Before we knew it the sun started to set and everyone went from enjoying the evening light to slowly making their way inside for the evening party.
We hired a Magic Mirror which is very similar to a photo-booth, but seemed better in our opinion. It wasn’t too expensive to hire for a couple of hours either and it went down a treat! People loved it. Plus we also got a spare copy of all the photos and people used them to sign our guest book with, which I thought was a really good idea and something we can look back on in years to come.
We cut the cake and then had our first dance, where we chose ‘Hey There Deliah’.
We found it hard to pick a song we both liked for a first dance song, as we both have different music tastes, and all the romantic songs I loved, Dan didn’t really like. I’m super glad with our choice though as it just felt like us. Everyone ended up joining us on the dance floor and it was flooded with happy couples.
We had a hot evening buffet fills with different types of baguettes and chunky chips, plus the wedding cake for afterwards too.
I spend most of the night dancing, and by 12am was totally shattered and this Cinderella needed her sleep.
_____________
I can’t quite believe we are at the end of wedding week, it feels like such a long time coming and I’ve loved sitting down to reminise and relive it all over again with you. If you’ve followed along, or just read the odd post here and there, then thank you. I absolutely love this little community and hope to never be without it.
Choosing a wedding dress was one of the most exciting parts (if not, the most exciting) in the build-up to planning a wedding. To be honest, I still can’t believe a couple like us pulled the wedding off! But I think all the help I had from my mum and sister made such a difference, and they really took the pressure off me by lending a hand to sort things out.
It’s quite unbelievable how many things go into planning a wedding, even if you have a relatively small, relaxed one like ours! We had 60 guests who were all family, opted out of a few traditions (post to come on that one I’m sure), but it was still extremely time-consuming, as you can imagine.
Anyway, lets talk about the dress…
I got my beautiful dress and veil from the Harrogate Wedding Lounge, and it was purchased for me by my sister as a gift, which was such a kind and extremely generous thing to do, and something I’ll never forget.
I tried lots of different styles of dress on, and originally wanted something the opposite of this. I wanted something relatively plain, not fussy or show-stopping, loose and simple. But as soon as I tried those types of dresses on, they didn’t feel like my wedding dress. They didn’t make me feel the way I wanted to feel.
This was the second to last dress I tried on (I think I tried 8 in total) and I just knew it was the one. I imagined our wedding day with me wearing this dress and now I can say it was a dream come true. Cheesy but it did feel like the stars had all aligned when I tried this on.
It was romantic, it was elegant, and I felt like a real life princess. Like I was ready for my happy ending.
My shoes I actually got super cheap from Amazon as you couldn’t see them, but they were just some flat shoes with a bit of sparkle on, and were really comfy to wear all day too.
I wore my sisters earrings as my something borrowed, my late Grandma’s brooch on my bag as something old, the dress shop gave me a personalised garter that had a blue heart on, and my parents got me a diamond Swarovski bracelet as something new.
I told my hairdresser I wanted loose curls and my hair to feel very natural, and I kept my makeup low key too. I was really focused on the fact that I still wanted to look like myself, just the best version of me to ever exist! Which I think I managed.
The only makeup items I bought that I didn’t already have to use were a fancy YSL lipstick in a peach shade, a makeup setting spray so it would last, and a primer.
Dan rented his suit with the majority of the male wedding party and we chose a grey with a pale pink tie to match the rest of the decor and flowers.
As you can see, it was a lovely afternoon for me and Dan to get a bit of quality time together while having some photos taken by Emily Hannah Photography. We had Ryan from Riff Raff Photography for our wedding video, we haven’t received it yet but I can’t wait until we do! They were both so amazing to work with, and gave such a relaxed, calming presence.
Tomorrow’s post is the last one of wedding week (I know right!) for the evening reception. BUT, in the next few weeks I’m planning to do a lot more wedding content giving different tips and tricks that we picked up along the way.
When we got engaged, I knew immediately that I wanted to get married outside. It was definitely my number one goal in terms of looking for a venue. Both me and Dan are pretty laid back, relaxed people, so I felt like a church would of been too intimidating and not really ‘us’, the same for a registrar office.
I actually used to live close to Wentbridge House, our chosen venue, so I knew it really well, and I’d always admired the garden folly from afar. After searching around, we happened to make it fit our budget and booked a year in advance for the big day.
Over the year I was quite particular in terms of venue decor, I really didn’t like any bright carpets, chair covers or anything diamante, that was about as far as my ‘Bridezilla’ moment got I think! I just really wanted the space to look natural and beautiful.
We hired this antique mirror from a local company, Cherish (who were so accommodating and super lovely by the way!) and bought some Chalk pens off Amazon to write the Order of The Day on which would be stood outside for everyone to see the days agenda.
We actually picked up this table seating plan and the numbers from Sainsburys, which do a great wedding range that I’d definitely recommend having a look at. The candles and lanterns were bought from a local wholesale homeware store, and Ikea.
We also had a local florist who Dan knows very well do our flowers, and I chose something with a touch of pale pink, creams and lots of natural foiliage. Each table had a circular centre piece, whilst the long table at the top had a runner.
We were invited to see the room before everyone went to their seats and I was totally taken away by how incredibly stunning it looked, it was completely perfect and just what I had dreamed of. We also chose to use the same chairs as we had outside as we thought it suited the rest of the decor a lot better, so we were happy to pay a small charge for that to be possible.
My friend made our wedding cake, and I chose to go down the ‘natural’ cakes look as I just adore the style of them. We chose vanilla, lemon, and white chocolate and it was absolutely delicious! I wish I had a piece I could eat right now whilst writing this and reminiscing.
We picked up the ‘love’ cake topper from Homesense and all the balloons were from various places such as John Lewis, Sainsburys etc.
I just wanted to add a small note on to this to say I’m choosing not to share any of the wedding meal/speech pictures as they feature lots of family members, and I don’t feel its right to share pictures of people without their permission. Plus as I’m sharing everything else about the day it is nice to hold something small back, but let me tell you, it was the most nervous I’ve ever seen Dan! There was no need to be though as his speech was lovely, as the rest were too.
We had a melon fan, leek and potato soup for starter, I had the veggie option of a roasted pepper moneybag, the other option was chicken, and dessert was a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake.
Tomorrow’s blog post will be about the dress, before we head on to the evening party!
Now to probably my favourite part of the day: our ceremony.
We were super lucky with the weather and it was so lovely and sunny, I’ve always wanted to get married outside so I was really chuffed that the weather showed up for us.
As you can see from below, I think my future husband was definitely feeling the nerves! I ended up being about 15 minutes late from the original 12pm as I had to see the registrars before heading downstairs to start walking, but honestly I don’t think that’s too bad.
Hearing the music start, we chose ‘The One’ by Kodaline was such an emotional moment and I very nearly started crying as I stood at the door ready to walk down to the gardens. It’s definitely a moment I’ll never forget.
We had our cousins as our Page boy, Flower Girl, and Bridesmaid, and then my maid of honour which was my sister followed, before my Dad walked me down the aisle. It was such a happy moment and I didn’t feel nervous at all, just really excited which I think surprised everyone including myself! They couldn’t believe how cool I was but I just felt extremely happy. I also love how me and my Dad had our moment walking down and I said to him the white carpet felt like walking on snow.
Meeting Dan at the garden folly was so surreal. Because of the hot weather we were actually surrounded by little flies, but thankfully you don’t see that on the pictures. To be honest I think both of us weren’t that focused on them anyway as we had other matters at hand!
Two of our favourite people, Dan’s auntie and my brother in law both did the readings. We picked ‘Here’s To Right Now’ which I fell in love with immediately after reading it, and ‘If You Can Always’ which describes us as a couple perfectly and how we saw our forthcoming marriage.
Of course after signing the official register we had to bring Harvey up for some attention. He came to the ceremony and was so well behaved sat on my mum and stepdad’s lap. I know it might seem crazy bringing your dog to your wedding, but if you have your own one too, you know that they are part of the family, and I really wanted my complete family to be there, dog included!
We played ‘Riptide’ by Vance Joy and ‘Stand by Me’ as our background wedding music for the ceremony, and walked back down the aisle to ‘Say A Little Prayer For You’ by Aretha Franklin.
Then it was time for everyone to enjoy the canapes and enjoy the sunshine (Mini Fish & Chips, Scones with Jam & Cream, Mini Burgers and a Goats Cheese and Red Pepper Tart) while we had a few family photos done before the wedding meal.
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing our ceremony, and I’ll see you tomorrow for the venue and decor details!
Me, my mum and sister actually stayed at the venue the night before, and Dan stayed at his mum’s house with his family. We arrived at about 5 o clock to bring all the extra things for the room to get ready, and went for dinner at about 6 where we had some salads and sweet potatoes fries, then me and my sister headed back to our room for a pamper night!
We both took our time and completed a 6 step facial with the products we brought from home including double cleanses, face scrubs, face masks, oils, serums and moisturisers! My mum couldn’t believe how glowing we looked in the morning. The night before I didn’t feel too nervous, but obviously you’re not gonna sleep your best (despite how hard you try to!). I think I woke up eating biscuits and reading Harry Potter for an hour around 4am but thankfully nodded off after.
This morning of, we had our breakfast delivered (and I made sure to save a pastry for an 11am snack) and I did some gentle yoga.
My hairdresser arrived at 10am, along with our photographer and videographer at around 11am. I felt very lucky because even though I hadn’t met them before, they were both super chilled out and laid back, which was exactly what I would of wanted. They let me do my own thing and I hardly noticed they were there. I really enjoyed doing my own makeup and it was great to have that moment to myself where I could relax and chill out a little. My step-brother Greg came to see us both too which was nice and it felt great to see a friendly face!
Putting my dress on was a complete surreal moment, I was so in love with it and couldn’t wait for everyone to see it. The next half hour was actually the most stressful as our florist turned up and to be honest, she was very flustered and it ended up being quite an annoying 10 minutes. Thankfully we remained calm, and everything was sorted before I waited for my Mum and Dad to arrive to see me.
My sister went to go get our flower girl, page boy and bridesmaid too so we were all ready to walk down the aisle together outside.
We had a great view from our room over the grounds, plus it meant I could be super nosy and spy over everyone arriving, which only made me more excited and wanted to get out there and get the show on the road!
The morning seemed to of fly by, which I kind of guessed that it would. The registrars came to see me for some final details, then it was all stations go as we headed downstairs and I was going to get MARRIED!
I’ll see you tomorrow for all about our wonderful ceremony!
