Today’s
oh so pretty
real wedding caught my eye for two reasons: a familiar face and a famous face. I was in 6th Form (all those years ago) with beautiful bride Amanda and the lively vicar is none other than Reverend Kate Bottley, who stars in addictive reality TV show, Gogglebox.It looks like I’ve now reached that age where there is almost a constant stream of people I know getting hitched (though I’m yet to even make it into the engaged club *le sigh*).
I loved Amanda’s wedding as soon as I set eyes on it due to the great choice of venues, her stunning off-the-shoulder dress, pretty blooms, polished wedding party and lovely colour scheme. Everything is simple but effective for an elegant wedding with a touch of glamour, just as Amanda wanted.
With images by Shakespeare Photography.
amanda says:
Our engagement was a complete surprise to me. Howard took me on a date to the Gherkin in London as he was working there at the time. You can only go up to the viewing deck if you are working there so it was completely empty. We were looking at the view of Tower Bridge and the next thing he was on one knee. He proposed with a candy rock giant ring and I thought he was joking at first! Then he produced a beautiful sapphire and diamond ring. I said “yes” of course and then we went upstairs to the bar which has a 360 degree view of London and had champagne. Afterwards we went for a gorgeous meal on a rooftop restaurant in the Bank area of London.
We got married on 23rd May 2015. We chose the date as we wanted to get married in May and wanted to get married on a Saturday. That Saturday was also a bank holiday weekend which made it perfect for our travelling guests.
We got married at St Mary and St Martin Church in Blyth, Nottinghamshire. We chose to get married there because I was born in Rotherham and grew up in Worksop. I have always liked Blyth as it is a pretty old market town and the church there is very special as it is almost 1,000 years old. The church has a rich history with both Old Catholic and more recent protestant sections and has architecture that reflects this interesting history. The vicar there is the Rev Kate Bottley and she is fabulous and made the process so much more fun.
We had our wedding reception at Rossington Hall which is just over the border into South Yorkshire. We fell in love with Rossington Hall as it had the right combination of period grandeur, excellent food and friendly, approachable staff. The venue is perfect for weddings. It was an old boarding school and had run into dereliction so a local man bought it and painstakingly restored to its original Victorian glory.
I just wanted the whole day to be simple and elegant with a touch of glamour. Everything was ivory and pale blush pink apart from the men’s suits which were navy blue. We chose this colour scheme as we wanted everything to be elegant and understated.
I chose a long chiffon dress from Sincerity Bridal. I got it from a shop called Wedding Frox in Cranleigh, near where I live. I fell in love with it on the hanger as it was so simple; it had no embellishment on it at all which was what I wanted. When I tried on the dress I was certain it was the one as I loved the shape and the way it made me feel.
Howard wore a suit from the Greenwoods Menswear shop in Worksop. We were having a stroll around Worksop one weekend about a month before the wedding. Howard still didn’t have a suit so when we saw that suit we just bought it impulsively. We got four of them for him, his best man and ushers and then got matching ties for our dads and my brother and brother-in-law. Luckily they all fit!
The bridesmaids wore pale pink dresses from ASOS.com. I had six bridesmaids and most of them live all over the country so a group shopping trip was out of the question. I just bought them online in the sale and gave them to the bridesmaids when I saw them. Luckily they all fit and they looked fabulous on the day!
I travelled to the church in my dad’s car. Then Howard and I travelled from the church to the reception venue in his dad’s Jaguar XJS. It is a two-seater so Howard drove us. It was nice to have a few minutes of privacy to take everything in.
Our photographer was Simon Shakespeare who is based in Rotherham and Florida! Our previous photographer cancelled unexpectedly nine days before the wedding. Luckily we found Simon who had had a cancellation on our wedding date and met him the Sunday before the wedding! He gave us an excellent deal and was truly professional throughout. His amazing wife was his glamorous assistant on the day and together they made an amazing team. They had a way of putting you at ease while taking the most amazing photos. They clearly love what they do and were so enthusiastic about it that it rubbed off on everyone around them. So many of our guests commented on how amazing the photographers were!
On the wedding day I carried a bouquet of pale pink avalanche roses. I ordered the bouquet from Rachel’s Florist on Ryton Street, Worksop.
We mainly used a combination of ivory and pink avalanche roses in our floral decorations which were all from Rachel’s in Worksop too. We put silver candelabras on the centre of each table which were sat on small circular mirrors. We then bought a variety of different glassware and arranged the roses ourselves in the glasses. My mum and I did it all the day before the wedding. Each table was labelled as a year rather than a number and there were photos of us in that year on each table. The photos were put in silver frames to match the rest of the décor.
We used Special Events based in Doncaster for our chair covers and sashes. They went to the venue and covered all of the chairs and removed them the next day. They were professional and the service was hassle-free!
As favours we gave out chocolates and sweets in little boxes. The ladies received a box in the shape of a bridal dress and the men received a box in the shape of a groom’s suit.
We had a five tiered wedding cake, which was made by my talented bridesmaid Jo Goodyear. Each cake was a different flavour: vanilla, lemon, chocolate, carrot cake and fruit cake. The cake was covered in icing and decorated with handmade pink roses. The most amazing thing was that Jo drove the cake all the way from Scarborough to Rossington Hall assembled and there were no disasters!
We chose Pimms as our welcome drink as it seemed like an appropriate choice for a British spring wedding, along with a selection of canapés including mini Yorkshire puddings (it would be rude not to). All of the food was made in house by the chefs at Rossington Hall and it was delicious!
We chose to have a band for our evening entertainment as it was important to me that everyone danced and have a good time. The band were called Rhythm N Groove, and were a Motown/RnB band trained at the Leeds College of Music. The band were excellent and the dancefloor was full all night.
To make our day all the more memorable we added a few extra special touches. We had our Westie dog in the church for our wedding ceremony. We have had him from a puppy and he is very important to us. He was very good throughout the ceremony except he barked when everyone clapped. Kate the vicar was excellent with him too.
As we have been together for more than nine years and there were nine tables at our wedding breakfast (ten including the top table) we gave each table a year (2006-2014) rather than a number. We put photos on each table which were taken in that year and put photos on the table plan to reflect this also.
Finally, my husband insisted on having an engraved champagne sabre for the wedding. He opened a bottle of champagne with it after his speech. It went very wrong and he cut the bottle in half covering guests with glass and champagne. Luckily everyone found it hilarious.
We would absolutely recommend our venues to others. Both the church and Rossington Hall are perfect for weddings. Rossington Hall is a beautiful and impressive venue, the food there is lovely and the staff are helpful and courteous.
Looking back we have so many favourite parts of the day! The ceremony was very special; Kate emphasised the importance of the vows and when I said them out loud it meant a lot to me. I also loved the parts of the day when all our guests were enjoying some drinks and meeting new people. I loved looking around and seeing members of my family talking to Howard’s family and our friends all mixing and having fun. I also loved dancing to the band in the evening. At one point we had all of our guests on the dancefloor. It was very special.
For our honeymoon we went to Italy. We flew into Verona and travelled to Lake Garda, Verona, Venice, Florence and Amalfi. We flew out of Naples and travelled between places by train. Italy was fabulous and such a perfect place to be on honeymoon. Every city is so romantic, there is so much to see and do but also so much incredible food to eat and wine/prossecco to drink! Highlights included travelling around Venice by water taxi, the food and art in Florence and celebrating my birthday in Ravello on the Amalfi coast – beyond romantic!
My top tip to other Brides Up North would be don’t sweat the small stuff! The most important thing is the vows you say on the day and everything else is a bonus. Enjoy the day and take it all in as it goes so fast!
