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Its holiday season here on the blog, and as the team take a break until to rest and recharge for the second half of what’s set to be the biggest and best year year yet at Brides Up North HQ, we’ll be leaving you with a reduced blogging schedule so that you still get your daily dose of wedding pretty.
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Usual service will recommence on 1st July 2013, but in the meantime watch out for recaps of our favourite Real Weddings so far in 2013, plenty of eye candy, new features that we won’t be able to wait to share, some special supplier showcases and a couple of surprises too!
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One of my very favourite Real Weddings ever featured here on the wedding blog, Sarah and Andrew’s riotously gorgeous real wedding in Cheshire courtesy of Brides Up North fave, Jonny Draper Photography first appeared on these pretty pages in February this year.
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There are stunning details, beautiful gowns, super cute kids and men in kilts… what more could you want?!
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Sarah says: We got engaged in Andrew’s home town of Stonehaven, 11th August 2012. We were visiting Andrew’s family and went for a lovely lobster meal at the Tollbooth, overlooking Stonehaven Harbour. Andrew then suggested a walk to the pier head to admire the view and before I knew it he was down on one knee with a beautiful ring and asked the words every girl wants to hear!
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We were married on 19th January 2013 at Sandhole Oak Barn, Congleton. When I saw the barn I fell in love! The views are amazing and there is such a wonderful feel about the whole place. The family who own the barn were so friendly and made the decision very easy… we booked there and then!
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We didn’t have a theme as such but we really liked the idea of the barn being lit up with fairy lights as in January, it would be dark early and we thought it would make the place more magical. I’d been looking at quite vintage colours for flowers and the mercury silver glass just seemed to follow, along with tealights everywhere! The moustache and lips on the wedding stationary seemed fun and our friend Rebecca Morris sourced letter pressing, designed and printed them all for us.
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The colour scheme found itself really, grey/silver for the bridesmaids with the Tartan having grey and purple thrown in. I chose quite muted colours for the flowers, amnesia, memory lane and ivory to stick with the vintage glamour look, and of course had sea holly (thistle) to keep the Scottish heritage up!
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I decided on the Pronovias Alcanar gown as I loved the corded lace. I bought it at Dan Kerr Brides in Preston. Kaye was fab and couldn’t have been more helpful. The gown was nothing like I had imagined I would wear but everybody says don’t rule anything out until you’ve tried it on and it’s true!
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I had quite a challenge with choosing the bridesmaids’ outfits as my chief Bridesmaid, Jackie, was 34 weeks pregnant on our wedding day! Also, Andrew had decided to have his sister as Best Woman so we thought it would be nice to have her in the same dress as the bridesmaids but in black. In the end, I decided on the Two Birds Bridesmaid dresses as they were so versatile, maternity friendly and I loved the way the girls all wore a different style but were actually in the same dress! I bought them from Swan Brides in Congleton, the colour was Charcoal (and I’m very jealous that I don’t have one myself!)
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We were very aware of the cold, snowy weather so we provided an old vintage suitcase full of blankets for our guests to use when the were outside to stop them freezing! We had lace cones of confetti to hand out to guests during the ceremony and lace handkerchiefs to wipe away any tears! My Dad organised a bagpiper to pipe Andrew and the guests into the Barn as he was getting married so far from home. It was a total surprise and so touching to her the pipes over the wind. Just perfect, it made many shed a tear! The poor piper was frozen though!
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The whole day was amazing, but my favourite part was standing in front of our family and friends and saying my vows to my husband… and walking out of (practically skipping!) the service through a confetti cloud to Stevie Wonder’s Signed Sealed Delivered!
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My Dads’ side of the family still own and run Cornall’s Market Garden in Walton Le Dale, Preston so having them design our flowers only seemed right! The bouquet was very informal, made up of amnesia, memory lane and avalanche roses for the vintage feel with sea holly brought in to tie in with Andrew’s Scottish heritage. I had photographs of our grandparents pinned onto my bouquet , and I carried a photograph of my Aunt who recently passed away so that they were with us on our special day.
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We had the fabulous Top Table catering on the day and they couldn’t have been better. Annette organised the day wonderfully, ensuring every last detail was executed to perfection! I’ve had texts, phone calls and emails galore saying how wonderful they all were and that the food was amazing! They really are a brilliant team and couldn’t recommend them highly enough.
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We gave the task of organising our wedding cake to my dad, which he did very well! We just asked for a pretty, simple cake that tasted good, and it ticked the boxes! Made by 2nice2slice in Preston.
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The entertainment was really important to us as we both love a good party and wanted everyone to dance their socks off! We chose The Coolers Band and Andy Murphy DJ to entertain and they did just that! The dance floor was never empty and everyone had a fantastic time! Even uncles who normally watch from afar were up chucking some shapes…
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We’ve got a lovely 14 month old son, Thomas, so leaving him for a honeymoon wasn’t an option and we are moving to Abu Dhabi in March so we’re pretty tight on time! We did however manage to squeeze our first night away together since Thomas was born and we went to The Mere Hotel and Spa in Knutsford.
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My top tip for other Brides Up North would be to plan your morning so you’re all made up and hair done a good hour before you have to leave. The last moments before you walk down the aisle are so precious and you need time to treasure them with those that mean the most around you (and if you’ve chosen your girls well, you’ll have a few tears and a bloody good laugh!) Oh, and Pinterest is fabulous for getting together lots of ideas…
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Congratulations Sarah and Andrew!
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Get in touch to see your own beautiful big day featured on the blog – here’s how.
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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2013 Jonny Draper Photography
This is not a sponsored post
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