It was a case of there’s no place like home for today’s real wedding couple who decided to tie the knot in the grounds of their own house.
Having not moved into their pad all that long ago, Charlotte and Col pulled out all the stops to ensure the setting was just right for their DIY wedding, from painting garden furniture to building a Lobster Shack (that’s right, read on for details).
It’s a wedding full of love and laughter, as well as gorgeous styling – our favourite variety.
So sit back and
enjoy the prettiness
…With images by Ed Godden Wedding Photography.
charlotte says:
Col completely surprised me when he proposed on 26th May 2013. He booked a mini break to the Lake District at a gourmet hotel with a lovely spa. He proposed in the grounds as we arrived and when I finally stopped crying I managed to say “yes”.We set the date for 20th June 2014. We did debate over a few dates and the main thing we were trying to plan for was a lovely sunny day which ultimately I realised was impossible! In the end the weather could not have been better and with the side of the marquee open and my back to the sun at the top table I even ended up with sun cream on! Being close to the summer solstice meant the daylight hours went on and on and as it did drop darker, the sunset across the valley was stunning.
We were lucky enough to have space at our Yorkshire home to have a marquee in the garden and whilst we looked at a couple of venues we both kept coming back to our dream idea of having the wedding at our home. We hadn’t been in the house long and knew that there would be a lot of work in getting everything ready for the big day but we were undeterred and once we’d committed we just had to get everything done. Col finished building and roofing the summerhouse which became the Lobster Shack/bar for the big day. Col and his dad spent a few epic months at weekends building the patio that hosted our drinks reception and I painted everything in sight, from garden furniture to gates. My sister and I wheel barrowed topsoil, planted flowerbeds and in the days before the wedding family were on hand helping to get everything just right. My mum sewed metres and metres of bunting and we all helped to wrap it from trees to hooks and fairy lights in between. We knew we wanted a traditional style marquee and struck lucky when we found Will’s Marquees online. Not very glam but we also used Convenience Hire for the posh portable toilets – their service was great.
Col laughed when I first asked him what theme our wedding would be but eventually I completely converted him to what we decided to call ‘country romance’. The venue and the dress definitely dictated the theme. As we live in the countryside with gorgeous views and with the traditional style marquee and bunting, things were on a definite path to country. As soon as I tried my dress on it felt very pretty and romantic and, well it was a wedding so romance had to feature pretty highly!
The colour theme came from the bridesmaid and flower girl dresses really. I just had my sister as a bridesmaid and Col’s twin nieces as flower girls. I had muted tones in mind initially to go with the country palette but after trying various coloured dresses on I was converted to the bright coral Dessy dress which really suited my sister. I then found lovely peach coloured flower girl dresses from Ted Baker and the men wore tangerine coloured ties. It all blended together well on the day!
I wore an Essence dress that I just loved. It was from Limelight Occasions in Lepton, Huddersfield. Wedding dress shopping was fun but there are so many beautiful dresses I can really see how it can be so hard. I loved my dress as soon as I tried it on mostly because of how it made me feel but even then I didn’t want to make the wrong decision so went back a few days later, tried a good few more on and still got down to the same one. It was a fitted style but with a soft sheer lace layer over the top that gave it a lovely train and the empire line felt very feminine and pretty. My shoes were by Rachel Simpson. Wedding jewellery was really tough! My mum and I had a few last minute dashes to the Trafford Centre but finally found a simple crystal necklace that shimmered in the light.
Col wore a three-piece Ted Baker suit. He felt quite strongly that he didn’t want a morning suit, cravat or anything overly formal but wanted to be smart. His light blue suite had a textured weave and he looked gorgeous on the day. The men’s navy three-piece suits were hired from Limelight and again, were a contrast to the groom.
For our wedding transport we hired a white vintage Rolls Royce Silver Shadow from the Yorkshire Wedding Car Company. They provided a fantastic service even driving to various locations on the way back from the church for photos, which included nearly getting stuck down a country lane!
Ed Godden was our photographer. My mum, sister and I went to a wedding fair in London for a fun day out never imagining that I would actually find anyone for the wedding. My sister honed in on Ed at the wedding fair and his photos and style just stood out to us from the others we’d seen. I kept looking at his website and loved the way that his photos seemed to tell the story of each day and just had to book him. Col and I didn’t have a pre-wedding shoot but did go to meet Ed at his studio and just chatted. It really helped to feel relaxed with him around on the day, he has such a nice approach. He was fantastic and we couldn’t have wished for better photos.
I wanted a very soft, natural free flowing look to my bouquet and quite a large one too! I had trailing foliage of jasmine with eucalyptus, white ranunculas, peonies and gypsophila. I absolutely loved my bouquet and on the day was very reluctant to put it down and wanted it in every photo but thankfully Ed persuaded me to put it down for some shots. Roxanne at Lily Blossom in Marsden did a fantastic job and really understood the overall look that I wanted and delivered it perfectly.
We also used Roxanne at Lily Blossom for the décor flowers. We found the boxes for our centre pieces at an antiques fair and loved the rustic feel. I envisaged each box brimming with flowers and foliage, like little gardens and again, Roxanne delivered it perfectly. The boxes were filled with white bacopa, astilbe, ranunculus, gypsophila, viburnum, dahlia and green foliage. We had three vases on the top table one with my bouquet in and the other two with arrangements of similar flowers as the boxes.
Col is a football fanatic and our table names were football club nicknames, we had some silly favours linked to the table names like party hats for the Hatters and little pots with cacti in for the Potters. We tried to tie the table nicknames to guests who were supporters of those teams which ended up with the top table being the Terriers for Huddersfield Town, but at least there were no football kits!
I had seen lots of naked cakes and loved the style but after much deliberation went for a simple three-tier cake with lace design icing and a few fresh flowers as the topper. We used Cakes by Joanne.
We are both real foodies and the caterers was the toughest decision for us. When we met Lee from the Design House in Halifax though we were really impressed by the standard of food and his relaxed approach. Everything went so smoothly on the day and it is absolutely staggering to believe the delicious food that arrived with them using our kitchen and a couple of gazebos in the back yard.
We had five different canapés during the drinks reception. The starter had all different seafood components from crab bon bons to poached salmon. The main was chicken with risotto and a trio of fruity desserts. We had a simple evening buffet with platters of anti pasti, crusty bread and cheeses which went down very well.
My dad held a wine tasting night for us a few months before the wedding which was great fun, swirling and tasting and making very considered notes on each to help us make our final decisions. We had a Pimms reception with white pinot grigio and a red Bordeaux with the meal and prosecco for the toast.
My grandma sings in a local choir, Almondbury Ladies Choir who we chose to sing at the church. Whilst we were signing the register they sang We’ve Only Just Begun by the Carpenters and then Lovely Day by Bill Withers.
In the evening we were entertained by The Granary House Band. We had seen them at my friend’s wedding and thought they were fantastic so booked them very quickly after that. In the end they did around three or four sessions and provided the music in between so everyone kept dancing. As the evening was winding down they were taking requests from our dancing guests which turned into a random but memorable almost acoustic session of anything from Ghost Busters to Bruce Springstein!
Lobsters were an odd ‘special touch’ to our day. They don’t fit into the country-romance theme but we’ve been a bit lobster mad for a few years now and quirky though it was, we had to incorporate them. The stationery had little lobsters in hanging jars, we had a lobster ‘Mr & Mrs May’ stamp made with the wedding date on which we used for place cards and also as a seal on the envelopes when we sent our thank you cards out. Col’s biggest vision for the wedding was a bar in the garden and as he put hours of blood (literally, there was a trip to A&E) sweat and tears into transforming the summer house into the Lobster Shack – our bar for the day.
It’s incredibly hard to choose a favourite part of the day. You spend so long planning and we worked very hard at home getting everything just how we wanted it to be that really the day just made everything so worth it. The whole day was just perfect, the weather, the church service, the food, the speeches and the party into the night. It sounds cheesy but we couldn’t have wished for anything more and loved every bit of it.
We went to Bali and Singapore for our honeymoon. I remember crying in the airport because I was so sad that the wedding was all over but seemed to have forgotten we were going on honeymoon. We stayed in Ubud and Seminyak in Bali in two amazing hotels and really took the chance to relax and enjoy the start of married life. Singapore was a real contrast to Bali and a chance to do plenty of sightseeing in an amazing city.
My top tip to other Brides Up North is simply – don’t lose sight of your vision for your big day.
