This wedding has it all – glamour, sparkles, a pretty princess dress and even a helicopter.
Bride Linzi chose simple and elegant styling to create her
classic dream wedding
in various tones of romantic ivory at Davenport Green Hall, and my goodness didn’t it look gorgeous!Between Linzi’s words and fabulous images by Ally M Photography you can really feel the love in this wedding, not only between the bride and groom but also their friends and family who clearly mean the world to them (this one made us teary).
linzi says:
We got engaged on 18th March 2010 on a trip to Venice. We’d travelled to Venice for the weekend as it was Leigh’s birthday. On the first evening we went out for dinner and on our way back to the river taxi we went through St Mark’s Square, that’s when Leigh bent down on one knee and popped the question. Of course my answer was yes. Venice is such a spectacular place and so romantic, it was just so perfect.
We set the date for 8th August 2014. We chose August as it would still be warm but hopefully not too hot. The day itself started off with heavy rain but after the ceremony we had glorious sunshine throughout the rest of the day.
Our wedding venue was Davenport Green Hall. The first time we viewed this venue we knew this place was perfect for us as its set in its own grounds and meant that we had the entire estate to ourselves and our guests. The venue itself combined both old Tudor style with immaculate and modern décor inside which was perfect for our tastes. Better yet, the bridal suite was in the grounds and so was only a stone’s throw away when we had partied the night away.
We did not have a certain theme but I wanted a wedding that suited our tastes as couple. With that in mind I kept the theme simple, classic, elegant and natural in all ivory tones. It began with our beautiful wedding invitations which were pure ivory with pearl and diamante fronting and pearlised envelopes right down to our exquisite wedding cake which we kept to all ivory tones too. I always knew that I wanted to keep to ivory as it creates a beautiful and romantic feel.
My dress was by Ian Stuart. I had tried on about ten dresses before this one but as soon I put it on, I knew it was the one for me – I felt like a princess! I also knew that my daughters, Ella and Chloe would love the dress because of the heavy sparkle detail to it and the princess look. I purchased the dress from Bridal Italia in Bolton. I had quite a few fittings in the dress and each and every time, I was sorry to take it off.
My chief bridesmaid Vicki surprised me with my beautiful earrings on my hen do. I had said that as my dress was quite detailed, I needed a simple drop earing and they were so perfect, I couldn’t have made a better choice myself.
The night before my wedding, I had all the female members of my family and my friends around to my house to have a final pamper from my sister who is a beauty therapist. In the midst of hair dying and nail painting, my bridesmaids provided me with a box which contained my something old, new, borrowed and blue. The something old was a broche with a picture of my dad who passed away when I was younger and to which they then tied to my bouquet so he could walk down the aisle with me the following day. The something new was a new bottle of perfume which I loved so the scent would always remind me of our special day. The something borrowed was a simple diamond bracelet to wear with my dress as I didn’t want anything heavy and wanted the dress to do all the talking. The something blue was a blue garter which although they had measured my leg previously, still managed to continually fall down all day!
On the morning of my wedding, myself and my bridesmaids, along with my mother-in-law, all attended a local salon to have our hair done. Whilst there we had our makeup done by my lovely friend and makeup artist Natalie Marie. Ally, the photographer, even came to the salon so he could get some pics of us all getting prepared for the day.
Leigh wore three piece tails in grey with an ivory tie to match myself and our daughters. We decided against top hats as it was a warm day. These were rented from Groom at the Wedding House in Liverpool.
My four older bridesmaids wore grey dresses from Coast with diamante sparkle belts to match my theme and my wedding dress.
My two daughters Ella and Chloe wore ivory dresses. I didn’t like the thought of having a coloured sash put on their dresses so I had a band of three flowers sewn onto each dress to tie in with the theme of romance. They also had their hair delicately designed into crowns so they felt like little princesses too.
The groomsmen wore grey three piece suits with the same shade of grey as the girls’ Coast bridesmaid dresses. These were also from Groom at The Wedding House in Liverpool.
On the wedding day I travelled to the venue in a Bentley, which was hired from AJ Limousines in Manchester, who we would recommend. My husband meanwhile travelled to the venue by helicopter which was amazing as all our guests stood outside to watch and all the bridesmaids watched from a bedroom window of venue. Although he was nearly an hour late due to nearly not being able to fly as there was heavy rain and a serious accident on the motorway on the way to the airport! Leigh is late for everything, so it was no surprise he was an hour late for his own wedding!
Our photographer was Ally Hedeyati of Ally M Photography. We met Ally about ten months before our wedding and we instantly knew he was the one for us. We had our pre-wedding shoot in Southport with our children and the pictures he produced were just amazing and so natural! We knew we had made the right choice when it came to our wedding pictures. Ally is so friendly and professional and extremely funny which immediately puts you at ease. Neither I nor Leigh were particularly confident in front of the camera but Ally made sure that he got the best from us. I would definitely recommend Ally as his pictures tell a story and one thing from your wedding is that it all goes past so fast that you need the expertise of a great photographer who can capture these moments that you will never get back – Ally is definitely the person to do this.
All my flowers were artificial. My bridal flowers were by Alison by Lasting Memories in Timperley who also dressed the venue. My bouquet was half flower and half broche as I wanted this to complement my detailed dress which sparkled. I asked Alison to place a diamante initial in each of my bridesmaids’ bouquets for individuality which such a nice touch.
I had seen quite a lot of Alison’s work so I knew that I would love the way she had set up the civil ceremony room and then the conversion into the wedding breakfast. It was just the romantic look I was trying to achieve with candles, flowers and glass everywhere. I would highly recommend Alison.
For our favours we provided the men with mini Jaeger bottles and the woman mini bottles of wine. We had quite a few children at our wedding and I made them each an individual bag which contained lots of things for keeping them entertained. The older children received perfume and jewellery. All the name tags were painstakingly hand made by me and my mother-in-law to add a personal touch.
We chose a three tier cake in the style of a bird cage. Each tier was a different flavour. The top was sponge, the middle tier was lemon and the bottom was chocolate. The cake was then surrounded by more than 30 mini cakes to match. We did re-design the cake to incorporate touches that we specifically wanted. For example I asked them to put ‘L&L’ on the front and also our daughters’ names were placed on tags which hung from it. The cake was from Occasion Cakes in Bolton.
For entertainment we had a live six piece swing and jazz band called The Young Swing Things that we hired through Garston Entertainments who were very professional and got back to us quickly. Kayleigh, the main singer was phenomenal and everyone commented on how powerful and emotional her voice was. They sang our first dance which was Run by Leona Lewis as my husband and I had a little crush on her for some time and so she was the obvious choice when picking a first dance. My brother took over from my husband mid dance which was very emotional as my father had passed away.
We also had a photo booth which I must say, kept everyone in stitches and was a real highlight of the wedding – a definite must I would recommend. We hired a chocolate fountain too which went down well with the children at the party! I bought hundreds of sparklers and had personalised cards made with our names on and placed them in a huge basket. When it went dark, the guests gathered outside and created a kind of arch and whilst lit, Leigh and I walked through it – magical!
We added a few special/personal touches to the day too which included a white tree in the corner of the room with a box of personalised cards so that our guests could write personal messages of luck and wishes to us and then hang on the tree. Our photographer Ally, also gave us a beautiful picture from our shoot and mounted it onto card. We placed this on an easel and our guests were given the opportunity to write their messages around the border.
To help keep guests feeling fresh both the male and female toilets contained a basket with deodorants, hairbrushes, tablets, plasters etc just in case they needed anything. My auntie also made a huge basket and filled with white diamond flip flops in various sizes for all the women when their feet began to hurt as they partied the night away.
It’s difficult to choose one particular part of the day as my favourite as there were so many. If I was to choose, it would be walking down the aisle and saying my vows. I wasn’t nervous at all until I stood outside waiting to walk towards Leigh. As I approached him, I knew he was as nervous as I was. My daughters’ together read a really funny reading which had everyone in stitches during our ceremony and I eventually got to say “I do” to the most amazing man on earth. It was definitely the best part of our day.
Other special moments of the day included my brother giving me away and he wore his army uniform to do so with all his medals attached. I also made a speech which heavily referred to my aunt and uncle, Elaine and Trevor, as they have been my parents throughout my life and provided me with so much. My speech was dedicated to them and how I wished for a marriage as normal and loving as they have. I cried through my speech but I got to the end where I thanked my lovely new husband.
We had decided not to go on honeymoon as we wanted to go back to Florida the following year however during our first dance my husband told me that we were going to Barcelona for five days the Sunday after our wedding. You can only imagine my excitement! Even my children knew this secret and had managed to keep it from me. Barcelona was a perfect place for honeymoon – very quaint and historic and gorgeous food. My husband is a massive Liverpool fan and whilst there we obviously couldn’t escape a visit to the New Camp.
If I was to give a tip to other Brides Up North, it would be to not scrimp on a photographer. I’m so happy that a great photographer was something that we had at our wedding so that we can always look back at the pictures and remember the little things and the things that made us laugh on our special day.
