Today’s wonderful real wedding couple opted for a July wedding in hope of a fabulous sunny day – and lucky for them, that’s exactly what they got. Following an impromptu yet unforgettable wedding proposal, Sean and Jade planned a stylish and elegant wedding day with hints of navy blue and pops of hot pink.
But it’s not just the sunshine and colour scheme that added warmth to Sean and Jade’s big day – just look at their faces in the photographs, neither of them can stop smiling which reflects their true love for one another and their enjoyment of the day.
So ignore the dismal weather that currently lingers outside and take a few moments to lose yourself in this
bright & breezy
celebration.With images by PH Weddings.
Jade says:
Sean hadn’t fully planned on proposing while on we were on holiday in Thailand when it actually happened. We were in a rooftop bar called the Banana Bar in Koh Phi Phi where we were having some beers and watching the wedding singer film (I think that gave Sean the idea). After the film had finished, we had a couple more drinks and we were looking at the stars through a telescope. We couldn’t believe it when our favourite song came on ‘Us’ by Regina Spektor – it isn’t a very well known song and I’m sure it was fate. We then went for tasty Thai food. Afterwards we decided to go back to the bar because we really liked it. Sean then said he needed to go to the toilet but he was gone quite some time. He had actually gone to the local market to buy a ring so he could propose and he got a bargain £1.50 ring! When he came back he was a little flustered. He had asked the DJ to play another song by Regina Spektor called Samson to which he proposed. I instantly said yes and everyone on the rooftop cheered and we celebrated into the night.We got married on July 12th 2014 as we had always wanted a summertime wedding and when we went to view our chosen reception venue, Wortley Hall, the 12th was the only Saturday left available in July so we went ahead and booked it in – two years in advance.
We chose to get married at Darfield Church, it was our local church which we felt close to as we regularly went on walks with our dog Billy around the grounds. When we first visited the church we couldn’t believe the beauty inside, it is one of the oldest churches in Yorkshire and has lots of character and original features. We loved it instantly! Wortley Hall in Wortley, near Sheffield, was our reception venue. We loved the vintage style of the building, the gardens were also amazing. There’s a lovely walk with a beautiful lake and woods that just takes your breath away. We quickly fell in love with the building fitted in with our rustic and vintage theme.
We would definitely recommend Wortley Hall as a venue. The staff had no problems with any of our requests. They were brilliant on the day and everything we requested was done to perfection. If you love rustic venues and beautiful gardens Wortley has it all!
My Ian Stuart Peaches dress was from Limelight Occasions in Huddersfield. I had been to another shop previous to going to Limelight and I did have a maybe when I left the first shop. All the dresses I tried on did look nice but I didn’t get ‘the feeling’ until I tried Peaches on. I instantly fell in love with my dress, I loved the big blush flowers but still felt that it was a simple design and I had always loved Ian Stuart dresses. Limelight has a beautiful shop and items – I also got all my jewellery and veil for the day from there.
Sean’s suit was by Paul Costelloe from House of Fraser, his tie was from French Connection and his shirt was from T M Lewin. The groomsmen’s’ suits were from Marks & Spencer’s and their ties were from eBay. My bridesmaid dresses were from Casamiento in Barnsley and the flower girls’ dresses were from Monsoon.
Our colour theme was pink and blue. From the start we loved blue suits for the groom and the groomsmen – Sean really wanted everyone looking vibrant as it was a summer’s day. I suggested we had pink for the bridesmaid as my Ian Stuart dress had blush roses on it and I thought the pink would bring this out more.
We travelled by a Rolls Royce Wraith 1938 Landaulette. First it picked up Sean and his groomsmen and they all say it was a great moment for them all to have that time together on the day. It then picked up my Mum and the bridesmaids and then came back for me and my Dad. It was a soft top and as our day was sunny – I’m so glad we had that now.
PH Weddings took our photographs. They were amazing from start to finish. They take so much pride in their work, which you can tell by their photos. Helen and Paul make you feel at ease and you never once feel uncomfortable. I loved how natural our photos looked and Helen and Paul fully understood exactly what we wanted. We also felt that they gave a personal touch. We are so unbelievably happy with the photos and the service that PH Weddings provided.
On the day I carried a natural, hand-tied vintage style posy in dusky pinks, ivory and greens. It included dusky pink memory lane roses, deep pink astilbe, green/white cabbages, deep pink astrantia, ivory waxflower, ivory thistles, ivory veronica, dark dahlia, quicksand rose and peonies all tied together with a classic ivory ribbon tie. Swallow and Damsons provided all our flowers, including my bouquet – they were the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen, they were a work of art.
For decorations we had flowers on the table: medium size glass hurricane vases with a full and lush natural posy style arrangement in the same colours as my bouquet, including more foliage and trailing flowers. There were also three smaller cut glass vintage vases dotted around the bottom of the larger centre piece with a few flowers and foliage.
We made all the menu cards ourselves by stamping each individual folded card, we glued the menu inside, along with a fun fact about ourselves. The place cards were luggage tags, we stamped everyone’s name using a stamping kit we purchased on eBay. It took some time but we started at least two months beforehand. Our table plan was a mirror frame we purchased from TK Maxx – we knocked the mirror out tied string across and then clipped our printed table plans to let everyone know where they were seated.
Our Covers and Bows in Barnsley did our chair covers and they were lovely. We had lace round the wooden chairs in the dining room and white and pink in the ballroom.
Our favours were baked by Fancie in Sheffield; they were love heart whoopie pies, pink with swirls on the top with cream in the middle. We packed each whoopie pie into a cellophane bag the day before and then tied a name place luggage tag which. They were so tasty! Fancie also made our wedding cake. We had a three-tier design covered in frosting, there was a caramel flavour, raspberry and lemon and cherry and almond. It was beautiful. We made the bunting on the top of the cake ourselves.
The food was beautiful at Wortley. We had sun dried tomato and feta cheese (two of our favourite things) tarts to start, pork for main and apple and crumble for desert. We also had peanuts and popcorn with the arrival drinks and wine on the tables.
For our wedding entertainment we had Michael Mulholland. We found Michael as our two other friends who had recently got married had Michael to provide their music. He was brilliant and the guests really enjoyed his singing while myself and Sean were having photos. As a surprise Sean asked him to play an acoustic version of Kiss The Girl from The Little Mermaid as we entered Wortley. The Little Mermaid was my favourite Disney film as a child.
For the night entertainment we had our really good DJ friend Richard Shirt. Richard took the time to get all our songs together and we could have any that we wanted! A lot of DJs give you a maximum number but Richard allowed us to choose our own – there was a mix of soul, indie, 80s and 90s music to suit us all. At one point towards the end Richard got people crowd surfing! For the night do we had a basket of flip flops that everyone said they were so thankful for on the night. No aching feet!
There were a few special touches throughout our wedding day. Sean surprised me on the morning(I knew he had been up to something) Adam, one of his best men, delivered me a package – it was a crate box that contained a letter, a scrap book and a necklace. The scrapbook is the most precious item I own now and it contained our story so far. Whenever we go away we keep everything, from business cards of hotels, restaurants to tickets for museums and gigs. We’ve also got every card and note we’ve ever given each other and they were all in the scrap book. I wrote Sean a letter and gave him a Nick Cave lyric book and Nick Cave vinyl record.We collect vinyl records and have all our favourite songs on 7 inch singles, so we decided to use the record sleeves as our table names, which looked awesome.
When signing the register after we were wed we had the Edward Scissorhands Ice Dance song played in the church and also our favourite song Regina Spektor’s Us – our favourite music that means something to us.One of the readings in church read out by Sean’s brother was Love Is Strange by Karen O and this features on the Disney film Frankenweenie. We love this Disney film and had to have it because the words are beautiful.
We love having game nights with our friends so we thought of the idea of Jenga pieces being our guestbook. They were great as each guest could write us a message and we can use this game with our friends.
Apart from our marriage service one of the favourite parts of the day was the car journey to Wortley together. After not seeing each other all morning for one of the most important day ofour lives it was such a precious time together to be alone and one we will never forget. Another favourite part of the day was all the love we were surrounded with from our family and friends on our special day.
We set off to the airport on honeymoon the day after our wedding. We went backpacking for three weeks in Vietnam. It’s such a lovely country and all Vietnamese people are so friendly. There is so much history in the country and we enjoyed visiting cultural spots and museums. The food is best we have ever eaten and you can’t beat 50p for a bottle of beer! We had an amazing time together.
Our top tip to other Brides Up North would be – don’t worry about the little details before hand, it’s your day and if you two are enjoying it, nothing else matters!
