BUN Wedding Exhibition

Very Vintage! A Real Wedding At The Bowdon Rooms – Ellie & David

Julia Braime

Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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We’re so excited for our return to The Bowdon Rooms this coming Sunday 27th April 2014 for our third Brides Up North Luxury & Vintage Wedding Exhibition at this stunning venue.  You can’t beat a sunny April day in Altrincham (here’s hoping!) and a unique and authentic vintage wedding venue packed full of lovely local suppliers and wedding pretty.  Seriously, you need to see our stellar exhibitor line up!

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Is the date in your diary?  You can pre-register here.  Go, go, go!

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If you’ve picked up one of our leaflets in the area (it’s been blanketed!) or received one of our subscriber emails about the event, you’ll recognise our lovely bride & groom from today’s Real Wedding. Ellie and David’s wedding day shows off exactly what can be made of this stunning venue and their celebration, full of love, music, excitement, humour and delectable vintage details, is an absolute corker! 

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I rarely re-blog content on these pages (I prefer to keep things fresh, y’know?) but I wanted to revisit their big day ahead of the weekend’s festivities because, well, you’ll see.

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Enjoy!  And see you on Sunday…

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With images by Foley Photography

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Ellie says: This was not an ordinary proposal. it being leap year and all!

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David took me to Paris in February 2012 and everyone thought he would propose.  On our return (no proposal had been made) which was Valentine’s Day I suggested we stay in London overnight, although we will just stay in a Travel lodge as we had just come back from Paris. Little did David know that I had booked a 5 star hotel called ‘The Corinthia’ off Whitehall for us to stay in all as part of my master plan proposal. I had already contact the hotel and told them my plan and they provided an upgrade and other goodies!

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David was overwhelmed by the hotel and thought it was a lovely thing to do on Valentine’s day. We went to our room and unpacked, then I pulled out his valentine’s present – a shirt from Zara. I then gave a him a little package and said these are to wear with it. 

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Inside were silver heart shaped cufflinks my sister had made and engraved on were the words ‘David will you’ on one and ‘Marry me?’ on the other.  Now David being David couldn’t read them properly and didn’t have his glasses on, he thought one said David and the other Ellie – a bit cheesy he thought, then he said “This shirt doesn’t have cufflink holes” so I said “Put your glasses on and read them”!

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He did and was overwhelmed and said yes! He wore the cufflinks on our wedding day.  The hotel then brought a bottle of Champagne and a congratulations cake to the room.  We can’t wait to go back next year for our anniversary!

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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We were married on Saturday 25th May 2013 at The Bowdon Rooms, Altrincham, Cheshire.   We loved the space inside and the sprung wooden floor for dancing, it was a great Edwardian building that had so much character and history, plus Karen and the team were so open to all the ideas I had that we didn’t want to get married anywhere else!

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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The theme was very vintage!  With homemade bunting, we had bought all our own vintage mismatched china for cups, saucers and side plates, plus sugar bowls and milk jugs. We also scoured car boots and charity shops for tea pots as these were our centre pieces with flowers in them.

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The wedding colour scheme only came about after we had chosen the bridesmaids’ dresses and we chose blue floral for my sister who was matron of honour and pink floral for the other seven bridesmaids.  So the colour scheme ended up being blue and pink.

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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I tried on so many dresses and always had in my mind I would like a short one and I did. I went for a strapless ballerina length 1950’s dress. It was by the designer Enzoani in the Blue range. I bought it from The Wedding Shop in Alderley Edge and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. The customer service was fantastic and everyone was so helpful!

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I bought my Benjamin Adams shoes from the same shop and they dyed them blue to match my sister’s bridesmaid dress. I also bought a sash from there by Sash & Co.

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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My bridesmaid dresses (all eight of them) were from Vivien of Holloway as were the petticoats. Everyone had a white petticoat underneath apart from my sister who had pink, which went perfectly with her blue dress.

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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We didn’t really use many suppliers as we did a lot ourselves, but our food was supplied by Herb and Spice and our photography by Foley Photography, Scott captured the day perfectly! Our wedding video was by www.wedding-productions.com and it was fantastic!

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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.Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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I had two bouquets.  One was a brooch bouquet that i made myself, comprising of all different brooches i had collected over the years which meant something to me, I loved making this and I look at it every day on my dressing table. 

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We made all the bouquets and centre pieces ourselves and just bought them from a wholesaler, this was so cost effective and as I had made a brooch bouquet i didn’t think I would want a flower one, but as my family and David’s cousin Lesley were making the bridesmaids, I thought it might be nice for photos to have one. Luckily we had some flowers left over and made mine out of all the bits leftover. It was beautiful, my sister made mine and did an amazing job!

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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I think my favourite part of the day was seeing David at the end of the aisle when I started dancing down, as he was so overwhelmed and happy I knew he was the one for me!

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms.

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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I travelled in an open top Beetle called Suzi provided by Little Limos. They were fantastic and it was so lovely to drive through my Village with everyone waving. My Dad loved the car and it went perfectly with our day!

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Bowdon Rooms89

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To make the day more personal, I made and sewed pink floral and blue floral napkins for everyone. We also used the same material to make over 60 metres of bunting which decorated the room.

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Our table names were David’s favourite Coronation Street characters, the head table being Steve McDonald!

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Our favours were white chocolate coconut covered truffles that u had made for everyone and came in a floral handkerchief for the ladies and white handkerchief for the men. I love using handkerchiefs and wanted to bring it back.

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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We had an American styled buffet with burgers and chicken wings and hotdogs! It was delicious. 

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David and I are not big fans of traditional wedding cakes so we asked my Mum to make us a three tiered Rice Krispie cake. this was my favourite treat as a child and it meant so much that my mum had made it, plus it didn’t cost the earth!

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We also asked our guests to make and bring a cake as part of the desert. This proved a great idea and I couldn’t believe how many gorgeous cakes there were.  There was definitely plenty of food for everyone!

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Being a Drama Teacher, entertainment was high on my list of priorities. We had several pieces of entertainment during the service, provided by my students from school. Two girls Samantha Jabangwe and Nicole Hodson sang a song each and then also wrote and played a song they had written especially for me.

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I also provided some entertainment at the start of the service by having by bridesmaids dancing down the aisle followed by me dancing down with my Dad to a song I had pre-recorded for David, I changed to words to ‘Marry You’ by Bruno Mars to ‘Hey David I think I Want To Marry You’. This was all a complete to surprise for everyone including David.  I also sang and played the Ukulele for David during my speech.

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The main Entertainment was provided by a band a found at a vintage wedding fair in Liverpool called ‘Vintage Blossom’.  They were amazing, no one stopped dancing whilst they were playing and they also happened to be local to Manchester.

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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We are going to America for three weeks at the end of July, starting in New York for a few days, then flying over to San Francisco for a few days then picking up a car and driving down the coast stopping off at Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara – where we stay in a horse ranch – Santa Monica, San Diego, Palm Springs and finally Vegas!

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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My top tip for other Brides Up North would be to try and do as much of the wedding prep together as you can as we had so much fun making the bunting and searching car boots and also not to get too drunk, then you can remember the best day of your lives!

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Foley Photography at The Bowdon Rooms

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Congratulations Ellie & David!

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Fancy seeing your own Real Wedding on the wedding blog?  Here’s how!

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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2014 Foley Photography

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The Bowdon Rooms is a Brides Up North Featured Supplier but this is not a sponsored post

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comments

  • July 30, 2013 | Permalink | Reply

    That is just simply amazing!!!!

  • Gemma
    July 30, 2013 | Permalink | Reply

    This is amazing! I have just bought the same dress from the same place- let me know if you decide to sell anything off xx

  • Emma
    July 30, 2013 | Permalink | Reply

    Stunning photos!!! what a creative couple. The bride playing the eukelele wow! Love this blog xxx

  • Babs
    July 30, 2013 | Permalink | Reply

    How wonderful to read and see your story of a unique wedding celebration.
    So much more meaningful to create so many things yourselves.
    Congratulations and by now hope you are enjoying your honeymoon !! xx

  • December 31, 2013 | Permalink | Reply

    Awesome photographs,Your photos are gorgeous! Absolutely stunning! I’m glad your photographer was able to capture so many great moments.The styling of this couple’s wedding is just beautiful as is the photography! Thanks for sharing this! I love it!
    Thanks
    Emma Smith
    http://www.wedding-venue-lighting.co.uk/white-starlight-dance-floor-hire/

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