As it’s pretty much the weekend we thought we’d take a little trip, heading all the way South to relive Stephanie and Stephen’s big day.
Keen to evoke nostalgic holiday memories whilst saying their “I dos”, the couple picked to travel south from their Lancashire home in search of a venue with sun, sea and champagne!
The Watergate Bay Hotel provided the perfect backdrop for their effortlessly gorgeous wedding in Cornwall, which featured a timeless muted colour scheme with just the right amount of golden sparkle.
So, grab your bucket and spade guys, as we’re off to the beach!
With images by Gemma McAuley Photography
stephanie says:
We got engaged when I was nine-months pregnant on New Year’s Eve 2014/15 at midnight in Keswick town centre under the stars and fireworks surrounded by a large crowd of other people celebrating their New Year’s Eve. I was totally surprised and not expecting it at all, so I was in shock when he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him with a beautiful engagement ring! Obviously, I said yes and we had the best New Year’s Eve ever!Our wedding date was 27th June 2016, which we chose in the hope of a nice sunny day so that we could have pictures taken on the beautiful beach.
Though we live in Lancashire, we got married at The Watergate Bay Hotel, in Cornwall. We chose this venue as it is very special for our family. I used to spend every summer at this hotel when I was little with my parents, sister and grandparents, so we have a lot of special memories there. It was even more exciting as we all hadn’t been there for more than ten years! In this time the hotel had a total renovation and so was more amazing than I remembered.
Myself, Stephen, both our parents and our son Charlie, went down to visit the venue a year before the wedding for a long weekend. The weather was amazing and the hotel was more than we could have imagined. So, we booked the date there and then as it was my idea of a dream wedding venue. Floor to ceiling glass windows overlooking the beach in the ceremony room sealed the deal!
As the venue is so modern and the views are so perfect, I didn’t want to take away from it, and so we went for a natural colour scheme of champagne and ivory, with a splash of glitter for a bit of sparkle.
We didn’t have a wedding style as such, though in the evening we did a casino theme for a bit of fun as it’s one of our favourite fun hobbies. We hired casino tables to get our guest having fun and we also hired an amazing hand magician as Stephen is obsessed with magic and as a child always wanted to be a magician. He was amazing and really entertaining!
When it came to choosing my dress for the wedding, I went for a full lace gown with spaghetti straps and low back. It was more relaxed and beachy due to the venue choice but I still wanted to feel like a bride so it was perfect and I chose a cathedral veil to add a bit of drama. I bought my dress, veil, shoes and headband from Sugared Almonds in Earby, who were so helpful.
Stephen, the groomsmen and fathers hired a blue Ted Baker suits with champagne ties and brown shoes from Moss Bros in Preston. These were perfect and looked brand new.
We bought the bridesmaids’ dresses from Wedding Belles of Blackburn. We chose long, flowing champagne dresses and I bought their matching champagne jewellery from Accessorize.
Gemma McAuley captured our day. She did my sister’s wedding photography and it was beautiful! Gemma is very helpful and relaxed, she makes you feel comfortable and confident, plus her work is perfect and she always captures the style you want. We also had an engagement shoot, which was amazing! I would always recommend her to others and would certainly hire her for future projects.
We also had our day filmed by Plan9 Video, who created an amazing video so we can remember our day forever.
For my bouquet, I had white peonies and white gypsophila flowers with satin ribbon trails and my bridesmaids had full white gypsophila flowers with satin ribbon trails, which were provided by Flowers by Fleuri.
In terms of decorating the venue, we had petals down the aisle with lanterns and two large balls of white flowers on pedestals at the beginning of the aisle for the ceremony. At the reception, we had a select few small jars of white flowers as it was more casual in the restaurant where we ate. I made my own champagne table numbers, then the table plan cards and place names where from Inspired Hand, which I put on a mirror I bought that had golden edges. We also had a champagne sequin cake table cover provided by Pudding Bridge. For the night, we had champagne sequin table runners, again provided by Pudding Bridge, and staggered candleholders all down the centre of the tables. We also put fairy lights draped around the room.
As favours I made a CD of our songs for the wedding day, complete with a personalised cover.
Our wedding cake was made up of three tiers; the top tier was chocolate cake and decorated plain white with small bow on, the middle was red velvet decorated in a champagne shimmer and the bottom tier Victoria sponge cake decorated white ruffles and internally covered with white chocolate ganache, which was amazing! The cake was created by Cupcakemama and the champagne glitter cake topper was from eBay.
Following the ceremony, we had a Pimms and lemonade drinks reception and canapés including Grampound duck, sweet red onion and cherry pastille; pork, glass noodle, coriander and white pepper spring rolls and mushroom and soft herb tortilla.
The wedding breakfast was served in Zacry’s restaurant and started with smoked duck breast, celeriac remoulade, baby spinach and Larson salad. Main was crown cooked free range chicken, butter cabbage, champ potatoes, bacon and onion sauce. To finish we had a seasonal strawberry cheesecake with fruit compote.
In addition to the casino tables and magician, we had a DJ as our evening entertainment all of which was organised by Perfect Party Cornwall. As a surprise for our guests we had spent a month prior to the wedding learning a dance routine to our first dance song. We had a real laugh learning the dance and all our guests loved it and joined us on the dancefloor after we had finished it.
Following our wedding we would definitely recommend The Watergate Bay Hotel to people who want a small intimate venue with five-star food, drink and service. It was dream wedding and I want to do it all again!
Looking back, the best part of the day was marrying Stephen and finally saying our vows, as well as having only our closest family and friends there with us to share it.
We spent a week at the wedding venue in total with close family, which was lovely and we even went surfing during our stay! We then went on an official honeymoon in August, just the two of us, on the new Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas for a week around the Mediterranean which was fantastic! There was so much to do and we had so much fun. We visited beautiful places like the Amalfi Coast which was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen and then the fantastic historical Pompeii. At night, there were great shows on and lots of entertainment to choose from. We would definitely go again!
My top tip to other Brides Up North (and grooms) for stress-free and perfect wedding would be to do exactly what you both want and don’t get carried away trying to please others. Just please yourselves as it’s your day, and try not to worry about the little details as on the day you won’t even notice them.
