Tell us about the venue…
It was the first venue we visited and it was everything we ever dreamed of. The country house hotel had a modern main hall and a very traditional sitting room with gorgeous gardens leading to the river where many guests enjoyed sitting. As a summer wedding we chose soft blush and peach colors for our palette and teamed this with ivory. The bridesmaids wore floaty blush dresses and all the groomsmen had the same colour in their tie & pocket squares.
How did you personalise your day?
We wanted to keep our wedding day elegant, so we chose to decorate the venue with fresh flower bombs throughout the aisle and tables and included a hanging floral ceiling decoration above our main table and registrar table consisting of white and blush peonies, hydrangeas and roses. We also decorated the venue with lots of cylinder vases filled with water and floating candles.
Tell us what was important for you for your wedding day…
The most important thing for me and Ollie to have at our wedding was family and friends. We both lost our fathers several years ago so it was very important to us that we included them in some way. I chose to have a small picture of my dad entwined in my bouquet, so I felt like a part of him was with me when I walked down the aisle and took my vows.
Our wedding tables were named after our favourite countries that we’ve visited since being together along with a couple of photos. We opted to have charity badges as our favours which were the British Heart Foundation and Prostate Cancer in honour of our dads as well as a short poem on how they were so missed. We also had family wedding photos displayed on our gift table of our parents and grandparents’ wedding day.
Can you describe your wedding dress shopping experience?
The dress hunting began a year prior to our wedding. I always liked fishtail and fitted dresses. Me and my mum visited over 20 dress shops and probably tried 60 dresses on. I was very open to all styles but the fitted dresses soon became my focus. I found trying on dresses quite overwhelming and some shops made me and my mum so exhausted we had to go home for a nap! However, we stumbled across The Dressing Room in Garstang where all the staff were so lovely and welcoming. At The Dressing Room I pulled out three dresses I liked which happened to all be by the same designer, Ronald Joyce! Up until this point no dresses had really stood out for me but I really liked all three of these dresses, especially the dress Teegan from Ronald Joyce’s Victoria Jane Collection. I booked a second visit to the shop so I could bring along my Maid of Honour and my Mum to show her all three dresses. We all decided the favourite was Teegan, style number 18211, and I said Yes to the dress!
Everybody fell in love with this dress. It had so much detail, sparkled wonderfully and I loved the fullness of the bottom of the dress. All our wedding guests commented on how stunning the dress was.
Any advice for future brides?
My advice to any future brides would be to make sure you have a backup pair of shoes if you are wearing high heels. I teamed my dress up with some gorgeous Sophia Webster shoes however I was glad for the lower heeled shoes when it came to nighttime. I also provided flip flops and toiletry essentials in the bathrooms for all the guests which went down a treat.
Photography by: Emma J Smith Photography