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One delectable Real Wedding (did you see yesterday’s glittering celebration at Oulton Hall? Click here to catch up) deserves another.
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Today’s stunning wedding was sent to me by fabulous photographer Martin Castein, Brides Up North Featured Supplier (and all round amazing lady) the super chic Make Up By Jo – responsible for today’s beautiful wedding day look – and our lovely real bride Francesca.
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With every single detail of the day hand crafted by Francesca and David themselves, and a team of talented professionals to support their vision, the result was always going to be flawless.
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Francesca says: At my parent’s house on Christmas day 2008. As I am an artist and designer David hid my engagement ring in the last box of presents. It was in a pencil case in a small crate full of creative things. As I began to open the pencil case he told me that I needed to pass it to him, which I thought was a bit strange but I did, and then he took the box with the ring in it out of the pencil case, stood up, got down on one knee with my parents sitting there with us and asked me to marry him! To which obviously I answered yes straight away!
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We were married on Saturday 19th August 2012. Our marriage ceremony was at St John’s Church Egglescliffe and our reception was at Headlam Hall.
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We adore our local church, as well as being very beautiful, it is also very special to us as our son was christened there too. We chose Headlam Hall after much searching for our perfect venue because it was so stunning, the perfect size and fulfilled everything that we were looking for.
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Our theme was ’vintage’ with a focus on florals and pearls. Our colour theme was taken from some beautiful fabric that I found. We used it throughout the wedding. It consisted of sage green, off white, fawn, pale pinks with a teeny hint of pale lilac.
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My dress was champagne coloured, with a heavily embellished diamond and beaded bodice; lace up back also with the embellishments. It had a long rounded train also carrying the same embellished design. It was fitted down to the waist then it gently flowed over the hips into a full floor length skirt. My parents bought it for me from a shop in Northallerton when we went there for a visit on my birthday, I didn’t plan on buying anything that day let alone a wedding dress! But I did and it was the first thing that was purchased towards our wedding.
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Our bridesmaids wore pale lilac/pink iridescent full length organza dresses by Jim Hjelm which we bought from Truly Beautiful in Guisborough.
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I carried a large bouquet of pale pink roses and ranunculus, green guilder roses, pale lavender/pink, and cream hydrangeas and gypsophila. The bouquet had cream pearls on gold wire hanging from them with a crystal heart at the base of the stems.
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Our day was absolutely amazing, there were so many precious moments and we adored every second of it, but definitely actually saying our vows to each other and being pronounced man and wife for us was be the best bit.
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Our wedding wasn’t necessarily a conventional one as I made and did absolutely everything myself! My table runners, buttonholes, all the floral arrangements, wedding cakes, favours, invitations, order of service, table plan, bunting, all the wedding jewellery, the wedding ring pillow, pew decorations, even the flowers and bows for the car! Almost everything that you can see in the photographs I made. David even restored two 200 year old urns to put our flowers in, to go in front of the top table.
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My mum and I made a three tiered fruit cake made from my late grandmother’s recipe, which was covered in pale cream icing which had pink and cream striped cotton ribbon along the bottom of each tier which I had sewn pale pink pearls and pale green crystals onto all the way along. On the top was an arrangement of flowers that I made using some of the same flowers that were in my bouquet and some large pearls. We also had a ‘cutting’ cake made of vanilla sponge and filled with butter icing which was covered in pale pink icing with a quilted design with rose centre. David doesn’t like fruit cake so we decided to make two cakes as we anticipated that there would be others who would rather a slice of sponge instead of fruit.
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We had a vintage suitcase which I painted our initials onto the top of the lid to put all of our cards and gifts in from our guests; we now have all of our keepsakes in there packed away safely. We also had a table with photographs of our loved ones that are no longer with us that we so wish could have been and who we wanted to remember.
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We had a very talented local young pianist called Georgie Lock playing whilst we had our meal and whilst the tea, coffee and truffles were being served in the stable lounge after the meal. The venue provided the DJ as part of hiring the venue.
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We didn’t want a wedding that was the same as anyone else’s or for our guests to sit and recognise where we had bought everything from, we wanted it to be entirely personal and handmade and the only way to do it was to do it entirely ourselves and make it all with love.
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David works away so we couldn’t go on honeymoon straight away as he had to go back to work shortly after the wedding but when he returned home again we went on a sort of honeymoon to a beautiful place called Fowey in Cornwall, we took our son with us too.
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My top tip for other Brides Up North would be that if you want your day to be perfect, to enjoy planning it and not have stress all the way through it, make sure that you plan well in advance.
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Book your wedding for at least a year in advance (ours was booked over two years in advance!) That way you can make sure that the date you want is yours for the picking rather than just choosing from the ones that are left. By booking things in plenty of time you can source things if they are out of stock and you can take advantage of sales too!
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Prioritise the things that are the most important, and that need to be booked first such as; venue, wedding dress, wedding rings, photographer (Martin Castein was absolutely amazing!) and invitations, that way if nothing else you can still have a wedding with guests!
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I made a spread sheet of all the things that I needed to buy and book too, I put down absolutely everything on it contact details for suppliers, order numbers, how much I had paid, how much deposit I had paid, how much was left still to pay and when it needed to be paid for. That way you have everything you need in one place to hand rather that sorting through reams of paperwork or not being able to find the details at all! It certainly made a difference as we could keep an on-going track of what we had spent and how much was left remaining.
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Congratulations Francesca & David! 
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Would you like to see your own Real Wedding featured on Brides Up North? Just get in touch.
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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2012 Martin Castein Photography
This is not a sponsored post
Contact Brides Up North to submit your business as a Featured Supplier
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