Today’s Real Wedding, sent to me by Brides Up North Featured Supplier Katy Melling Photography and real bride Jenny couldn’t get any lovelier. From the pretty details, outdoor ceremony and relaxed styling to the personal touches throughout, Jenny and Jon’s day has a really happy feel, with family at it’s heart.
I’ve loved sharing in their big day, and I hope that you do too. Be inspired!
Jenny says: We got engaged in Copenhagen – February 2012 – and were married on July 27th 2013 at Guyzance Hall in Northumberland.
We chose the venue as it was only 3 miles from my parents’ village of Warkworth which was important as, although we live in London, I still have a strong pull to the North East (I was brought up in Whitley Bay). We also loved the idea of an outdoor wedding and the opportunity to have the majority of the wedding guests stay in the hall and the surrounding cottages for the weekend. Although the hall itself is grand and elegant, the whole weekend felt intimate and personal which is exactly the feel we wanted.
As the wedding ceremony was going to be outside, we adopted a country garden theme complete with lawn games and a quiz. We opted for a colour theme of peach and blue – I wanted the colours of the wedding to be muted and in the theme of the wedding.
My dress was called Nina (Short) by Stephanie Allin and came from Darcy Weddings in Morpeth. Darcy’s was the first bridal shop I visited and I spotted my dress almost as soon as I walked in. Knowing that I wanted a vintage feel to my dress, as soon as I spotted this 50s style, tea length lace dress, I knew I had found a winner. I tried it on and turned to my mum who said..’You look like your Grandma when she was your age’ – that was it – it was the one!
The bridesmaids wore dresses by Watters – also supplied by Darcy Weddings. They were nude/peach chiffon sleeveless dresses with soft pleating around the neckline, down the centre front of dress and at the waist with covered buttons behind the neck.
The groom and ushers wore the “Lingfield” suit from Moss Bros – a grey suit with tails. The ushers wore a pale blue cravat while Jon wore a cream one.
The music throughout the day was very important to me. I walked down the aisle to ‘Canon in D’ by Pachbel and then chose ‘Magic Moments’ by Perry Como as we signed the register. This was my Nanny’s favourite song so having that as part of the day was very important to me.
My favourite part of the day was saying our vows. Although we opted for a very simple and short ceremony, our registrar was brilliant and really put us at ease – we felt so relaxed and so happy to say the special words.
My bouquet was blue hydrangeas with gypsophila and peach avalanche roses by Fern Flowers. It was a ‘hand picked’ style bouquet which had a relaxed wild flower feel to it. The same flowers were used for the centre pieces for the tables.
As a personal touch I had a little sprig of Lily of the Valley as a reminder of my Grandma – it was her favourite flower.
Straight after the wedding ceremony, we had arranged a quiz. Sheets were handed out and guests had to collect signatures of other guests e.g. Someone who is a doctor, someone who is the parent of twins, someone born in Suffolk, etc. It was great fun and encouraged different groups to family and friends to chat and get to know each other.
The lawn games before and after our Wedding breakfast were great fun – my dad had been collecting them over the previous months and they were so popular on the day – it gave the day a lovely relaxed feel.
We decided to go for a different kind of guest book and had each guest/couple complete a ‘fill the blanks’ style sheet e.g. We have travelled from _______, You should call your children ________ and ___________. They made for very funny reading the next day and we’ve since had them bound into a book which we can pick up from time to time and smile.
The sparkling wine we chose for straight after the ceremony and our speeches was from a vineyard 5 miles from Jon’s parents house in Suffolk. We’ve bought wine from the vineyard before and it was important that we had some Suffolk element to our day.
We had a cheese cake made for us by The Northumberland Cheese Company based at Blagdon Farm, Milkhope. We had three main layers: nutty cheddar, oak smoked cheese and then a blue cheese on top. It was decorated by my mum and Auntie Sheila with figs, grapes and ivy. We also had two handmade mice made for the top by Lynn at Little Mouse Gallery. They were made to look like us; the bride with a lace dress and peach and blue bouquet and the groom with a blue cravat and a blue flower buttonhole
We had a fantastic band called ‘Hip Operation’ – they were a 7-piece band including a saxophone, trumpet and trombone. They really got the party started and created a brilliant atmosphere for the whole evening.
For our honeymoon we went to France. We spent one week in a beautiful little cottage in the Loire Valley (lots of wine tasting and cheese eating) and then a week in Paris.
My top tip for other Brides Up North is to try to think of as may ways to personalise your wedding as you can – it’s lovely to hear people comment on those little touches; those are the things you’ll remember the most.
Congratulations Jenny & Jon!
Would you like to see your own Real Wedding on Brides Up North? Here’s how.
Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2013 Katy Melling Photography
Katy Melling Photography is a Brides Up North Featured Supplier, but this is not a sponsored post
Contact Brides Up North to submit your business as a Featured Supplier
