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It feels like everything has been happening at 1,000 miles  an hour here at Brides Up North HQ.  It’s a whirlwind of exhibition preparation, freelance features, meetings, plans and – on the personal side of things – refurbishing our new home and getting everything ready for the new arrival of baby Brides Up North.

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Anyone who follows me on Twitter or Facebook (come and join the party!) will have seen a few candid shots of our renovation project and will understand that it’s been pretty much a happy chaos around these parts for the last fortnight, whilst I sit calmly in the midst of it all processing all the beautiful Real Wedding submissions and bridal inspiration in my inbox.  There’s been a lot of irregular hours worked to keep up to speed with both the blog and the business side of the brand, but so far, we are coming out fighting (and I figure it’s good practise for the arrival of this little one anyway)!

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This morning, though, I have hidden myself away in a back bedroom whilst all the mayhem happens in the rest of the house – and for once in my life – I’m feeling serene!  It’s been thoroughly lovely to welcome the new day with a big pot of tea, work through the email backlog due to last week’s server issues and indulge myself with Emma and Neil’s beautiful Real Wedding images and story.  With images by Brides Up North Featured Supplier Sarah Mason Photography, this gorgeous day is a sunny breath of fresh air on an otherwise hectic January morning.

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Enjoy, and have a wonderful day (it’s nearly the weekend)!

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Sarah, our photographer, says:  As soon as Emma & Neil started talking about their day, I knew it was going to be amazing! One of the first things they mentioned to me was that Wetherby Silver Band would be playing at their reception at Wood Hall! As the wedding was late October, I knew the autumn colours would be stunning in the grounds.

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We went to Emma’s parents’ house after being to the hairdressers and the sun started to shine, in fact it stayed out all day! As Emma and her bridesmaids were having their cuppas and their bacon sarnies, Emma was telling me about the apple tree in the garden, a tree she used to climb when she was younger. I was so pleased she agreed to me taking the dress out to the tree to take a few pictures!

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I loved all the personal touches. It was a beautiful day – so many smiles and laughter. Congratulations Emma & Neil.

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Emma, our bride, says:  We got engaged on 14 June 2010 on Whaleshead Beach in Oregon, USA. We were doing a road trip from Vancouver down the coast to San Fran and then back up inland. Neil proposed a couple of days in – he must have been certain I would say yes as we had 2 weeks left and 3000 miles to cover!

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We were married on 27th October 2012, with the ceremony at St Mary’s RC Church, Horsforth, Leeds.  I was christened there and went to the primary school next to the church so it meant a lot to get married there. We live in Horsforth and both grew up there.  Our reception was at Wood Hall, Wetherby.

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The first time we drove there our jaws dropped as we came round the corner and saw the hotel. The views are just stunning. We had looked at quite a few places and Wood Hall was the standout winner.

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I wore a Charlotte Balbier dress from Bridal Boutique in Guiseley. I knew I didn’t want a strapless dress and found my dress the first day I went out searching. My sister Suzy spotted it in the window of Bridal Boutique and we both knew it was the one when I tried it on.

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Charlotte and Sally at Bridal Boutique were incredibly helpful, I always looked forward to my dress fitting appointments with them!

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The bridesmaids wore Dessy dresses in blue from Angel Brides in Horsforth. Again they found them the first day they went looking. They’re not too bridesmaidy looking and they all looked very sophisticated in them!

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Neil, his best man and the groomsmen had suits made at Michelsberg.  They all looked incredibly smart and had a handkerchief on their suits to match the bridesmaids’ dress colour.

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We had our rings made by Iain Henderson Designs.

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The bridesmaids, me and my Mum and Dad went from Emma’s parents’ house to the church in a Daimler limousine.  From the church to the wedding, Neil’s groomsman Paul was our chauffeur and drove Neil’s BMW M5 (Neil’s pride and joy, called “Pudding”). Neil had bought Paul a chauffeur’s hat especially for the occasion!

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We really enjoyed the ceremony. The priest who married us (Father Boniface) was so funny and made the ceremony very special – even when he thrust a microphone at each of us asking us why we were marrying each other – nothing like putting us on the spot!

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The whole day was just fabulous – from the amazing sunny weather doing our photos at Wood Hall to the speeches to the party afterwards.

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We had Wetherby Silver Band playing at the reception drinks. We love the sound of brass bands and thought it was a nice ‘Yorkshire’ touch as a lot of the guests were coming from afar.

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I carried a bouquet of white roses and green foliage and berries – I wanted something that was autumnal and reflected the season. The bridesmaids had similar but with white gerberas and the groomsmen and VIPs wore white flower buttonholes. Our flowers came from Eden Florists, Horsforth. They were great and the arrangements were beautiful.

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We chose Sarah Mason Photography as we are big fans of her work (we’d seen her photos from Neil’s best man’s wedding) and we knew she’d capture the day in a way nobody else would. We discussed the kind of shots we wanted and Sarah put us both at ease at the pre wedding shoot and on the big day itself. We love the photos and are so glad Sarah could join us and share our special day.

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We had a mock up newspaper front page dated 27 October 2012 displayed around the hotel – we first met many years ago whilst doing paper rounds at a paper shop in Horsforth. After the ceremony we went and had a few shots outside that shop, much to the amusement of people on a bus going past at the time!

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For the wedding breakfast we had the tables named after places we had visited during our US road trip when we got engaged and the table plan was a map of our route. Neil’s sister and brother in law are very creative and designed and made our menus and place names.

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We had a cake of fruit, chocolate and sponge mix from M&S.  We had a cake of cheeses from Millie’s Deli in Leeds which we served in the evening too.

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The best man Graham’s speech was incredibly entertaining. It had a section where he wigged up as Philip Schofield and posed Mr and Mrs style questions!  We had a disco in the evening. We had a large Irish contingent of guests so had given some song suggestions to keep the dance floor packed out.

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We had a cosy thatched cottage in the Cotswolds for the week after the wedding – was great to relax, go for walks, eat and drink! With organising the wedding we hadn’t had chance to plan our honeymoon – we knew we wanted to go to South America so we booked after the wedding to go on our proper honeymoon to Argentina in February 2013 visiting Buenos Aires, Patagonia, Iguacu Falls and Salta then a few days on the beach in Uruguay at the end.

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My top tip for other Brides Up North would be on the day just savour it all and enjoy every moment. I don’t think either of us have smiled and laughed as much on one day!

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Congratulations Emma & Neil!

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Get in touch to see your own Real Wedding featured on these pages – here’s how.  I can’t wait to hear from you.

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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2013 Sarah Mason Photography

Sarah Mason Photography is a Brides Up North Featured Supplier, but this is not a sponsored post

Contact Brides Up North to submit your business as a Featured Supplier

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