It’s been a very pretty week indeed on the Brides Up North pages – and it’s not over just yet, as this afternoon’s real wedding is yet another beauty.
Taking place in Yorkshire, Kate and Luke’s big day is brimming with
style & romance
thanks to a pretty blush pink colour scheme, a well-dressed wedding party and lots of twinkling fairy lights.With images by MJ Holding Photography.
kate says:
We got engaged on 22nd June 2014, at an Eric Clapton concert in Leeds. Luke picked it because the first present I ever bought him was tickets to Eric Clapton. He proposed during the song, Wonderful Tonight. It was a really special moment and the song will provide us with a lifelong reminder.
We got married on 10th July 2015. It was actual only one of the few dates left at our venue – East Riddlesden Hall – for 2015 and happens to also be my dad’s birthday so it was extra special. It was meant to be!
Having lived in Australia for a few years, when we moved home we decided that we would like a local wedding surrounded by all our family and friends. We got married at Bingley Parish Church, as it is a picturesque church with a great local feel, and then went onto East Riddlesden Hall.
We didn’t really have a theme as such apart from I wanted it to be a very pretty wedding, lots of blush colours, lots of flowers and lots of candles.
We decided on a navy blue and blush colour scheme as I didn’t want lots of bright colours and wanted it to look very classic.
I went for a Justin Alexander sweetheart neck strapless dress with lots of ruffles, which I wore a lace jacket over the top as I wanted to put my own touch on the dress. I took the jacket off at night and added a belt and a diamante clip in my hair. I tried lots of dresses on until I found my dress at Ava Rose Hamilton in Silsden. I didn’t want a dress that I could die black and it be used as a cocktail dress but I didn’t want a big princess gown either so mine was perfect in that it was big but it had some structure and detail to it without being ‘blingy’ as I didn’t want a lot of beading. I absolutely loved it!
We found the style of Luke’s wedding suit when visiting Rome and asked George Lilley, a Leeds tailor to recreate the design. Luke wore a double breasted pale pink waistcoat with a navy blue suit which had some pink detailing on the jacket to match the waistcoat. We teamed it with a navy tie. All the boys wore pale pink socks, which looked fab too.
Our bridesmaids wore Dessy dresses and they all picked their individual styles which all really suited them as they are different ages and have different tastes. The groomsmen wore TM Lewin slim fitting suits with a matching pink tie and dark brown shoes.
Fir transport, we hired a traditional wedding car from Halifax Wedding Cars – it looked amazing as we were able to take the roof down when we travelled from the church to the venue.
Our photographer was one of our best friends and groomsmen – Mike Holding. Mike has been a photographer for a long time and just recently turned professional so it was an obvious choice! He was absolutely incredible in making everyone feel relaxed, he didn’t seem phased by anything and we couldn’t have been happier with the photos we received. We would recommend Mike to everyone!
I carried a soft, natural, handtied bouquet of soft vintage pink sandstorm roses, scented white O’Hara roses with majolica spray roses, sweet peas and pink peonies. We used Stems Design, from the minute I met Lynne I knew she had to be the person to do my flowers. Lynne took all my ideas and brought them together to give the reception barn the perfect look. As the barn is quite a blank canvas it was really important to get the décor right and the flowers just made it. We had candelabras on every table filled with flowers and in all the windowsills we had flowers and candle lanterns.
We wanted favours that could be enjoyed on the day and so our family helped us to create them with Luke’s grandma Annie making Sloe Gin for the Ladies, and my uncle Andrew making Bramble for the men.
We had a five tier cake made by Charlotte at Sugar Therapy who is actually Luke’s Step Auntie. We had five different flavours: vanilla and raspberry, Belgian chocolate, passionfruit, Himalayan salt and caramel and white chocolate and raspberry. Instead of icing we had white chocolate covering the cakes and a waterfall of roses coming down.
The food and wine for the day were really important to us as we wanted to create our own menu. We chose James Brown Catering as his personal approach, passion and enthusiasm set him apart from the other caterers we spoke to. The food and service we received was absolutely incredible, we had so many comments on the food being of restaurant quality rather than mass catering.
When it came to the entertainment, we had our own playlist for during the meal and the band – Psychoslinkys for the evening. They were a band who we used to watch when we were first dating and we remembered them being fantastic – they didn’t disappoint! They even played the song we got engaged to – Wonderful Tonight!
There were a few extra special touches to the day which included having our own Instagram hashtag #thelaverys2015 which was great and everyone used it! We also hired a huge ‘love’ sign which I was debating about for a long time as they are quite costly but I am so glad we got it as it looked great on the dancefloor – especially in pictures. I did a lot of the outside decorations myself, pompoms and hearts hanging from the trees, a ladder with a love sign and flowers on it. Basket in the ladies toilets with lots of handy items to spruce yourselves up with. We also purchased Polaroid cameras and asked guests to create a ‘memory’ book.
We would absolutely recommend East Riddlesden Hall to other couples, particularly those that want to really make the day their own. The venue is very idyllic with a lake at the front and picturesque gardens and scenery at the back. You can make it as unique as you like. As it is basically a blank canvas, this was great for us as we didn’t want a “package wedding” we wanted to make it our own. It is harder work than a hotel wedding where everything is included but absolutely worth it. The staff there couldn’t have been more helpful, and from the minute we looked around to the day itself, they were so helpful.
It’s hard to pick a favourite part of the wedding that stood out more than the rest. There are lots of special parts that I still look back on and smile about weeks later. The whole day was perfect from start to finish and it really was the happiest day of our lives. Being able to celebrate with all our friends and family and seeing how happy everyone was on the day made it extra special.
For our honeymoon we went the California and Las Vegas – we did San Diego, Orange County, LA, San Francisco and Las Vegas over three weeks. It was amazing, I had never been to America before and it certainly didn’t disappoint! We did lots of travelling and saw absolutely loads, some of our highlights included the baseball in San Diego, dinner at The Ivy in Beverly Hills, cycling the Golden Gate Bridge and The Beatles show in Las Vegas.
My top tip to other Brides Up North is – enjoy it! Don’t let anything get stressful and enjoy all the planning and run up as that all part of creating your perfect day. Also, don’t always go for big companies and rely on reputation when choosing suppliers. We went with people who took a genuine interest in our wedding and were as passionate about making the day a success as we were. The results were fantastic!
