Destination Wedding

from venice with love. a romantic destination wedding in the city of bridges – kim & jack

Rachel Hirst

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (52)

When planning a wedding many couples to and fro about what time of the year to set the date for due to the unpredicatable British weather, knowing that even if they do pick the height of summer, rain is still likely.

To avoid this conundrum some brides and grooms pack their bags and head overseas to warmer climes for their big day – usually choosing a location that doesn’t only guarantee sunshine, but also that’s special to them.

This is true of today’s wedding couple Jack and Kim who wanted to continue their

love affair

with the Italian culture by saying their ‘I dos’ in the beautiful city of Venice.

Clearly we’re partial to weddings hosted in the north of the UK, but looking at these fabulous photos we can forgive Jack and Kim for jetting off abroad. Just stunning!

With images by Lee Brown Photography.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (74)

kim says:

We got engaged on 30th September 2012. Jack created a fake story of us going to London to visit his friend for her birthday however when we got there and arrived at a five star hotel I realised this might not be true. Later that evening after going to watch The Taming of the Shrew at the globe theatre, Jack got down on one knee on the banks of the Thames. However his plans were nearly ruined by thousands of women doing a charity run for Cancer Research right on the spot where he planned to pop the question.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (78)

We set the date for 23rd May 2014. We chose May as we had decided to get married abroad and felt the weather would be perfect at that time of year, it was also bank holiday weekend which was more convenient for our guests. Jack’s mum later pointed out that our date contained the numbers 1,2,3,4,5 which is apparently lucky in numerology.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (72)

After visiting Venice a couple of times for holidays during our relationship, it was a definite and obvious choice for us. We love the Italian culture that focuses on family, love and food. Venice is a beautiful, romantic destination surrounded by history, we love the idea that Venice will not be around forever making it such a unique and fascinating city.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (76)

We have a big passion for our home city Manchester particularly in love with the music, football and sense of humour of the city. We wanted to bring a piece of Manchester to Venice by our music choices and colour themes. So we got married to Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart and had our first dance to Noel Gallagher If I had a Gun.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (64)

Our bridesmaids were dressed in blue reflecting our love of Manchester City but we also felt it was a colour that would look good in the sun and the reflections of the water in Venice. The groom, best men and family members wore blue ties matching the bridesmaids’ colours.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (58)

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (56)

I chose a fitted fishtail lace dress from Cheadle Bride in Stockport. This was the dress I always pictured myself wearing and felt the vintage look would suit the historical atmosphere of Venice.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (61)

Jack wore a bluey/grey three piece skinny fit suit from Next – he wanted to feel comfortable and relaxed in a smart suit.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (55)

We had four bridesmaids and two flower girls. Our bridesmaids wore navy blue twist and wrap dresses from BHS which could be worn in many different styles to suit the shape of each bridesmaid. Our two flower girls wore white dresses, again from BHS, which contained petals in the skirt underlay and a ribbon around the waist which matched the colour of the bridesmaid dresses. The groomsmen all wore matching suits to Jack.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (50)

I travelled to the venue with my dad, bridesmaids and flower girls in a vintage speed boat which moored right outside the wedding venue.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (47)

Lee Brown was our wedding photographer and we would highly recommend him. We felt nervous about using wedding photographers abroad as we felt it may be difficult to communicate exactly what style we wanted. We met with Lee several times before our wedding and Lee showed such interest and enthusiasm in being our photographer from getting details of the wedding party and what shots we wanted to even route planning our day. Lee arrived in Venice early to work out the best locations for pictures and managed to make us feel relaxed and comfortable with a pre wedding shoot. Lee managed to capture all the shots we wanted and much, much more!

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (45)

We carried sun flowers provided by our wedding planner in Venice. The sunflowers looked bright and beautiful complementing the blues of the bridesmaid dresses.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (41)

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (33)

We held our wedding reception in a beautiful restaurant which didn’t needed much decorating. We used lots of candles, rose petals and traditional Italian sweet decorations.

For wedding favours we gave our sun flower seeds in a vintage brown packet with the slogan ‘all things grow with love’. We felt our guests planting the sunflowers in their gardens would be a perfect reminder every year of what a beautiful day it was.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (37)

We chose not to have a traditional wedding cake in Venice as the restaurant provided so many different pastries and desserts. However, we celebrated our wedding in the UK with friends and family who couldn’t join us in Venice a few weeks after we returned. At this reception we had a lace style cake matching my wedding dress with a blue ribbon and our initials on it which was baked by our good friend and one of our bridesmaids, Chloe Prescott.

We went with traditional Italian food and Venetian specialities for the wedding meal, which meant numerous delicious courses.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (30)

Following our wedding ceremony we walked with our guests through the streets of Venice and boarded a private boat where we had an hour-long tour of the lagoons of Venice with champagne cocktails. In the evening we created our own entertainment with music and dancing!

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (29)

We saw a lot of Venice on our wedding day walking through the streets, visiting St Mark’s square and the bridge of sighs. This was a nice surprise for our guests who had just arrived and got to do a bit of sightseeing on the day. It also meant we attracted a lot of attention with people constantly stopping us to congratulate us and take pictures. It made our day extra special feeling like we were celebrities.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (17)

We used a wedding planner from Europe Wedding called Lucia Masserini who was amazing in organising all the details of our day and putting up with our endless questions!

I would recommend our destination to any couple wanting a unique experience. It was amazing to be in a beautiful place with all our friends and family and enjoy that experience with them.

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (5)

My favourite part of the day was coming off the boat and being surrounded by a group of Japanese tourists taking our picture and wishing us good luck. It was something that wouldn’t of happened if we had of got married in the UK and it was amazing that so many people were happy for us. It was a unique experience which our guests still talk, and laugh about!

a sunny wedding in Venice (c) Lee Brown Photography (1)

We left Venice the day after our wedding setting sail on a cruise ship for a week. We returned to Venice for one day after the cruise before returning home which was a very surreal and somewhat sad experience that it was all over and our friends and family had gone home.

Our top tip to other Brides Up North would be to enjoy every minute of the day and take time to spend a few moments away from the crowds with your partner to soak up the atmosphere and occasion.

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