For this morning’s real wedding we’re heading to the beautiful North East coastline to relive the big day of Katie and Marcus.
A surprise pregnancy meant that bride Katie organised the wedding in just seven weeks (no mean feat) but looking at the photos she did an incredible job.
Splitting their celebrations into two parts, Katie and Marcus enjoyed an
intimate wedding
in the romantic seaside town of Whitby before celebrating back home with all their family and friends during a special wedding garden party under a canvas marquee.With images by Emily and Katy Photography.
katie says:
We got engaged in Whitby on 15th November 2014. It was freezing cold and Marcus begged me to go on this road trip to Whitby, I wanted to have a chilled day at home together with our new born baby but he insisted we went! We walked all around the town; down all these random little cobbled streets, down every cute alley way and all the way to the end of the pier. He finally asked me at the end of Whitby pier – totally unexpected and out of the blue! He was obviously hunting for the perfect place.We originally set the date for 1st July 2016 but I then found out that I was expecting baby number two in July 2015, meaning I was due in March 2016. With the new recruit on the way (and having always dreamt of being a pregnant bride) we decided to cancel all the original plans and move the wedding forward. So on 4th December 2015 I gave myself just seven weeks to plan a perfect wedding.
We always wanted a small wedding and picked to tie the knot in Whitby, with it being such a special place to us. We got married in the registry office and the rest of the celebrations took place at The White Horse & Griffin, a gorgeous little quirky restaurant and bar with ten bedrooms which we booked out for all our wedding party.
I wasn’t the usual organised ‘bridezilla’ type bride, I just wanted a really informal relaxed wedding that both me and Marcus and our family could enjoy. We had a subtle rustic theme and the table décor was hand designed by myself and my cousin Cassie.
Initially we didn’t have a colour scheme because the look we were going for was rustic with simple hessian and creams. Then with the sudden change of date and arranging the winter wedding, I had to buy a fur stole to keep me warm so decided to tie the colour in with Marcus’s suit and went for the midnight blue colour, which then helped me decide on my bouquet.
When it came to the dress, I had no idea what I wanted. I didn’t really know much about who’s who in the world of wedding dress designers. After looking online I decided that Jenny Packham was the sort of style I could see myself in. It seemed she did a selection of wedding dresses that were not the typical bride look, more the relaxed, informal look I was going for. I ended up with a Jenny Packham dress called Ruby, which is really beautiful. With the extra added pregnancy bump I had to have some alterations, but it worked out perfect.
Marcus was fixed up in a Paul Smith dark navy skinny-fit suit, white shirt and a floral blue tie. I bought him some handmade boots from a cobblers for the wedding day, which looked perfect with his suit. Andy the bestman was in Paul Smith also with shirt and tie to match Marcus. My dad wore a navy suit to tie in with the theme too.
Pixie and Etta our little flower girls both dressed in dusky pink tutu dresses from The White Company.
On the wedding day I travelled to the venue in my dad’s Range Rover. I hadn’t really take into account how I was going to get there until the day so dad got his car hand washed and bought some ribbons from a nearby flower shop and got it looking wedding ready in no time!
The girls from Emily and Katy Photography captured our day for us. Katy is my neighbour (lucky hey!). One day we were chatting over the hedge and she mentioned she was a photographer so I booked her there and then! How Perfect! And to make it even all even more perfect, there were two of them! After meeting with Katy and Emily to discuss ideas, plans etc. we decided they would be perfect for us – they had some amazing ideas. Following our wedding, we would 100% recommend them to other couples. They were just like having two extra friends as part of our special day. In fact, Emily helped me into my dress whilst Katy tidied my bedroom! What more could you want?
In terms of the wedding flowers, I had no idea what I wanted. The local flower shop in the village where I live, The Flower Room, is really lovely so I approached them for help. I had a bouquet of anemones (white with a really dark blue centre) irony roses, dark blue berries and foliage. It was perfect! Marcus, Andy and my dad had foliage and a single anemone button hole. The flower girls had a tiny version of my bouquet.
Instead of giving favours we invited our friends and family to take home jars filled with beautiful flowers that were used to decorate the reception room.
We aren’t cake lovers so we decided to have a sweetie cart instead of a traditional wedding cake. It went down a treat with the guests and looked lovely. I would definitely recommend this to anybody wanting something a bit different to add to their special day.
For couples wanting a chilled wedding we would highly recommend our choice of venue. It really was lovely and looking back through the photos Emily and Katy used the place to get some really great shots.
Looking back I’d say my favourite part of the day (apart from actually getting my beautiful ring and Marcus getting his) was getting ready in the morning! I really loved that bit. Also, on the Sunday after the wedding Marcus and I and our guests enjoyed a winter walk on the beach, followed by fish and chips. The perfect end to a perfect weekend!
The weekend after of wedding we had a ‘Wedding Garden Party’. We invited all our Whitby wedding guests along with 100 extra family and friends to enjoy our wedding celebrations with us. It was more of a party rather than a wedding so we didn’t mind all these people seeing us once again suited and booted as bride and groom.
We had a heated marquee on our garden and The Striped Pig Company came and catered for all our guests with a meat roast, which was amazing! We had an acoustic singer travel all the way from Surrey to provide the music for the night. The bar served copious amounts of alcohol throughout the evening, I think our guests actually managed ‘drink them dry’ of a good few things. We had straw bales covered in hessian for guests to perch on, and large whisky barrels dotted around the marquee to pop drinks on whilst dancing. We decorated the marquee with hessian bunting and ivory and blue paper pom poms, and filled glass jars with either fresh flowers or candles for a relaxed ambience.
For our honeymoon we are planning to go to the Northern Lights on our first wedding anniversary.
Though happy with my wedding, my top tip to other Brides Up North would be – don’t arrange your wedding in seven weeks whilst being pregnant and looking after a toddler with Christmas and New Year in between, just to add to the madness! Also, if you can, split your wedding celebrations into two dos, that way you get to wear your wedding dress twice! Most of all – enjoy feeling special!
the big picture
