A beautiful wash of sky-blue, pale pink and white, Laura and Paul’s North East celebrations were all about the elegance.
Choosing the fine setting of Matfen Hall for both their ceremony and reception, bride Laura instantly fell in love with the grand staircase, which would make for an impressive big day entrance.
With beautiful flowers high up on their wedding must-have list, the venue was decked out in romantic trailing trees and plentiful floral arrangements which reflected their pretty colour palette, as did their stunning four-tier bespoke cake.
And to further wow their guests, the couple arranged for a surprise firework finale lighting up the night’s sky above Matfen’s grounds for a magical and memorable end to the evening.
With images by Forget Me Knot Images
PROPOSAL
Laura says: We got engaged in Edinburgh on Calton Hill overlooking the whole of Edinburgh. It happened at night time on 26th July, the day before my birthday. Edinburgh has always been a place we have loved to go to and explore. So, after an evening meal within the hotel as the sun was setting we went to Calton Hill so we could see the full city in darkness. It was the perfect place to pop the question!
SETTING
We set the date for 29th August 2019, as it was also the bank holiday weekend, meaning not many people would have issues getting a Thursday off work and had plenty of time to recover from the celebrations.
We had both our ceremony and reception at Matfen Hall in Northumberland. The venue is the most beautiful and magical place to have a wedding at. The amazing staircase was the part that made the decision for me. We loved the feel of the venue and the staff were amazing. We had Laura show us around and she was then appointed as our wedding coordinator. We wouldn’t of changed a single thing.
THEME
We did have some little nods to Harry Potter, as I’m a huge fan. In terms of a colour scheme we chose sky-blue as we felt it is a nice pastel shade and so wouldn’t be too overbearing.
DRESS
I always knew for my dress I wanted a tight mermaid style design. I followed The Wedding Dress Company on Instagram and knew I always wanted to visit there…their dresses are amazing! I had actually found a dress I liked on Instagram and it turned out that when I visited The Wedding Dress Company, this is one they picked out for me. It was the Katalina dress by Enzoani. It was perfect and simple – the dress spoke for itself.
GROOMSMEN
My partner wore a navy suit from Debenhams with a sky-blue tie from Slaters. Paul’s sister was his ‘best woman’ and she wore the same style suit as Paul.
BRIDESMAIDS
My flower girls were my two daughters, I hunted high and low wanting to get them the perfect dresses. In the end we found the perfect ones from Monsoon. I loved the lace dress with a huge bow on the back of the dress. We got them some cream sparkly shoes from Debenhams with different gold headbands from Monsoon, one featuring flowers the other with butterflies. My maid of honour’s dress was also from Debenhams. I feel like it took a while to find the perfect blue that matched our theme. The dress featured a lace upper bodice with a flowing skirt.
BEAUTY
For our makeup we went to Victoria Jeanie and for hair Gemma Forster. Both girls were amazing, with having young children it’s sometimes hard to keep them amused but both artists were great at keeping them entertained while doing their makeup and hair. The girls made me look and feel amazing.
PHOTOGRAPHER
Our photographer was Lindsey of Forget Me Knot Images. I honestly can’t recommend her enough. She was amazing with the children and had such a good eye for detail, even when we were sick of having photos took, she made it fun and was there for as long as we needed her. She had two assistants with her throughout the day which I can’t not fault one bit. Our wedding photos are great memories to look through and I still love looking through them now. Lindsey produces the best quality images and perfectly captures those special moments in time.
STYLING
I carried a lovely bouquet created by Wild & Wonderful. I had different types of flowers within my bouquet with tones of blue, cream and pink.
Wild & Wonderful also provided our room decorations. We knew for flowers it was one of the most important parts to us, so we had real flowers upon the fireplace and top table with trees placed down the aisle on plinths and lanterns. The trees where then later moved to the tables for the reception.
We also had “Mr and Mrs Archer” in lights provided by Coco Luminaire.
FAVOURS
Our favours were handmade. We got little jars with wooden hearts which had “Mr & Mrs Archer 29.08.19” on and tied a blue bow around them. We then filled the jars with non-edible blue and clear crystals and added Love Heart sweets.
CAKE
The cake was amazing, created by Dawn from The Master Cakesmith. We decided to do four different tiers each with different flavours. Our bottom tier being chocolate orange going up we had raspberry ripple, salted caramel then last we had chocolate salted caramel which we kept for us, so we had one tier in my favourite flavour. We had our cake decorated so it looked different on each tier. We did a blue marble effect on the bottom, next was a glitter effect the tier above was blue with a plaque with a “L&P”. We went plain for the top tier with sugar flowers placed on the cake.
DINING
For our food we were lucky to have a taster evening with Matfen, which was amazing. For our starters we chose what was like a mushroom and chicken soup. We then went for beef for main, as we think many people eat it, and the dessert was chocolate fudge cake with sauce and ice cream and tea and coffee, and chocolates were served after. Matfen Hall are known for their incredible food and they didn’t disappoint.
ENTERTAINMENT
In the evening we had the venue’s resident DJ, DJ Tim which helped keep up the party atmosphere.
We also had a photobooth which was supplied by Matfen Hall. It was such fun to see people let their hair down and to have a book full of memories to look back on.
Our biggest surprise of the night were our fireworks by Spectrum Fireworks. We kept, it a surprise from our guests and they made the night – the music, the colours, the atmosphere it created was just magical. The photos are incredible I would highly recommend adding them.
THANKS TO
Matfen Hall is such a magical place and an incredible venue. The staff go above and beyond for you, we enjoy going back time and time again to stay, and it will always be such a place we treasure. Nothing is too much for this venue there is so much to look at and many places for photos to be taken. If you’re after a venue which will make you want to go back and do it all again Matfen Hall is the place. We cannot thank the staff enough for our most amazing day.
BEST BIT
Everything… there wasn’t a part we didn’t enjoy! I wish we could go back and do it again. Everything was just right! I’d love to walk down the staircase again looking our seeing friends and family and seeing my husband waiting for me. From the moments of getting ready to the end of the night everything was exactly how we wanted it.
HONEYMOON
We booked our honeymoon for Sal, Cape Verde, for May 2020 so we are still waiting to go. We did however go back to Edinburgh the day after our wedding for a minimoon to just get away as husband and wife. The place is always somewhere we loved to go so it was the perfect escape for a few days before we had to get back to reality.
ADVICE
Relax, breathe and take in every moment. Planning a wedding can be stressful. We had our fair share of stress but just remember what you want out of your day. There is no right or wrong way to do a wedding the day is about yourselves and no one else. Enjoy all the silly moments and posing pictures. Don’t stress over the little things…the memories you make on your day will be with you for a lifetime. Just enjoy it!
During the planning we went to many Brides Up North wedding fairs, even when we got to the point where we had planned most of the wedding as it was just such a good experience and I didn’t want it to end! The Brides Up North website was also good to be able to see couples’ different ideas on their perfect day.
