about squeezed in together. We both felt nervous but being there was somehow calming, and we loved walking out to a shower of confetti, it felt so traditional.

What was the most memorable moment of the wedding?

‘Our couples photoshoots in the rain. Away from everyone just laughing at the ridiculousness of having just got married. They really helped pace the day and reminding us what we were actually doing there together.’

What made you laugh on the day?

‘The speeches at our wedding were the best we have ever heard (we would say that). They were so personal and from the heart, both funny and touching. We felt so lucky to have people know us so well, and be able to tell the stories they did.

Our grandparents also getting up to hilarious things on the day between them, we bring the stories up at every family gathering for a good laugh.’

Any tears?

‘Again, the speeches made us cry, Callums speech was just incredible. I (Connie) cry so easily most of the time, but I didn’t cry at all at the moments I was worried about. I think it is part of the surreal feeling of the whole day. Mostly we spent the whole day smiling ear to ear.’

L&N say – We can confirm Callums speech was incredible, Neil cried.

What were your favourite photos from the day?

Connie – ‘My favourite photos are with my bridesmaids and mum. They had all helped put the wedding together, in the days leading up to it but also for months beforehand. They were cake decorators, farmers, florists, seamstresses, hair stylists, and everything in-between, as well as listening to hours of plans and preparations.

I love the photos of us together, they look amazing and we are all laughing, probably from exhaustion and relief.’

Callum – ‘My favourite photo is the one at the beginning of our confetti line. It has me leading Connie by the hand as she looks up at the confetti. I’ve got a big stupid grin on my face and she looks gorgeous staring up as the confetti falls down around us.’

If you could plan and re-do your Fishley hall wedding, what would be different?

‘After the wedding we had a week coming to terms with all the things we couldn’t change. It was a difficult come down after such a happy day. We realised we should have done most things differently, the meal, the cake cutting, the first dance, the drinks, the music, how we organised the space, even Connie’s dress. There was so much we wish we could change, but most the most frustrating of all was the weather, which affected everything and of course couldn’t have been changed at all. However, months later we realise of course, none of these small details matter at all! Nobody else realised at all apart from us, and everyone had a lovely day, including us. Our photographs really capture that, and we wouldn’t change those for the world.’

A big ‘thank you’ to Connie and Callum for helping put together this blog – genuinely we had such a good day with you all. We knew the couple were really worried about the weather forecast in the week leading up. On the day it did rain, pretty solidly but barely influenced the fun at all. it was a bit of a triumph and we’d also like to thank the couples family ands friends who were so easy to get along with and welcoming. Also a thank you to Candice the boss at Fishley for putting together such a versatile wedding space.

Connie and Callum’s Google review –

Connie A
4 months ago
Lisa & Neil are the dream team of wedding photographers. They were absolutely amazing on the day and in the build up. Their clear experience is a really calming presence to have by your side- nothing bothers them at all. They managed to make everyone feel comfortable in front of the camera and got such fun photos of all our guests. We love our portraits, which they made look beautiful even in the rain. They absolutely captured all the small moments of the day you dont get to see yourselves. They also seriously went above and beyond what you expect from your photographers, Lisa steamed Connie’s veil for her and ran through a muddy tractor field after the wedding car to get the best pictures. Neil kept the me calm and wrangled difficult family members like an expert. They both stood in the drizzling rain to get group photos in an area they found so the guests could stay dry. Like most weddings there’s things we would have done differently but booking Lisa & Neil isn’t one of them. If you’re looking at sorting a date for your wedding day make sure that Lisa & Neil are available first.

Credit where credit is due

Flowers by – Florilega

Venue – Fishley hall

Dress – Vintage.

Hair and MUA – Millie Rose

Catering – Bayfield catering

If you’re planning a Fishley Hall wedding you’ll find lots of tips on our blog here. Hopefully you’ll invite us