While I love viewing all the real weddings that are submitted to the blog there are certain ones that I fall for so much they have me genuinely wishing that I’d been present to toast the bride and groom.
And today’s wedding is one of them – I love everything about it! The cool and stylish city locations, the pretty colour palette and décor, not to mention that delicious looking naked wedding cake. But a slice of sponge aside, the main thing that makes me want to be a part of the action is the expressions of happiness and enjoyment on everybody’s faces.
It turns out that even the rain couldn’t dampen Jody and Liam’s wedding day spirits!
With images by Lisa Howard Photography.
jody says:
Liam popped the question on 16th May 2015, at Delamere Forest. It totally took me by surprise! In hindsight, how awkward he was acting that day, now all makes sense. After our walk in the forest we went home and celebrated with a lovely bottle of champagne and then shared the news with our beloved family. A total whirlwind of a day!Our wedding date was the 19th June 2016. There wasn’t a particular reason for this date but funnily enough it ended up falling on a significant date, as it was Father’s Day! We didn’t realise this until a few months before the weddings, when we started sending out wedding invitations.
We got married at Hope Street Hotel, in Liverpool. It was perfect. The place is stunning! We knew we wanted to get married in the centre of the city. We had met each other just a few doors away from the hotel ten years before we got married. It just seemed like it was right for us.
Hope Street Hotel has an amazing room called The Fifth, which boasts floor-to-ceiling windows from which you can see the whole of Liverpool. It’s also right in the centre of our two beautiful cathedrals. An amazing location. What more could we have asked for?
Our reception was then at the popular Oh Me Oh My, also in the city centre.
There was no set theme or particular style to our wedding. I just knew I wanted to have lots of bunting, flowers and fun things to do. It all just worked itself out naturally.
We decided on a pastel colour scheme for the decorations and bridesmaid dresses. Our ceremony venue was very clean, white and neutral so we wanted to ease some colour into the reception venue whilst making sure that it wasn’t too overpowering. The wildflowers we picked for our centrepieces and bouquets popped beautifully against the pastel colours we used around the room, bringing a lovely boost of colour and greenery to the wedding and reception venues.
I chose to wear a beautiful 50’s style wedding dress. It was midi length with three-quarter-length lace sleeves. It had a sweetheart bandeau neckline, empire line belt and a lot of lace detail going on. The dress was perfect for my style and, most of all, it made me feel comfortable. I bought it from an amazing bridal boutique in Ormskirk called Trudy Smith. As soon as I found it, I knew it was definitely the one. Trudy at the boutique was amazing! She was able to get my dress to fit me perfectly. I couldn’t have found anywhere better to buy my wedding dress, and I know that I would never have found anything else which suited my style and personality as much as my chosen dress did.
Liam found his suit in The Wedding House, in Liverpool. He wore a super-smart navy three-piece suit with an ivory knit tie. He looked superb, if I may say so.
His best man wore the same suit but he had a knit tie which matched the colour of our bridesmaid dresses.
Our bridesmaids wore maxi-length dresses from Monsoon. They were a dusty pink/blush colour and had very delicate lace detail on the back. Each of the girls wore whatever shoes they wanted with their dresses as I wanted them to be as comfortable as possible on the day.
As our wedding transport we hired a Rolls Royce from Silver Lady Liverpool. It was beautiful. It picked us up from my house and took us to the ceremony. Once happily married it look myself, Liam and our amazing photographer around the city so that we could get some photos.
Our wedding day decided to test us with rain but the amazing guys at Silver Lady came prepared with umbrellas. They were so lovely and we would totally recommend them to all.
We also hired a coach to take our guests from the wedding ceremony to reception. This made it easier for all, just jumping on the bus and being driven through the city to our next venue. We booked our coach through Napier Point.
Our photographer was Lisa Howard. I found her online and was stunned by her previous work. The photos she had taken for other weddings in the past had the vibe I was going for. I’m not totally into posed photos. I love candid photography, where you capture someone mid belly laugh. Lisa’s photography felt just like this. It felt real and I loved it. Lisa tailor made a package for our day, something that suited all our needs.
On the day of the wedding Lisa felt like a member of our family, or one of our best friends. She made us totally comfortable and was able to capture the most amazing wedding photos ever. We just love them! She didn’t stop working, constantly snapping away. We ended up getting so many amazing photos, which have given everyone so much joy. We love looking over them again and again, reliving the day. We are just in the process of filtering through all of our photos to try to pick our favourites for a wedding album. Our hardest task to date!
For our wedding flowers my bridesmaids and I had bouquets, while the mothers, fathers, siblings and grandparents had buttonholes or shoulder corsages in soft pastel blush pink, peach and purple shades. The flowers used were peonies, gypsophila, heather, brassica, roses, freesia and other wild flowers with mixed foliage.
Our florist, Linda from Norwegian Wood, was a dream to work with. I went to meet her with minimal knowledge of flowers, just roughly knowing what I wanted and I ended up with the most beautiful wedding flowers, ever! I feel like she read my mind.
Our guests loved the centrepieces that Linda produced so much that they took them home with them at the end of the night. I’ve also managed to dry out some of my wedding flowers to keep.
We bought the decorations for the reception ourselves. We sourced some wood log slices from a guy on Gumtree and then dried them out at home and so that we could use them as centrepieces. We then bought endless amounts of jam jars and mason jars to scatter around the room, which were filled with beautiful flowers from Norwegian Wood.
I made the bunting myself – all 70+ meters of it! If I’m honest it nearly killed me but it was a total labour of love. I had only previously made a pillowcase on my sewing machine so 70+ meters of amazing homemade bunting was an achievement for me. It also looked fantastic in Oh Me Oh My.
As a bit of fun for our guests we gave scratch cards as favours. We haven’t actually heard if there was a big winner from the scratch cards. Speak up now if you won!
Our wedding cake was an amazing three-tiered naked cake made by the amazing Braidy from Say It With Flours. When I went to meet Braidy, she was so kind and helpful – I knew I had found my baker. Also her cakes are amazing! There was none of our cake left by the end of the night – everyone loved it!
For the reception entertainment we had a DJ (who was superb!) provided through Oh Me Oh My. Everyone, myself included, was dancing until the early hours of the morning. We also hired a photo booth from Smileomatic. It provided maximum fun for our guests and they got to take photos home with them as a fun keepsake – we also got a copy of all the photos to keep too. We would totally recommend!
We were also keen to make sure that the children at the wedding were entertained throughout the day and so we had things like a kid’s den – a tipi for the children to have their own space to play in – as well as gift/party bags with toys, sweets and other fun stuff in.
Following our big day we would highly recommend both of our chosen venues to other couples. They are both beautiful in every way! The events co-ordinators and all the staff at both venues helped us so much by making it easier for us to organise our wedding and helping it to run smoothly on the day.
Just two days after the wedding we jetted off on our honeymoon to New York. We had six nights in the Big Apple to explore and indulge – and we did just that! We went to see our favourite comedian, explored all the boroughs of New York and went rowing on the lake in Central Park. When we got home, we were so tired from all the fun and excitement that we started looking for another holiday – honeymoon part two. Which we booked the next month. We went to Greece for a week to enjoy some sunshine and chill time. Much needed and enjoyed.
My top tip to other Brides Up North would be not to worry about any pre-wedding stresses because on the day itself it won’t matter. You’ll have the best day ever! The most fun!
Also, don’t worry about the weather. I was worried thinking the rain might spoil our day. In the end, it made it. It rained nearly all day, however, Liam and I think it made our day more interesting. We had fun running around the city under an umbrella with our photographer trying to get some fun photos in the downpours. Nothing will faze you on the day so just go with it.
