The House By The Sea: A Real Wedding In The North East – Melanie & Jon

Posted on: 27/05/2012

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Today I’m off to a BBQ with friends, family and Mr Pinot and Mr Grigio too (I’ll thank you for sticking around if you please sunshine!) to celebrate my darling Dad reaching the ripe old age of 60!  Happy Birthday Dad!  I love you x

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In the meantime, I’ll leave you all with another glorious celebration – the first ever wedding to be held at a brand new wedding venue on the Northumberland coast, Newton Hall, with images by Topher McGrillis.

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Just lovely!

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Melanie says: We got engaged in Edinburgh, July 2011 on a short break are tied the knot on 21st April 2012 at Newton Hall, Newton on the Sea, Northumberland. 

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We chose Newton Hall for it’s location on the coast in beautiful countryside, the team’s less formal style and their flexibility.  Knowing the quirkiness/ character they inject into their bars & restaurants in Newcastle we trusted that it would be a lovely place (it hadn’t been built when we first signed up!) Also, we needed somewhere large enough for 150 guests plus more for the evening and a wanted a civil ceremony which was charismatic, not bland.

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We didn’t go for a theme as such but the details were designed all to get the guests mingling including handmade crackers as favours, antipasti sharing style boards and lots of lawn games and photos.

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As my engagement ring was a sapphire with diamonds (passed down through the family from Jon’s great grandmother) we decided on a dark/ navy blue colour scheme. We then chose lots of bright colours like yellows, oranges and pinks to contrast against this.

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My dress was Benjamin Roberts – 2228 in ivory with an ivory sash and ivory silk jacket. I love dresses with lace detailing, long trains and mermaid shape and this was all summed up in this dress.

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My bridesmaids wore long French navy strapless dresses from Coast at Debenhams (Tanya maxi dress) with ivory shawls

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Flower-wise, I wanted a lot of colour so had a loose tied posy mixture of burnt orange cymbidium orchid, orange and a little red ranunculus, yellow craspedia, mint, little blue delphinium and rosemary. 

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The bridesmaids carried loose natural posies including the white anemone with the black centre,blue delphinium, orange ranunculus, yellow craspedia and rosemary.

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Jon had a burnt orange orchid as his buttonhole.

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The flowers were all outstanding!  The florist (Lavender’s Blue) had said my taste were somewhat ‘eclectic’ but I knew she would bring it all together and do an amazing job! The venue could take a lot of colour and different styles of arrangements and it all looked beautiful.

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Some of the arrangements were designed in small boxes wrapped in paper and raffia so that guests could take some of them home easily.

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I loved getting ready with all the girls and the chaos of the morning coming together. The hair and makeup girls (Makeup – Steph Birchall, Hair – Jo from Sherlocks in Durham) were amazing.

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I didn’t need to travel as stayed at the venue all weekend but Dad had lent Jon his old Porsche which also luckily fitted well with the dark blue theme so Jon and the the best man Dave took that for a drive along the coast on the way to the venue. Jon and Dave had stayed the night before in a cottage next to the pub in the village.

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The ceremony was perfect the readings were fantastic – some friends had surprised us and written a poem about us, the registrar was lovely and hilarious.

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The venue and the staff were outstanding, I hadn’t seen the place complete before and was amazed at how beautiful it all looked. Nothing was too much trouble for the staff who created the most relaxed environment keeping the hotel bar open late and still looking fresh when serving breakfast in the morning. I even got hugs and kisses from some of the builders in the pub before and after the day!

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We spent a long time making and decorating crackers and put stick on moustaches and bubbles and joke engagement rings in them for the guests on the tables. We made a weekend of it and had drinks in the local pub on Friday night before the wedding and a pub lunch with rounders and a walk on the beach on the Sunday.

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We chose a cake of cheeses from Deli Around The Corner, Tynemouth. We also had a large square of fruit cake as I love fruit cake with cheese and it suited the more traditional guests. We had chutneys, fruit and crackers to complement it and it was left out with the evening sandwiches and snacks. (Somerset Brie, Cornish Yarg, Northumberland Smoked, Baby Colston, Bassett Stilton  and topped with a Coeur de Neufchatel (heart shaped brie)). 

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We had a brilliant band in the evening – Grace under Pressure from AMV Live Music in Newcastle. The lead singer and guitarist played in the afternoon to entertain guest after the ceremony as well whilst prosecco and canapés were served.

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After the wedding, we spent Sunday night at Newton Hall finishing off the cheese from the wedding cake and prosecco with remaining friends and family then Dad had lent us his old Porsche so we drove down for a night in the Cotswolds at Lower Slaughter Manor which was lovely. Then we flew to Vietnam for 12 days, we travelled from the North to the South, stopping in Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue, Danang and the last few days were at an incredible spa resort called the Princess D’Annam. We finished the trip with a night in Bangkok at The Banyan Tree on the way home. Friends and family contributed towards the trip as our main present.

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My top tip for other Brides Up North would be to relax and enjoy it! Try and be as organised as you can and delegate as much as possible. If you pick suppliers with good reputations then trust them they will all want to help give you a fabulous day – all our suppliers were incredible.

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Congratulations Melanie & Jon!

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See you in the next week Brides Up North!

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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2012 Topher McGrillis

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