On with the pretty as we steam ahead into Tuesday. This morning we join Brides Up North reader Charlie and her new husband Sam for their homespun celebration under canvas. From their meaningful ceremony to their Bond style get-a-away (read on) everything about this wedding is fun and fabulous. I love.
With images by WH Photography.
Charlie says: Sam asked me to marry him on Primrose Hill in London last July, and we were married on 24th August 2013.
We were married in my home church in Swanland, and our reception was in tipis at a boat club in Brough. From the off we were keen to have a marquee wedding as we liked the idea of being able to personalise it. We loved the tipis as soon as we saw them, so from there it was a case of finding somewhere to put them! My family does a lot of sailing at Welton Waters and it wasn’t an obvious choice but it turned out to be a brilliant one.
I knew I wanted a lace dress before I started searching, After doing a bit of shopping we took a chance trip to the Bridal Factory Outlet in Northallerton where we ended up buying my dress by Benjamin Roberts for half its original price! I then hunted around for some matching lace, and asked a friend to add it to the bottom of the dress, as well as adding some buttons to the back and altering the neckline.
I also really wanted a lace trim veil, but they cost a lot of money! So I bought some veiling tulle and over 10m of lace trim and my mum very patiently sewed it all on. My top tip if you do it this way is to wash the veil a few times with fabric softener as it makes the veil much softer, like some of the more expensive veils.
My shoes were gold glittery peep toes from Dorothy Perkins!
I had an idea in my head of what I wanted my bridesmaids to wear, so I found a pattern, bought some fabric and found a dressmaker to make them. I had seven bridesmaids, and between them they wore four different shades of blue. I made them each a little belt in a nude colour to match their shoes, by sewing some motifs that I found on Etsy to some satin ribbon.
The groomsmen wore grey suits from Greenwoods, with a waistcoat and ruche in two different shades of blue to match the bridesmaids.
My bouquet had a mix of white and peach roses, cornflowers and rosemary, and my bridesmaids carried a mix of gypsophila and cornflowers.
The best part of the day was definitely the service. We both love God and believe that our vows were made with him at the centre so this was the most important part of the day for us. It was so overwhelming to see so many friends and family, and it was really nice to have tea and cake after the service for everyone who came to the wedding.
We travelled from the church to our venue in a copper coloured VW campervan from Big Day Buses who were great.
Our photographer Will (W H Photography) was brilliant, we hardly noticed him taking photos and yet he caught so many important moments.
We didn’t really have a theme but we wanted to keep things rustic and a bit different. In hindsight, the theme could probably be ‘homemade’, as just about everything had a homemade touch, from the orders of service and seating plan, to the floral garlands (achieved through my mum’s creation of ‘oasis’ sausages’) and bunting.
One of the best things about our wedding was how brilliant all our different suppliers were,
Totally Tipi were so friendly throughout the whole process, and were always willing to meet our requests. And the tipis were just fantastic on the day.
Our food was done by Feast Yorkshire and everyone has said how amazing it was. Siobhan who runs Feast Yorkshire studied art before going into catering, and so her food doesn’t just taste amazing – it looks amazing too.
Luisianna’s Bars provided us with our drinks – Ben and the team were so friendly and provided a brilliant service on the day.
For our table names we decided to use names of all the streets where we’ve lived. We have always lived in different places, so we thought it would be nice if people could learn a bit about both of us – so we wrote a little bit about each place on the back of each of the street signs.
I’ve never liked standard wedding cake, so we went for cute white chocolate cake from M&S which we decorated with fruit.
A good friend of mine is the lead singer of a brilliant York-based band called Bluephunk. We knew they could get everyone dancing!
One of the coolest parts of our day was our exit.. on a speed boat. We tried to keep it a secret so it was a good surprise for our guests.
Sam organised the honeymoon as a surprise, and I didn’t find out until I got to the airport. He took me to the north coast of Italy for a week, and then to Sicily for a few days.
My top tip for other Brides Up North would be that if you are doing a homemade wedding, try and get as much as you can done by the day before the day before so you can take in everything that is happening.
It is true that the day goes too fast, but remember that the end of the day is the beginning of your marriage.
Congratulations Charlie & Sam!
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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2013 WH Photography
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