Well, yesterday was all kinds of exciting wasn’t it? Click here to catch up on our big news. Today, it’s back to basics, and what we do best – sharing the prettiest weddings to insire our readers’ own big days.
The first Real Wedding of 2015 is lovely in every way (just the way we like it on these pages), from the sweet vintage summer theme to the delicate flower choices and idyllic seaside location.
Chloe and Dan clearly have excellent taste with the bride opting for a wonderfully detailed Jenny Packham gown and the groom having a suit tailor made, including its very special lining. They even sourced a bow tie for their special guest, Winston the Golden Retriever, to ensure he fitted in with the celebrations.
The organised couple picked their food choices carefully in order to pull the look together. Guests were treated to ice creams on arrival, a quaint afternoon tea and fish and chip supper!
So let’s tuck in to this
delicious
celebration.With images by Shoot Lifestyle Wedding Photography.
chloe says:
Dan proposed on a beach on a tiny island off the east coast of mainland Malaysia in 2012. It was a complete surprise and he had the very well travelled ring ready. It was after dinner and already rather dark and so my immediate response was ‘I can’t see it!’ before running off to find some light so I could get a good look at the ring. Not quite what Dan was hoping for but I did say ‘yes’ eventually!We married on 26th July 2014. Exactly two years to the day that we became engaged.
We got married in St Oswald’s Church, Lythe in North Yorkshire. A beautiful old church overlooking the North Yorkshire coast. Our reception was held at Danby Castle on the North York Moors. We completely fell in love with the stunning views over the Esk Valley and the relaxed, can-do attitude of all of the wonderful people at Danby Castle. Nothing was too much trouble. We would highly recommend Danby Castle to other wedding couples. Jemma and Emily there both ensured the planning was as stress free as possible.
The theme for the day was relaxed vintage summer fayre. We didn’t want an overly stuffy or formal affair so this theme suited us well.
I struggled initially with the wedding dress hunt. I didn’t know what I was looking for, I just knew what I wasn’t looking for. I didn’t want a strapless gown (which at the time that I was looking was quite a challenge) and I wanted something a little different from the norm. After looking in a few boutiques and feeling a little despondent at the lack of variety in styles, I visited the wonderful White Room in Sheffield as I had seen online that they were stockists of Jenny Packham and Charlotte Pettibone. I initially tried on Jenny Packham’s Eden for a little bit of fun as I didn’t think I wanted a sparkly dress but I loved it. It was different, it was vintage inspired, it was me! My wedding shoes were from Manolo Blahnik and Debbie Carlisle of DC Bouquets made my beautiful hair comb and cuff.
Dan designed and had his suit made at A Suit That Fits in Manchester. It was a grey three piece suit and the pièce de résistance was the custom made jacket lining that Dan designed, full of photographs that meant something special to him. He teamed his suit with a checked shirt from Ralph Lauren and a pale blue tie from John Lewis.
We also had an extra special guest at our wedding – Winston, our Golden Retriever! He wore a blue bow tie to tie in with the groomsmen. Jackie from Supa Furry Animals handled him for us which was great as it meant that we could relax and enjoy ourselves without having to worry about taking care of Winston.
The bridesmaids wore pale coral dresses with a lace overlay from Monsoon. Unfortunately for me, by the time I discovered them on Pinterest and decided that they would fit the theme beautifully, they were no longer available in store. A mammoth eBay search ensued and luckily I managed to get my hands on four of them! The groomsmen wore grey suits of their choice and the each wore a pale blue tie from John Lewis to match Dan’s.
For our wedding transport we hired a camper van from All Cool Camper Hire. ‘Rose’ the 1965 campervan was beautifully retro and also practical – being big enough to transport all the bridesmaids to the church before coming back to collect my Dad and I.
Jo and Simon from Shoot Lifestyle were our photographers and were just wonderful. As someone who is admittedly not a massive fan of being in front of the camera, the idea of being the centre of attention for the day was a little daunting. However, from our very first meeting I knew that Jo and Simon would put me at ease as they are just such fun, gorgeous people who make you feel as though you have known them forever. I loved their informal, relaxed images and knew that they would do a fantastic job – which they did. I cannot recommend them highly enough.
In addition, the very talented Gareth Ashcroft created our three minute wedding video, which is fantastic. It captured the essence of the day beautifully and on the day he was so discrete that many of our guests didn’t even realise we were having a video made until we shared it with them later on!
Audrey Foster arranged my flowers. My brief to her was that I wanted rustic, relaxed, hand tied bouquets and she did a great job. Audrey Foster also decorated the church and Danby Castle for us. Heather and wheat was tied to the pew ends with raffia and vintage jugs church filled with an assortment of wild flowers and roses decorated the church. The theme was carried through to Danby Castle, where relaxed flower arrangements in small glass bottles and jars adorned the tables and window ledges. The flowers used included sweet avalanche and peach avalanche roses, veronica, nigella, gyp, china grass, fountain grass, astilbe, very pale pink spray roses, santini, dried lavender, white stocks or white larkspur, wax flower, white freesias, wheat, scabious seedheads, heather.
My favourite part of the day was as we left the church in the camper van to head for Danby Castle. All our guests had lined up spontaneously to wave us off. Looking out of the back window of the campervan and seeing so many of our favourite people all together – all of whom had travelled so far to come and wish us well was such an overwhelming feeling.
As the wedding was near the seaside, we provided sticks of rock as favours. Small manila name tags were tied to these and they doubled up as place names for the tables.
Sonia Peirson of Cupcake Delight made our four tier naked Victoria sponge cake which she beautifully decorated with seasonal berries for us. It looked and tasted absolutely divine! The top tier was gluten free to accommodate our gluten free guests.
On arrival at Danby Castle the guests were treated to an ice cream from Trillo’s ice cream van. Luckily, as the weather was so warm and sunny, this alternative to the traditional canapés went down a storm. Our wedding breakfast was a vintage afternoon tea party served on three tier cake stands and authentic vintage china. The sandwiches, pastries and cakes looked and tasted wonderful. Danby Castle punch was served as a welcome drink, wine was served with the tea party and Prosecco was the drink of choice for the toast.
In the evening, fish and chips were served which seemed the natural choice for a wedding near the seaside. As it was such a warm, dry evening guests sat outside on picnic benches or on picnic rugs outside the castle. Looking around and seeing everyone laughing, eating and drinking together outside against such a stunning backdrop at dusk is a moment I will always treasure.
We chose The Bootleggers as our band for the evening. They are a fantastic party band, so professional, talented and fun. From the first song of their first set to the very last they had everybody up dancing and having a great time. I had seen them play before, both at my friend’s 40th birthday party and at the Weston Park Charity Ball and knew that they would ensure the party went with a bang.
Dan and I decided that we wanted an upbeat and fun first dance and chose Reet Petite as it is a song that we both love. We had secret dancing lessons and surprised our guests with our rock and roll routine!
For our honeymoon we went to Canada. We travelled around the Rockies in a campervan and then went to Vancouver Island where we experienced whale watching and surfing. It really was the most memorable and special trip, made even more so by the fact that all of our activities on our trip were bought for us as wedding gifts from our guests.
Our top tip for other Brides Up North is just enjoy yourselves. Don’t get hung up on the little details and don’t worry about what other people will think. It’s not their day. Make sure you have fun on the day and dance lots!
