It’s a hole-in-one for today’s lovely couple! We’re bringing you a bright and light summer’s day complete with wedding mini golf, a selfie mirror, a tower of doughnuts, and a whole lot of wine and good times!
Think rustic barn, endless fields and glorious blue skies as Lucy and Liam tie the knot at the height of the Northern summer. And, of course, it’s peonies-a-plenty at just the right time of year! If you’re currently planning your big day and aiming for an outdoor summer ceremony in the sunshine, you might want to soak this one up ladies!
Our couple have made sure to throw in some personal touches too. But, from a subtle Game of Thrones theme on the tables to little nods to the groom’s love of Manchester United, it’s all been kept elegant and classy. The palette of silver, grey and white makes sure everything is pretty and fresh at this midsummer celebration. And Lucy’s utterly bespoke cathedral length veil of dreams is sheer perfection. Proof that if you have a vision in mind, there’s a way to make it a reality!
With photography by Kate McCarthy
Engagement
We got engaged in December 2017. Liam completely surprised me the night before we went to New York. Safe to say it was the best Christmas ever!
Setting
We got married on July 13th 2019 at Stock Farm Wedding and Events Barn. We were able to have our ceremony outside in the gardens and our reception was held in the barn.
From the word go we knew we had an eight week window in summer 2019, because Liam is huge Manchester United fan. He goes to every game and so it made sense to time our wedding during the summer break for the football. I just really wanted a warm sunny day and to have everyone outside enjoying drinks in the sunshine.
At the very beginning of planning our wedding, we made a list of things we wanted. The two most important things that we didn’t want to compromise on were having the dogs included in our plans and being able to stay over and make it more of a weekend event for our friends and family. It was surprisingly difficult to find this! We searched the whole North West and spent weeks viewing venues, and then one Saturday I was going to a wedding show with my friends and noticed a new venue nearby was having an open day.
When we viewed Stock Farm they hadn’t even held a wedding at that point. The venue had no toilets or kitchen and was very much a work in progress. We had no images of previous weddings to go off, but I loved it so much that I went back the next day with Liam and our dog Trudy. I think within 30 minutes of us looking around it together, we had our wedding booked.
Theme
We didn’t actually pick a theme. The venue was so beautiful that we just wanted things that complimented Stock Farm. I think the day became a complete mish mash of all the things we loved. It was amazing to see it all come together, and the credit goes to the suppliers we used because they all totally went above and beyond to make our wedding amazing.
We did have a Game of Thrones themed table plan, because we’re huge fans! Liam also couldn’t resist including some of his love for Manchester United and we walked into our reception to Stone Roses – “This Is The One”. We also created a wedding meal playlist of all the songs we loved and it ended up being a real mix of all different types of music!
Our colour scheme for the bridesmaids and groomsmen was silver and grey. We thought it felt really fresh for summer and complimented the flower colour scheme too, which was lots of white and greenery.
Dress
My dress was from The White Gallery in Ramsbottom, by Art Couture Bridal, and my veil was custom made by The White Gallery. It was a cathedral length and The White Gallery sourced the lace from Art Couture so that it matched my dress perfectly.
The White Gallery actually picked out the dress for me; it wasn’t a style I had even considered before trying on dresses. But I knew it was exactly what I wanted to wear once I had it on. I actually had more difficulty finding a veil! I knew I wanted a cathedral length veil with a bold lace edging and The White Gallery searched high and low for what I had in my head, but it just didn’t seem to exist! So they had the lace from the bottom of my dress put onto a cathedral length veil. I loved it so much, I wore it all day and night!
For my shoes, I dreamt of having a pair of Sophia Webster heels and my fabulous bridesmaids surprised me with a pair they had bought me as a wedding gift!
Groomsmen
Liam wore a navy three piece suit from Marc Darcy and we bought all the groomsmen the same suit too. Liam also picked out a pair of red soles from Christian Louboutin – a nod to his love of Manchester United!
Bridesmaids
The bridesmaids wore dresses from the Oasis bridesmaid collection and our flower girl had a custom-made dress from a small independent store on Etsy.
Beauty
We had our hair done by Vicky M Hair and makeup by Jenna from Glow Bridal. It was lovely to be pampered!
Travel
We stayed the night before at Stock Farm, and Liam stayed at Birkin Cottage, just a minute down the road, so we didn’t need any transport on the day.
Photographer
Kate McCarthy captured our day. From the moment we spoke to Kate we both agreed she was perfect. We just got on with her so well and her previous work was everything we wanted for our own wedding photography. I’m so glad we picked her; she had us all in stitches all day and she really goes all out to get the best shots! Most of the time we didn’t know she was taking pictures, which was great because it just wasn’t awkward at all.
Videographer
We picked Sam Newton from NLV to film our day. I think I watch our wedding film everyday! We didn’t know what to expect, so we just let Sam run wild creatively and it was the best decision because he created something we will treasure forever.
Styling
Our wedding flowers were by Sassflower. We opted for white roses and peonies with lots of greenery. Sassflower also created the most stunning archway for the end of our aisle.
Our reception centrepieces were supplied by Thornton Events. We had white blossom tree centrepieces. Base decorations of moss and floating candles were supplied by Precious Things. Love letters were provided by Busy Lizzie Florist. We visited a few of the Brides Up North wedding fairs, including one at our venue. The BUN supplier directory was also really helpful.
Favours
We had handmade wooden place settings made. We then painted all 90 of them ourselves before an artist we know, Myro Doodles, decorated each and every one of them, alongside our table plan and all of the other signage we had on the day.
We also put out little chocolate coins stating “for richer for poorer”. We just saw these and added them in at the last minute. Liam has his own business specialising in wealth management so we laughed when we saw them and had to get them.
Cake
We opted for a semi-naked cake made by Cheshire Cakes with decorations provided by Sassflower.
Dining
The food and wine were so important to us. When I visited Stock Farm on the open day I met Chris from Flaming Gourmand and we loved his idea of a Brazilian banquet. We didn’t even speak to any other caterers, we just knew it had to be Flaming Gourmand and they did not disappoint – the food was amazing!
We opted for canapes at our drinks reception, before going straight into the main course. Flaming Gourmand actually brought round a selection of barbequed meats that were hand-carved at the table. For the dessert, Flaming Gourmand served the wedding cake to our guests before setting up a kebab station in the evening.
The wine was sourced by Anna Moss of Basil and Lily. Basil and Lily is one of our favourite bars and we loved being able to serve our guests wine that we loved. The red wine was Colomba Bianca, Kore and Nero D’Avola and the white wine was Colomba Bianca, Vitesse and Zibibbo. We found out after we had picked, that Zibibbo is the Sicilian wine of love so it seemed so fitting to serve this at our wedding!
Entertainment
For the entertainment we opted for string quartet in the day and wedding-themed mini golf. The mini golf was selected because Liam loves golf, it was a lot of fun!
In the evening we had a selfie mirror and DJ provided by Hipswing.
Thanks to
We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Stock Farm to another couple because they let us create the day we wanted, and I don’t think they said no to a single request. We loved being given free reign over the catering, drinks and decorations etc. It allowed us to create the day we really wanted. I’m sure that doing things this way is much more difficult than purchasing a package deal at a venue but, on the day, it was so worth it. It was magical to watch 18 months of planning come together.
Best bit
It’s so difficult to pick one! For me it was getting ready in the morning. It was so relaxed and I spent the whole morning laughing and drinking champagne with my bridesmaids. I also vividly remember both me and Liam looking around at the drinks reception and just thinking wow and marvelling at how it had all come together. Seeing everyone enjoying themselves was great.
Liam said when he looked back down the aisle and saw what an amazing dress I’d chosen! He says he will forever remember that moment because I looked stunning. Our other special memory was enjoying the amazing food cooked by Flaming Gourmand. We could see that the guests really enjoyed it and they’d not seen this at other weddings. It was a bit of table theatre.
Honeymoon
I think we knew what we wanted for a honeymoon before we had even booked a venue! We went to Santorini for a week, just a few days after the wedding, and stayed in the honeymoon suite at Dana Villas. We had our own private pool which you could enter through the room itself. It really had the wow factor.
Advice
Our top tip for another couple would be to book really good suppliers and then just leave them to do what they do best. I don’t think it needs to be stressful if you’re able to just leave them to be creative.