Good morning you lovely lot. Another day, another beautiful wedding! It is meant to be the hottest day of the year so far, though I am guessing this doesn’t include Yorkshire, it never does. So it seems quite fitting to cool off with a gorgeous winter wedding. Sophie and James’s day is gorgeous, Sophie looks glorious in her gown (she also has to be the smiliest bride ever) and James looks ever so dashing in his military dress. I think my favourite detail of this wedding are the knitted hearts as favours/christmas tree decorations made my Sophie’s mum. Dedication!
photography by Laura Rhian Photography
My dress was by Alfred Angelo from Elizabeth George Bridal in Middlesbrough. I loved the trying on experience even if it did take a while! I knew I wanted lace and when I tried my dress on I knew it was the one. I had the bow around the middle made separately just to add a little bit more detail. My shoes were by Lucy Choi London and I got them on a last minute shopping trip to Harvey Nichols. I wanted a bit of sparkle so thought I would bring that with my shoes!
Bride’s hair accessories/veil: My veil was by Spellbinder from Destiny Bridal in Middlesbrough. I had always loved the idea of a full length veil but was worried it would drown me due to me being quite small! It worked though and I absolutely loved wearing it. I was sad to take it off!
My hair was styled by the lovely Lesley Hewitson from LA Hair in Yarm. Lesley knew I wanted to go for a vintage look and gave me the vintage waves that I had imagined. I did my own makeup and loved spending a shopping afternoon trying out different makes. I decided on Lancome and bought every product going!
I wore my favourite perfume Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel.
Our flowers were by Flower House in Hartburn village. Gill and the team made us feel completely at ease and knew exactly what we wanted. The flowers were so beautiful and suited the hall and the rooms beautifully.
My Bridesmaids dresses were from H and M. I hadn’t decided on a colour theme but when I spotted theses dresses I knew that was the colour I wanted. The girls all suited the shape and style perfectly. Their shoes were from Tesco! These were my ultimate bargain buy! I bought their earrings from Marks and Spencer.
James is in the Military so he wore his Naval uniform. He had an easy job really!
Groomsmen’s outfits/accessories: Some of the Groomsmen wore their military Uniforms and the others wore navy suits from Next.
The amazingly talented Laura Rhian Photography! We didn’t know where to start when it came to choosing a photographer but from the first skype conversation with Laura we knew we needed her for our big day! She captured every moment perfectly and we feel so lucky to have such stunning images to look back at to remember our day.
My fabulous Mum spent weeks knitting little red hearts for the female guests. The idea was that our guests would hang them on their tree as a decoration each year and remember our wedding day. For the men my Bridesmaids and I tied lace bows (of course!) around candy canes.
We hadn’t started with a theme in mind to be honest but we ended up with quite a Vintage / Romantic style.
Myself and my Bridesmaids created the place names using luggage labels and a gold pen! We also spent a whole evening tying lace bows around jars, string across baskets and more lace bows around anything we could lay our hands on!
Our fantastic table plan and memory board were created by Samantha Green Wedding Calligraphy. I am a teacher and was lucky enough to know Samantha as a parent. I had seen her work before and knew I needed her to create something special. What she created was spectacular. Her work brought us all to tears. In 2010 I lost my Dad and James lost his Mum so the day and lead up to it was always going to be tough and full of emotion. The memory board that Samantha created enabled us to ensure that my Dad and James Mum were with us and our happy memories were shared with everyone.
Crathorne Hall provided the catering. We were blown away by the food. It was delicious and the room full of clean plates just proved that our guests approved too!
Our ‘naked’ cake was baked by my fabulously talented and beautiful friend and Bridesmaid SophieBakes. This was our wedding present and we were absolutely thrilled with it. The whole wedding party were too! It went down a treat! There wasn’t a crumb left!
Our favourite moment was sitting down to eat and looking around feeling so overwhelmed that everyone was in one room just for us. Also, with the sun shining beautifully all day and the light sprinkling of snow that arrived on the evening we knew that both James’ Mum and my Dad were there watching over us too.
During the reception drinks we chose to have a string trio playing called Aurora Strings. We chose songs that we love and knew would be recognised by our guests. We wish we had managed to listen to them a bit more as they really were fantastic. Our band for the evening was the talented BluJam. They had everyone up on the dance floor for the entirety of their set. They created the energetic atmosphere we wanted for our evening.
Road tripping around America…we can’t wait!
Leave the planner/organisers with a detailed plan of how you want everything. You could provide pictures with notes etc. This will help you feel much more relaxed on the morning knowing everything is in hand.
Remember to enjoy yourself! The small things that you notice aren’t quite right won’t be noticed by anyone else.
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