Colourful & Floral Village Hall Post Elopement Reception Party

Are you planning to elope? If so you may be considering holding a wedding reception party after the big day to celebrate with all of your loved ones. I am over the moon to be sharing WWW readers Charlotte and Dan’s post wedding party today. They were hitched on the 7th September 2018 on the Hawaiian island of Maui and then held a wedding reception at Eccleston Village Hall in Cheshire on the 29th September 2018.

Their post elopement party was just beautiful, so very colourful and full to the brim with their personality. They gave themselves four years to plan their wedding and so they used that time to craft every little detail you can think of. There are just so many wonderful details to be inspired by here. Wow!

I adore the bright florals, hearts on sticks, boat transport, post card seating plan and streamer ceiling to name just a few. Do also look out for the almost metre tall cake, sweetie table, fabulous outfits and delicious sounding cuisine. Oh yes!

Thanks ever so much to Samantha Kay Photography for sharing with us these joyous captures.

The Proposal

Dan proposed at the top of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. We made the trip to Edinburgh on our first holiday seven years beforehand, so it was the perfect place to pop the question!

The Vision

A Hawaiian elopement followed by a colourful, fun filled celebration with all our fantastic friends and family.

The Planning Process

We certainly took our time planning what our big day would look like and we enjoyed every second! We visited lots of wedding venues in the UK, but didn’t really feel any fitted with our style or what we wanted for our wedding day. Next stop, we explored Lake Garda in Italy and thought about getting married in a little castle by the lake, as gorgeous as it was that just didn’t give us the feels either. We found that amongst the mayhem of planning a wedding, the most important thing often got lost….two people saying ‘I do’! So we decided to get married, just the two of us, in Hawaii. We followed this with an epic party (some may say second wedding) with all of our family and friends in the UK to celebrate! We made the most of planning for our party and tried to involve all our family and friends in the process.

Budget

We spent 4 years saving and every penny was worth it.

The Venue

We got married on the Hawaiian Island of Maui, on a sandy white beach at sunset. Upon returning home, we held our wedding reception at the lovely Eccleston Village Hall in Chester a couple of days later. We met all of our guests aboard the ‘Lady Diana’ boat on Chester river front. We had a tipple or two as we all sailed down the river, to be dropped off at the village hall. We fell in love with the village and its hall as soon as we set eyes on it. It only holds a few weddings a year, making it feel really special. The hall is surrounded by lots of lovely green fields, trees and has the river running through it… perfect for the sunny day we struck very lucky to land with!

The Cake

Most people think about their wedding dress when they think of getting married… I mainly thought about cake! Our five tier cake was just under a meter tall and was made by our very talented friend Christine. The cake was wrapped in bunting, which I was making for what seemed liked months leading up to the big day! We also had a great big cake table full of lots of delicious treats! Baking has always been a big thing for the women in our family, so my Mum and I enjoyed taking advantage of the excuse to go overboard!

The Details & Décor

We love our festivals so wanted to capture that relaxed feeling of one so everybody could have a good time and the kids could run wild! We had wellies full of flowers, beer barrows and hay bales galore. We crafted everything for the big day over the four years we were engaged and tried to tie in bits of Hawaii here and there. I loved thinking of little touches to add to the day and it was really nice to see people enjoying these! We took a while deciding over food and were delighted when we realised one of our favourite restaurants Almost Famous had a ‘Wondertruck’ providing all American themed food! We also had a vintage VW campervan serving ice-cream, which we popped at the end of the path we walked up from the river.

Your Outfits & Accessories

Wedding Dress – Essense of Australia
Suit – French Connection
Tie – Liberty of London

Beauty

Hair – Blow by Suave, Chester.

The Flowers

Flowers by Flourish Flowers and some we put together ourselves.

Your Photographer

We booked Sam from Samantha Kay Photography 2 years before our Wedding Reception and I’m so glad we did. We wanted our photos to tell a natural story of the day and she captured all of those ‘in the moment’ moments perfectly. She was also super lovely, making it much easier to bully her into asking the horse and carriage drivers who they were waiting for!

The Readings & Music

Before our speeches, my bridesmaid read ‘A Lovely Love Story’ by Edward Monkton. We came across these lovely dinosaurs during that first holiday we had in Edinburgh. It was lovely hearing the story being read out 11 years later.

The Honeymoon

We spent a month exploring Seattle, Maui, Oahu, Las Vegas and New York.

Bridesmaids

My beautiful bridesmaids wore two different style dresses, in the same colour from Oasis. They also rocked their flower crowns.

Memorable Moments

Maui: Opening the individual letters all our family and friends had written to us for the morning of our wedding day. Picking a palm tree in Hawaii for our ‘first look’ and meeting Dan there on our wedding day! Sitting on the beach watching the sun set after we said ‘I do’ and sitting under the stars with a bottle of champagne.

Chester: Everyone helping us to get the hall ready the day before and seeing our vision come together. Dan buttoning me into my wedding dress on the morning of our wedding reception. My dad organising us a surprise horse and carriage to take us to the boat on Chester River! It was the one thing I had let somebody else organise for our party and not know anything about… he definitely pulled it off! Feeling the love of all our family and friends and seeing them all having a fab time.

Advice For Other Couples

Enjoy the planning process leading up to the big day, but believe people when they say ‘you won’t care on the day’! Most of all… don’t be scared to do your own thing and create a day (or two!) that represents who you are as a couple!

Credit Where Credit Is Due

So glorious.

Charlotte and Dan thank you both so very much for sharing with us your utterly amazing wedding reception, what a pleasure it’s been! xo Lou