Classic Yet Modern Weekend-Long Broughton Sanctuary Wedding

A very warm welcome to Amy and Richard who are kindly sharing their stunning Broughton Sanctuary wedding weekend in Yorkshire.

Firstly they were married in the private chapel at Broughton Hall, followed by a drinks reception at Eden and the celebrations continued at Utopia, all within the country estate. Did I mention they had the whole weekend to enjoy there too, including a spa day post-wedding? Now that’s what I call a wedding after-party!

I adore everything about their day, from Amy’s stunning dress, altered to fit her blossoming baby bump, to the gorgeous protea bouquets and romantic decor at their reception. Look out for a cute sparkler exit, magnificent fireworks, handpainted leather jackets and elegant stationery. Their day was the perfect juxtaposition of modern meets classic in style and atmosphere.

I can’t thank Photography34 enough for sharing with us these sensational images of their very special wedding at Broughton Sanctuary.

Broughton Sanctuary Wedding

The Proposal

Richard proposed to Amy on Formby Beach by sunset. Amy didn’t expect anything at all right up until the moment Richard asked as we often visit the beach to walk our dog, talk through any big decisions and have time to ourselves. It didn’t seem strange at all that we would be going for a walk that Friday evening.

It was the perfect warm September evening. Despite Richard having to rush Amy along the walk to the beach as she stopped so many times to take pictures of their cockapoo with the beach views Richard managed to ask Amy just as the sun was setting, they made it just in time.

Richard had then booked us both a lovely weekend break at the Devonshire Arms in Skipton to head straight off to for us to enjoy the fine dining and celebrate our news. Sat in the spa at the hotel in our little engaged bubble we were so excited, it was a lovely weekend where only our parents and siblings knew about the engagement, and we could privately enjoy our new news.

The Vision

A weekend away with all our friends and family where we had lots of experiences with everyone we loved. Even the four family dogs attended, brought to the wedding by Bow Wow Vow. We wanted the day to feel calm and peaceful out in the countryside with no hustle and bustle of the outside world.

Budget

£40,000

The Venue

Broughton Hall estate.

The bridal party stayed at Eden, the groom’s party at Micklethorn which are two houses on the estate. We married in the private chapel attached to Broughton Hall.

Our drinks reception was at Eden, we then took our vintage Yorkshire pullman bus to Utopia which is a modern building within Broughton Hall’s wall gardens. Many of our guests stayed on the estate with us providing us with full exclusivity.

The Ceremony & Music

We had a catholic ceremony where an organist played Pachelbel’s Canon N D as Amy walked down the aisle with her dad and bridesmaids, Jack Johnson’s Better Together as we signed the register and The Beatles All You Need Is Love as we left the chapel.

Our first dance was Frank Sinatra, Fly Me To The Moon and this was played by a local band named ‘Chequered Band’ who performed throughout the evening.

Your Outfits

Amy’s dress was Lo’Adoro by Rachel Allen. She chose her dress in 2019 ready for her first wedding date, she loved the dress and was therefore delighted when Timeless Brides in Poynton were able to alter it to fit during her wedding in 2022 where she was 5 months pregnant with their daughter Millie.

When Amy first went dress shopping, she was looking for something less ‘bridal’ something she thought she would feel more herself in such as a jumpsuit or a dress with less traditional bridal details. However her bridesmaids and mum encouraged her to try on her an a line, satin bridal dress on and she fell in love. She is so glad she made this decision as wearing her traditional bridal dress made her feel very much the bride on her wedding day.

Family is very important to both Amy and Richard so Amy wore her Aunties emerald and diamond earrings on the day.. She was teaming them with her mum’s diamond necklace on the day until Richard had surprised her on the wedding morning with her own diamond necklace made by Noah James with the same cut diamond as the jeweller had made the engagement ring Richard designed for Amy.

Amy also had Charlotte Mills gold heart shoe clips added to her shoes as a bit of fun with Mrs on one and R on the other. Amy had two pairs of shoes, gold with jewels for the day from Ronald Cartier and Green Velvet LK Bennet wedges for later on, being pregnant comfort was key.

Richards suit was made for him by King and Allen. Richard didn’t picture himself getting married in a traditional wedding suit and therefore opted for a smart dinner suit with a black bow tie. He chose a green velvet material for his dinner jacket which happened to match Amy’s evening shoes perfectly.

Richard teamed his suit with a traditional patent wedding shoe which we also chose for his groom’s party to match their black dinner suits. Richard also bought all his groom’s party clock mechanism cufflinks to reflect his family history of watchmaking.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Photographer – Tony Wilson, Photography34

Videographer – Gary Edwards, First Sight Videos

The Styling & Decor

Previous to her current career Amy worked in the creative industry. She therefore designed all her own wedding stationery from invites to menus, order of services and table numbers. She even swapped the artwork in Eden for artwork more meaningful to them as a couple. Her favourite DIY pieces were the leather jackets she painted for herself and her bridesmaids and the perspex cake plinth with the words of their first dance song added in fine vinyl.

The DIY didn’t stop there it was a full family affair. Amy’s grandad made and painted wooden boxes for all the flip-flops and blankets. Amy’s mum branded all the blankets with a logo used throughout and Richards’s mum added little hearts with our initials to each sparkler.

Our favours were individually packaged smores in perspex boxes with our logo wax sealed on the top of each one. These proved to be a great hit up at the fire temple after the reception. We had been to many weddings where the favours were left on the tables at the end of the evening so we were really happy they were all used.

Our cake was made by our old neighbour who trades as Emma’s Special Cakes. She has made so many special cakes for our family such as Amy’s sister’s wedding cake, all our birthday cakes and the cake for our daughter’s gender reveal she was therefore the obvious choice and did a fantastic job.

Our flowers were from Wildfloralco. Our first wedding date was in October, Amy had provided the girls with a mood board of autumnal displays and had decided that she would really like proteas as a statement flower. With the final wedding date being in March it was touch and go as to whether the florist could now source proteas. It was a fantastic surprise on the wedding morning when the girls turned up with one in every bouquet and confirmed there were proteas on every table. Their work was incredible with the 5 metre hanging display being a real showstopper.

We had road signs from Etsy showing the way to the wedding. Our welcome to the wedding sign, order of the day and table plan were all designed by Amy and hung on copper frames handmade by Richard. We also had a neon sign with our new name on a floral backdrop again hanging from Richards’s copper frame. The sign went dull on the evening and couldn’t really be seen but we were having so much fun and didn’t bother in the slightest.

Lighting was important to us to set the romantic evening vibe. Typical Type added Edison bulbs to our hanging boards, festoon lighting from the ceiling and festoon lighting to mark the paths outside. This created a much nicer dimmed light than the building’s original ceiling lights.

The Honeymoon

The first element of our trip was a multi-site stay in Sri Lanka. We started off in a beach hotel, moved onto a Safari, then a luxury jungle stay with a private infinity pool in a tree house finishing in Candy city. We then moved on to a relaxing week in Mauritius.

Romani from Travel Counsellors booked our trip and was fantastic from start to finish. We were initially spending the second half of our trip in the Maldives however with the new exciting news that Amy was pregnant we swapped the Maldives to Mauritius to prevent the risk of Zika virus.

Memorable Moments

Meeting each other at the end of the aisle was the most special moment we will never forget. We just stood there and took a moment with our congregation loudly singing Morning Has Broken behind us.

With Amy’s love for art, we had an artist paint our drinks reception live. The image now hangs proudly in our kitchen and takes us back to that moment we got off the wedding bus just the two of us having a private moment before we greeted our guests together as man and wife.

Amy’s sister surprised us with a magician at our drinks reception, it was fantastic to have an element of the wedding we hadn’t planned ourselves.

Advice For Other Couples

When wedding planning it can be really easy to fall into the trap of planning your wedding for everyone else which then leaves you overthinking what others may think of each of your decisions. Of course, you will enjoy your wedding the most if everyone around you is having a great time however you can’t please or organise everyone so concentrate on what is important to you as a couple. Your wedding will then be authentically you and all your guests will have a fantastic day as they have come to celebrate you as a couple and your love for each other.

Everyone told us that our wedding day would go so fast, so we planned a whole weekend. We booked Avalon the spa onsite for the next day for our bridesmaids and groomsmen. It was so nice to unwind and chat about the day with those who weren’t too hungover to make it. It was such a nice way to finish off the weekend.

Everyone says it but save some time to just be with each other. Our very special moments were when we had check-ins with each other and just took a moment to absorb how happy we were that we were now finally married to each other.