Pink Winter Wonderland Wedding

We’re cosying up this afternoon and heading back to seasonal chilly days.

WWW readers Robert and Carla chose to marry on the 21st November 2o15 due to their love of Christmas and Bonfire Night. Fireworks and pretty lighting really added to the magical atmosphere at The Great Hall at Mains. I also love the use of pale pink, perhaps not a typically wintry colour but it worked so well in the pretty décor and florals used throughout.

The bridesmaids looked stunning in their short frocks and fluffy shawls, it looked like they all had a blast at the celebrations. Carla chose a swishy Amanda Wyatt gown with her hair perfectly curled, while Robert went for a blue suit and bow tie combo. So much style here today folks and a LOT of love too.

Thanks so much to Struth Photography for sharing these charming images today.

THE PROPOSAL | Rob was in the army before his current job and before the proposal he had been serving in Afghanistan for 6 months, this was March 2011 to September 2011. We wrote every day, but it was so hard being away from each other for so long, so in the November Rob surprised me to a secret getaway! I had literally no idea we were going to Venice until we got to the airport Rob proposed in a gorgeous park on our last night there.

THE VISION | We both love winter and all the festivities that come with it, i.e. Christmas and bonfire night so we knew straight away we wanted a winter wedding and the fact that we got engaged in November and also conceived our little boy in November made us even more certain that was the month it had to be! I’m such a girly girl and pink is definitely my colour so I knew straight away a pink winter wonderland was the way to go!

THE PLANNING PROCESS | I made an excel spreadsheet with all my estimates for absolutely everything so I knew exactly how much we would need each month and listed all the deposits in it etc. The three most important things to me were photographer, venue and flowers… once we decided on them the rest sort of fell into place.

BUDGET | £17000

THE VENUE | Great Hall at Mains.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Amanda Wyatt from Lottie’s Bridal Boutique, shoes by Vivienne Westwood.

FINDING THE DRESS | I went to several shops, finding the dress was probably one of my most favourite things, I could do it every day. I found it quite hard as I suited 2 different types, but decided that I’m only going to get married once so dammit I’m going to be a princess! I always thought I would want a quite fitted dress, but after trying them on, they were similar to dresses I had worn to balls or Rob’s work do’s, so when I went to Lottie’s and tried on THE dress I couldn’t believe how perfect it was. It was so simple and classic, made of this beautiful silk that moved so beautifully when you walked, it also reminded me of winter and it came with a lace jacket that I took off at night, that also gave it an extra winter look. Lottie’s also added a lace bow to the front of the dress which gave it that girly touch that I needed. As soon as I tried it on everyone said this is so you.

GROOM’S ATTIRE | The men hired their suits from Groomshire in Warrington, Rob knew straight away that he had wanted a blue colour and these were ideal. Classic morning suit, but also the shine to them looked quite modern. The men wearing morning suits was quite important to me as I wanted to make sure they would stand apart from the guests, a lot of weddings don’t seem to do it any more.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We are not a soppy couple so finding the right wedding music was hard, in the end we decided to go for upbeat 60’s love songs… definitely more us!

As the guests arrived we had Stand by Me, Ottis Reading and My Girl, The Temptations.

I walked down the aisle to Cat Power, Sea of Love, we were going to have the original but it was important to me to have a women sing the song I walked down the aisle to.

For signing the register we had Stevie Wonder, Signed Sealed Delivered and The Ronettes, Be My Babe.

Then to exit we had a duet (of course) Marvin Gaye, Aint No Mountain High Enough.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | Maid of Honour was Sophia Johnson, bridesmaids were Rebecca Dugdale, Aimee McIlvennie and Katie Wainman. Flower girls were Jess, Poppy and Bella. The adult girls all wore Amanda Wyatt too, a simple 50s style dress in pink along with a feather shawl to give it that wintry look and for the little girls I decided to go with a floral dress for something a bit different.

THE FLOWERS | Flower Designs did my beautiful flowers, I had 2 enchanted trees and 2 candelabras. Lots of wintry pinks and blues, my fave flower was a Memory Lane Rose.

THE CAKE | The cake was a really simple naked cake…. if there was one thing I regretted about the wedding it was that I forgot to bring my cake topper and that I hadn’t explained to the wedding venue about which way round my cake stand went as by the time it came to cut the cake I was a bit gutted that I had forgotten these things and that my cake stand was upside down lol.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Struth Photography. Fab photographers, made us feel at ease the whole way through!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We used pictures of ourselves as children for the table numbers which I loved. My dad also made us a huge crate that we changed into a table plan. I tried to buy lots of little rustic things like a little wooden box that the cards went in, we had a wooden cigar bar at the bar that everyone really enjoyed, a big vase of sparklers and a wooden ladder with some wooden signs. My favourite thing was probably our favours, we made a donation to Dogs Trust who sent us some cards to present to our guests, they were so grateful to receive any donations, I wish more people would do it. Creative Cover Hire did a fab job, I had lace drapes over the ceiling along with fairy lights, with pink sateen chair covers. I also had some gorgeous fairy lights hanging outside as well as some lanterns in the trees.

THE HONEYMOON | We went on a family-moon for 1 week to Dubai, it was amazing, one of my favourite places. We splurged and went all inclusive, the food was just amazing and they were so great with our little boy. It was nice to get away and just relax after all the excitement.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | So many moments, but I think my top 3 were after we had actually got married and walked back down the aisle together as husband and wife. We were just so happy and then our little Lorcs came running up to his daddy as he hadn’t seen him for 2 days! My other was when we had our first dance and all our friends and family linked arms and started dancing round us and then the final was when we had the fireworks. They were amazing and they were the one thing that me and Rob both straight away said we wanted as we both absolutely love them and we weren’t let down! Oh and not forgetting the fab photo booth, that went down great with all the guests.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Enjoy the day as much as you can, don’t worry about who you have and haven’t seen, just make sure you enjoy it. I know a lot of people say make sure you spend time together on the day, which I understand, but me and Rob were quite the opposite as it is so rare you have all your friends and family under one roof that we just wanted to also enjoy everyone else’s company. I suppose it helped that we knew we had a week away coming up. My other advice would be to get rest the night before and make sure you are organised for the morning. I was so restless the night before and definitely didn’t rest as much as I should have. It really does go by in a flash!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Struth Photography

Flowers | Flower Design

Venue | The Great Hall at Mains

Chair Décor | Creative Cover Hire

Photo Booth | Giggle Booth

Sweet Cart | Sweets and Feathers

Favours | Dogs Trust

Dress Boutique | Lottie’s Bridal Boutique

Dress Designer | Amanda Wyatt

How very magical.

Robert and Carla, thanks so much to you both for sharing your story with us here xo Lou