Happy New Year everyone! I hope you’ve had an amazing holiday and enjoyed the 100 real weddings I featured on the blog over Christmas. Time now for the first real wedding of 2015… and it’s just gorgeous. I love the little details today’s bride and groom created for their day – their attention to detail is wonderful; there is plenty here to inspire your own big day and I know you’ll love it!
Siobhan is beautiful, wearing a lace dress with a delicate belt. Her accessories are fabulous – and I adore her bouquet, by Leonora Rose. The styling of the day is a highlight though – with friends and family all pitching in to help with stationery design, decorating, table arrangements and the seating plan there’s so much to see!
Huge thanks to lovely Mark Dolby for sharing his images of the day with us today. Please check him out if you’re looking for a photographer – he’s based in Leeds.
Ready for the wedding? I hope you love it as much as I do.
Our wedding report: Siobhan + Iain
Wedding photographer’s website:
Were you pleased with your wedding photographer?
Mark’s photographs exceeded any expectation we had for our wedding photos, they captured the atmosphere of our day perfectly!
Wedding venue:
Ceremony: Meanwood Holy Trinity Church.
Reception: East Keswick Village Hall.
Can you describe your wedding in a single sentence?
The happiest day of our lives, filled with all of our favourite people, good food, great music and a rowdy dance floor.
What was your reaction to seeing your wedding photos for the first time?
Having seen Mark’s photographs we were excited to see how he had captured our day and he surpassed all of our expectations. We laughed and smiled our way through the photos which told the story of our day perfectly.
Your wedding style and theme:
We chose a village hall so we could have a traditional, DIY, informal wedding with lots of personal touches. We decorated the hall with lots of help from our lovely family and friends. We chose simple white table cloths with handmade burlap centrepieces and wild flowers. Our fabulous caterers added vintage touches with little teacups and vintage champagne glasses.
Any happy tears on the day?
Lots! Particularly the ceremony and speeches.
How did the two of you meet?
We met on our first day at the University of Hull and have been together for 9 years.
How long did you spend planning your wedding?
We had a year to plan our wedding.
Best bit of budget advice?
Choosing a village hall as our wedding venue gave us lots more flexibility in choosing caterers, décor and avoiding corkage charges!
Wedding invitations and on the day stationery:
Our Maid of Honour’s husband kindly designed all of our wedding invitations and wedding menus. He is one of the most creative people we know and really understood our theme and what we wanted. There were some happy tears when the invitations were first unveiled!
Did you fall in love with your wedding dress?
Yes. When I finally tried my dress on I felt ‘me’, having tried on so many beautiful gowns it was so hard to choose just one, but when I tried my dress on I felt myself and knew that’s how I wanted to feel on my wedding day.
Wedding dress designer and bridal boutique:
Mori Lee 1901 purchased from Confetti and Lace, Leeds.
Glitz and sparkle: the bride’s accessories:
My bracelet was my ‘something borrowed’, lent to me by my Maid of Honour’s mum Linda. She had worn it on her wedding day and then my Maid of Honour at hers so it felt really special to be able to wear it too.
My earrings were a gift from my Mum to wear on the big day, a Swarovski drop earing with pearl centre.
My hairpiece was a last minute purchase after the one I ordered didn’t arrive with my dress! It was an emergency purchase from the John Richard collection for Debenhams. A simple hair comb with more pearls and sparkle.
My veil was a floor length Italian tulle veil by Joyce Jackson. I kept it simple as the dress had so much detail.
My shoes were one of my favourites. Perfect Violet wedding shoe, lace adorned peep toe with a beautiful bow ankle strap.
The groom wore:
Moss Bros navy slim fit suit with horseshoe waistcoat and deep red tie
Beautiful bridesmaids: what did your best girls wear?
The bridesmaids wore high street dresses from Oasis. They were a light dusty pink, high neck with a pleated skirt. They wore the most gorgeous gold ankle strap heels also from Oasis.
Hair and make-up – did you DIY or hire a professional?
My hair was done at my local hairdressers Cutting Room Creative in Chapel Allerton, all the bridesmaids also had their hair done by Cutting Room stylists.
My make-up was done by the lovely Julia Jeckell. After a faulty airbrush machine start on the wedding morning she stayed calm and gave me the natural ‘dewy’ vintage look I was hoping for! She had a beautiful Bobbi Brown cabo coral blush which looked amazing at the trial but had all sold out for touch ups so she scraped up hers into a pot for me so I could still wear it –amazing!
Wedding flowers:
We found Leonora Rose after looking at different wedding blogs. Christine was amazing at taking our very vague ‘picked from the garden’ idea and turning it into beautiful wedding flowers which completely finished off our venue. The bridal bouquet was a perfect mix of Rose, Wax Flower and September. Christine was honest, and worked with us to get exactly what we wanted. The brown string tied around the flowers for the groomsmen finished them off perfectly.
What do you remember most about the wedding ceremony?
When we talk about our wedding ceremony we mostly remember the organist – who didn’t know his way around the keys as much as we’d hoped! But it made for a good opening line in the Best Man’s speech later on.
Wedding readings?
Corinthians 13:1-13 and Union by Robert Fulgham.
General styling – did your venue need much decoration?
The venue was a blank canvas and we dressed the hall with an indoor marquee.
All of our other decorations were hand made with help from the Mother of the Bride. We bought hessian material from our local market and made our own table runners. We used white metal jugs for the centrepieces with wild flowers. Our table numbers were made using Decopatch paper from Hobbycraft. We bought a large picture from Gumtree and painted it, covered it in hessian and used champagne corks for the seating plan. We wanted a personalised touch to our wedding and having a blank canvas to do everything ourselves was exactly were looking for.
The wedding cake: traditional or quirky?
The wedding cake was very traditional – made by the Mother of the Bride. We wanted two large tiers, simple and rustic. The cake stand was a large piece of bark, and each layer was wrapped in hessian and lace and topped with a wire ‘love’cake topper.
Entertainment:
Our band was The Band That Rocks –we can’t recommend them highly enough, the dance floor was filled all night and they sounded amazing.
Our wedding food was the most delicious sausage and mash made by the wonderful Victoria Rose Catering –Victoria and her colleagues were so lovely to work with, they gave us lots of help and advice from the start and their food was to die for. We used their gorgeous vintage champagne glasses for our welcome drinks and had vintage tea cups on the tables.
Our evening food was outdoor wood fired pizzas from Big Red Oven –a favourite with our guests!
On the day tips and advice:
Don’t worry about the weather… but buy umbrellas just in case!
What’s the best thing about being married?
Planning our next adventure together –hopefully a nice big holiday in 2015!
Quick supplier list for other brides and grooms:
Photographer –www.markdolby.co.uk
East Keswick Village Hall –www.eastkeswick.org.uk/village-hall
Shoes –www.elegantsteps.co.uk
Hair –www.cuttingroomwired.co.uk
Make Up –www.juliajeckell.com
Wedding Dress –www.confetti-and-lace.com
Florist –www.leonorarose.co.uk
Indoor Marquee –www.cgcevents.co.uk
The Band That Rocks–www.warble-entertainment.com
Victoria Rose Catering –www.victoriarosecatering.com
Big Red Oven –www.bigredoven.com
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