Its holiday season here on the blog, and as the editorial team take a break to redesign, review and recharge, we’ll be leaving you with a reduced blogging schedule so that you still get your daily dose of wedding lovely.
Usual service will recommence on Monday 7th July 2014, but in the meantime watch out for recaps of our favourite Real Weddings so far this year. Drop in every day for the very prettiest, most unique wedding inspiration and – if you are a Brides Up North bride – to see if your Real Wedding was one of our top picks.
Dan and Sam’s wedding is all about the gorgeous details, their amazing venue (Brides Up North Featured Supplier Middleton Lodge) and lots of big belly laughs. I’ve adored every minute of putting this feature together, and I hope it brightens up your Tuesday.
With images by Helen Russell Photography.
Be very inspired!
Samantha says: Dan asked me to marry him on August 13th 2011 in London at St Paul’s Cathedral in the Whispering Gallery (rumoured to bring you good luck for the rest of your marriage if you are proposed to there)!
We were married on Saturday 29th June 2013 at Middleton Lodge, Richmond, North Yorkshire.
We wanted a venue that was not only stunning, but that we could also have as our home for the weekend to allow exclusivity but also a homely feel for us and our guests. A huge bonus of this amazing venue is that we could marry on the stunning grounds and a summer outdoor wedding was something that particularly I had dreamed of.
We travelled there on the Friday evening, so the whole wedding took place at Middleton Lodge – we didn’t need to travel and could just relax and enjoy the three day celebrations.
The theme was whimsical, rustic and fun and we opted for a pastel colour scheme with pastel green for the bridesmaid dresses and men’s ties and pastel pink for the flowers.
My dress was a delicate lace dress, strapless with a sweetheart neckline and dramatic fishtail and train by Enzoani and called ‘Dakota’. I bought it from Boda Bridal in Chester.
Dan wore a dark grey suit from Groom suit hire with pastel green Dessy tie and handkerchief to match the bridesmaid’s dresses.
My bridesmaids wore pastel green Dessy dresses and flower girl wore an ivory dress with lace detail and the groomsmen wore dark grey suits from Groom suit hire with pastel green Dessy tie to match the bridesmaid’s dresses.
The Pageboy work the same as the groomsmen but with black converse.
My bouquet was a mixture of pink Peonies wrapped in vintage lace – the bridesmaids carried a smaller version of my bouquet and my flower girl carried a peony wand.
Hair and Make-up was by Deborah Schofield at Ruby Red Lips.
The entertainment was important to us. We chose the North East Soiree string quartet to add atmosphere to our outdoor wedding. Howard Wing (who just won the Best Wedding Entertainer North West) was definitely the star of the day… he had our guests dancing on their chairs during the wedding breakfast!
The Imposters Band took over in the evening with an awesome mix of soulful funky and modern songs that got everyone on the dance floor.
for our guests to wave once we had tied the knot, retro milk bottle with candy stripe straws for the children’s drinks, retro sweet stand, fun props for photographs (including a vintage pop-up photo booth), homemade fabric lavender heart favours, homemade typewriter stamped place cards, DIY pom poms that hung around the marquee, Dan made a rustic wooden cake stand and wedding sign so our guests knew where the wedding was. We had various pictures of loved ones from our parents and grandparents wedding days, faux grass with tea-cups sat on top filled with peonies, homemade scrabble ‘Mr & Mrs’ and ‘Love’ signs and a quirky suitcase on legs holding our cards and gifts in the day, then dancing shoes (flip flops) in the evening.
We used Whimsical Wedding Hire for vintage hire and styling and The Finishing Touch Company, to add our finishing touches! All our flowers were by Bels Flowers.
My mother-in-law’s best friend made our ivory ruffle wedding cake with pink and white creamed sponge inside. It sat on a rustic tree stump wedding stand that Dan made and we also had cupcakes in lace cups and cake pops for the kids.
Helen Russell Photography is an amazing lady who has an eye for catching a story book of memories of your day that you will have to cherish forever!
My Mum and Dad looking so proud when they saw me in my dress will always stay with me, walking down the aisle (outdoors because the weather shone for us!) and seeing Dan at the other end waiting for me was magical, but our favourite part was walking in to the wedding breakfast to Stevie Wonder’s ‘Made to Love Her’. Howard Wing rocked the place and everyone was clapping and cheering. The Bridesmaids, Groomsmen and then Best Man all walked in to different songs before us to get the room warmed up! I loved seeing all of our guests enjoying themselves and people just letting go and having genuine fun!
For our honeymoon we had an amazing three weeks trip to the West Coast of America. We started in Las Vegas and then made our way to San Francisco, Carmel, and across the Big Sur to Santa Barbara/L.A. We finished our amazing trip in NYC… we did not want it to ever end!
My top tip for other Brides Up North would be to enjoy all of the planning and remember that this is your big day – you cannot please everyone all of the time.
Try not to over complicate the table plan and spend hours over the decision of where to seat your guests – they will all have an amazing time and it really will not matter on the day… just enjoy!
Congratulations Samantha and Dan!
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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2014 Helen Russell Photography
Helen Russell 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
