We just love a
vintage wedding
here at Brides Up North HQ and today we see that bride Georgina executed the look to perfection when she tied the knot to beau Jonny at Northorpe Hall and Barn.Everything comes together perfectly from Georgina’s stunning lace Pronovias dress to maids dusky pink dresses and that gorgeous vintage car.
Brides wanting to follow in Georgina’s well-styled footsteps should grab a pen and paper (or have those Pinterest boards at the ready) before reading on.
With images by Bethany Clarke Photography.
georgina says:
We got engaged in Thailand in 2012. We went travelling together after university and it was only four days into the trip when Jonny proposed. We had gone to an elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai which was an amazing day as I absolutely love elephants! He proposed on a platform that went out into the open fields where the elephants were roaming free. Jonny warned me not scream and I was thinking…of course I won’t scream but then he dropped down onto one knee and asked me to marry him! Then I understood why I might have screamed!
We chose to marry on 13th September 2014. We mainly chose this date because it allowed us to have the venue the day before so that we could decorate the barn and I really wanted to be able to be involved with the preparation and decorating as I’d been collecting lots of little things to personalise the place.
Our venue was Northorpe Hall and Barn in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. I had always dreamed of a rustic, English country wedding with hay bales and the lot! The barn was absolutely perfect in size and it allowed me to decorate it just how I wanted. You weren’t forced into ‘wedding packages’ there so you could choose a reception that suited your budget and plan for the day.
I wanted a vintage/rustic theme. I used hay bales, lots of lace and hessian and pretty vintage coloured flowers to achieve the look. I made a lot of the decorations myself (with a lot of help from friends and family). I had collected milk churns, made bunting and table runners from hessian and lace. I then had lots of lavender heart wreaths dotted around the place.
Family is really important to me and my husband so I also framed photographs of our family on their wedding days and had them on display on our gifts table. It was a really lovely touch and nice to see our family history out on display for all our guests to see.
The colour scheme was dusky pink and cream which we used in the flowers. I loved the hydrangea and ivy garlands that we had dotted around the Barn. The colours were perfect!
I chose a Pronovias lace dress with long lace sleeves. It was everything I had ever dreamed of and more. I wanted something really elegant with a hint of a vintage feel. I don’t really like my arms and shoulders too much so the slash neck with the long sleeves was absolutely perfect for me. As soon as I tried it on (a good 18 months before my wedding) I knew it was the one and never looked back. I got it from a bridal shop in Bradford, called The Wedding Mill.
Jonny wore a slim fit tuxedo for Suits Direct with a black bow tie and braces. The groomsmen also wore black tuxedos with black bow ties. These were also from Suits Direct.
Our bridesmaids wore dusky pink, long and floaty dresses with a lace back, which were from Warehouse.
We had a vintage wedding car to drive the bridesmaids, then me and my dad to the church. This was hired through the shop that I bought my wedding dress from. We then also provided a vintage wedding bus to transport our guests from the church to the reception venue, which was hired from The Yorkshire Heritage Bus Company.
Bethany Clarke was our photographer and she was absolutely fantastic – I would highly recommend her! She was so friendly and managed our guests really well. I was quite shy in front of the camera and she made me feel really at ease. The photographs we received were beautiful and we couldn’t have asked for anything more. We will treasure them forever!
We also had a videographer provided by Bethany who was brilliant. We have watched our wedding video over and over again and it’s great to watch with friends and family.
My husband’s Aunty Sheila, from The Flower Room, is a wedding florist so she did our flowers. We had mainly roses, peonies with hints of lavender, then lots of lovely green foliage and cream and white flowers. We also had hydrangeas for decorating the milk churns.
The flower arrangements and bouquets she did blew me away. They were perfect. I burst into tears when I saw my bouquet, especially because it had been personalised with a locket that had a photograph of my Grandma and Grandad in it. Everybody commented on how beautiful the flowers were.
For favours I wrapped up lavender soaps in a vintage wrapping paper, tying it up with string and decorating it with a cream rose for the ladies. For the men I did a mini jars of sweeties with a cloth top.
I chose a five tier warm ivory cake with ivory lace detail and flowers cascading down the top two tiers. I did the cake myself as I have a cake decorating business, Teacup Cakery. It was a challenge and quite stressful towards the end but I’m really glad I managed to finish and I was really happy with the end result. Me and all my family are all really into baking so I also did a cake table full of all different cakes for people to choose what flavour they’d like the best. This went down really well with our guests! I had collected lots of lovely vintage cake stands for this and it looks amazing once all the cakes were set out!
Other food on the day included canapés on arrival and then a three course sit down dinner with a choice of white or red wine for our guests. The meal was absolutely amazing! All of our guests commented on the quality and many said it was the best food they had ever had at a wedding.
To keep our guests entertained, we had a photo booth in the evening that’s a VW campervan that has been converted into a photo booth. I think it was one of the best things we chose for our wedding day. Our guests absolutely loved it and we also got a guest book of all the images which is hilarious and has already brought us lots of laughter and I’m sure it will for years to come. It was from a company called Picabo Photography.
We also had hula hoops, space hoppers and giant Jenga to entertain our guests during the drinks reception. It was a really nice day so this worked out perfectly!
As a little extra at the reception I’d made some cards for the table that asked guests to draw the person sat next to them, and then offer us some advice for a successful marriage. I think this was a great way for our guests to get to know the people sat on their table a bit better.
We would most definitely recommend our wedding venue. It’s reasonably priced in comparison to other venues and it’s just something a bit different. You can personalise it as much as you like!
The first dance was my favourite part of the day. I just felt so in love and so unbelievably happy! Everting had been perfect all day and it just felt like the most amazing moment. I will remember that it forever. Plus, my husband finally cried after holding it back all day so I know he was feeling the same I was!
We went to Thailand and Malaysia on our honeymoon. We really wanted to go back to Thailand because it was where we got engaged. We travelled to three different parts of Thailand, Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Koh Phi Phi was definitely our favourite spot of the whole honeymoon. The hotel was idyllic and it was just like paradise. We are already trying to plan for when we might be able to go back!
My top tip for other Brides Up North would be just do what you want to do and stick to your vision. Enjoy every minute of it, no matter how stressful the planning gets! Your day will fly by so just make sure you take it all in. Also, don’t worry about the seating plan, it can be a right headache! But at the end of the day people will get on with each other no matter what and everybody is there to share your special day so just do what is right for you and don’t worry about other people too much.
the big picture
