Today’s real wedding has to be one of the cutest to have appeared on the blog.
Bride and groom Natalie and James centred their big day celebrations on the adventures that they’ve shared together so far, taking inspiration from the adorable Disney Pixar film Up (one of our very favourites) along the way.
The result is a loved-up, honest and personal wedding featuring touching homemade décor, beautiful blooms and some rather sweet flower girls.
With images by Ellie Grace Photography.
natalie says:
James proposed to me at home once I’d returned for work. It was my first job since having our daughter Martha. He made me my own ‘Book of Spoilers’, Doctor Who style with memories from our time together and the ring was in the back within a hollowed out heart. It was just lovely.We set the date for 18th March 2016 as we both wanted a spring wedding because it’s our favourite time of year. It was also two years (nearly) to the day that James proposed. Having an out-of-season wedding reduced our costs and helped us to keep within our budget too.
Our chosen venue was Aston Hall Hotel in Aston, Rotherham. We fell in love with it instantly. It’s a beautiful venue with gorgeous grounds with an excellent twist of traditional glamour and modern class – plus it was super handy for guests to travel to and stay at.
We chose our theme from the Disney Pixar film Up. People often tell us that we are like Carl and Ellie. We then took the theme a little further by adding adventure aspects, including a world map table plan and tables named after places we’d been.
Our colour scheme was spring pastels. We wanted to carry through the season with wild flower type colouring and so we went with hydrangea blues and lilac purples.
My wedding dress was a traditional, full lace, capped sleeve, A-line gown with a beaded belt from Elite Bridal Outlet, Castleford. I was dreading buying my wedding dress and various bridal boutiques hadn’t made me feel comfortable about the experience being a bigger bride. When I went to Elite Bridal, they were so helpful and supportive and wouldn’t let me leave feeling so glum! Finally I fell in love with, and felt beautiful in, a gown, regardless of size. I teamed my dress with Converse and my great grandmother’s pearl necklace – I felt ready to rock!
On the day of the wedding my hair was styled by Palms Hair and Beauty salon in Worksop. As a hairdresser, it was really difficult for me to trust anybody to style my hair but the lovely ladies at Palms put me right at ease and nothing was too much trouble! My makeup was taken care of by Louise Wilkinson. I’ve known Louise since primary school and now she works for MAC and she was fantastic. She knew what would suit each person and complexion in the wedding party and incorporated what we wanted as individuals. Plus she didn’t mind getting to us at silly o’clock in the morning to fit us all in!
For his wedding attire, James chose a bright blue three-piece suit with blue tie and pocket square from Austin Reed at Boundary Mill. He wore Converse and Lego cufflinks that Martha bought him. James also had a grape soda pin on his lapel underneath his buttonhole. The best man wore the same suit to match.
My two bridesmaids were in different style Dessy dresses in the same Periwinkle colour, with matching Converse, while the two flower girls wore ivory Rocha John Rocha Debenhams dresses with rose pink shoes from Next and hand-knitted pink bolero cardigans.
Ellie Last of Ellie Grace Photography captured our day and we couldn’t recommend her more highly. She was remarkable; every little thing that she did was above and beyond, even down to the amazing packaging we received our copy of out photographs in. She made us feel so comfortable and relaxed and didn’t make the formals boring or long winded – we really can’t express how fantastic she is!
More Than Flowers, based in Retford, Nottinghamshire, supplied our gorgeous flowers. I carried a handtied bouquet with blue/purple hydrangeas, gypsophila, daisy and roses. I added a brooch of my grape soda pin and a penguin charm (because James is my penguin and I am his) to my flowers.
For the reception décor we had a long spray of flowers on top table and ceremony table as well as wild flower posies in cream milk jugs as the centrepieces, again supplied by More Than Flowers. Our Chivari chairs and lanterns were supplied by Love in a Mist, based in Rotherham.
The rest of the styling we did ourselves with supplies from Wedding of My Dreams, including pew ends, a world map table plan, our adventure guestbook, vintage book centrepieces and scrabble table names. We made heart-shaped confetti from iconic love stories for the tables with some natural flower confetti from Shropshire Petals.
As a special touch we had photographs of grandparents and other family members on their wedding day on the guest book table, and we also had a vintage suitcase filled with tickets, memorabilia and other items that myself and James had collected from our adventures together.
Instead of giving guests individual flavours we had a retro pick and mix buffet for everyone to dig in to!
Our wedding cake was a three-tiered Victoria sponge fully iced with blue/purple hydrangeas on the top and bottom. It was made by a friend of the family and was delicious!
We chose a three-course wedding breakfast of seasonal food and a hot buffet for the evening guests. We didn’t want people to become too over-faced with food, or too feel too sluggish after eating, so that they could enjoy the evening party.
We had a disco for our evening entertainment which featured songs requested by guests via their RSVP’s. Our first dance was to Tom Odell’s Grow Old With Me. We also had a suitcase full of photo props for people to have candid photographs with and to take home at the end of the night – we even had celebrity cut outs of Chris Pratt and Audrey Hepburn!
After our wedding we would definitely recommend our choice of venue to others. We fell in love with Aston Hall the minute we walked through the doors and the whole experience was a pleasure. Everything ran super smoothly and we were kept informed throughout the day. We couldn’t thank our wedding fairy godmother, Rebecca, enough! We are already planning a return trip four our first anniversary!
My favourite part of the wedding day was seeing James stood there, waiting for me at the end of the aisle. I couldn’t get to him quick enough – in fact, I think I ran! Though he doesn’t like having his picture taken, James always says that he really enjoyed the photographs that the two of us had taken away from the guests. It was a special and romantic ‘breather’ where we could gather our thoughts and emotions and drink the experience in.
For our honeymoon we went to Disneyland Paris with our little girl, Martha. It was a fabulously magical experience – even though Martha was under the weather and tuckered out from all that dancing at the wedding. She still says it was meeting Mickey Mouse that made her better!
My top tip for other Brides Up North would be – don’t waste time stressing over the little silly things or if people are enjoying it. Nobody will notice the little things, so who cares? Enjoy yourself and all your hard work!
