Rebecca and Tom couldn’t wait to tie the knot in a beautiful church ceremony in Rebecca’s hometown, before heading over to stunning Mitton Hall to celebrate with their friends and family.
Think lots of navy and white, classic cars and plenty of pretty yet traditional floral arrangements setting the tone for the day.
There is a focus on the bride’s love of minimalism, but we’ll also hear about how they livened things up by giving their guests free reign with Polaroid cameras, serving up some fun pick ’n’ mix and having their own beer named especially for the occasion. Not to mention the perils of hiring a bouncy castle with the unpredictable British weather to consider! They followed it all up with the most fabulous honeymoon around Dubai and Asia, which you’ll definitely want to hear about if you’re thinking of planning a similar trip. Needless to say there’s lots to cover so let’s find out more!
With images by Nik Bryant Photography
Proposal
Rebecca says
: We got engaged on the 2nd September 2016 in Duquesa, in Spain. Thomas proposed at a lighthouse on the beach one evening while we were on our first family holiday.Setting
Our wedding was on the 21st September 2018 at St Lawrence’s Church, Longridge, and the reception was at Mitton Hall, Whalley.
We wanted to get married quite quickly. Waiting wasn’t an option for me as I just couldn’t wait to marry Tom! We asked the venue for available dates in 2018 and were offered two dates, June 22nd and September 21st but we wanted a little more time to plan, so September it was.
St Lawrence’s Church is in my hometown and is where a close family member was buried. As soon as a church wedding was decided on, we knew it had to be there. We totally fell in love with Mitton Hall for the reception at first sight. It’s a country manor with lovely light rooms, and we felt the warmth and friendly welcome as soon as we entered. We couldn’t imagine our wedding anywhere else. It was perfect.
Theme
I wanted the wedding to be quite minimalistic, but classy. We didn’t really have a theme, but all of the flowers were white, while the invites were navy blue and we had navy bridesmaids dresses. Lace was incorporated into almost everything too – my dress, the bridesmaids’ dresses, the flowers, the seat covers, the invites etc.
To be honest, navy blue was only chosen as our main colour when we went to pick the bridesmaid dresses. Having three bridesmaids, with three different skin types and hair colour, meant that some dusky colours washed them out. navy just suited them all better than any other colour. From there navy became our key colour.
Dress
My dress was just magical. I knew what I wanted but I didn’t know I would find it on my first day of dress shopping. The designer was Blue by Enzoani, purchased from Lulu Browns in Whalley. Even trying it on in a much bigger size, the dress was just perfect. It had beautiful lace detail going into a sweetheart back, with a nice medium length train. It was tight but not so tight that I couldn’t walk and had a high neckline. This was important to me as I didn’t want my boobs on show! I just fell in love with it as soon as I put it on.
Groomsmen
Tom wore a three-piece suit with tails from Whitfield and Ward. It was a navy blue jacket paired with grey suit trousers and matching waistcoat.
The groomsmen wore the same as the groom but with navy trousers instead of grey. Our son Cian was page boy and he looked absolutely adorable. He had a matching suit which we bought separately through Roco Clothing, but Whitford and Ward supplied us with a hired waistcoat and bow tie.
Bridesmaids
My maid of honour and two bridesmaids wore navy dresses from Amelia’s based in Clitheroe. The two flower girls wore cream dresses from Next, which my friend decorated with navy sequins.
Beauty
Our makeup was done on the day by Abbey Holt at Halycon Days based in Longridge, and our hair was done by Rheannah Miller at Matrix Salon in Preston.
Transport
My dad and I travelled in a 1930’s style Beauford Tourer in cream and navy, hired from Broughton Wedding Cars.
The bridesmaids and mother of the bride travelled in VW Campervan in Tiffany Blue hired through Coach House Limousines.
Photographer
Our photographer was Nik Bryant. I would highly recommend Nik, he was fantastic. We felt at ease after meeting him for a pre-wedding photo shoot where he captured us with our little boy too. Having the pre-wedding shoot made having photos taken on the wedding day a lot more comfortable. He made us laugh and created some perfect snaps of the big day.
Videographer
Our videographer was Sooze from Applewood Videography. She was fantastic and we would highly recommend her too. Sooze captured our favourite parts of the day in a perfect film which we will treasure forever. It was brilliantly edited, with snippets of the speech captured and played throughout.
Styling
For flowers we used Flowers With Passion of Longridge. We had flowers on all tables at the reception, on my wedding cake, over the gate at the church, and in lots of lovely pretty floral arrangements, none of which went to waste. Those from the church were transferred to the venue and then any left over the next day were distributed to lost one’s graves or to family member’s homes. Some were dried out for keepsakes too.
I carried a traditional trailing bouquet of gypsophila, roses, lilies and foliage.
We also used Creative Cover Hire for our chair sashes and had two beautiful hanging trees either side of the top table.
We also used Let Love Sparkle Design for our invites, table plan and welcome board. Katie was amazing throughout. We met up, talked through what we wanted, and everything was just as planned!
Cake
I originally didn’t want a traditional wedding cake, I wanted tiers of cheese instead, but as it got closer to the day, my arm was twisted and we had a really plain, lace detail, two tier fruit cake. It was made by Lathams of Broughton. I also had over two hundred cupcakes made by a friend Jennifer Wright.
Favours
We decided not to give favours, I believe that they can be a waste of time as half of your guests end up leaving them on the table! We did however have a big pick ’n’ mix stand open all day and evening for guests to help themselves.
Dining
We were lucky that we could offer our guests a choice of menu. Our guests had the choice of leek and potato potage, Caprese salad or pork shoulder followed by beef, chickenor lamb. Dessert was either sticky toffee pudding or white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake. We had bottles of Merlot, Chardonnay and Grenache Rosé on the tables too.
We sourced our cheese, biscuits and chutneys through Little Town Dairy at Thornley. They took back all of the unopened boxes and jars for us and only charged us for those we actually used. She is my best friend though, so we did get special treatment! But she’s a fantastic and organised supplier nonetheless!
Entertainment
We had the most amazing singer in Lucy Hopkins of BB Entertainment. She sang A Thousand Years by Christina Perri at the church as I was walking down the aisle and then Amazing Grace and a couple of other songs whilst the register was being signed. She then sang PS I Love You by The Pogues. We also had her perform two sets at the venue – one during welcome drinks then another set as we started our meal. Everyone was amazed by her. She created a really nice link from the meal into the evening reception by bringing most of our guests to their feet for her final song – Florence and the Machine’s You Got The Love.
Special touches
We had a polaroid camera display, encouraging guests to take their name and replace it with a polaroid picture of themselves. We had this set up for our day guests and then put out a guest book for the evening guests but kept the camera out too. In our opinion, this was so successful and only two guests from the day missed the camera.
We had the photos from our pre-wedding photoshoot projected onto the wall behind us while we danced our first dance. This meant all of the pressure and attention was not on us dancing as people were also looking at those pictures.
I also had a memory candle burning for my late brother and we had frames with little sayings in, such as “We dedicate today to our parents, who show us daily it is possible”. We’re lucky that both our parents are still happily married and have been for more than 30 years each!
We even had our own beer pump tag made for the day! It was called ‘Spreighty’ which is a mix of our surnames, Wright and Speight.
We had a white bouncy castle planned but due to the weather we cancelled it a few days before. Such as shame as this would’ve given us some amazing pictures. Nevermind!
Thanks to
Mitton Hall were fantastic from day dot and we would definitely recommend them to other couples. All of my stressed questions were answered in a timely manner and they really made me feel at ease as I was going through all of the details. I was super organised so I was covering every little detail and question I could think of! They were definitely put on the spot! They set up the venue on the day exactly as we asked and it was completely perfect. The team were amazing.
Best bit
I think the speeches were the best bit. Being sat in front of all our guests, seeing their reactions, and all of the emotions we went through in an hour, from tears and belly laughing to raising glasses for loved ones and celebrating the best day of our lives so far. (Apart from the birth of our little boy in 2016 of course!)
Honeymoon
We have only just got back! We waited until the places we wanted to visit weren’t in their rainy season, and to be honest, with hindsight waiting five months to go was the best move. It meant that when the wedding blues set in, we had the honeymoon to keep us going.
We went to Dubai for two nights, Singapore for three nights then to Bali for five nights in Ubud and four in Seminyak. We booked this through Kuoni as I wasn’t up to planning a honeymoon myself after having planned a whole wedding!
In Dubai we stayed at the Hotel Grand Hyatt which was incredible. We visited the Dubai Mall, the Burj Khalifa, the Seafire Steakhouse at Atlantis, The Palm, the aquarium, and the fountains by day and night.
In Singapore the Hotel Jen Orchard Gateway was amazing. Another city ticked of the bucket list. We went to the Marina Bay Sands which was absolutely incredible, and the Gardens by the Bay are a must-see if you visit.
Then the Ubud Village Resort & Spa is the ultimate Bali experience. It was fantastic! You have your own private villa complete with a four-poster bed, your own pool, an outdoor bathtub. We hired a tour guide for a day and he showed us the best of Bali; temples, water falls, coffee plantations, rice fields – the sites were out of this world. We did however get a few days of rain so if you fancy going too, I suggest you go a little later than the start of April. Maybe May/June time instead for full sunshine.
In Seminyak, the Alila hotel is the ultimate chill-out-party side of Bali. We would recommend it to anyone. It was so luxurious and we were upgraded on arrival to the Deluxe Beach View Suite. Waking up to the sound of the waves crashing every morning was incredible. Finn’s Beach Club offered us VIP sunbeds and constant food and drink service throughout the day. The food places in Bali are fantastic and there’s such a variety of cuisines. Our favourite restaurants were The Junction House for lunch, and for dinner Bamboo. It’s safe to say we would go back tomorrow if we didn’t have day-to-day life to address!
Advice
My top tip for other Brides Up North would be not to let the finer details get you too stressed. If they go wrong on the day, your guests won’t even notice!