Real Weddings

Real Wedding Recap 2019: Watters for a rustic barn wedding at Deighton Lodge – Hannah & Tom

Alexis Forsyth

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 6th January 2020 but in the meantime watch out for recaps of some of our favourite Real Weddings from the latter half of 2019. 

Drop in every day for the very prettiest, most unique wedding inspiration and – if you are a Brides Up North bride – to see if your real wedding was one of our top picks.

Country feels abound in today’s real wedding, set at the mesmerising Deighton Lodge near York – a barn venue characterised by copper lights, brickwork and beams for a rustic backdrop that’s to die for. It’s no surprise that it topped Hannah and Tom’s wish list.

Keen to make their day wholly unique, there was a nod or two to Harry Potter, with milk churns, jars and bunting all adding to those kitsch barn feels. As for the cornflower blue and peach colour scheme – the bride had her heart set on this palette from the outset, purchasing her bridesmaids’ dresses a whole year before the big day!

As well as a DIY photo booth (gold frames and ropes at the ready) our personal highlight has got to be the couple’s Polaroid seating plan, featuring images of all their guests over the years – a creative and nostalgic take on this wedding day staple. Inspired yet? Here’s Hannah to delve into all the finer details!

With images by The Vedrines Photography

Proposal

Hannah says

: We got engaged in June 2017. Tom took me back to Cornwall where we’d met ten years previously. He got down on one knee on our favourite beach, it started to rain so we celebrated with a cup of tea – it was perfect!

Setting

We got married on Saturday 11th May 2019. We both wanted a spring wedding with the hope of good weather and luckily that came true on the day!

We got married at All Saints Church in Bolton Percy, and our reception was at Deighton Lodge, both located just outside of York. Having recently moved to York we were both keen for a church ceremony with a laid-back reception. As soon as we saw All Saints Church, we knew it was perfect – it is a beautiful historic church with lots of charm.

Having viewed several barn venues, Deighton Lodge had the wow factor for us! The copper lights, brickwork and beams all added to its rustic country feel. We loved the features in the barn and beautiful garden but what made it perfect for us was that we could add our own decorative touches which made it unique for our special day!

Theme

We had a rustic laidback feel for the wedding. We had a few nods to Harry Potter such as the ‘golden snitch’ pudding at our wedding breakfast. All the guests were very excited by it and it added a fun element of surprise to the meal!

Our colour scheme was peach and cornflower blue. I used Pinterest to help choose our colour palette. The pastel shades perfectly complemented our rustic feel and relaxed vibe.

Dress

My dress was the Leonora by Watters. Having tried several dresses on in York, I felt pretty deflated not finding any I liked. Researching online, I decided to book into The White Yard at Elsecar, as I liked a lot of the styles on their website. As soon as I put on the dress, I knew it was the one, as it just felt right. That and the tears from my sisters and mum, who were there to support me.

Groomsmen

Tom wore a navy suit with a grey tweed waistcoat and Liberty blue floral tie with matching pocket square. He hired it from Peter Posh in Warwickshire near where he grew up.

The groomsman wore the same as navy suit as Tom – however they had a blue tweed waistcoat for contrast, which looked great on the line up photos.

Bridesmaids

I bought the bridesmaids dresses from Hobbs a year before the wedding. I wanted full length dresses and as soon as I saw the cornflower blue, I knew they were perfect. All my bridesmaids loved them (or so they told me!) and they all looked stunning on the day. My niece was a flower girl and she wore a white dress adorned with peach flowers from Next. She looked very cute!

Beauty

By Marci did all of our hair and my makeup on the day. The first artist I booked had to cancel last minute, which was a bit stressful, but Marci stepped in with little notice! Marci was brilliant! My hair and makeup looked fantastic and stayed put all day!

Transport

I travelled to the church with my dad in a vintage white Jaguar MK2 hired from Limelight Wedding Cars. It was a beautiful car which made the experience even more special. Tom and I travelled back to the venue in the same car – it was a brilliant first journey as newlyweds as we were treated to champagne and got plenty of beeps on the dual carriage way when we were overtaken by our wedding guests! We also organised a surprise vintage VW campervan also from Limelight Wedding Cars for the bridesmaids to travel in, which they loved!

Photographer

The Vedrines captured our day. We were so lucky as we actually won their services in a competition they ran on Instagram having taken the photos at a friend’s wedding.

We did a pre-wedding shoot to meet Tina and Izzy which I would really recommend as we really got to know them, and it helped us to relax on the big day.

We couldn’t have asked for better photographers – as soon as we met Tina and Izzy we felt so relaxed in their company and you can tell they really want to get to know the couples they work with, which makes you feel so valued. They have managed to capture every special moment of our day with such artistic flair – they are such a talented pair!

Videographer

Having seen a lot of friends’ wedding videos we knew we wanted our own video to capture all those moments you forget on the day! We used James Wray Weddings who was brill! I was worried about feeling conscious I was constantly on camera but James was brilliant at blending into the background, you completely forgot he was there!

Styling

My beautiful bouquet was from Laura at Mint & Moose. I wanted a medium sized bouquet with a rustic feel (and not too heavy!) and I showed Laura lots of pictures on Pinterest of what I was thinking. The final result was better than I imagined, she absolutely nailed it!

Mint & Moose provided all the flowers for our wedding. We had simple bunches of gypsophila on our pew ends and a feature milk churn arrangement for outside the church and then at our venue. Laura, our florist, was fantastic and such a perfectionist! The flowers were stunning and really added to the rustic feel of our day.

We had brown trestle tables with a homemade white runner and a mixture of blue and clear jars with collections of flowers running down the tables. We also decorated the outside of the barn with homemade bunting. It’s helpful having a crafty mum!

Favours

We are both big kids and love pic n mix so we did little blue striped bags for everyone sealed with a personalised ‘H & T’ wedding sticker!

Cake

We had a five-tier Victoria sponge cake from Waitrose, which we topped with a Mr & Mrs sign from Ginger Ray and our florist decorated it with a beautiful arrangement on the day.

Dining

We are both total foodies and wanted good food to be a big part of our wedding. As we had long trestle tables, we liked the idea of sharing boards to help guests interact and make the meal less formal. Our caterers were The Hog & Apple Food Co who were fantastic. We had an antipasti board for starter, barbecue meats with sides of slaw, mac cheese and chips for main, and a special ‘The Golden Snitch’ Harry Potter themed pudding which was a chocolate sphere with treats inside!

As our venue had no corkage fee, we chose our own wine and bulk ordered from Tesco. We had fun wine tasting to choose our favourites.

Entertainment

We both love live music so wanted it running throughout the day. Darren Jones created the perfect ambience at the church and reception drinks with acoustic guitar sets.

Mad About Tomorrow were our wedding band and they were awesome! They did a great variety of songs which got everyone on the dance floor the whole night long – from my four-year-old nephew to Tom’s 84-year-old nanna.

Special touches

We created our own DIY photo booth by hanging a gold frame from a beam in the barn with rope. We provided a basket of props and an Instax camera for people to snap away. It worked brilliantly and we ended up with a hilarious collection of Polaroid films which are now stuck into our guest book.

We made a Polaroid seating plan displayed in a large ornate gold frame. Each guest had their own Polaroid picture that had been taken over the years with me or Tom, which on the back revealed which table they were on. It was a great way of sharing memories with our guests and a talking point when they got to the table.

Around our wedding cake we displayed wedding photos of our parents and grandparents. Family is so important to both of us and this was a lovely way to represent this.

Luckily Tom’s sister, Rosannah is a talented designer. We rinsed her artistic ability to create all of our wedding stationery including our order of service, menus and invites which we printed via printed.com.

Thanks to

If you are looking for a relaxed venue which you can put your own special stamp on, then Deighton Lodge is perfect! Carla the owner is so laid back. She was on hand to help if needed, but happy to let you do our own thing which for us was the perfect balance.

We also loved staying in the large house right next to the barn which meant we could extend the wedding celebrations by having all our family stay on site and help with the buildup, decorating and reminiscing the following day. This made the wedding period even more special and both our families loved staying in the beautiful house.

Best bit

I absolutely loved the marriage ceremony. It was the part I was most anxious about before the wedding as I was worried about the formality of it, but it was so perfect and felt so special! It was such an amazing feeling to know that everybody was there for the both of us.

Honeymoon

We booked our honeymoon through Flight Centre which I would definitely recommend as it was one less thing to have to plan! We went to Mauritius for five nights of all-inclusive luxury, followed by a couple of nights in Cape Town and finishing with a safari at Sanbona Game Reserve. It was perfect having the chill out time to reminisce about the wedding followed by the fun exciting adventures and activities we’d never experienced before!

Advice

My top tip for other Brides Up North would be – lists, lists, lists! I wouldn’t have been able to plan a wedding without my to-do lists! Buy yourself a nice notebook and pen and keep it in your handbag – you never know when you have a few spare minutes to tick off a job!

Inspiration from real weddings on Brides Up North was very useful too; it’s always great to pinch fab ideas for your own special day!

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