Autumnal vibes are a go-go in today’s fabulous wedding in Liverpool, at the ‘secret space’ otherwise known as Oh Me Oh My.
Tying the knot last November, Jen and Sam knew they were after a city centre wedding and fell head over heels for this beautiful, relaxed venue. And we can see why.
Opting for a sumptuous navy blue, burgundy and gold palette, these colour accents can be found in everything from the wedding day attire and floral arrangements to the bride’s sparkling art deco jewellery and accessories.
There are so many stunning decorative touches, but we just have to mention the bride’s bouquet, which is utterly beautiful and perfectly encapsulates those autumnal vibes – a combination of roses, freedom and sweet avalanche, protea, black brassica, eucalyptus, wax flower, red trailing amaranths, ivy trails, viburnum tinus berries and large magnolia leaves. Want to see more? Let’s hand the blog over to Jen to tell us all the details…
With images by Brides Up North Sponsor Amanda Balmain
Proposal
Jen says
: We got engaged in the Lake District on a walk around Tarn Hows. It was our 5th anniversary and we had enjoyed a special meal at L’Enclume to celebrate. During the walk, Sam managed to avoid the other walkers and get down on one knee to ask me to marry him – I said yes immediately!Setting
We got married on 18th November 2018. We initially wanted an autumnal wedding as we thought you can never guarantee the weather in England – especially in the summer, so we were probably more likely to have a dry wedding in November…which we ended up having, plus some sunshine!
We got married at Liverpool Town Hall, where we had post ceremony drinks and canapes before the guests walked down to Oh Me Oh My for the wedding breakfast and party.
We knew we wanted to get married in the city centre and were walking around looking at various locations when we walked past the outside of Oh Me Oh My and it just said on the window ‘a secret space’ which intrigued us. We got an appointment a couple of weeks later and immediately fell in love with the venue – it was exactly what we were looking for in terms of size and layout. It was grand as well as feeling laidback at the same time. Plus, we found out on our visit that Sam’s mum used to work in the building when it was a bank!
Liverpool Town Hall was the perfect place to have the ceremony, being only a few minutes’ walk from the venue – and we were so overwhelmed with how beautiful it was.
Theme
We knew we wanted a city centre wedding and something quite relaxed, but we didn’t have a set theme. Once we found the venue – it all seemed to fall into place.
We went for a navy blue, burgundy and gold colour scheme. The colours seemed to work perfectly with the time of year in terms of clothing and flowers, and we used gold accents in the invites, table plans, flower stands and bridesmaids’ jewellery to bring it all together.
Dress
My dress was a Ronald Joyce dress from Emma Louise Bridal. It was a satin fitted dress with straps and a low back, with buttons down to the bottom of a small train.
I ended up buying it on my first day shopping – the most decisive I have ever been! I chose it because I felt very glamorous immediately in it and loved that I was able to have such a low back as well as being fully supported. I also wore a white furry shrug cardigan from Monsoon whilst walking outside from the Town Hall to Oh Me Oh My to keep the chill off my arms. I didn’t wear a veil but had a beautiful art deco gold and sapphire slide that my bridesmaid found for me that matched my engagement ring perfectly.
I wore diamond and sapphire stud earrings that were my ‘borrowed’ from my other bridesmaid.
My shoes were gold peep-toe sandals from LK Bennett that I wore for most of the day though I did have some gold glitter flat pumps from Sonia Rykiel for dancing all night.
Beauty
Richard Harvey was my hair and makeup artist. Richard did my bridesmaid’s wedding two years ago and all three bridesmaids ended up choosing him for their own weddings. He is brilliant and got exactly the look I was going for straight away on my trial. I loved my hair and makeup, especially the bright red lips – I felt so glamorous all day and night long.
Groomsmen
Sam wore a navy blue suit with a faint burgundy check in it from Paul Smith. He had a very light blue shirt from Thomas Pink and a burgundy tie from Reiss. His shoes were classic black Oxfords from Russell and Bromley.
The best men wore their own navy suits – and wore the same ties as Sam.
Bridesmaids
My sister was my maid of honour and she wore a fabulous two-piece outfit from Ted Baker – it had all the wedding colours in the stripes of the skirt and dress. My two beautiful bridesmaids wore navy blue long dresses from Asos which we got almost a year before the wedding as they suited both of them perfectly.
We had two flowergirls – Holly and Hope who were both 2-years-old at the time – I got their dresses from TK Maxx, their navy cardigans from Jasper Conran and their shoes were gold Converse – which have been worn many times since!
Transport
I stayed in an apartment in Liverpool the night before and we hired black cabs to take us the short journey to the Town Hall.
Photography
Our photographer was Amanda Balmain. I found her on the internet based on previous photographs she had taken at Liverpool Town Hall and loved her style of capturing the day. From the moment we first started talking about the wedding and the preparations, I felt very relaxed with her and felt she understood what we wanted from the day. Amanda was fantastic – she had the ability to always be on hand but also blend into the background too which I think is a real skill of a photographer. The natural ones she captured – especially of Sam and I walking from the Town Hall to Oh Me Oh My, and of everyone on the dancefloor – are my favourites.
Styling
Sarah and Abi from Ewer-Roberts did our flowers. I wanted natural but statement style flowers. The time of the year worked well in terms of the colours. Myself and the two bridesmaids had bouquets and my sister wore a magnificent flower crown as she couldn’t carry a bouquet as well as walking me down the aisle!
I loved my bouquet – it was a handed bouquet with trails and the flowers consisted of roses, freedom and sweet avalanche, protea, black brassica, eucalyptus, wax flower, red trailing amaranths, ivy trails, viburnum tinus berries and large magnolia leaves.
We used flowers for most of our decorations at Oh Me Oh My. Sarah and Abi did an incredible job for the tables, having both short and tall flower displays that really worked with the height and size of the room. They mixed these with plenty of candles, which made the room feel magical, especially as the sun went down. They also dotted small bud vases around the venue and used fresh flowers to decorate our cake of cheese.
We copied a friend’s idea for our favours and donated to two charities close to our heart – The Down Syndrome Association and Christies. We bought pins from both charities for our guests who were able to pin those to their outfits.
Cake
We were greedy and had two cakes! We had a cake of cheese, which was one of the first decisions we made during the wedding planning. We got the cake from the Cheese Hamlet in Didsbury that had a huge selection and we chose all British cheeses.
We were also lucky enough to have a second cake made by a close family friend Michele who does the best fruit cake we have ever tasted, and it paired perfectly with the cheese.
Dining
We started at Liverpool Town Hall with Cremant and canapes after the ceremony. At Oh Me Oh My we had sharing boards of mixed meats, cheeses, pates and breads for our starter. For mains we had two different dishes to share – Moroccan style lamb shoulder and sweet potato, and feta tartlets plus roasted new potatoes and greens for sides. Desserts were a trio of delicious sharing desserts – chocolate brownie, apple crumble cake and New York cheesecake. For late evening, we had bacon butties and halloumi burgers.
We had champagne for the toast (and I drank that most of the night!) and then had a Sauvignon Blanc and Malbec for the wine on the table.
Entertainment
We had New Power Soul Club as our band and they were utterly fantastic and really made the night even more special. They had all the guests up dancing and we have had countless comments since about how good they were. They are the ‘house band’ for Oh Me Oh My and we went to see Lauren perform at a bar in Liverpool and were blown away by her singing and how warm and enthusiastic she was about the wedding and the music the band would play.
Special touch
We borrowed an idea from Instagram and put our own twist on it. We had seen heart shaped name tags hanging from the chairs and loved the idea – but instead of hearts we got navy blue hexagons and had the names written in gold to keep with the theme.
Thanks to
We would absolutely recommend Oh Me Oh My as a wedding venue – the team there (and Holly in particular) were excellent and answered every question we had, and the day ran so smoothly from start to finish. It is such a gorgeous venue and the perfect place for a party. It was exactly what we were looking for – the right mix of being grand and glamorous but not over the top or stuffy.
Best bit
All of it! Four months later and we still can’t stop looking through the wedding photos! Our band, New Power Soul Club were a real highlight – seeing everyone (and I mean all the guests!) on the dancefloor singing and boogying away was incredible – no one wanted to leave the dancefloor!
Honeymoon
We went to Japan for three weeks straight after the wedding. It was an incredible trip and we are already planning on going back. The food was amazing, the culture was fascinating and it was just a beautiful place. Plus, we thoroughly enjoyed the Japanese karaoke!
Advice
My top tip for other Brides Up North would be, see a few venues before you make a choice – we knew Oh Me Oh My was right for us after seeing others that just didn’t quite tick all the boxes. And just have fun – everyone says it, but the day goes too quickly and honestly ii is the most amazing fun day and so special to spend it with everyone you love.
During the planning we also used Brides Up North for ideas and recommendations of wedding venues.
