Real Weddings: Karen Foster & Jamie Pockett, Eastington Hall, April 30, 2011

By Cotswold Life on December 13th 2011

Real Weddings: Karen Foster & Jamie Pockett, Eastington Hall, April 30, 2011

Karen Foster & Jamie Pockett

Eastington Hall

April 30, 2011

www.gloucesterphotographer.com

Karen and Jamie love to laugh and share a great sense of fun. So when they decided to marry, it was always going to be an event full of humour. Once you get to know them, the gnome garden party to celebrate their wedding makes perfect sense – honest it does. The couple met on a skydive drop zone. Jamie was on leave from the RAF and Karen was on a university skydiving outing.

Romance blossomed, as did their mutual passion for skydiving. In August the couple became British champions after winning gold with their 4-way team the ‘high altitude heroes’ in A class at the BPA British Open National Skydiving Championships. Jamie waited six years to propose – he wanted to save enough first to make a deposit on a home. When he popped the question he did it in style. “He took me to Thornbury castle and told me we were going to a Christmas party with his squadron. We had a table on our own on top of a beautiful staircase. It was so romantic but I didn’t have a clue that he was going to propose.”

Then the waiter brought a huge silver serving dish and lifted the lid to reveal an engagement ring. “I did cry. He had already asked my dad and told his. He didn’t tell my mum beforehand because she could never have kept it a secret.” Karen, who has a good friend in Stroud, searched the countryside to find the perfect venue and discovered Eastington Hall. “We wanted something big enough to house us all and where we could have the whole weekend but also somewhere not too expensive.”

With a careful eye on costs Karen decided the wedding would be very much a homemade affair. “We weren’t worried about the table favours and the show, we wanted to get everyone together.” Karen made her own wedding dress and the bridesmaids’ dresses – all seven of them ( four cousins, Jamie’s sister and two friends). “I couldn’t have done it without mum’s help. It was such a lot of work.”

The flowers came from a wholesalers with Jamie’s mum creating the table arrangements and an aunt making the bouquets. To make the day more fun for the youngsters they had a children’s entertainer in a different room. During the reception the parents relaxed while the children were kept busy making teddy bears and playing games. In the evening the couple held a ceilidh and Jamie changed out of his RAF uniform into a kilt. Karen, as a surprise, had shoes covered in matching tartan and changed the lacing in her wedding dress to tartan.

The couple have always loved fancy dress. At the reception each of the tables had a different photo of them in fancy dress over the years. They wanted to have a party the next day and wanted it to have a theme. How did they decide on garden gnomes? Karen admits she doesn’t know but once they hit on the idea they knew it was the perfect theme. “It turned into a real festival atmosphere and everyone joined in, though some were a bit reluctant when we told them they had to dress up as gnomes!”

It was Karen’s eye for detail – from the red-polka dotted mushrooms made by her brother and his girlfriend to Mr and Mrs on their gnome outfits that made the day such an occasion. “I work as a scientist so that’s my serious day job. But I love dressing up and having fun.” There was live music, a bouncy castle, games and even awards. Karen’s grandparents were given the Lifetime Gnome Achievement Award. “My nana and granddad are 86 and they still dressed up as gnomes.”

For them what made the occasion so special was that all the people who are dear to them were there. “What I will remember most will be all the first reactions like when Dad saw me in my dress for the first time, when Jamie saw me and everyone there smiling and cheering as we became husband and wife. All those precious moments.”

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