Sophie & Josh -Shilstone House - Devon

Why did you choose Yeti?

Yeti was actually recommended by Jonny Finnis who was in fact originally booked and then cancelled as he forgot and booked his honeymoon.

Which wasn't great however, everything happens for a reason and I'm glad to have been able to book you guys as your work is exactly the style i have wanted and very lucky that you had availability such last minute, So thank you :)

You guys…what do you do?…how do you spend your days?

Josh works for a civil engineering company as a manager, his family also have a farm where he works hard on that mainly during the summer months making hay/straw bails.

We have recently also opened up our own business in Recruitment for construction workers which I am currently working under full time.

We both love to be out on the water, I have grown up with my family with speed boats, water skiing, wake boarding etc. When josh was introduced into the family he also took a liking to the boat life. My dad had a boat which eventually needed a lot of work doing on it mechanically so was just going to give it away so Josh said he would have it and complete all the work on it. So we had a lovely little speed boat for a while.

Then during the first lock down as we had both the wedding and honeymoon cancelled we decided to get a bigger boat with a little cabin which is now where we try to spend most of our time on this.

We both love to go abroad, which again has been set back due to bloody covid, but hoping to have our long awaited honeymoon in Thailand this November.

The most important things in our life is to succeed in our business, have a family one day and as cliché as its sounds but just to be happy and just enjoy life with each other.

The proposal. Tell me everything. (All the gushy details!)

So this was another very nearly didn't happen moment.

Josh actually bought me a trip to Barcelona for a Valentines present in 2018 (which was a bit extreme for valentines as we have never really done it quite like that, some flowers and chocolates usually but i wasn't complaining) This was booked for 2nd March for a long weekend.

Anyway, the day before we were due to fly this happened to when we had that really bad snow storm and being told not to travel. So as we were only flying from Bristol we thought if we drove up the night before, book into a hotel then we don't have too far to travel.

We get to the travel lodge, go to check in. They couldn't find out booking. Josh booked it for a months time. Luckily they had 1 room left, their disabled room.

We put our stuff in the room and went down for dinner, Josh then gets a message from his friend telling him to check our flight as loads are being cancelled. he checked, Cancelled.

So we then thought right lets drive to the airport to double check. Yep definitely cancelled. We drove back to the hotel and on the way back we was trying to find alternative flights, i find flights from Luton i think it was. So because of the time of the flight and where we had to travel we literally used the room for a quick shower and off we went. At this point its is haaaaaaamering it down with thick snow.

We get to the car park and because we were early as didn't want to get stuck in the snow we then had to sleep in the car for about 3 hours, turning the car on and off now and again to keep warm.

Anyway finally get in the airport, get on our plane, they are defrosting our plane as completely frozen. We were on the plane at a stand still for about 2 hours, toilets also weren't in use. AT this point Josh is panicking a little as he's thinking we are never getting to Barcelona im just going to have to propose to her on the plane. I just thought ah well we will just have to re book again.

Well, we did get to Barcelona after the long drama, he booked an amazing hotel and also booked an amazing restaurant at the top of a tower looking over the beach and city, how the F*** i didn't click on what was about to happen i do not know.

So im doing the whole insta story thing, recording everything. We've ordered cocktails, Josh asked this waiter for a photo, i give him my phone, On insta of course so josh has to then go over and make sure its changed to a normal video to catch 'the moment'

I go to sit down with my lovely posh cocktail to pose, josh asks me to stand up, i wasn't like for god sake why just sit down. (still not making it easy for josh) S o i did stand up and Josh says ' i want to make a toast' i looked at him like 'wtf are we toasting the weirdo' he then gets down on his knee, I'm say out loud 'oh my god, no your not' (I'm awful in these on the spot situations, no matter how lovely it is) He completely freezes and tells me he loves me to the moon and back (which is now a ongoing joke) He was so so nervous and had apparently practiced exactly what to say.

Of i said YES! cried a lot, couldn't wait to tell everyone, cant remember anything we ate as was on cloud 9. After this posh, expensive meal and the most romantic proposal we went down to one of the beach bar's order a litre of sangria and then went and had a burger.

That's our very dramatic proposal story.

Shilstone House …..Why this place above any where else?

Shilstone House. We booked here literally 2 weeks after Josh proposed. I completely fell in love with the place, we did go to a Barn in Exeter before which was beautiful but not quite big enough for our guests (we have a big family)

We got to Shilstone and i honestly cried the whole way around just envisioning my day there. Its weird when you get that feeling of just knowing its right.

We loved that it has 3 different styles of venues all at one place, a barn, a Manor house and then the Marquee. As well as the stunning surroundings.

That was it, we booked it there an then. Originally for 18th April 2020.

What experience do you want to give your guests?

I just want everyone to have fun and just let their hair down. Enjoy all being together FINALLY and come away with some amazing memories that we can all still talk about in years to come.