So the clocks may have gone back drawing the darkness in that bit earlier every night but today we have a super stylish wedding full of uplifting pastel tones that is bound to brighten up your day.
Rob and Mia wanted a simple and relaxed outdoor celebration made up of pretty colour and natural, simple décor.
Despite working on a budget, the creative couple pulled their desired look off beautifully showing others that even if you haven’t got bucket loads of cash to blow you can still have a
flippin gorgeous
big day.Just like Mia I’m head over heels for pretty pastels and it was her bridesmaids’ lovely lilac dresses that attracted me to the wedding in the first instance. Add to this a stunning bride, fabulous blooms and an impressive venue and you’ve got all the ingredients for an incredibly swoon-worthy wedding.
With images by EverThine Photography.
Mia says:
We got engaged on our fifth anniversary of being together when we were celebrating at a spa hotel. Rob got down on one knee and proposed in the hotel room before we went out for a beautiful dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Thames.We set the date for Saturday 16 August 2014 as we wanted to get married after I’d graduated. We choose the summer because we both wanted an outdoor ceremony.
We both grew up in Yorkshire and knew we wanted to get married back there even though we were both living in London at the time. My mum came across our venue, Saltmarshe Hall pretty quickly which was great. It’s a beautiful venue in Howden, a gorgeous stately home with lovely gardens and surrounded by countryside – it feels like you’re in the middle of nowhere, which was perfect for us. The house itself is stunning and has lots of different rooms downstairs that can be used for different things and with the gardens it gave us the freedom to do what we wanted which was an outdoor ceremony (depending on the weather). It had just been bought by new owners and opened for weddings the year before so that was very lucky for us!
We didn’t really have a theme for the wedding. We wanted to get married outside so we started by basing things around a garden ceremony, like having a simple dress and bridesmaid dresses and natural flowers. The hall itself is stunning so didn’t need much decorating, just small details and then we went with our own choices so having black tie and summer dresses for the dress code and our own choice of music and the vows and readings within the ceremony to make it personal.
I love pastel colours and decided on lilac for the bridesmaid dresses because it’s a really pretty colour. The colour scheme wasn’t strict; we just had a range of pastels because it kept with the idea of a garden wedding and suited it being in summer. The bridesmaid dresses were all slightly different shades of lilac, the flowers were creams, pale pinks and lilacs and then the table decorations were pale pink, lilac, pale blue and mint green
I had an idea in my head of what dress I wanted. Quite simple, nothing too big (as I am quite short) and with it being quite a simple ceremony in summer I wanted something suitable to that – light and comfortable. After A LOT of shopping, which was fun but got frustrating after a while, I found my dress in a shop in Beverley called Bridal Reloved. Kate there sells second hand and sample dresses, so beautiful dresses with a reduction. She was so helpful and honest about everything. I knew I wanted white/cream with some lace, and I really wanted an open/pretty back. I think the dress I chose was the perfect dress because it had all those things but was also something different that I hadn’t seen before. It was simple but still ‘wedding’ enough and had stunning details like the lace edge at the bottom and cross straps at the back. My veil was something borrowed from my oldest sister Lauren, who got married the year before me, and my shoes were cream lace peep toes from Next. For my something blue my sister India sewed a little blue tag into the inside of my dress with the wedding date and our names on the front and inside was a sixpence given to me from the lady who sold me the dress, for good luck.
Rob wore a black dinner suit from House of Fraser with a dicky bow. He also wore blue superman socks, which were a little wedding present from me.
My bridesmaids all chose their own dresses. I said I wanted lilac but wanted them to be comfortable and find something that they loved and that suited them. They were all slightly different shades of lilac and different lengths and styles that showed off their personalities and own styles. The groomsmen all hired black dinner suits from Slaters in Hull with black dicky bows.
Lucy and Nate Aspray at EverThine Photography did our photography. I would absolutely recommend them to anyone. I’ve known Lucy for a long time as she is best friends with my sister so it was lovely to have someone I knew there taking the photos. She is very talented and takes stunning photos. We asked for very natural shots of the day, wanted the small details captured and asked for a few specific shots – for example I wanted a photo of my bridesmaids and me holding the bouquets over our faces. They really made everyone feel comfortable and took great photos but without imposing. Looking back through them they captured the happiness of the day perfectly and I hardly remember most of the photos being taken!
Gill Tomkinson, a local florist/plant seller from Broomfleet, did my bouquet and the bridesmaid bouquets. I asked for natural, hand held bouquets which were lilac with some pale pinks and creams tied together with lace. She did an amazing job and did the button-holes and corsages for the wedding party which were beautiful and really suited the garden/outdoor style.
The venue flowers were by Hannah from Vintage Rose, a florist from Newport. Again I asked for lilacs, pale pinks and creams and I wanted some gypsophila and roses – the lilac roses were particularly stunning! The table flowers were in little milk bottles and there were hanging jam jars of flowers on the sides of the seats in the ceremony. The rest of the decoration was all done by me pretty much. I painted wooden numbers in pastels for the tables, and blackboard hanging hearts for the place names. Rob wanted photos of us at each of the tables so on table one there was a picture of us both at aged one, right up to table seven. We used those photos for the table plan, tea lights and photos of us as decoration around the venue, lace bunting made by my sister India and a wedding sign made by my sister Talitha and an old painted suitcase to hold our cards.
As a special touch Rob and I wrote our own vows and chose the readings from film quotes and lyrics that we loved, which made it really personal.
We enjoyed the whole day so much! It was great to see it all come together after a year-and-a-half of planning, and to share it with family and friends. I think my favourite part was the ceremony – we got to have it outside which is what we both really wanted, it was so personal to us and it was just amazing to get to marry the love of my life and my best friend.
We had little chocolate heart lollipops as favours as well as the place names, which were blackboard hearts which could be hung up by lilac lace.
Jan Harker made the wedding cake, who is my best friend’s mum. We wanted a three-layer round cake with a layer of vanilla, chocolate and fruit cake. The icing was white with a ruffled effect, there was a bow on the middle layer and white roses on the top.
Croft Kitchen provided the catering for the day. We served canapés and prosseco after the ceremony and then had a sit down dinner with three courses. For starter we had Italian meats and anti pasti, for main rosemary chicken and vegetables and for dessert mini banoffee pies (Rob’s favourite pudding).
We would definitely recommend all our suppliers including the venue. The food by Croft Kitchen was lovely, well presented and a very reasonable price. Vintage Rose and Gill Tomkinson did exactly what we wanted them to and the flowers were stunning. EverThine Photography captured the day perfectly, we are so so happy with the photographs and have had many compliments on them. Saltmarshe Hall is a beautiful venue and with the many rooms and gardens it really is left open for you to do what you want with it. The owner Kate was so great and suggested vendors and ideas but also allowed us to do what we wanted with our special day.
We went to Riviera Maya in Mexico for two weeks for our honeymoon. We both love the sun and spent a fortnight in a gorgeous hotel and laid on the beach, just relaxing after the wedding and spending time together. It was perfect.
We were on quite a tight budget with our wedding. The advice I would give to other Brides Up North would be don’t settle with what you first find. Sometimes it takes a lot of time and a lot of frustrating hours sat at a computer or on the phone to find the right thing but researching and looking is the only way to find it and it’s definitely worth it.
Personally I loved planning it and being involved, it was stressful at times but being able to make things like the table decorations was a lot of fun and I felt really proud on the wedding day when I saw everything together.
