Did someone say
vera wang
? That’s right, today’s beautiful bride tied the knot whilst wearing the top bridal designer’s sensational Lark gown, complete with delicate floral lace overlay and a show-stopping organza ruffle mermaid skirt. Just wow!Other stylish elements of Katy and Warren’s big day include the maids’ beautiful sky blue dress, the men’s dapper grey suits and the pale, blousy blooms, to name but a few.
We’ll leave the talking to Katy…
With images by Adamskii Photography.
katy says:
We got engaged whilst holidaying in Thailand over New Year. It was New Year’s Eve and Warren had organised for us to attend a party on a beach on the island of Koh Samui. He proposed at the stroke of midnight, after finding a quiet spot on the beach, whilst the fireworks were going off. It was so cute.We set the date for 10th July 2015. We were keen to get married in the summer in the hope that it would be a warm day to allow us to make full use of the stunning outdoor space at our chosen venue (and what a beautiful summer’s day it was!)
We both wanted a traditional church wedding and we were lucky enough to be able to get married in the beautifully stunning St Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, in Alnwick. The long aisle allowed for a grand entrance and the striking stained glass window was a stunning backdrop. We were also fortunate that it was in close proximity to Newton Hall, where our reception was held.
We chose Newton Hall because it is traditional manor house with unique twist, which suited us perfectly. The reception room was amazing, with exposed brick walls and grand chandeliers overlooking the beautiful Northumberland countryside. The venue also hosted multiple outdoor areas – beautiful quiet and secluded grounds to the front of the house where we enjoyed our drinks reception and a cute outdoor terrace with open fire, which was appreciated by many of the men in the evening while they enjoyed a cigar and a brandy.
We knew from the beginning that we didn’t want a set theme of any kind but wanted to keep things more along the lines of a traditional yet classy, sophisticated and elegant style wedding. We wanted to be a little different and steer away from the vintage/rustic themes that, although beautiful, were just not really ‘us’. The style came together perfectly and suited our taste to a tee.
We both agreed to not have a set colour scheme either. I initially wanted something very neutral, though, ended up falling in love with the sky blue bridesmaid dresses and from that all the other colours just followed. Pale/dusky pinks, ivory and white complemented the sky blue dresses very well and we stuck to these colours throughout. The colours were also perfectly fitting for a summer wedding.
Even before I was engaged I loved the style of the Vera Wang wedding gowns. Once I was engaged I fully fell in love with a Vera Wang gown called Lark, which just had the perfect mix of tradition and glamour. It had the most delicate lace bodice accented by a mermaid style organza rosette skirt. I did however try to find an alternative and tried on some stunning dresses around the North East/North West and Midlands, but I was looking for something similar to the Vera and I was not finding it. I knew I had to have the dress. I teamed it with an elbow length veil with lace detailing with my hair loosely curled. I wore minimal jewellery, so not to take away from the dress – Swarovski drop earrings and a Swarovski bracelet, which I got as a wedding present from Warren.
Warren and the groomsmen purchased their suits from Moss Bros. Warren initially fancied a black suit thinking it would look sharp, but came then across the grey/silver suit, which was very classic and worked well with the wedding style. Warren teamed his suit with a matching waistcoat, also from Moss Bros, along with a black tie, a fitted shirt and a collar bar. Warren was very particular about the shirt and pin choice, in fact I think this was the most debated topic throughout the wedding planning.
For the bridesmaids, I fell in love with the most beautiful sky blue dresses from Ghost. The dresses were super elegant with a cowl neck and sophisticated style and worked alongside my dress perfectly. The girls and I decided for them to wear their hair up to show-off the dress and the cowl neck and I bought them some drop Swarovski crystal earrings as a gift. They wore suede dusky pink peep-toe heels, which complemented the blue of the dress and matched with their bouquets. The bridesmaids also wore dusky pink satin gowns on the morning of the wedding.
For our transport, Warren surprised me on the wedding day with brand new Rolls Royce Phantom. I was amazed when it turned up to pick me up from Newton Hall to take me and my dad to the church. It actually turned out to be the same car that Declan Donnelly had a few weeks following our wedding. It was hired from Autograph Chauffeurs. Warren drove himself to the church in an Aston Martin Vantage (in a silver grey to match the suit!)
Adam from Adamskii was our photographer. A friend of a friend had been married a year earlier and her photos were unbelievable. After meeting Adam we were confident he would capture our day perfectly. The photos were everything we hoped for and more. We would recommend him to any couple as he worked with us to interpret the style of photos and shots we wanted and he delivered this effortlessly – without us even noticing he was there!
We also had our wedding filmed by videographer Wayne Connolly, of Green Biscuit Studio. We chose Green Biscuit based on the awards he has achieved but also due to his incredible portfolio shown on his website. We received a 12-minute film capturing all the meaningful parts of our wedding. It’s a lovely keepsake and every time we watch it, it is as though we are reliving the day again and again. We would definitely recommend him – his edited videos are flawless.
Helen from Bels Flowers, was our incredible florist and worked with us to develop arrangements to suit our tastes and to match the elegant style we were hoping to achieve. The brief we came up with was soft, effortless, abundant blooms in ivory and white with subtle pink O’Hara roses, David Austin roses, garden roses, vintage roses, peonies and hydrangea. I tied a piece of vintage lace, which belonged to my great, great, great grandma, around stem with my great grandma’s brooch to hold it in place, which were collectively my ‘something old’. I wanted the bridesmaids’ bouquets to have a touch more of the pale taupe tones and pink peonies, with lots of texture. Warren went for a simple ivory rose for a button hole, which was very classic.
Bells Flowers then provided the most stunning abundant flower arrangements for the venue, which complemented the other wedding flowers. Charlotte at The Finishing Touch Company, also ensured the room looked absolutely stunning, providing waterfall chair covers, damask table runners, vases and mirrors, along with other details, to give the reception room the real ‘wow’ factor on entering.
We had the cutest favours from Choko Choko Yeah, which is a Denmark based company. Penny was very helpful in providing us with the most adorable chocolates. We had our personalised logo printed on one of the chocolates and a vintage photograph of Newton Hall on the other chocolate. We packaged these in cute ivory damask truffle boxes (to match the damask table runners and wedding stationary) sealed with a personalised logo sticker. Everyone commented on the favours so I think they went down well!
We chose a five-tier sponge wedding cake with alternate flavours for each layer, which included cherry Bakewell, cookies and cream, and millionaire’s shortbread. Warren’s favourite part of the wedding planning was definitely cake tasting all of these amazing flavours! Dawn at The Master Cakesmith, in Northumberland, was fantastic from first contact in delivering the cake of our dreams.
I was clear in that I wanted a cake to reflect my dress with lace detailing on the top layers and ruffles/rosette on the bottom – something that was luxurious yet understated – and Dawn supported with the design of this. She also added the most stunning iced flowers to the top of the cake to match the bouquet roses.
For the wedding breakfast we decided on a mozzarella wrapped in Bayonne ham salad as a starter, with grilled chicken breast with creamy mash and herb sauce for main. These food choices were influenced by the time of year whilst also trying to ensure that everyone’s tastes would be catered for. Dessert was an easy decision – we went for sticky toffee pudding. Not exactly a summer dish but it is our favourite dessert! We also added ‘a bit of sparkle’ between starter and main with a course of champagne sorbet, gin, Midori Melon Liqueur and prosecco – with some of the lads saying it was the highlight of their day!
We are both big fans of house and dance music and so wanted the evening do to reflect our tastes. We have always loved the music and atmosphere created by the Northern Project DJs (Paul Thomas and Dan Stafford) when playing alongside a live singer, live sax and percussions. Paul worked with Warren to pull together the group and track lists for the evening to suit all but primarily with a house/funk/soul genre. It was a bit of a gamble (we were unsure on how the older generation would warm to the music) but it paid off with the dancefloor being full from the first to the last song – including the older ones who are now big fans of house music! The atmosphere created by Paul and the group was exactly what we had visualized.
We also added a surprise Irish dancing performance in the middle of the house set – performed by The Hannon Murphy School of Irish Dancing and lead dancer Chris Hannon, of Murphy’s Legacy Irish Dance Show. I had previously danced competitively for 17 years and as this has always been a part of my life I wanted to bring this into the wedding. I surprised the guests by getting up to dance with the team – later joined by previous Irish dance members of the family, wedding guests and bridesmaids – and even Warren had a go!
After the wedding, some of our friends described the wedding on Facebook as a “Newcastle Ibizan Irish Catholic Super Club Wedding”, while another friend stated “only Warren and Katy can have wedding that is both an Irish dancing festival and at times an Ibiza super club”.
To make the day more memorable we incorporated a few special touches which included having a very classic personalised logo designed by a good friend from Vince Pippin Design, which we added to all of the wedding stationary, such as table plan, place settings, table numbers and favours. As a nod to my dress we also added in Vera Wang accessories to the day, such as Vera Wang guestbook and cake knife.
To the evening we added a complimentary cigar bar for the gentleman, which was mostly enjoyed by the outdoor open fire. At the reception we had a photo booth area too with a rose backdrop and signs referring to Instagram personalised hashtags.
Following our wedding, we would 100% recommend Newton Hall to other couples, based on their expertise in delivering unique weddings, delivered to perfection. The service is much personalised and nothing is too big of an ask.
We can’t pinpoint one single favourite part of the day, though there were certainly some musical highlights: walking down aisle to Canon in D on the organ, walking into the reception room to Stevie Wonder’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered (which had everyone up dancing) and our the first dance to Kygo, Firestone acoustic version. The Irish dancing was a highlight too!
Straight after the wedding we went on a minimoon to Portugal to a quiet little fishing village in the Algarve, which was perfect to relax. We waited until November for our main honeymoon, which was to the Maldives. November is dry-season in Maldives and waiting until then definitely paid off as we had ten days of uninterrupted sunshine. We chose to stay at The Lux Resort based on the unbelievable reviews as well as it having more activities and a choice of restaurants than other Maldivian resorts. It was an experience of a lifetime, a true 5-star hotel in every way – especially the staff, who couldn’t do enough for you. I actually cried when I left!
My top tip to other Brides Up North would be to tailor the wedding to your own styles/interests and preferences and not be swayed by others. At the end of the day, if you are enjoying your day then everyone else will enjoy it too!
