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.
I’ve been in the wedding blog game for almost four years now, penning two fab features a day and of those features at least three Real Weddings a week. I might have said this once or twice before, but sometimes a celebration comes along that really knocks my socks off.
I’m a sucker for a bit of tradition, a dash of sparkle, an abundance of blush pink roses and full on glam.
Pooja and Krishna’s wedding ticks all those boxes, and has to be one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever seen. And in my line of work, that’s really saying something.
Have a lovely Friday Brides Up North, and be very inspired!
Images by Lawson Photography.
Pooja says: We went to Dubai last year in January for a short break and got engaged there. I had no idea he was going to ask me to marry him! Suffice to say he went down on one knee to pop the question and it came as such a shock that he had to ask me again!
We got married at the beautiful Thornton Manor on the Wirral on 22nd February 2014. As it was a winter wedding we wanted somewhere grand, classic and all exclusively to ourselves for the big day. The Manor was perfect for our theme, our ceremonies & our guests. With the ceremonies being traditional, colourful and intimate the Manor’s vintage feel and lavish décor provided an exquisite backdrop to the day.
For us it was all about remembering our loved ones that couldn’t be with us, glamour, and collaborating two cultures into a memorable day.
If I had to describe a theme for our wedding, I would describe it as Indian vintage. The Indian outfits for the Hindu ceremony were very regal and we were inspired by the Mughal era (1570 to 1857). The grooms procession, the shehnai music, a live sitar player (classical Indian instrument), a rich evening dinner and the Vedic wedding ceremony itself were all very in line with tradition and with the Indian vintage theme . To add to this the wedding was in a grand manor which was built in the early 1900’s.
Our colour scheme was white and blush pink. Our mandap (a 4 pillar structure where the Indian ceremony takes place) was white and was decorated with beautiful blush pink roses. The cake, the top table, the brides bouquet, the groomsman’s button holes and in the civil ceremony room all had the white and blush pink theme incorporated into them. We also had a white carpet that was laid out leading to the mandap with rose petals scattered on it for the bridal entrance.
All our beautiful flowers were by Wedding Flowers Cheshire by Ian Lloyd.
We had created an order of service which provided an overview of each step of the Vedic Hindu ceremony in English so all our guests could follow the ceremony.
For the day ceremony, the bridesmaids wore anarkali salwar suits in light cream, each had the same style of embroidery but in different colours. Anarkali dresses owe their name to Anarkali, a famous courtesan in the court of a great Mughal emperor.
The best men wore traditional Indian Kurta’s which were in light gold with dark brown embroidery. The Kurta’s were complimented with deep red duppattas (scarfs).
I wore a traditional Indian lehenga choli which was inspired by the Mughal era. The outfit was bought from Kalki in Mumbai, India. It was embellished in heavy red, gold and cream hand work. I wore Mughal inspired Kunda jewellery to compliment the look.
For the civil ceremony I wore an Archana Kochhar creation bought in Mumbai, India. It was exclusively designed for me. It was in ivory and embellished in Swarovski crystal details. My shoes were by Benjamin Adams and my jewellery was Persian inspired.
I carried a shower bouquet of blush pink roses with white orchids.
Krishna wore a beautiful Manish Malhotra outfit from his collection bought in Mumbai, India. The traditional Indian wedding outfit is called sherwani and was embellished in beautiful hand work detail.
For the evening Krishna wore a classic two button tailor made suit in black from James Personal Tailor in Manchester with black patent shoes by Hugo Boss.
With such a mixed crowd we needed to choose our music very carefully. We therefore decided to go with a DJ who could provide a wide range of music. We hired DJ Fritz who was highly recommended and wasn’t your traditional wedding DJ. He provided an excellent DJ set along with production and lighting for the wedding. The equipment he had was more akin to a club and he was mixing music which is exactly what we wanted. In addition to his set we had a Dhol player playing tracks such as Happy by Pharrell Williams which made for an eclectic sound.
For our champagne reception we had a very talented sitar player – Stephen Callaghan aka Yaman who travelled from Glasgow, Scotland. Yaman studied the art of playing the Sitar in Banaras, India. The Sitar is a classical Indian instrument. He played classical Indian raga’s as well as covering songs of artists such as the Beatles, Nirvana and Oasis.
We gave pashmina shawls to all the female guests as wedding favours which we personally picked and placed in a glossy white bag, finished with a thank you tag tied with a pink bow.
We wanted to remember our loved ones who are no longer with us throughout the day; we had pictures of our loved ones around the Manor, we lit a candle in remembrance prior to the commencement of the vows, we raised a toast to them during the speeches and our first dance song was an Elton John classic, Your Song, which was my father’s favourite song.
Our wedding cake was in the style of a mandap. Half of the cake was chocolate and the other half was Victorian sponge in strawberry flavour, provided by Slattery.
My favourite part of the day was the first dance! I was dreading it as I didn’t like idea of everyone watching me. To avoid this I had asked all close friends and family to join us after a minute of us dancing. It all went beautifully to plan – in the end I really enjoyed the whole moment so much!
We always wanted to go on safari, hence the first part of our honeymoon was spent in Kenya, on safari in the Maasai Mara.
Then we went to Zanzibar, where we stayed at the Hideaway of Nungwi Resort, which is an incredible beach resort. Amazing people, pristine white sand, crystal clear water & a great experience. Our final stop was Dubai before we came back to reality! It was perfect!
My top tip for other Brides Up North would be to have a toast master for the wedding. Bob was absolutely brilliant and made sure our day went to plan and as we wanted.
In addition, have a meeting with all key suppliers at the venue together a month before the big day. We found it useful given that we had two ceremonies, it was great for all the suppliers to meet and go through all the finer details so everyone was singing from the same hymn sheet on the big day. It really helped our day go smoothly and to plan. I’m not sure the Manor has ever seen such planning!
Congratulations Pooja & Krishna!
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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © Lawson Photography
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