I have to agree with today’s real wedding couple in that I can find New Year’s Eve somewhat of an anti-climax. Keen to give their friends and family something to get
really excited
about, Mike and Melissa set their wedding for 31st December.I love the wintry touches in this wedding, from the hessian table runners to the twinkly fairy lights, rustic pine cone name places and that gorgeous cake – top marks to Melissa’s mum!
It looks like this pair certainly celebrated 2015 in style!
With images by Kate Cooper Photography.
melissa says:
Michael proposed to me at Ragdale Hall the day before New Year’s Eve 2012. We arrived and I remember Mike acting very strangely. We were then shown into a small lounge area and somebody brought us a bottle of champagne. Michael got down on one knee and popped the question. A great start to a wonderful day at Ragdale Hall!
We chose to get married on 31st December 2014. We chose New Year’s Eve as we felt that this is a time of year which is never as good as the build up to it, so to have a wedding on that day would be a great way to spend it! We didn’t want the pressure of the weather too as summer weddings don’t always turn out to be glorious! At least at NYE we knew that the weather was not going to be great – we just had the snow to worry about!
We got married at The Maynard in Grindleford. It was a superb venue. We were able to hold the both the ceremony and reception there so guests would not have to fight with the elements going from A to B. When we met the wedding coordinator for the first time she was friendly, listened to what we wanted and genuinely seemed interested in our day! The whole feel of the hotel was just perfect with the large oak panelled room contrasting with the contemporary decor of the main hotel.
We didn’t have a theme as such we just wanted the wedding to be simple and classic with a feeling of wintry charm. I don’t like too much ‘frill’!
I love the classic whites and greens of the ferns at Christmas so used this as a base for our colour scheme and then added a touch of grey/ pink in with the flowers. My older bridesmaid’s dress was navy so Catherine (our florist) brought an element of this in with the flowers.
I wanted my dress to be lace so that’s how I started my search. I knew I didn’t want a big dress but apart from that I wasn’t going to restrict myself. Emily at Emily Bridal in Sheffield brought a few to try on and when I put my dress on I knew straight away it was the one. It was Augusta Jones SkylerI – I just loved the way the lace sat on the shoulders and the low back. It was simple and elegant and it didn’t need any fuss to show it off. I had a short veil which had lace around the edge to match the dress. Emily was brilliant. If something didn’t suit me, she was honest and she ensured that I found my dream dress and didn’t settle for second best!
I had a hairdresser and makeup artist on the day who did the families hair and makeup. Julia Jeckell was great! During the trial she spent the time to find out what type of makeup and hair I wanted, I showed her photos of hair and she also asked what I didn’t want! She talked me through what she was doing and gave me choices of different products. This meant that on the day I could just leave it to her. The result was exactly what I wanted. My hair was fabulous and stayed put throughout the day and the makeup was perfect. She also let me have details of powder and lipstick she was using so I could purchase them and touch up on the day, although I didn’t need to!
Mike wore navy tails from Austin Reed with an ivory waistcoat and navy ruche. The best men wore the same as Mike and the ushers wore a navy suit with a short suit jacket, ivory waistcoat and navy ruche.
Our daughters wore a Monsoon dress with a crochet top and net skirt. My sister (the older bridesmaid) wore a navy vintage inspired dress from the Ossie Clark range at Debenhams.
Our photographer was Kate Cooper – she was amazing! She spent a lot of time with us before the day ensuring she knew exactly what we wanted. On the day she was absolutely brilliant too.
Our florist Catherine at Petalis, was fabulous. She chose the flowers for me as I don’t really have any idea when it comes to flowers, especially in the winter. The flowers for the bouquets and buttonholes included pink/grey roses, eucalyptus and foliage. Catherine also provided the decorative floral arrangements which were amazing and she knew the venue so knew exactly what would look good.
My friend Katie made the bunting which was draped around the venue and we added fairy lights and white baubles around the room and in the entrance to the room. Rebecca (the wedding coordinator at The Maynard) arranged these for us and displayed our table plan and photo booth.
We had hessian tied around the chairs and table runners to match which were provided by Dragonfly in Chesterfield. They sorted all this the day before the wedding.
I made all the favours for our guests. We ordered little jars and filled these with white tissue paper and bonbons. I then covered the top of the jar with hessian and twine and added a thank you tag to each.
My mum made our cake. Each layer was a different type of cake: fruit, ginger (my favourite) and lemon drizzle (Mike’s favourite). She then decorated with royal icing, hessian and winter foliage and berries and instead of using a cake stand we had a log which we had cut especially for it.
Rhythm of Your Choice provided the evening entertainment. We had a DJ and a disco. We wanted a Photo Booth too but felt it was out of our budget to get an organised one, so we did it ourselves. We bought a Polaroid camera and collected a few fancy dress fashion accessories. Guests got themselves dressed up and took a Polaroid selfie which then was stuck into a book and messages were added next to the photo. It worked brilliantly and not only have we got lovely messages but great picture memories too!
Having two children we decided to get a babysitter for the evening of the wedding. Dawn from TLC Mobile Childcare was fantastic, she looked after the children in one of the hotel rooms and the children went up when they wereready. She ensured they were safe, well looked after and with one of our children being only six-months-old at the time, she sorted the evening feeds out for her.
We would definitely recommend The Maynard to other couples. The venue was so perfect for what we wanted but the staff really made it. They were amazing. Nothing was ever too much and every one of them was so friendly and supportive throughout the day.
It’s hard to choose a favourite part of the wedding as the whole day was fabulous! I did really enjoy the time after the ceremony catching up with everybody and spending time with close family and friends though.
Mike kept our honeymoon a secret until the day. We couldn’t go for long as we have two young children. We were chauffer driven to London and stayed at the Shangri-La in the Shard for two nights. It was absolutely amazing and we had a lovely couple of days, chilling out, visiting places and going to see Billy Elliot. It was a fantastic, relaxing time away after such a hectic build up to the wedding and staying in such an amazing place really made it.
My top tip for other Brides Up North would be to enjoy every minute of the day. I cannot believe how fast it went and would love to relive it.
the big picture
