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I reckon a dash of sunshine is just what the doctor ordered on a cold January morning.  Step forward Steph, Dan and their beautiful flower filled Summer wedding in the North East.  Let’s get mellow with the yellow as we start the descent to the weekend.

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With images from Brides Up North Featured Supplier Sean Elliott Photography. 

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Steph says: We got engaged on 14^th May 2011 in Newcastle – I had a long wait as we are childhood sweethearts who had been together for 11 years prior to our engagement!

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We were married on 11^th August 2012 at Crook Hall and Gardens which is a hidden gem in Durham. We had the venue until 6pm, we then went to the Gala Theatre in Durham for our evening reception.

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Right from the start we wanted an informal and rustic wedding so we went on the search for a barn conversion… despite having the Northumberland countryside on our doorstep there appeared to be a gap in the market for this up North as we couldn’t find one! A friend recommended Crook Hall and Gardens and as soon as we went there for afternoon tea we were sold! It’s a beautiful and unique venue with the most stunning collection of gardens and quirky decor. The medieval hall that we were married in was the perfect substitute to a barn ceremony. Crook Hall was so different to any wedding venue we had previously visited and we instantly fell in love with how beautiful it was.

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My mum and dad surprised me with a Beaumont vintage car to take me to the wedding. 

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It took me ages to choose a colour scheme – I didn’t want to choose a colour at first as I thought it would limit me in the hunt to find bridesmaid dresses! Eventually we found some navy bridesmaid dresses and then through my obsession of scrolling through Pinterest I found a picture of a girl in a navy dress and yellow shoes. From this point my colour theme was navy and yellow! The bridesmaids wore navy dresses and mustard shoes, we had yellow in our flowers and yellow balloons!

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As already stated, I have an obsession with lace therefore it was never an option to even consider not having a lace dress. The dress I chose was a Justin Alexander dress 8530. It is a beautiful lace mermaid gown with a bateau neckline. The dress comes with a veil but I purchased a separate lace edged cathedral veil from Joyce Jackson called Orlando that I fell in love with in the bridal shop – Mia Sposa Bridal & Menswear in Newcastle.

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The shoes were a beautiful vintage style lace up pair from Rainbow Club called Clara.

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My brother in-law’s sister played the harp as guests were coming into the wedding. She also played Canon in D as we walked back down the aisle after our ceremony and during our drinks reception following the ceremony.

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I carried a vintage style hand tied bouquet including ivory rose, lisianthus, freesia, yellow dill, achilliea which was bound with lace.  My bridesmaids had simple hand tied gypsophila.  The groom and groomsmen wore buttonholes with an achilliea and beargrass loop.

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The bridesmaids wore beautiful but simple lace navy dresses from Monsoon and their yellow suede shoes were from Clarks.  The groom and groomsmen wore navy suits hired from Waltons Menswear.

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My vision from the start was to provide a rustic / vintage theme. Anyone who knows me is aware I have an obsession with lace and so there was no doubt that lace would also play a huge part in my theme! We made lace chair ties, lace covered jam jars, put lace around the bouquets, the bridesmaid dresses were lace and obviously I had a lace dress!

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I loved the idea of homemade décor and personalised touches that we could keep hold of for years to come. We spent time searching craft markets for decorative inspiration and spent months collecting jam jars and milk bottles that we could decorate with lace, twine and buttons. My sister made old fashioned luggage tags and stamped them with messages and my friends and I made homemade raspberry jam as name places and favours. For our table names we painted the glass of old fashioned photo frames with black board paint and wrote the table names in chalk paint. We also hung slates in the gardens with extracts from our readings on and used an old fashioned vintage suitcase for our cards and gifts.

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As we had the venue booked from 11.30 and our ceremony wasn’t until 12.30 we had lawn games for the guests to enjoy in the gardens as we wanted them to make the most of the venue and spend as much time there as possible.

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We had decorations hanging from the trees and this made for some beautiful pictures when we were cutting the cake.  We used Ladybird Cakes from Tynemouth and had a three tier cake made of carrot cake, raspberry and white chocolate, and lemon sponge.

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I absolutely loved the whole day and it genuinely exceeded all my expectations! However there are two parts of the day that stand out as my favourite. The first being when my friends and I are having fun in the gardens while trying to find our way through the maze with the balloons.  We used two yellow balloons to add an element of fun, a flash of colour and we also wanted it to express our informal theme of the day. It provided some excellent photo opportunities!  There is a great photo of my friends who surprisingly all agreed to lie down in the grass to capture an amazing photo of their legs poking above the flowers!

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My other favourite part was when Dan and I managed to have time with just the two of us in the gardens as the sun was setting – Sean has managed to capture the most amazing pictures we could have ever asked for! You spend most of your wedding day speaking to everyone else but each other so it was nice to have some time to savour the moment and enjoy our own company as Mr and Mrs!

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As part of our photography package we purchased the Photo Peg to entertain the evening guests. This was an excellent alternative to a photo booth! Polaroid pictures were taken of the guests holding a large vintage frame and they held up a chalk board with a message for us. The polaroid’s were then pegged on a ‘washing line’ and at the end of the night the guests could take the pictures home as a keepsake. 

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We used Colin Cook – The North East Wedding DJ who provided our evening entertainment and mood up-lighting and The Vintage Tea Company for hire of bunting, cake stands and crockery for our floral decorations in the evening venue.

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After the wedding we honeymooned in Thailand – we spent time in Bangkok, Koh Samui and Koh Phangan.

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My top tip for other Brides Up North is don’t feel pressure to conform to the norm! Our wedding may not have been the most traditional but we made it personal to us and we made sure that it was fun! Make sure you set time aside in the day to spend time with each other – you’ll be surprised how little you’ll see of each other!! Spend time searching for an amazing photographer… Sean has taken the most beautiful and unique pictures which has provided us with memories to last a lifetime!

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Congratulations Steph & Dan!

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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2013 Sean Elliott Photography

Sean Elliott Photography is a Brides Up North Featured Supplier, but this is not a sponsored post

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