This evening we join Jemma and Danny for their elegant and opulent Real Wedding in Country Durham. I actually said my own wedding vows under the very same roof at Durham School Chapel, so sharing their wedding on these pretty pages holds a special significance for me and brings back reminders of my own big day.
I think I’ll be logging off early today to spend some extra time with my lovely hubby. In the meantime, enjoy Jemma and Danny’s lovely celebration.
With images by Focal Point Photography.
Jemma says: Danny had taken my sister to Tiffany & Co to help pick the engagement ring before our holiday to Las Vegas. He asked me to marry him on a private terrace overlooking the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas. Complete surprise we were just having our “photo taken” and playing guess the next song for the fountains when Danny correctly guessed “Elton John Your Song” I realised that there was something up when he got down on one knee and obviously I said yes!
We got married on 22nd February 2014 at Durham School Chapel with our reception at Rockliffe Hall. I went to school at Durham and the chapel meant a lot me and Rockliffe is just a stunning venue.
We worked with Noble Fine Art to design our wedding invites and they designed us a J&D monogram. The bridesmaid dresses were made with a small amount of rose gold lace by Jim Hjelm and we married the two together. We then found Coco Luminaire and we had giant J&D letters at our evening reception. The overall theme was elegant opulence.
I chose a Mori Lee dress from Y.A.P Bridal boutique in Newcastle. It was not what I expected to pick, it was jewelled and beaded and very intricate not what I thought. I only tried on four wedding dresses and three of those were in a different shop prior to trying “the one” on. Y.A.P were fantastic!
My bridesmaids wore dresses from Jim Hjelm supplied by Accent Bridal in Newcastle. We were very lucky in that the rose gold lace was no longer used by Jim Hjelm due to availability of supply but as we loved it so much Accent rang the suppliers and managed to find the last few yards!
The junior bridesmaids dress did not have any gold lace so Ann from Diva Designs at Seaham made us a bolero which tied everything together.
We used the excess lace to put around the bottom of my flowers and a small amount on the mother of the bride’s corsage. So an inadvertent theme all based around a bit of lace!
The groomsmen all wore the same three piece suit from Moss Bros.
My mum made me a personalised garter with something old, new borrowed and blue in it. The something borrowed & old was her mums’ wedding ring.
Amanda Bell was my make up artist and I had her for the day. She felt like part of the family from the make-up trial to the actual day and getting touched up between photos I felt like a celebrity!
Hooker and Young at Wynyard were in charge of my wedding hair. Marcus King and Rebecca honestly went above and beyond. They already had a wedding that day when I went to book mine but Marcus started really early and I was so happy with my hair.
I carried a bouquet of ivory roses from Flowers By Nattrass, Darlington. The bouquets and service we received were beautiful.
Aurora Strings played in the chapel and every time they stopped playing Danny thought I had arrived and went white as a sheet – brilliant!
Danny’s favourite bit of the day was seeing me come into the chapel and I have to agree seeing his face and his best man giving him a pat on the back was one of mine too!
Focal Point Photography came very highly recommended and to be honest we never shopped around as we knew we wanted them. We made the right decision since as a not very photogenic couple we are so happy with the final photos!
One Digital Image were chose for our wedding video and honestly they were truly fantastic! I would have been so late without Janet’s help and they were just as excited as we were!
My mum and I did the centrepieces and we were very proud of them. I also made individual horseshoes to arrange up the steps of the Chapel (all 97 of them)!
We had Jason Isaacs, a swing singer to start the evening entertainment off and then our friend Bodg from Capital radio was our DJ. His wedding present to us was public liability insurance so Rockliffe Hall would let him do it… he will never know how much it meant to us both!
We also hired a photo booth from Snaparazzi – all our guests commented on how amazing the booth was but the owner Ross was our favourite part as he let us take refuge in the booth whilst he was setting up so we could catch our breath before the evening event!
I think my favourite part of the day were the speeches from my dad who is normally a man of few words to three A4 pages of notes to Danny’s speech who had everyone clutching the Kleenex. Our mini bridesmaid and our youngest usher surprised us with personalised poems and just when you thought it couldn’t get any better Bobby the best man absolutely stole the show from silver platform shoes to a PowerPoint to a The Hangover style video.
For our honeymoon we jetted off to the Hawaiian Islands!
My top tip for other Brides Up North would be that when thinking of your suppliers for the day go for the people that are supplying them. Remember you need to spend the best day of your life with them and deal with them up to and after the ceremony. No amount of amazing photos on websites will block out a really annoying person or someone who stressed out for the day.
Congratulations Jemma & Dan!
Would you like to share your own Real Wedding with Brides Up North? Get in touch.
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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2014 Focal Point Photography
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