Real Weddings

Suzanne Neville for a classic wedding at Denton Hall – Georgia & Ian

Sarah Symonds

Today’s couple, Georgia and Ian, chose to keep things simple and let the beautiful Yorkshire countryside set the scene for their glorious big day.

From Indianapolis to Yorkshire, and then on to Italy, Georgia and Ian’s love story takes us around the globe as they planned and celebrated their marriage.

With a focus on food, wine and the stunning, picturesque location of Denton Hall in North Yorkshire, the couple chose to complement the venue with pops of pretty pastels and lots of sage green foliage. Between the cute flower girl floral crowns, natural floral garlands and heaps of eucalyptus, we think the details added up to a perfect British September wedding.

With images by Lloyd Clarke Photography

Proposal

Georgia says

: We got engaged on 27th May 2016. We were living in Indianapolis in the US at the time for Ian’s job. I was completely surprised by his proposal as we had talked about marriage but I always thought he would wait to propose when we returned to live back home, as we knew we wanted our wedding to be there with all of our family and friends close by.

When it happened he had phoned me at work on the Thursday and said “We’re going away for the weekend tomorrow. The destination is a surprise but you need to be ready at 10am!” The next day we went to a beautiful place called Lake Lemon, which was a couple of hours drive from where we were living at the time. We stayed at a lovely log cabin which had its own lake. There was a little rowing boat on the lake and Ian suggested that we row over to the other side where there was a bench so that we could have a drink there and watch the sunset.

At this point I did start to wonder what was going on! I convinced myself that surely he wasn’t going to propose, but I could sense that he was a little on edge and nervous which is very unlike him! We sat and chatted there for a while and then he told me that he had a surprise for me, and that I had to close my eyes and promise not to open them until he said so! And then there he was, on one knee with a very pretty ring, asking me to marry him. It was really lovely and we both had a little cry. Then on the way back across the lake he had to tell me to stop waving my hand around (I was very excited looking at my shiny new ring) because the ring was a little bit too big and he said he could picture me flinging it into the water, never to be found again!

Setting

Or wedding date was the 15th September 2018 and we got married at Denton Hall, in North Yorkshire. We chose September because we somehow thought that it was a good month for weather. It seems to be quite mild and not too rainy in September, but of course, getting married in Yorkshire we knew there was always a chance of rain, no matter which day of the year we chose!

We knew we wanted a venue that was close to home, and when we went to look around it we both fell in love with it straight away. It seemed too easy to go with the very first place we had looked at, but we both knew deep down it was perfect for what we wanted.

One of the reasons we loved Denton Hall was that we didn’t have to travel in cars or by bus from the church to the venue, as it was just a short walk down the road from one to the other. It was lovely to get ready just around the corner and then we just had the short walk up to the church. Then after the ceremony we all walked together to the Hall which was really nice. Thankfully the rain stayed away and the sun was shining for us!

Theme

There was no special theme to our day, but I would say that my style is very simple and classic, and I wanted this to reflect in the styling of our day.

We chose sage green for our colour scheme and brought in some blush pink with the flowers to add a bit more colour. I love pastel colours and didn’t want to have anything too bold. I liked the sage green for the time of year we chose to have our wedding. We love to spend time walking in the lovely Yorkshire countryside and I felt that the green reflected the rolling green hills we have around here.

Dress

I chose a Suzanne Neville dress which I got from The Bridal Collection in Harrogate. I know lots of brides seem to have the same experience but I was so surprised with what I chose, as I always thought I would go for something slim fitting rather than a full skirt. When I put on this dress though I just fell in love with it straight away and knew it was the one. One of my best friends said “this is the only day of your life when you can wear a dress like this!”

Victoria Whiteley designed our wedding jewellery. I was unsure what I wanted to go for as I’m not used to wearing anything other than my very plain pearl earrings! Ian’s mum had kindly given us her mother’s eternity ring, so we spoke to Victoria to ask if there was anyway of adapting the ring to create my wedding band. In the end she came up with a design which would use the diamonds from Ian’s grandmother’s ring to create a pair of beautiful earrings for me to wear on the day, and I haven’t taken them out since. I then had a very delicate wedding band made with lots of very tiny diamonds.

Groomsmen

Ian had kept it as a surprise from me what he and the groomsmen were going to wear, so I had no idea what I would be walking into the church to find on the day! He knew he had to keep the colours fairly neutral, and I have to say, I think all the men in our family and his best friends would agree that choosing the suits was much harder work than us girls finding our outfits! In the end they went to Whitfield & Ward in Wilmslow and Ian chose a very classic suit with a waistcoat and tails. I thought all the groomsmen looked very smart and Ian’s choice tied in perfectly with the theme of our day.

Bridesmaids

The bridesmaids dresses were Ghost purchased from Lovebird Bridal Boutique in Ilkley. I wanted the girls to have dresses they felt comfortable in and I love the idea of them having different styles to suit each of them. We loved the Ghost dresses and the material felt so lovely – the way they draped was just gorgeous!

Photographer

We chose Bethany Clarke as our photographer and we couldn’t have been more delighted with the service she offered. From our engagement shoot to our wedding day, she made it all feel so easy and comfortable. We were both a bit apprehensive about having our photos taken and feel a bit shy when it comes to that kind of thing, but Bethany and Matthew made us feel very at ease. We couldn’t have been happier with the photos. When we first looked through them we felt like we had relived our special day all over again.

Styling

All the flowers were provided by Michele Smithson from The Hidden Flower Den. Michele runs her business from the village post office in Eldwick, which is where Ian grew up. We chose to decorate the church lychgate with a floral garland to match our bouquets, and we had a large arrangement on the entrance table at the drinks reception.

I carried David Austin Juliet Roses, White Garden Roses, Ivory Spray Roses and Eucalyptus in my bouquet.

My favourite part of the flowers that Michele did for us were the little flower crowns worn by the flower girls.

Favours

We went round and round talking about options for favours, and in the end we decided to leave them out and instead we decorated each place setting at the table with a single sprig of eucalyptus to match the flower arrangements.

Cake

For our wedding cake we chose a traditional fruit cake and it was made my Ian’s mum’s good friend, Liz Brumfit. We chose a simple ivory design with sugar flowers.

Dining

To start we had potted smoked salmon mousse with a cucumber fennel pickle and toasted brioche, followed by confit duck leg, and then treacle tart with clotted cream ice cream for dessert. I had to go and loosen the corset inside my dress half way through my main course! The food was absolutely delicious and well worth that!

When we went to taste the food and wine we tried a lovely Primitivo. Whilst living in the US we spent two years in San Francisco, and were close to Napa and Sonoma Valley which was a favourite place to visit on a weekend. We loved drinking Zinfandel there and Ian had researched wines and found that Primitivo was a similar grape to Zinfandel and, as Primitivo was Italian and Italy was our first holiday together, we felt that was a nice connection!

Entertainment

We knew we wanted live music and we chose a band called The Chequered Band. My dad is very much into his music and plays in a band himself, so we gave him the task of choosing the entertainment. He had seen them at a wedding he’d been to and he thought they were fab, so we trusted his judgement. They were absolutely amazing and we had such a fun evening dancing away!

Thanks to

We would absolutely recommend Denton Hall. Brooke, Steve and the rest of the staff were just wonderful. We couldn’t have asked for more from them and everything about the venue was just perfect. The setting, the beautiful environment and the way the hall is decorated and laid out is so lovely. We loved that lots of our guests were able to stay over at the venue too. It made it even more special waking up the next morning and having breakfast together, sharing tales from the day before. We are also so grateful to Rena, Rebecca, Michelle and all of the staff from Boxtree Events. From start to finish they were on hand to tell us where we needed to be and what needed to happen and when, and it made the day feel so stress-free so that we could just relax and enjoy every minute.

Best bit

This is so difficult to choose! For me I would say the getting ready in the morning with my wonderful bridesmaids and my mum. It was such a lovely and emotional time and just felt so full of excitement for the day ahead. The speeches were also a very special part for me.

Ian said his favourite part was seeing my happy face as I came into the church, and the first dance. Looking around and seeing all our friends and family around us was so nice.

Honeymoon

We went to Italy on honeymoon, and travelled from Lake Como to the Amalfi Coast in an open top car. It was so much fun! Our first holiday together was to Lake Como and I always said to Ian that was my favourite holiday I’ve ever been on. I just have such lovely memories from it. We also didn’t want to travel too far as we had been to America and back quite a lot over the few years that we were living there. We spent two nights in Como and then drove to Tuscany, where we had four nights, and then on to Rome for two nights ending with the last four nights in a quiet hotel on the Amalfi Coast. It was just beautiful and the perfect mix of exploring and relaxation.

Advice

I feel like lots of people give this piece of advice, and I was really glad we were told it. And so my top tip for other Brides Up North would be take time on your special day to just step back for a moment and soak it all up, and just to look around and see all of your special friends and family together celebrating. It’s such a wonderful and magical thing, and it just flies by in the blink of an eye so you want to try and slow it down and drink in every moment!

this is a sponsored post

Contact Loved Up North for details of our sponsorship packages and feature opportunities.

Contact us to be featured on Loved Up North