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 10th June 2019 but in the meantime watch out for recaps of some of our favourite Real Weddings from the first half of the year so far.
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We’re whisking you off to the beautiful Lake District today for Lindsay and Matt’s big day at Winterfell, Stag Lodge. And what makes this wedding extra special is that they were the first couple to tie the knot here!
With a Yorkshire twist to the proceedings for the day – think a nod or two to the local food and lingo – we just love their understated and chic colour scheme of white and pale grey with accents of gold and copper. Paper lanterns, festoon lights and a custom-made piñata are just a few of the pretty decorative touches that transformed their stunning tipi.
We have to give a special shout out to Frank – their ‘best dog’, who was kitted out in his very own matching bow tie and custom-made flat cap! We think every wedding should have a Frank! Scroll on for all the fabulous pics!
With images and video by Silver Sixpence Film & Photo.
Matt and Lindsay V02 from Silver Sixpence Films on Vimeo.
Proposal
Lindsay says: We got engaged on 10th December 2017. We bought our house two years previously and had been renovating it between working full time, so it took ages. We were due to move in that weekend, but things hadn’t gone to plan and it wasn’t ready. We had spent the day there, I had been scrubbing the bathroom tiles and looked a mess – no makeup on, hair in a bun and chipped nails etc. We had put a beautiful freestanding bath in our new bedroom and I desperately wanted to use it, so I took a towel and some candles from our rented house, and at about 8.30pm, I lit the candles and got in. I was looking at my phone when Matt appeared, on one knee at the side of the bath. He asked me to marry him and I cried and said no, not like this, I look a mess! I cried a bit more and then asked him to ask me again. We moved in that night, it was so special – it wouldn’t have felt right to go back to our other house after that.
Setting
We got married on 6th October 2018. We wanted to get married on a Saturday in autumn. It was also my 33rd birthday so it was a double celebration (my mum also married my dad on her birthday so this could be the start of a family tradition!).
We really wanted an outdoor ceremony and we knew we definitely wanted tipis for the reception, but we found it really difficult to find somewhere close to home that we loved, as we didn’t want to be restricted or have to compromise in any way, lots of venues we looked at had restrictions on suppliers.
We started searching for private houses to hire and eventually we found Winterfell, Stag Lodge, in the Lake District. I fell completely in love with the house just from seeing the pictures on the internet, I knew it was the one! It isn’t licenced for legal weddings but a humanist ceremony felt more like us anyway, so this wasn’t a problem. Lorraine Hull was our celebrant – this lady is amazing – so helpful and supportive, I can’t recommend her enough!
We were the venue’s first wedding, which made it feel even more special.
We had a little civil ceremony on the following Monday, in the Coach House at Silverholme Manor, just for family and close friends.
We didn’t intentionally set out to have a theme, but the whole day did end up having a little bit of a Yorkshire twist. Matt is a Yorkshire lad through and through, so it naturally happened to have a Yorkshire feel.
Most of our suppliers were Yorkshire based, our caterers provided Yorkshire canapes, Matt reared the pork and lamb that we had for the wedding breakfast, the table names were Yorkshire phrases (How’ Do / Ey By Gum etc) and we had some giant light up ‘EY UP’ letters.
We kept the colours of the décor to white and pale grey with hints of gold and rose gold/copper, this looked lovely with green foliage in the tipi. With the suits being blue and the bridesmaids’ dresses all being different colours, we wanted to keep everything else quite delicate and simple.
Dress
I wore the Lovely dress by Marylise. I got it from The White Yard which is based at Elsecar Heritage Centre near Barnsley. I wanted something a little bit different and a little bit boho in style.
Leann Marie Design made sure my dress was the perfect fit. She literally works miracles, like a fairy godmother!
I also wore a veil, which had tiny flecks of metallic gold leaf on the bottom, I absolutely loved it because it was so different, I’d never seen one like it and it matched my gold Jimmy Choo’s perfectly. I got the veil as a surprise for my mum, she didn’t know about it until I walked down the aisle.
Groomsmen
Matt wore a blue tweed three-piece suit from Marc Darcy, with a bow tie and flat cap. The groomsmen wore blue tweed trousers, waistcoats, bow ties and flat caps from Marc Darcy.
Frank, our ‘best dog’, wore a matching bow tie and custom-made flat cap.
Bridesmaids
All the bridesmaid’s dresses came from ASOS. I didn’t want them all wearing the same dress or the same colour, I wanted to pick dresses for them individually, but I wanted them to look like they belonged together. I knew I wanted them all to be long with some form of sleeve, to tie in with my dress and I wanted to keep to pale colours. I checked ASOS every single day, until I had all six, and I didn’t even see them all together until the morning of the wedding. It was a bit of a risk, but I was so happy with them.
The flower girls’ dresses were from Monsoon.
Beauty
Emma, from Hair by Emma Jewell did all our hair and Jade Heaney from The Make Up Works did my makeup. The bridesmaids did their own.
Photography
Silver Sixpence Film & Photo captured our day. I have known of them for a few years, they did the video for my friend’s sister’s wedding and then they did the wedding video for Becky my bridesmaid too.
I am a massive fan of their work. Their videos always make me cry and I knew that if I ever got married, I would want them. To the point where I said to Matt, if they weren’t available on the 6th, I would change the date!
Styling
Sam Williams Flowers did my bouquet, floral crown and buttonholes. Taylors Florist meanwhile, created the bridesmaids’ flowers.
I decorated the tipi – hired from Special Event Tipis (portaloos hired from Classic Chambers) – with French ruscus and cream roses, supplied by David Wayman Flowers in Manchester.
I hung white paper lanterns across the strings of festoon lights that were above the dancefloor. I also used white tissue paper tassels to decorate two of the internal tipi poles.
I had a custom-made piñata from Pinyatay, hung over the dance floor too – it was a diamond cluster in gold, white and rose gold.
Finally, I made a ‘Dixon Dancefloor Rules’ banner which hung at the side of the dancefloor, I saw this idea on Pinterest, my friend did the hand lettering on it.
We also had light-up letters from Marvellous Glow, with prop hire and décor from Flat Caps & Flower Crowns.
Cake
The cake was made by White Rose Cake Design. We decided to have three tiers, but we kept them separate, each on their own stand. We had three flavours – cherry Bakewell, chocolate orange and chocolate and Baileys. Two were iced semi-naked and one was rustically iced. All decorated with fresh cream roses and French ruscus.
Dining
The Ribble Bar & Event Co did our catering and bar – they used to run a bar and restaurant in Holmfirth, so we’ve been friends for quite some time.
We had homemade artisan breads/dips/olives to start, followed by roast beef, lamb and pork, with seasonal root vegetables, roast potatoes and gravy.
We had a Great British Bake-Off style dessert table, with cheesecakes, pavlovas and cakes, all homemade.
The Mac Shack provided mac and cheese for the evening food.
Entertainment
We both love piano and wanted to have a pianist for arrival and reception drinks. We hired Chris from Showbott Entertainment because he plays current songs. I really wanted to walk down the aisle to Beneath Your Beautiful by Labrinth/Emile Sande and he learnt it for me, he was fantastic.
We also hired Stuart Bray to play the guitar throughout the wedding breakfast. Again, he covers current songs & 90’s/00’s hits, everyone loved him.
We had a band for the evening called Professor Fonque & the All Stars, they play 70’s funk, soul and ska. The drummer is my best friend’s uncle. We’ve seen them play a few times and they always get everyone on the dance floor.
Special touches
We had hand-painted signs dotted around the garden, a copper photo booth and frame, and we had a hand-painted banner for the ceremony backdrop with words from one of our favourite songs. We attached Polaroid photos of us to the order of ceremony cards. We wanted the day to feel personal but not overdone.
Most of the suppliers we used were friends of ours or known to us, and local to home – this was really important to us and I guess it was a different approach to a special touch.
Thanks to
We would absolutely recommend our venue to other couples. It’s the most magical and enchanting place. If you want somewhere a little bit different and a little bit off the beaten track, then this is the perfect place.
Best bit
My favourite part of the day was when I was stood in the living room of the house with my dad and the bridesmaids, listening to the first notes of Beneath Your Beautiful – I’ve never been so excited or emotional.
We both really loved the ceremony too, it was so personal and the words were beautiful. Lorraine delivered it beautifully and lots of people have said it was their favourite part of the day.
Honeymoon
We stayed at Winterfell for a week and then had a little mini moon in Crete at a resort called Stella Island the week after. We want to honeymoon next year, but we can’t decide or agree on a destination, it’s between India and Vietnam at the moment.
Advice
Before the day you try and think of everything, you think all these little things matter, but really they don’t. You can try and be organised and plan everything to the last detail but on the day, something will go wrong, but you won’t even care! So, my advice to other Brides Up North would be to just go with the flow and don’t get too stressed over the small things.
During the wedding planning, we went to a Brides Up North wedding fair, which is where we found Chris from Showbott Entertainment. I also used the Brides Up North online directory and real weddings features for ideas.
