Today we’re heading North East on the blog to relive chic city wedding down by the Quayside in Newcastle.
Keen for a wedding that reflected them as a family and the city that they love, Jaimie and Gemma planned a glamorous wedding at the Malmaison hotel, complete with a personal ceremony and black tie dress code.
With images by Jamie Mcelderry Wedding Photographer.
gemma says:
Jaimie proposed on Christmas day 2014. In January 2014, I gave birth to triplet boys and it was a pretty tough year for us as a family. By Christmas time, it felt as if we could take on anything! Jaimie hid the ring in the tree. He sat me and my daughter down and presented it to us both. Words actually failed him, I was stunned and we relied on my daughter to piece it all together!We set the date for Monday 20th June 2016. We wanted our wedding to feel relaxed and non-traditional, which is why we chose to have it on a Monday.
Our venue was the Malmaison hotel on Newcastle’s quayside. It was perfect for us as it isn’t used for many weddings, which allowed us to really tailor the day to what we wanted. The decor has a really cool, urban chic vibe to it, which suits our modern taste. To top it all off, it’s in an amazing location overlooking the river.
Our whole ceremony was written with personal touches about us as a couple, but also as a family. We included lighting a unity candle as part of the ceremony and chose songs to feature throughout, including Beyonce and Jessica Glynne. I walked down the aisle to a mix of Disclosure and Sam Smith Latch. All our music was uplifting rather than romantic.
The style of our wedding was modern and glamorous, but in a minimal and informal way. We wanted to share our day with only our closest family and friends and wanted to give them an insight into our family and what is particularly special to us. No frills, no formalities.
I wanted everything to be really crisp, fresh and clean, so just kept to a white colour scheme with a few black touches. The male wedding party wore black tie and my two bridesmaids wore black too.
I chose a gown by Maggie Sottero from YAP Bridal. After several appointments in various boutiques, I realised the style I wanted was very fitted, but with a dramatic skirt. I wanted the dress to reflect my personality but also fit with the modern venue. It was beautifully beaded, but quite sexy and edgy with a gorgeous tulle train. I was so happy to be able to get it from YAP, as Jo, Danni and all the girls there were fabulous!
Jaimie wore a black peak lapel tuxedo from Hugo Boss, with a white slim fit shirt with cut away collar, white silk pocket square and cufflinks, also from Hugo Boss. He finished the look with a large black silk bow tie. We had the trousers tapered so they were slightly cropped to show a bare ankle and he wore black suede slip-on loafers from Dune.
My best friend and 12-year-old daughter were my two bridesmaids. They wore dresses by Mori Lee, both the same black lace, but my friend wore a floor length version with a deep V-back and cap sleeves. My daughter wore a tea length dress with an illusion neckline and V back. I had an underskirt made to give the dress extra volume with layers of tulle visible.
I used the very talented services of Anne at Diva Designs in Seaham, for all our dress alterations. She also made the skirt for my daughter’s dress and made me a bespoke birdcage veil to complete my look.
Jamie Mcelderry was our photographer. He was amazing! He listened to exactly what we wanted and the style of photographs we preferred. I never realised just how much of the day you actually spend with your photographer, but he was very personable and able to do his job whilst staying in the background. He worked particularly well with our videographers A Little Less Salt, who were also great guys!
My bouquet was a mix of white peonies, roses and hydrangeas. A close friend of mine put my flowers together.
Our ceremony room was decorated with a beautiful floral backdrop, trees and flowers provided by Clair Fiddler at Angel Valley Plants. The reception tables were decorated with various sizes of glassware, white candles and the same white flowers that featured in the bouquets. We hired our vases and had our chairs dressed by Amanda at Balloon Fairy.
As favours for our guests I made up small tote boxes of chocolate truffles. The selection of truffles were from Gareth James Chocolatier, Tynemouth.
Our wedding cake was a semi-naked design with a cascade of white flowers, which was made by a friend of mine at Dine with Ramsey’s. We opted for two tiers which included Seville orange, toffee pecan, strawberry vanilla and lemon drizzle.
Our wedding breakfast consisted of a goat’s cheese, pea and broad bean salad starter, an option of sea bream with summer vegetables or blade of slow cooked beef for main, and finished with chocolate brownie and Chantilly cream.
We offered our guests sangria cocktails with a selection of canapés prior to our meal and then chicken and chorizo and roasted Mediterranean vegetable pizza during the evening. We also had a tea and cake table for our guests to sample the wedding cake and have a break from the cocktails, if they wished.
The wedding entertainment was a big deal to us and something we were really excited about leading up to the day. We used Chris, a DJ who works the local circuit playing house music, and a lady called Louise, who played saxophone. We played house music and dance classics all night long! It was a great party.
We also hired an illuminated heart from Coco Luminaire and a photo booth from Snaparrazi. They both looked great in the venue and the guests loved using the booth throughout the reception.
Following our wedding, I would absolutely recommend Malmaison to other couples, if for no other reason than the staff there offer an exceptional service. They went above and beyond all my expectations to make our day so perfect and special. Emma in events was a dream to work with and really helped to make my vision a reality.
We also absolutely love the city of Newcastle and The Malmaison is a perfect location to showcase some of its best bits. We wanted modern luxury and I’m not sure there is another venue which ticks off those boxes as well as the Malmaison.
On reflection our ceremony was so beautiful, but I think I just floated through it on adrenalin and nerves. For that reason I’d say by favourite part of the day was when the music started and we hit the dance floor – everyone was really able to party at that point. Hearing the saxophone was also a great moment as it was an aspect of the night our guests didn’t know about, so was a great surprise!
With having two-year-old triplets, finding childcare arrangements is difficult, so we didn’t manage to get a honeymoon in after the wedding. Instead we are planning on taking it for our first year anniversary next summer and hope to travel round Italy.
My top tip to other Brides Up North would be to do everything the way you (both) want to do it. Don’t conform to what other people think or what tradition says you should do, and definitely don’t stress about any of it.
