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Over the festive period I’ll be recapping some of my very favourite Real Weddings from the last 12 months on the wedding blog. It’s been a tough choice! In true Brides Up North style, each wedding featured on these pages is unique, beautiful and gorgeously personal. It’s been an exceptionally fabulous year! Enjoy…

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A glittering beauty to welcome Christmas in.

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We first met gorgeous bride Amy and her husband Chris back in November last year on these pages, when I featured their intimate pre-wedding “Limited Collection” shoot by Cat Hepple Photography.  Now they are back to share their even more beautiful Real Wedding images – again by the lovely Cat Hepple – with us.  What a pleasure!  Amy and Chris’ wedding day is a triple whammy of stylish, chic and romantic, which all adds up to an utterly stunning celebration. 

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Amy says:  Chris asked me to marry him at home on Christmas Morning 2010 and we tied the knot on 17th August 2012 at St John’s Church Oulton then Oulton Hall, Leeds. 

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Oulton Hall is just around the corner from our house, Chris plays golf there most weekends every weekend and because it’s so close it meant it was accessible for all our friends and family, which was important to us that they could all get there hassle free, although my Momma T might disagree, they flew in from Arkansas!

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I drive past the church and Oulton Hall every day on my way to and from work and I have to admit, it is beautiful, it was a great venue. The event staff on the day were fantastic, despite a couple of power cuts and it scrubbed up nicely with the help of some amazing suppliers! I will hold Oulton Hall fondly in my heart, full of happy memories.

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I read blogs religiously and scrapbooked and tumblr’d for months.  I knew what I wanted but I wouldn’t call it a theme!  We opted for a colour scheme of greens and whites. 

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Jo Bilham did my makeup and Kizzy at Charisma Bridal did my hair. 

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I tried on a dozen dresses (around 50 to be more specific), in a dozen different stores spread across Yorkshire. I never really fell in love with any of them. So I started researching Yorkshire designers, I found James Steward Couture and the rest is a fairy-tale. 

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From the first meeting with James I felt like he got me, he knew exactly the look I wanted to achieve and had no problems executing it, he is beyond words talented. We started the dress fittings and I felt like Cinderella, minus the bluebirds and the singing mice!  It was so exciting, starting with calico and pins to the final fittings when I was stepping into the finished silk dress we had been creating for nine months, it was perfect, it still makes me want to cry, it was and still is (excluding the mucky hem and fake bake smudges) the most beautiful dress I have ever worn. I could genuinely swoon about my dress and about James all day long.

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My shoes were Jimmy Choo, the last pair in the country in my size, it was obviously fate!

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HF Couture created my stunning couture hairpiece.

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My grown up bridesmaids also wore James Steward Couture whilst the younger and flower girls were in Topshop and Tigerlily.  Chris and his groomsmen wore Slaters suits & James Steward Couture cravats.

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Helen at Twigs in Barwick has been a friend of my Mum’s for years and I always knew it would be Helen that did my wedding flowers, long before I knew who my husband was!  I wanted a collection of all my favourite flowers, most importantly orchids, hydrangeas, freesias, avalanche roses and lots of greenery. I wasn’t specific apart from to stick to whites and greens and let Helen do her thing, they turned out beautifully, I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

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We had Trio Vivo by The Event Music Company booked for the church ceremony right through the wedding breakfast with the addition of a surprise as we left the church.  Chris and I watch Love Actually every Christmas, it’s a little tradition we have, so I knew I had to recreate the wedding scene.

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Chris Hilton at Event Music pulled it off seamlessly, planting a singer and two extra musicians amongst our guests, so as we were leaving the church they started playing ‘All You Need Is Love’, trumpet, singer and all, it was fabulous, I just wish we could have done a second walk out the church so I could have listened to them longer!

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Beau Collections did our gorgeous outdoor styling and Ambience Venue Styling dealt with the inside!

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Thierry and Rebecca at Dumouchel are great friends of ours and gifted us our stunning cakes as a wedding present – I’m a very lucky girl.

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We had a macaroon tower, with custom blended green; lavender, rose and white chocolate macaroons;

a stunning croquembouche with a mixture of chocolate ganache and crème patisserie filling and a traditional iced and tiered fruit cake.  They were so delicious and looked amazing.

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They were all themed together with the addition of the hydrangea petals and the most beautiful edible paper butterflies that came from SugarRobot in California via Etsy.

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We had a custom monogram designed and used it on the invites, which were made by Cutture, fabulous laser etched mirrors, on the order of service and the table plan.

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Our table plan and the numbers were created by Chris and an amazing local glass supplier, it was his baby, he’s very proud of it!

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The monogrammed butterflies were also a favourite of mine.

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Marriage A La Mode were our videographer and are two of the loveliest people I have ever met.  The video is tear jerking-ly beautiful. I have watched it every day since we got it. I can’t thank Zoe & Mat enough!

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I loved every second of the day.  In particular, the speeches were pretty epic and our last dance was quite special.

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In the evening we used a band called The Wedding Smashers.  Max smashed it, everyone danced till they dropped, my Choos were discarded and I lost all bridal elegance winding to Bobby Brown and I can vividly remember bouncing about the dance floor to Katy Perry’s Firework with all my girls, I was deliriously happy. Our last dance was All You Need Is Love, it was the way we started our party and the way we finished it. Happy smiley people!

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After the wedding we honeymooned in the Maldives at Lily Beach. The most perfect place on earth.

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My top tips for other Brides Up North would be to do whatever you want to do, don’t be led by other people’s opinions or what’s ‘on trend’. Don’t get stressed by family politics, if they love you enough they’ll let it drop for just one day!  Enjoy every second of the day! Spend the biggest chunk of your budget on a really amazing photographer: it’s worth every penny. 

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Congratulations Amy & Chris!

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Get in touch to see your own beautiful Real Wedding featured on the wedding blog.

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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2012 Cat Hepple Photography 

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