Today we’re packing in an extra punch of pretty with a second real wedding for to feast your eyes on.
For anyone planning a classic wedding that will truly stand the test of time, Jennifer and Adam’s big day is a perfect example of how it’s done; starting with a traditional church ceremony and ending with a lively reception at an elegant venue.
The dusky pink colour scheme works perfectly for the time of year and we just love the delicate touches of cherry blossom dotted throughout.
With images by Jonny Draper Photography.
jennifer says:
We got engaged in September 2014, while we were away on holiday in Antalya, Turkey. The hotel was amazing and there was a gorgeous private beach. We went for a stroll on the second night and Adam brought his camera. He wanted to get a picture of the both of us so I sat in one of the sun huts. He set the camera up on a timer and once ready he ran over and got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife – just in time for the camera to capture the moment! I loved that he didn’t just ask me to marry him – he specifically asked me to become his wife, which was really special to me.We picked 28th May 2016, as the date for the wedding. It was a bank holiday weekend and we wanted to give everyone an extra day to recover – we are party animals after all!
We got married at the lovely St Michael’s Church in Aughton. If you went there yourself, you’d know why. The people there are amazing too. Our reception was at Hurlston Hall, in Ormskirk. We were over the moon with the venue. The views from the function room are breath-taking as it overlooks the golf course, plus it has an outside balcony so everyone could be in the sun.
We didn’t intend on having a theme but it kind of brought itself together – pink cherry blossom ran through pretty much everything, giving the wedding a slight oriental vibe. As such the colour scheme was of course, pink!
My dress was a Charlotte Balbier design – Iscoyd Park – the one that Charlotte herself chose to get married in! Although I did get it made an extra metre longer as I wanted a huge train. It wasn’t what I thought I’d go for at all. When I tried it on it was like Cinderella finding that shoe; it is a truly beautiful dress and Charlotte is an amazing designer. I got the veil to match too, which was a last minute decision! I’m so glad I did though. I got my outfit from Belle’s Bridal Boutique in Liverpool, a really cute bridal shop and the girls there are lovely.
Adam hired a suit from Attire in Aintree. It was a navy suit with tails. His waistcoat matched my dress perfectly! All the groomsmen were in the same suits and they looked fab.
My mum chose the bridesmaid dresses. They were from BHS and were a lovely dusty vintage pink. They were the first dress we ordered and we didn’t need to look any further! Mum is great at stuff like that, she’s got an eye for a good dress!
Sam Marshall MUA, and her team from Ruby Slippers, took care of our wedding hair and makeup. We had such a laugh with Sam and the girls the morning of the wedding. We had all the soul tunes playing in my bedroom, the champagne was flowing and they did our hair and makeup perfectly. Sam even helped me in to my dress as my mum was running around in the last ten mins before we had to leave! My morning wouldn’t have been as happy without her in it.
We had two cars from Grace Wedding Cars, based in Wigan, to transport us to the venue. One was a Beauford convertible (it was so cool) and the other was a Daimler Laudette, which was for the bridesmaids and groomsmen.
Jonny Draper was our photographer. As soon as we saw Jonny’s website we fell in love with his work. We met for a coffee and he is just the loveliest guy! We felt like we had known him years. It was a pleasure having him around on the day, we had such a laugh with him and our photographs are more than we ever dreamed of. Every time we look at the photos we feel exactly the same as we did at the time, it’s magical.
I was totally in love with my wedding flowers! They were so beautiful – it’s the one thing you don’t truly know what you’re going to get on your wedding day. When Clare, from The Flower Farm florist in Burscough, arrived with them on the day I couldn’t believe how gorgeous they were. I had a shower style bouquet with pink roses and peonies, I wanted them natural and loose.
Clare did our centrepieces for the reception too and Adam made all of the menus, the place names and the table plan – he’s so creative! My dad also got involved in the creativity and did up this gorgeous dolls house and made it in to a post box. It was very cute.
My mum boxed the favours off for me. I was really lucky she wanted to do so much for us, we both work full time so found it really hard to get all the little things together. To tie with the parasol props that me and the bridesmaids had on the day, we gave little hand fans to all the girls and all the guys got a little bottle of Jack Daniels. Can’t go wrong with booze!
Our wedding cake was a four-tier creation from Scrumptious Cakes in Ormskirk. We had vanilla, lemon, red velvet and chocolate fudge! It was decorated with white icing with cherry blossom flowers. It was incredible, and a great price too!
For the wedding breakfast we had a goat’s cheese tart to start, lamb shoulder for main and a lemon cheesecake for dessert. Hurston Hall had invited us to try the full meal a couple of months before, so we knew it would be superb.
To provide entertainment we booked a funk and soul band called The Manytones – they were so cool. They put up with my diva moments, especially when they let me mime Jocelyn Brown’s Somebody Else’s Guy like I was Beyoncé at Glastonbury! Don’t know who I thought I was but hey it was my wedding!
After our day we would certainly recommend Hurlston Hall to other brides and grooms. It’s so beautiful and the staff there are wonderful. They even have a cottage that we stayed in on site, which was huge! I wanted to move in! Breakfast was awesome the next day as well – we needed refuelling after all the dancing and champers!
On reflection I’d say that walking down the aisle wasn’t just my favourite part of the wedding day, but it was also the happiest moment of my life. My face hurt from smiling so much! Seeing all the people I love under one roof, smiling at me and they were there for us, and then I saw Adam’s lovely face – it’s a moment I’ll never forget! Adam agrees that this was his favourite part of the day too, as he saw me walking towards him and he had a huge cheesy grin plastered on his face!
For our honeymoon we went to the Amalfi coast in Italy. We stayed 10 nights in The Belair in Sorrento, which was beautiful with breath taking views. We then moved onto the Hotel Villa Franca in Positano (about half-an-hour away). This was a boutique hotel that was very expensively furnished. We had so many adventures on our honeymoon; we rented a speedboat for the day, visited all of the famous attractions like Pompeii and Capri and we ate pizza until we burst!
My top tip for other Brides Up North would be – don’t think you have to feel a certain way, neither of us were nervous or stressed before or on the actual day! People thought it was odd, but we knew it was because it was right, what did we have to be nervous about? We were both excited.
