It’s holiday season on the blog, and as our editorial team take a break to rest, recover and enjoy an Aperol spritz or two ahead of our super busy autumn season, we’ll be recapping our favourite weddings and styled shoots from the year that shall not be named on our pretty pages.
Check back daily for all the inspo, and to see if your big day or creative vision made it into our top ten picks!
A BEAUTIFUL BREATH OF FRESH AIR, TODAY’S REAL WEDDING IS BRIMMING WITH THE PRETTIEST RUSTIC SPRING DETAILING.
High school sweethearts, Kirsty and Josh, were keen for a classic church ceremony followed by a reception at a North East venue they’d not visited before, finding the perfect setting in Newton Hall, located on the stunning Northumbrian coastline.
Falling head over heels for the venue’s intimate ambience and gorgeous decor, they chose to keep the styling simple with complementary rustic details and stunning seasonal blooms. They also added some thoughtful personal touches along the way, focusing on adding contributions from family and friends whilst using locally sourced suppliers and produce. This reminds us just how special it is to involve relatives and besties in your plans where possible, and also highlights our mantra to look to the amazing talent on your doorstep when it comes to hiring an A-team of suppliers!
An absolute treat for the eyes and brimming with super lush inspo for you fellow spring/summer brides, we can’t get enough of the insanely pretty floral arrangements featuring the sweetest peach and cream hues, plus Kirsty’s stunning fishtail lace dress which she totally rocks, oh and the we-want-to-devour-it-all dessert table totally gets our vote too!
For all the fine details bride Kirsty fills us in from her new home in The Bahamas. Yes, you read that right, The Bahamas! Jealous? Much!
With images by UNVEILED Network Member LSM Photography
PROPOSAL
Kirsty says: We were high school sweethearts, having first met at Prudhoe High School. We now live and work in The Bahamas and our first baby is due in June!
After ten years together Josh finally proposed in Brac, Croatia, at the top of a bell tower during sunset and it was magical. I think after waiting ten years it was more of a shock when it did actually happen! My initial reaction was “oh my god, oh my god, oh my god”’ then of course I said “YES!”
SETTING
We got married on 2nd May 2019 and left for The Bahamas two weeks later! We decided to go for May as it was the month in between our two birthdays and both having winter birthdays we thought it would be nice to have something to celebrate during the summer!
We got married at the beautiful St Peter’s church in Bywell, Stocksfield. I always dreamed of getting married in a local church. I was christened at St John’s, Mickley, in the church where my parents got married and always wanted somewhere me and Josh could share the same tradition.
Josh was not christened and so we picked St Peter’s of Bywell after meeting the vicar who looked after both parishes and soon became part of the church community after attending Sunday service. We both felt that getting married in church was the formality we wanted when making a lifelong commitment to each other and having somewhere that felt special to us and our family.
After attending many family and friend weddings locally, the first thing that was important for us was to find a venue that we had not been to for another wedding. Thankfully for us, Newton Hall was top of our list. We visited a few local venues and both love the Northumberland coast so after viewing Newton Hall we knew it was for us! We loved the intimacy of the venue, its boutique style and décor, plus having the option for our guests to stay made it more special for us.
THEME
We fell in love with the appearance of Newton Hall so didn’t feel the need to add any extra theming – we just went with a natural, rustic style. We added some personal touches and all of our suppliers and décor were friends and family / sourced locally.
The colour scheme was very natural and classic with lots of pearl, champagne, nude tones.
DRESS
I wore a lace, off-the-shoulder fishtail style dress. It was everything I absolutely did not want when I initially went to try on dresses! I thought I would like something very plain, fitted and simple which did not give me the wow factor when I actually started trying on dresses. I soon realised what suited and made me feel the way I imagined I would as a bride, was not at all what I expected.
The fishtail style suited my body shape, the off-the-shoulder lace was added to the originally strapless dress to give a sweetheart neckline and the same lace was used to trim my cathedral length veil. Both the dress and veil were covered in pearls which matched the detail on the bridesmaid and flower girl dresses.
GROOM
Josh definitely wanted to feel special and so he opted for navy tuxedos for him and the groomsmen. These were from ASOS and were worn with white pleated tuxedo shirts, black bow ties, cummerbunds.
Josh wore a tie made from the material of the bridesmaid dresses as it was impossible to get the exact same shade. The ladies at Oh Sew Beautiful did an amazing job of altering all of the bridesmaid dresses to fit perfectly, making Josh’s tie as well as my veil and altering my dress.
BRIDESMAIDS
The five bridesmaids wore full-length, off-the-shoulder dresses from ASOS. I ordered these initially as the colour was exactly what I had in mind and as each of them tried them on the dresses suited all of their different shapes and they all felt comfortable which was important to me. The style was stunning and they all looked amazing on.
Our two flower girls wore ivory and pearl dresses, flower crowns and gold sparkly shoes.
BEAUTY
Carly Taylor did the hair of all eight of us – me, my bridesmaids, mother-of-the-bride, mother-of-the-groom – which looked amazing. Alice Armstrong was our makeup artist and I couldn’t recommend them both enough.
TRAVEL
We used my dad’s car – a Range Rover Vogue – which was a request from him. He drove us from the church to Newton Hall and it was a very special touch as we knew how much it meant to him.
PHOTOGRAPHER
LSM Photography captured our day. I had followed Lyndsey’s photography on Instagram and always knew that was the style of photography to suit us and our venue.
Lyndsey exceed our expectations, the photographs are beautiful and we both felt very relaxed.
We can’t wait for our newborn shoot when baby Brooks arrives in the summer!
VIDEOGRAPHY
Hayley Crone Photography filmed our day. She did an amazing job and have recommended her to many friends since. Hayley was just expanding her photography business when we approached her through a mutual friend and we were only the second wedding video she had done. It is amazing to see how successful she has become over the last two years. She captured our day perfectly.
STYLING
Our florist was Stobo’s Florist of Wylam. My bouquet was Juliet garden roses in the most beautiful peachy, pearly colours. The bridal party had smaller versions of my bouquet but without the peach. The groomsmen and immediate family also wore buttonholes with the same roses. I still get compliments on my amazing bouquet now and Lyndsey managed to capture it perfectly in our wedding photographs.
The table decorations were gold centrepieces with lanterns on logs which we also had on our cake table. The lanterns were covered in rose petals using the same dried flowers as the flower crowns wore by the flower girls and the church, top table and entrance to Newton Hall had the same flower arrangements as my bouquet.
FAVOURS
The ladies all received a personalised candle and the men received an engraved bottle opener. All made with love by family and friends and tied with ribbon the same colour as the bridesmaid dresses so it all tied in perfectly.
The younger guests all received activity bags and the flower girls and page boys were given personalised teddy bears.
CAKE
Our very talented brother-in-law made our favourite cake, which was a three-tier naked salted caramel cake that we enjoyed sampling in the months leading up to the wedding. We also had a cake table with a wide selection of cakes, tarts, tray bakes and mini deserts by Baked in Stocksfield.
DINING
Once we had our hearts set on Newton Hall we were very excited about the menu choices! We very much knew what we did not want and decided instead of going for the traditional wedding breakfast and picking a starter, main, dessert for 100 guests we would like everyone to have a bit of everything. As such, we had Northumberland sharing platters to start followed by barbecue platters of Northumberland steak, sausages, burgers and chicken, halloumi skewers with sides of seasoned potatoes, salads and homemade coleslaw. To finish, we had a dessert table which meant guests could help themselves when they were ready for a sweet treat throughout the afternoon.
ENTERTAINMENT
Faye Shearer, hired through AMV Live Music, sang during the reception drinks and canapés, which was a beautiful touch when we arrived at Newton Hall from the church.
A school friend who was the DJ at our engagement party did the evening music and we had a saxophonist play throughout the night which was an amazing touch.
THANKS TO
We would 100% recommend Newton Hall to other couples. The service we received was five-star, we could not fault the venue, the planners or the staff on the day. It was everything you want as a bride and groom…and more!
We would also highly recommend all of our suppliers; LSM Photography, Hayley Crone Videographer, Stobo’s Florist, Carly Taylor, Alice Armstong, Oh Sew Beautiful, Baked, family friends who helped with the favours and table decorations; Hi-Tech Signs and Engraving made the favours and S.B Tree Services supplied the decor logs.
BEST BIT
The whole day! We could not pick a favourite part. We would do the whole thing again if we could.
HONEYMOON
We went to Montreal, Canada for Christmas. Josh had tried to get me to go skiing for ten years. After moving to the Caribbean we no longer needed a sunny holiday and we both wanted to go to Canada. Now we lived so near, it was perfect. Josh says I wasn’t bad for my first time skiing either, there were only a couple of wobbles!
ADVICE
Always remember it is your day and try not to worry about what anyone else thinks!
