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Abi and Tom swapped their ‘I do’s in a summertime celebration filled with sweet and thoughtful touches.
Grab a cuppa and prepare to lose yourself in the sheer joy of Abi and Tom’s wedding day.
Happiness radiates from every single one of their photos, with the couple taking just over a year to plan their traditional-meets-relaxed July wedding. The colour scheme – blush pink with shimmering pearly twists – was inspired by a moodboard a younger Abi had made years previously and worked perfectly for the classic-yet-chilled celebration that the couple wanted to plan.
A desire to tie the knot close to home was central to the plans. The ceremony took place in the incredible Medieval-built church where the bride was christened, whilst the reception was held at the Georgian-built Tickton Grange, located in the village where the groom grew up.
Offering both a beautiful backdrop (prepare to be stunned by the outdoor portraits of the newlyweds) and oodles of accommodation for the couple’s friends and family, the venue ticked all of Abi and Tom’s boxes. Attentive staff and delicious catering were the proverbial cherry-on-top – and on the subject of food, keep your eyes peeled for the wedding cake, which was hand-crafted by the bride’s very talented mother.
Keep scrolling to see all the photos and find out more about Abi and Tom’s beautiful celebration!
With photography by Hayley Baxter
Proposal
Abi says
: We got engaged on May 19th 2018. We went for breakfast at the Star Inn The City in York and had a walk through the museum gardens before Tom surprised me by getting down on one knee!I practically ran home to call our families and tell them the good news – and walked straight into a surprise engagement party in our flat! I nearly jumped out of my skin but it was a brilliant moment.
Setting
We were married on July 6th 2019. We wanted it to be close to home so we looked at a few venues around our home town of Beverley before settling on the village Tom grew up in, Tickton.
Our wedding ceremony was held at St Mary’s Church in Beverley – I was christened there and it has a lot of good memories for the family. The reception was held at Tickton Grange. It’s a ten minute drive from the church and offered the benefits of beautiful grounds as well as plenty of rooms for our family and friends to stay in.
Tickton Grange made the organising process really easy. The venue, grounds and food were great and the staff were really helpful, making sure everything ran smoothly. We would definitely recommend it to other couples!
Theme
We didn’t stick to a particular theme; we both wanted the day to feel traditional but relaxed so that everyone, including us, could enjoy every aspect of it.
Tom gave into 13-year-old Abi’s wedding moodboard, meaning we went for a blush pink and pearl-white colour scheme throughout. The bridesmaids’ dresses, flowers, groomsmens’ ties and wedding cake all tied together.
Dress
I wore a strapless ivory A-line mikado satin gown, with a detachable off-the-shoulder lace overlay top and ivory fingertip veil. It was a little bit out of my comfort zone but I’ve always lusted after the old school glamour girls – like Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly – and I felt like a church wedding fitted well with this style of dress.
Bridesmaids
To be honest, I found it hard to find nice bridesmaid dresses – but we finally settled on full-length blush pink dresses with an off-the-shoulder frill from Oasis. The girls looked beautiful!
Our flower girl wore a dress similar to mine from Wed2B. It had a full skirt that she swished like a pro – she was a total cutie.
Beauty
My fabulous mum did mine and my sister’s hair, I did my niece’s hair and we all did our make-up ourselves. I just wanted to enjoy getting ready in the morning and still look like me on the day.
Because my wedding dress was quite a statement, I kept my hair and make-up simple. I felt really comfortable walking down the aisle.
Groomswear
Tom wore a navy three-piece suit from Marks & Spencer, which he wore with a blush pink tie and white floral buttonhole. He has a bit of an awkward waist-to-thigh ratio so he ended up having more alterations than me!
All the boys wore the same as Tom: navy suit, blush tie and white floral buttonholes. They all looked very dapper.
Transport
Tom surprised me with a 1952 Bentley Freestone & Webb, hired from Superior Motors near Pocklington.
It was a beautiful car inside and out, and Ken the driver was so lovely. He totally put me at ease on the way to the church and I really enjoyed the moment. I would highly recommend!
Photography
Our photographer was Hayley Baxter. She was recommended to me and after looking through her Instagram (@hbaxterphotography), Tom and I got in touch straight away. Her style was exactly what we were looking for: her couples looked like they were having fun and were completely in the moment.
Hayley was lovely in person and made Tom and I feel at ease. She captured some brilliant moments of the day, from stunning dramatic shots in the church to beautiful moments at the reception venue (and didn’t steal us away for too long for our couple portraits!). She also caught some great shots of our family and friends, that we love – all in all, she has given us some amazing memories to keep forever.
We would definitely recommend Hayley to anyone. She was a complete pro and took the time to get to know us and what we wanted from our wedding photos. They turned out better than we imagined!
Styling
Our wedding florist was Daisy Chain Flowers in Skirlaugh. When it came to the flowers, I was pretty clueless. I scrolled through Instagram to get some inspiration and Rachael at Daisy Chain was so helpful.
I am terrible with names of flowers but I think the majority of the bouquets and table centres featured different types of roses with eucalyptus foliage. Daisy Chain delivered the flowers to the venue and arranged them for us so it was really convenient and they looked stunning.
Favours
We gave our guests pink heart-shaped chocolates in a pearl-white gift bag. There were so many favour options available and we struggled to decide what to go for but we decided that a sweet treat is always appreciated.
Cake
My amazing mum made our wedding cake. It was a traditional boozy fruitcake with white icing and a pearl trim. It looked beautiful and tasted delicious!
Catering
For the wedding breakfast, we had a three-course set menu. To start, we had chicken liver paté with a Waldorf salad and brioche toast. For the main, we ate chicken breast with a lemon and spring onion cream sauce, served with seasonal vegetables. The dessert was sticky toffee pudding and vanilla ice-cream.
Tickton Grange gave us loads of options when it came to the food menu and we chose some of our favourite dishes.
Entertainment
As soon as we started wedding planning, I knew I wanted a magician. Rich Reynolds was recommended to us and he was an excellent addition to the day. The guests loved him, his tricks were amazing and he was a lovely guy, too.
Best bit
The wedding ceremony was our favourite part of the day. It went so quickly and felt so special to have all of our family and friends around us. We can’t stop looking back at the photographs of the moment we became Mr and Mrs!
I love fireworks and we thought it would be so great to end the day with a bang! Tom’s dad arranged them for us and they were incredible – definitely another highlight of the day
Honeymoon
We went to Mexico for our honeymoon a few days after the wedding. It was unbelievable and kept us in the wedding bubble for a little bit longer!
Advice
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Remember what the day is about – and have fun!