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I should probably count my blessings that it isn’t sleeting, but I couldn’t let another dull, grey Tuesday finish without bringing you another beautiful Real Wedding! 

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As it turns out, I had something rather special up my sleeve all along.  Eleanor and Paul’s big day (planned to perfection by Brides Up North Featured Supplier, Andrea of Fabulous Day) is cool, colourful, under canvas and full of surprise details.  Look out overhead!  And I say, let the sun shine!

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With images by Helen Venables. 

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Eleanor says:  Paul asked me to marry him in January 2012 in Central Park in New York and we were married on 15^th September 2012 at  Llanasa Church in North Wales and then had the reception in the grounds of my family home “Bryngwyn” in Axton, North Wales. 

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Three generations of my family have grown up at Bryngwyn and it’s a place that holds so many special memories. We didn’t look at any other wedding venues – there wasn’t really any question as to where we would have the reception – we were just really lucky that my parents were so accommodating!

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However the idea of traditional ‘white marquee’ wedding really did not appeal – for us it was too formal and restrictive. As soon as we found Event In A Tent and their teepees we knew we’d found the perfect solution as they were original, unique, fitted in with the look of the farm and suited our personalities.

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We really wanted to make a good first impression! We worked with Design Your Day who helped us deliver really unique wedding stationery. Paul is a pilot, with a lifelong obsession with planes so on Design Your Day’s suggestion we adopted the concept of ‘travel’ as our theme. The wedding invites were printed on luggage labels, with personalised photomontage postcards as RSVPs. We also used a small plane motif within the design which was then incorporated into the rest of the wedding stationary. We bound the invites and RSVP cards with specially designed ‘All you need is love’ cotton ribbon. This tag line also had wider connotations for us given that we met in Liverpool and love the Beatles and we incorporated it in other parts of the day. We also included the luggage tags within our table plan.

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We had no specific colour scheme- the one thing we didn’t want was uniformity. We wanted it to look seasonal – with all the colours reflecting the country location.

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My dress was lace and off the shoulder and I got it from Cheshire Brides in Frodsham. I really struggled to find a dress, however all the clichés were true, and when I saw my dress I fell in love with it!

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The bridesmaids wore dresses from Maids to Measure. My bridesmaids were a range of shapes and sizes and I wanted everyone to feel comfortable in their dresses – I chose the colour and then, together with Maids to Measure, everyone designed their own dresses. Each dress was then handmade and tailored to them. They looked great! The groomsmen hired their suits from Swarbricks in Manchester. The range of stock they held made sure that everyone’s suits all fitted perfectly!

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I carried sunflowers, together with mixed herbs and lavender by David Wayman Flowers – with the bridesmaids carrying smaller versions. Paul went for a mixed herb button hole. We also decorate the church with lots of sunflowers and at the reception we had lots of wild flowers throughout the tables.

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For both of us, saying our vows were a really special moment. Also the fact that we had both organised surprises for the other throughout the day was really special.  Originally we had planned to use friends’ cars as wedding transport. However, unbeknown to me, Paul arranged for a horse and carriage to transport me to and from the church. This was a childhood dream and a complete surprise (and created lots of tears)!

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Unbeknown to Paul and all the guests, I arranged for an aerobatic display at the reception by Mark Jefferies Air Displays – which was incredible. Everyone was in complete awe of the stunts by the reigning European aerobatic champion. We later heard that it brought traffic to a standstill over 10 miles away!

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Helen Venables was our amazing photographer and we also had a wedding film created for us by Lemongrove Productions. The careful edit was perfect and captured so many happy moments. We didn’t originally think we’d get a video but on reflection, its one of our most treasured things from the day.

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We were so lucky to have a very accommodating vicar who was more then happy for us to arrange for an owl to fly the rings down the isle when we exchanged our rings! ‘Snowy’ landed on the arm of my little brother, with the rings and it all went without a hitch. None of our guests knew about this and the look of surprise on their faces was brilliant!

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For us, detail (and a few surprises!) were central to our day. For the decor this ranged from personalised rosette name places (I am a keen horse rider), personalised ‘Mr and Mrs’ Bunting, handmade personalised flower crates (made by Paul’s dad), personalised aprons for our nominated carvers during the meal, handmade lanterns, personalised dog outfits (!) and signs. We also had lots of hay bales scattered around as additional outdoor seating and provided blankets which came in handy when it got chilly later in the evening.

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Vanilla in All Seasons were our caterers.  The food was incredible and everyone is still talking about it now!

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We chose a brilliant band called Under the Covers. They played for us in the afternoon too whilst everyone was gathering for canapés.  We also had a photo booth from Picture Blast which was fun!

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Straight after the wedding we went for a mini-moon to Cephalonia.  We are planning a trip to Antarctica later this year!

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Our top tip for other Brides Up North would be to consider hiring a wedding planner! We totally underestimated the amount of planning that goes into having a wedding at home – and it never once crossed our minds that we have to arrange and plan for things like generators, toilets and outside catering requirements! Luckily we managed to secure the services of Andrea Swift at Fabulous Day. Andrea was amazing. She took all the stress away from the planning process we meant that we could concentrate on the little details as ultimately we cared a lot more about the small touches and making things personal to us. 

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Congratulations Eleanor & Paul!

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Fancy seeing your own Real Wedding on these pretty pages?  Here’s how!

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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2013 Helen Venables

Fabulous Day 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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