J'AIME February 2021

W E D D I N G S
“I had a tiny wedding -
and it was perfect”
LICHFIELD-BASED WEDDING PLANNER JANE DAYUS-HINCH SAYS THE WEDDING CAN GO ON,
AND SHARES THE DETAILS OF HER OWN SMALL CEREMONY AND CELEBRATION
In January 2019 we pre-booked Solitude, a 10-bed
holiday home in Newtown in Wales, so that the
family would be able to spend a week together over
the Christmas holiday. Little did we know how things
would transpire.
Three months later, whilst enjoying a weekend away
at Pale Hall in Bala, Robert got down on one knee
and changed my world.
During the following weeks of congratulations and
well wishes the inevitable ‘when are you getting
married?’ was asked time and time again.
As a wedding planner of 35 years I found the
prospect of planning my own (second) wedding
very daunting. I have planned and organised more
than 2,000 weddings of every faith and culture and
embraced every custom and tradition in the UK
and across the world including in Estonia, Egypt,
Canada, St Lucia, Dubai and the US.
By the June we had decided we would do what we
wanted to do and just have the immediate family
at our wedding, and the only time that would be
occurring was at our Christmas gathering that had
already been planned.
We made enquiries at the local All Saints Church
and met Canon Nia Wyn Morris who agreed to
marry us by special licence, which meant we had to
attend church six times prior to the December.
The wedding was booked for Christmas Day at
11.45am, immediately after the morning Eucharist
service. We had already booked a family lunch in
a private room at the local hotel, Maesmawr Hall.
Then we made the decision to keep it secret and pull
off the best surprise we could ever do for our family.
Why did we decide on the secrecy? It was for so
many reasons. I have witnessed firsthand how
stressed people become as soon as the word wedding
is mentioned. Responsibilities, speeches, what to
wear, who does what, the cost of everything and the
weather. I didn’t want anyone to stress out, I wanted
them to all enjoy the best Christmas and this was it.
I planned everything using local suppliers from the
stationery, the flowers (using two florists), hairdresser
etc and it gave me the opportunity to be a bride,
seeing everything from the bride’s perspective.
We made many two-hour journeys to Wales and
incorporated visits to see grandchildren and other
family and it was such a happy time, with everyone
blissfully unaware of what we were doing.
Being an older bride, I wasn’t going to wear
traditional white. I was going to be married on
Christmas Day and the colour theme started to come
through as red.
I saw my gown while shopping for one of my brides
who wanted an American-style bridesmaid’s dress,
and it was there, in a fabulous wedding dress shop,
hanging at the end of a rail. There was one dress, in
my size and it was as simple as that.
For my birthday Robert had bought me a pair of
Louboutins and black became the secondary colour.
Robert bought a new dark suit. We found his red rose
tie and pocket square online and I bought him gold
cufflinks for his birthday. We were enjoying choosing
things together, designing the order of service, which
I wrote, and the wording was in Welsh and English.
Alice, the harpist, was a member of the congregation
and she was thrilled to be asked to play for us.
Everyone was asked to pre-order what they wanted
to eat for their Christmas Day lunch. As it was only
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