It’s holiday season here on the blog, and as the editorial team take a short break, we’ll be leaving you with a reduced blogging schedule so that you still get your daily dose of wedding lovely. Usual service will recommence on Monday 4th July 2016 but in the meantime watch out for recaps of some of our favourite Real Weddings so far this year.
Drop in every day for the very prettiest, most unique wedding inspiration and – if you are a Brides Up North bride – to see if your real wedding was one of our top picks.
Today’s real wedding had us from the moment it landed in the Brides Up North inbox.
Talk about beautiful! The big day of Janine and David has it all and is brilliantly styled throughout – from the wedding party’s attire to ceremony and reception décor.
We particularly love Janine’s stunning lace-detailed gown and also her dreamy bouquet, which picks up on the elegant heather-coloured dresses worn by her leading ladies!
With images by Lucie Watson Photography.
janine says:
David proposed on 27th July 2014 – after us being together for seven years I never thought it would happen. However David surprised me one evening at home by turning an ordinary night into something special by getting down on one knee and asking me to marry him. Mainly because once he decided to do it he couldn’t wait any longer!We got married on 27th March 2016. We had always liked the idea of a winter wedding but Easter fell early this year and my birthday was soon after so it seemed like a nice idea to have it around this time of year.
Our chosen venue was The Vermont Hotel in Newcastle. We always wanted something in central Newcastle as we had a lot of family coming from Scotland so didn’t want them to travel to Newcastle then onto Northumberland.
Once we visited The Vermont we fell in love with the venue and, in particular, the amazing views! We thought it would be a lovely way to show our family the city.
We didn’t have a definite theme, we just picked things that were elegant and classic. However as Dave is Scottish it was important for him to wear a kilt, as did all of the male bridal party. I also included a nod to Scotland into my flowers by having thistles.
For the colour scheme we mainly chose ivory, silver, sequin and glitter with the odd touch of heather, which the bridesmaids were wearing. I chose the bridesmaids’ dresses first as I really liked the colour. However it was a unique shade so I found it hard to match it perfectly, so decided to go quite neutral for the rest of the colours and the silver tones worked well with the décor of The Vermont.
My dress was from Brides Dream in Walkergate. It was a Ronald Joyce gown in ivory, slightly off-the-shoulder with lace and beaded appliques, and a low beaded back. I knew I didn’t want a strapless dress and I knew as soon as I saw it that that was the dress.
My veil was from Accent Original by Joyce Jackson, which was a cathedral length, Italian tulle veil and was very plain. My shoes were Jimmy Choo and probably the first thing I bought for the wedding.
David wore a Scottish spirt tartan kilt, he did try to get the Sinclair clan tartan but it proved difficult in Newcastle. So we chose this as an alternative as it matched the bridesmaids perfectly and meant all the men would be co-ordinated, with the groomsmen wearing the same Scottish tartan as David. All the men’s outfits came from Slaters in Newcastle.
The bridesmaids wore dresses from The Dainty Yard in a heather colour. As they were multi-way dresses all the girls chose to wear them in a different style.
We hired Kara Scott Hair to take care of mine and my bridesmaids’ hair and The Face House, based in Walkergate, did my makeup.
Lucie of Lucie Watson Photography, captured our day for us, along with a second shooter called Julie. They were both amazing and so much help on the day – we even joked that Lucie was like a fourth bridesmaid on the morning helping out when we were getting ready.
We also had our wedding day filmed by a videographer called John, from Absolute Media Weddings.
Our flowers were supplied by Fleur Couture Floral Design. My bouquet was a mixture of roses, hydrangeas, thistles, astrantia and lots of foliage like lavender and brunia berries. The bridesmaids carried simple white hydrangeas and the men wore buttonholes which were thistles and astrantia. The ladies in the bridal party had the same but with a rose.
Fleur Couture Floral Designs also provided the white ruffle chair covers with silver brooches and the silver sequin table runners. The Vermont provided the lanterns for down the aisle and the centre pieces. The rest of the decor I made myself, including the glittery table numbers, table plan, place settings and tea light holders.
As favours we gave out charity pins from the British Heart Foundation and Scottish Hospices and St Columba’s Hospice. These were in memory of my step dad Gary and David’s gran Dorothy.
As these two special people were missing from the wedding we tried to incorporate them into the day in several ways. We had a memory table with their pictures on and both had photo brooch made – I attached the one of my step dad to my flowers and Dave attached the one of his gran to his kilt. I also had a ring made of Gary’s ashes by Ashes To Glass, which I wore on my right ring finger.
The Great British Cupcakery supplied our cake, which was a four-tier, ivory cake with a hydrangea bottom layer and a pearl finish top layer, it was simple and elegant. We chose different flavours – carrot, which was our favourite for two layers, then chocolate and lemon and raspberry.
Our wedding breakfast was a three course meal of leek and gruyere cheese tart, a grain mustard and mixed leaves, followed by main of chicken breast with spring onion mash, herb and butter carrots and chasseur sauce, and for pudding – sticky toffee pudding! For the night time food we had a buffet of burgers, fish and chips, sandwiches and cake.
In terms of entertainment on the day, there was a piano player in The Redwood Bar for our drinks reception, who was provided by The Vermont, and the evening DJ, Electric Nite, was also part of the wedding package.
We would definitely recommend our choice of venue to other wedding couples because Tanya and Jamie there were excellent in providing all the details, making the day go so smoothly and keepingme calm. The Vermont is an excellent venue to show off Newcastle and has been refurbished to a very high standard.
Looking back, my favourite part of the day was walking down the aisle and seeing David. I was nervous all morning getting ready but knew that David would make me feel calm – seeing him made me instantly relax. Many of the guests have said their best part of the day was either Micky’s best man speech or the many impromptu dance offs that happened throughout the night!
Following the wedding we had a minimoon in York and were lucky enough to actually have some nice weather. We are planning a honeymoon in Italy for the summer months.
My top tip to other Brides Up North would be – try and take a few moments just you and your partner as the day is so busy and goes by so fast!
