Today’s real wedding is the perfect fairy tale, complete with a princess style wedding dress, sweet colour scheme and horse and carriage.
Ladies in pursuit of a happy ever after wedding day, prepare to start pinning…
With images by Brides Up North Sponsor Lee Brown Photography.
moira says:
We got engaged in June 2015 on our first evening of our holiday to Cuba. We had a private meal on a veranda overlooking the beach and Ste got down on one knee. I was not expecting it at all so I was wondering what he was doing on the floor but when I realised he’d given me a ring, I was speechless. I was actually speechless all night which is not like me, he’d completely caught me by surprise! We had a bottle of champagne and told the families the following day.Our wedding date was Saturday 25th June 2016. Ste had contacted Nunsmere Hall, where he knew I wanted to hold my wedding, before he proposed and had asked if they would contact us if any Saturdays in June became available. Nunsmere contacted Ste with our date and said they would reserve it for us. When Ste proposed he also gave me the date and said if I was happy to have it we could confirm as soon as we got home, which we did.
Our ceremony took place at Church Christ the King in Bromborough, Wirral. This is my family church where I was baptised so I was set on getting married here. The florist, organist, soloist, registrars and the Priest were all wonderful and made our ceremony so special. We then had our reception at Nunsmere Hall, Northwich. We decided on Nunsmere as I had always loved it, I took Ste for his birthday and he fell in love with it too. We felt an instant connection with Nunsmere and we loved the fact that the lake surrounded it. When we had a look around the bedrooms we loved that they were all different designs, all charming and comfortable. The marquee and grounds are phenomenal and we were completely smitten with the venue, especially when they moved the marquee to the lakeside. We did not consider anywhere else than here.
We wanted our wedding to have a shabby chic hint whilst still being fairy tale like. We wanted it to be simplistic and soft in the marque so we used lots of jars and bottles with flowers to turn our marque into a soft pastel shabby chic haven. We kept our décor pretty simple with flags, flowers and lanterns for decoration. We also decided on the floral love letters to add that softer look. Our marquee was lit in soft pink too.
We had a pastel colour scheme as I couldn’t decide on just one colour so I decided to use all of my favourites instead. I had eight bridesmaids so I used four colours blue, green, pink and yellow, the main colours. With it being summer and in the wedding taking place in a white marquee, I thought this colour scheme would work really well. I browsed through Pinterest and I had seen it look simple and soft but very effective.
I already had in my mind that I wanted a princess style dress when I started shopping for my attire. I tried on around 15 dresses in four shops with a variety of styles and I just kept going back to the same princess style. In the final shop, Bellissima Brides, Brimstage, my chosen dress was probably around number 14 and I liked it on the hanger but I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did when I had it on. The whole experience in this shop stood out a lot more and as soon as I put the dress on I felt completely different than I had in any previous dresses. I knew it was the one. The sample was in caramel which I loved, but I ordered it in ivory. I was quite nervous waiting for it to come into the shop as I hadn’t actually seen the dress in my colour. When it arrived I went straight up to try it on and I fell in love with it all over again. It was a lot plainer than I had thought I would go for, it had an applique bodice with a plain full princess skirt and I added cathedral veil. Just perfect!
Ste got his suit from Moss Bros. We hired Ted Baker slim fit navy suits with tails. He had a cream paisley print waistcoat and matching tie. The ushers wore the same Ted Baker suits as Ste but their waistcoats were navy.
Our bridesmaids all wore the same dresses just in the different pastel colours which were from a website called Eloise’s Secret Closet, then alterations were carried out by our family friend. The dresses had a lace top with a chiffon bottom and had corset backs. We had two in yellow, two in pink, two in green and two in blue.
On the day of the wedding, hair genius Christopher Milea Hairdressing, did mine and my eight bridesmaids’ hair. He is a true gent with a fabulous talent. Emma Richards, of MadeUp Make-Up Studio in Bromborough, Wirral, took care of my makeup. Both Emma and Chris made me feel like an absolute princess.
To go from the house to the church I travelled by horse and carriage, hired from The Ostler. I opted for the all-weather carriage to cover me for the British unsettled summer weather. We had white horses and the carriage was dressed with our pastel colours. We also had a light blue Rolls Royce which took the bridesmaids to the church then, once married, Ste and I went in the Rolls Royce for the half-hour journey to Nunsmere Hall. The car belonged to one of our day guests who kindly offered to be our chauffer for the day, which we were honoured to have.
Our photographer was Lee Brown who we would highly recommend. We met up with Lee a few times before the wedding and we got to know him and felt comfortable around him. Lee showed us some of his work which spoke for itself. He was the top hat of the package as he was so approachable and friendly whilst always being professional. We had a pre-wedding shoot which we actually really enjoyed and we felt this gave us the chance to get all of our nerves out of the way and see what shots we liked and what we didn’t. Lee could not have done any more for us, and although we have only seen a preview of the pictures, we are over the moon with them. He is an absolute genius in his field and it was our pleasure to have him involved in our special day. We cannot wait to see the entire collection of images soon.
We also had a videographer Rob Whibley of Action Wedding Videos, to film our day. We didn’t see Rob all day but he managed to capture every moment without us noticing. The DVD is marvellous and we keep watching it over and over, reliving our perfect day.
I had the most beautiful of bouquets which Amelia Jane, based in Bebington, Wirral, provided. I was very vague with Karen as to what I wanted as I only told her the colours I was using, what flowers I liked and which I didn’t and I just let her work her magic. This she did! My bouquet had pink and cream peonies with pink and cream roses with foliage, it was full of texture just as I had asked. My bouquet was wrapped in a simple hessian wrap with pearl pins to hold. Perfect!
In the marquee I used my bouquet and my bridesmaids’ bouquets of gypsophila to decorate the top table and the cake table. The jars and bottles on our guest tables were filled with artificial pink and cream peonies from Inspirations Wholesales in Bromborough, Wirral. The jars and bottles followed the same pastel theme.
We also hired pastel coloured lanterns from Hipswing, which decorated the marque and set it off beautifully, and we had love letters, which were full of cream flowers, from Petals in Love, based in Cheshire. I was so happy with the look of the marquee as it was just enough whilst remaining fresh and airy. It was everything I envisioned.
For our favours we had badges from the hospital’s charity that I work at, Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. The pins were attached to a card thanking our guests for sharing our day and noted that we had donated to the charity on their behalf.
Neither Steve nor I like icing so we opted for a naked wedding cake decorated with fruit. We both love a Victoria sponge so we wanted to have a cake we could both enjoy. Supa Dupa Cakes made our four-tiered Victoria sponge cake which was decorated with all our favourite berries. The cake tasted delicious.
We also had a sweet cart for our guests with a sweet tooth from Fancy a Bounce, Northwich. They delivered a fabulous service in only 48 hours after being let down by our original company.
For our entrance canapes we had mini Yorkshire puddings with beef and gravy, mini prawn cocktails and warm croquet monsieur. These canapes were served with prosecco, Pimms and bottled beer. For our wedding breakfast we decided on melon and Parma ham to start, followed by a chicken roast for main and then a sticky toffee pudding with salted caramel ice cream for dessert. These are our favourite main and dessert but we did struggle on agreeing on a starter so we opted for the safe option. The meal was served with white and rose wines and champagne for toasting. In the evening we had bacon sandwiches as we didn’t want the evening to stop for people to eat so it all flowed nicely as the staff served the batches on large trays rather than putting them out on tables.
As entertainment we had saxophonist Gemma Wild for the day during canapes and for after the meal and before the evening reception. Gemma was outstanding and created a very relaxed atmosphere outside in the sun. It was just perfect. We would highly recommend Gemma she was fantastic.
In the evening we had a DJ again through Hipswing. Philippa was fabulous and made sure our dancefloor was full all night. Ste and I were on there all night as she tailored the entire set to us. We wanted a mixture of old and current music and she managed to do this really well. We were so happy with Philippa as she not only delivered the music, but she was so friendly and accommodating too.
We also decided on sparklers for when the sun went down. This created some fabulous photographs and it also allowed our guests to venture into the beautiful grounds of Nunsmere.
For couples on the venue search, we would highly recommend Nunsmere Hall. It’s a perfect setting for a wedding; the grand house, the beautiful backdrop of the lake in the lakeside marque, the endless photograph opportunities in the outstanding grounds. Each bedroom is individual and inviting and the staff couldn’t be more helpful. We cannot express enough our love for the place. We were over the moon with Nunsmere and we cannot wait to go back to enjoy it again.
Our favourite part of the day was the drive from the church to the venue. It was a 30 minute drive which allowed us to have a good chat and relax in just each other’s company before we got to our guests. We also loved seeing the marque all decorated before anyone was in there which made us so excited for our family and friends to join us.
After the wedding we went on honeymoon to Sandals in Barbados, which was just paradise. The hotel was out of this world and it was on a beautiful beach. We went to the cliff restaurant one night for a special meal which was phenomenal and a once in a lifetime opportunity. We hired a car to drive around the island for the day which was fun but we were glad to get back to the luxury of Sandals. The restaurants were some of the best we have ever been to and we could not decide on a favourite. We had a bathtub on our balcony which I used every night, listening to the saxophonist playing music around the resort whilst drinking a glass of wine. We had two weeks of relaxation and did not want to leave. We swam with turtles, sailed a catamaran and drank and ate our weight in food and drink! Pure perfection!
My top tip to other Brides Up North would be enjoy all of the lead up to the wedding and take in every minute of the day, it really does go by too quickly. Make sure you do exactly what you both want and don’t be influenced by others. It is your day and you do not need to please everyone else. I would highly recommend a videographer, it is such an amazing thing to be able to look back on the day over and over as even when you take in every minute, you still forget parts. Enjoy it, don’t stress, it’s all out of your hands on the day anyway!
