Smiles and Giggles at Sissons’ Barn!

Holly and Zac got married at Sissons’ Barn and wanted a relaxed smiley ceremony. Their personalities shone out we told their love story making sure everyone smiled, laughed and even shed a tear during the moment that this couple declared their love for each other. They didn’t have the weather on their side but the barn looks gorgeous regardless of the skies outside.

“Donna was incredible from beginning to end. We knew as soon as we met Donna that she was the one to conduct our ceremony. We invited her to our home to get to know us and when she left we looked at each other and said “she’s the one” “we need her to do it”. We had spoken to all other options and nothing felt as comforting as Donna. She visited our home again to gain more information about us and also supported us both individually to write our vows. With our vows we knew what we wanted to say out couldn’t quite put it into words. Donna is a genius when it comes to this type of thing… like a magical wordsmith. I would highly recommend Donna she is thoughtful, caring and considerate. She’s not judgemental at all and above all she has compassion which we really appreciated.”

“We loved the part where Donna told our love story as it made our ceremony so personal and our guests loved it too. They also loved how personalised it was and they all commented on how unique it felt. They said it wasn’t like your usual ‘stuffy’ wedding vibe which was exactly what we wanted.”

Lovely Longstowe Hall

Bethan and Jamie got married in the lovely grounds of Longstowe Hall in Cambridgeshire. The ceremony space is out in the lake on an island! It was a gorgeous sunny day and the wisteria was in full bloom.

“Donna is one of the loveliest people I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with. We opted for a celebrant led wedding and I could not recommend Donna enough. She was patient, kind and listened to all our concerns. Donna will be there for you whenever you need it, whether it be email, zoom, text or a coffee! We had meetings and calls in the lead up to our wedding so we always knew what was happening and what we would be saying. I recommend Iris Rose Ceremonies very highly to anyone thinking about a celebrant led wedding. Do it, you won’t regret how personal and fun you can make YOUR wedding ceremony.

Donna will leave you feeling like you have made a friend for life and we wish we had asked her to stay for the whole day at our wedding. She is so easy to talk to and we can not wait to frame our certificate from Donna as well as the poem she found and read at our ceremony that was dedicated to us.”

March Wedding at Sissons Barn

Kimberley and Conner wanted a family wedding ceremony that could include their young son. They chose Sissons Barn decorated in neutral tones and we added a sand ceremony to symbolise their union. They were pleased with how personal their celebrant led service was.

“Donna was friendly and professional from the very beginning. I loved how unique and personal our ceremony was, talking about our love story and being able to include our son in the ceremony was just perfect for us!”

The bride, the groom and their son chose a colour that represented themselves in the heart shaped vessel. Kimberley chose white sand which represented herself and her family. White represents purity and innocence. Elliot had his favourite green sand. Green is the colour of nature. Green represents good luck, generosity and tranquillity. Conner added beige sand which represented himself and his family. Beige is a soothing colour which represents simplicity and calm.

Beautiful Blues and Whites!

Alex and Courtney got married at The Grange in Peterborough. They were a private couple who were slightly nervous about the bug day. Courtney shared her thoughts following the ceremony with me:

“Donna was absolutely amazing from the very first meeting to the big day she made me feel so at ease and everything we wanted she did and helped us make it even better then we imagined, on the big day Donna was so supportive and made us feel so at ease.

We would love to say a massive thank you!”

Alex and Courtney chose a personalised sand ceremony and their vessel was just perfect! The couple chose their sand colours to represent themselves and then their parents added their own coloured sand to symbolise both families being joined together from that day forward.

Courtney and Alex said their vows and promises in front of family and friends!

Alex and Courtney shared a kiss to celebrate their union!

Irises and Roses!

Andrew and Marise made contact with me when they saw my contact details on Sissons Barn’s trusted suppliers page. They were attracted by the name of my business as they were including irises in their wedding plans! It was a match made in flowers!

Andrew and Marise chose a sand ceremony to enhance their service. They picked green and purple sand to keep on theme and created a beautiful keepsake for their married lives. I loved meeting up with this couple who were so open about their story. I loved telling the tale during the ceremony and you could feel the love in the barn for these love birds!

“Donna was absolutely amazing! Not only did she spend a lot of time with us beforehand to get to know us and our love story, she also met with us the day before to walk us through the ceremony. The ceremony itself was magical and flew by, but Donna gave us some keepsakes in the form of the ceremony script and our vows. The personal touches were lovely and much appreciated. Thank you so much for being part of our wonderful day xxx.”

“Our favourite thing about the wedding ceremony was the personal approach, listening to our story with touches of humour was lovely. Everyone was very complimentary and enjoyed the personalisation of the ceremony.”

Fabulous Farm Wedding Ceremony

Hill House Farm was the perfect venue for Nina and Nick who wanted an outdoor ceremony amongst nature. We carried out a unity candle ceremony that included Nick’s sons and a member of the gathering gave a beautiful reading. Nina is an avid crafter and made lots of the elements for the day including an amazing macrame backdrop for the ceremony space!

“Donna was great to work with, very friendly and did a great job writing our story. She captured all the important details and was happy to make any amendments where we felt we wanted to change something. Everything was well organised and I felt very confident I was in good hands.”

Nina and Nick’s wedding was just stunning. I loved the cake and the handmade table settings. A lovely touch was the photo memory ladder where members of the gathering who could not attend were remembered. All the guests got to walk though the farm from the ceremony space to the tents and saw lots of animals along the way.

Chippenham Park Ceremony

Maneka and Shadeesha wanted to include a Sri Lankan traditional element to their Ceremony. I researched all about the Tying of the Pirith Nool which is a traditional wedding ritual in Buddhism. A pirith nool or ‘blessing thread’ is a string that has been chanted over by a monk.  When the Buddha was alive he mentioned that there were several of his sermons that were so powerful that the mere reciting of them could bring protection to our lives. We tied the pirith nool as a symbol of the union of marriage, and traditionally it is an equivalent to the modern signing of the marriage register. The little fingers of the couple were tied together with the pirith nool and then we poured some pirith pan (holy water) over their tied fingers. Traditionally this was carried out by a community elder but I was honoured to do this with the bride’s father.

“Tying the Pirith Nool was a lovely touch and enabled us to go back to our roots! Our guests thought it was a lovely and intimate ceremony.”

“Donna was absolutely wonderful throughout the whole wedding process! Donna was really responsive to emails, is a great communicator and was determined to ensure everything went smoothly with our ceremony. She is so lovely and we would 100% recommend her!”

Awesome Adoption Ceremony

Dan and Chris booked an adoption ceremony for their son after they had legalised his adoption. They wanted to celebrate their little boy and also celebrate adoption. I met up with these dedicated Dads and discussed their journey to adoption. The ceremony had a superhero theme as many of our favourite super heroes were not raised by their biological families.

The ceremony was planned to take place at home in this couple’s fabulous garden in a yurt style tent. Friends and family gathered into the tent to listen to the words we prepared to shine a light on adoption and mark the moment that all three lives of this little family unit were changed forever. Every guest was given a superhero card during the service.

Dan and Chris left some very kind words: “It has been absolutely wonderful working with Donna. She made the whole process so lovely and easy. She really understand what we wanted and was able to really personalise the ceremony. It was just perfect!”

Cresset Candle Ceremony

Demi and Claudio approached me two months before their ceremony to ask if I could conduct their wedding ceremony as they had to move their original registrar booking. They registered the marriage before the special day and we created a beautiful unity candle ceremony to symbolise this couple coming together in marriage.

Demi and Claudio sent me their feedback and stated that they loved every second of their ceremony and that their guests loved the personal touches. “It was perfect, everything was so personal and tailored to us as a couple – completely stress free. Donna worked so hard to get to know us in such a short space of time we honestly couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

Demi and Claudio have two beautiful children and although they were too young to be directly involved we included them in the words we spoke. I even learnt a little Portugese to welcome Claudio’s family in their own language.

An Outdoor Ceremony Under The Willow!

Emma and Tom chose a beautiful sunny day in June to tie the knot (literally!) at Sissons’ Barn. I carried out a Hand Fasting Ceremony as part of the service. The couple wanted to adopt the ancient celtic ritual of tying their hands together before they exchanged their vows. In their feedback, the couple stated that the hand fasting was their favourite part of the ceremony as it was unique and special to them.

Emma shared these words with me after the wedding day, “Donna was fantastic, professional and approachable, we had numerous coffee meetings with her to discuss what and how we wanted our ceremony to be like and Donna delivered just that. A beautiful and personal wedding ceremony that suited us.”

Emma and Tom made their vows and promises surrounded by family and friends in the beautiful surroundings of The Barn. Under the willow room there is shade but all the guests were outside in the sunshine. What a beautiful day!