Soft Pink Rustic Boho Wedding

Happy Friday folks. I hope you have a super weekend planned, to get you in the Friday mood let me share this darling wedding celebration with you.

WWW readers Laura and Timothy were married on the 25^th July 2015 in a Church ceremony followed by a reception at East Keswick Village Hall in Yorkshire. A soft, simple and natural theme emerged with pretty pinks, creams and whites used in the styling. The village hall was decorated using rustic wooden signage, flowers in lace covered jars and fairy lights. It really was a sight to behold. WWW Supplier Love members Deckheds were on hand to get the party started in the evening, it sounded as though the dancefloor was filled all night long.

Laura had her lace gown custom made and wore her hair in loose flowing waves, which looked really gorgeous. Timothy decided on a blue T.M. Lewin ensemble and the bridesmaids long pale pink gowns, accessorised of course with the fluffiest gypsophila bouquets ever. Sweet.

Natasha Cadman, thank you so much for sharing these utterly beautiful photographs.

THE PROPOSAL | In Rome, in the beautiful Parco Savello (Orange Gardens). I had been there years before when I was travelling with a friend and I had told Tim how beautiful it was, he remembered and took me back there on a trip to Rome for his birthday. It is such a beautiful spot and there was barely a person there at the time, all the trees were heavy with oranges and the view over Rome was beautiful – perfect.

THE VISION | We knew straight away that we wanted something that represented us, not something that was expected of us. We wanted a simple, natural look with soft colours, creams, pale pinks and whites, with a very relaxed feel. We wanted people who we really love and care for there and we wanted them to come and have a really good day. We wanted to make it a personal as possible and get our family and friends really involved.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We started about 12 months before, and the first biggest decision was the Church and venue. The venue took a bit of deciding but once we knew East Keswick was the location we booked this and Adel Church at the same time and then started thinking about everything else. This created a bit of a flurry of activity at the 12 month point but it was followed by calm for a few months. We didn’t do wedding fairs or have a crazy schedule to work to; we drew up a list and did one thing at a time. Any more than that and I may have sent Tim running for the hills!!

I think the bite-size chunks element and working from a list was the best way for us to approach it, we didn’t get outfaced.

Naturally the last month was a fraction mental but in a nice way.

BUDGET | All we knew with the budget was that we wanted to be as realistic as possible. We had a figure in mind and we did get help from our family but we didn’t want to go crazy, we very much had the mind-set that whilst it was an important day in our lives it wasn’t the only day in our lives. We also looked at lots of options for all suppliers and picked elements where we didn’t want to cut corners.

We also tried to do lots of things ourselves and asked lots of family and friends for help, we made lots of the decorations ourselves; we decorated jam jars, my brother in law made all the signs and one of Tim’s best men used his artistic flair to do all the writing, another family friend wonderful with crafts made all our invites, orders of services, menus and table cards etc. All their help was invaluable and actually your friends and family want to help, it’s great that they become part of the day and it all helped in the build-up.

It means you can add the personal touches not only because they are great but because it is helps financially too.

THE VENUE | We always knew we would love to get married in Adel Church. This was the traditional bit we wanted. We both grew up in Leeds (we actually went to the same high school together, although a year apart. He was the boy in the year above who I thought was ‘fit’) and we first lived together in Adel. I was also christened at Adel Church and spent many a morning walking to services from the local primary school – it was an easy decision to get married in such a sentimental and beautiful church.

The reception was slightly different. Tim had a real view that he didn’t want a hotel, he wanted something slightly different, like a marquee, tepee or somewhere we could make our own. We started looking around, initially focusing on a marquee somewhere but over the course of a weekend a couple of friends suggested East Keswick Village Hall.

I had been shopping with my Mum and in Harrogate and we drove home through East Keswick and decided to have a look. The hall was open and setting up for a village dinner that night so we saw the room partially laid out which was great as we could see how we could add to it. But it was when we walked out onto the terrace at the back I was sold. I went home and told Tim all about it and we made plans to go back and see it.

We went back together and he loved it too. It was a blank canvas, in a beautiful location that we could make really special with gorgeous views in addition.

We knew it was the spot for us.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Dress – I didn’t do lots of dress shopping, in reality I was a bit daunted by it. I had a vague idea of what I wanted but knowing where to start felt like the hard part. I am not someone who had done research on this and in reality I couldn’t care less about the make or designer. I went to 2 shops and the second, Posh Frocks in Guisley Leeds had a dress hanging there that I really liked. I tried it on and my Mum and Best Friend sat there in tears – it felt like a good sign. It was a bit big and there were a few elements I wanted to change and in the end Patricia agreed to have a dress made for me. This was great as we took all the best bits from the original dress and made the tweaks I wanted to create the ‘perfect one’.

It was made inch perfect and didn’t need a single alteration. I loved wearing it on the day knowing it had been made for me. I can’t tell you how many times I have looked at it and wanted to wear it again.

I borrowed my veil from my sister in law; it matched perfectly and was my something borrowed! It came off after the service but there was something special about wearing it in church that day.

Jewellery – Tim and I have a friend who owns a jewellery shop – Victoria Walker Boutique, she is extremely talented and makes fantastic jewellery, especially bridal jewellery. My Mum suggested that we use my Grandma’s vintage Marcasite jewellery including earrings, necklace and a few bracelets and ask Vicky if she could make a piece for my hair. Vicky loved the jewellery and we discussed our options of what she could do, in the end she merged a number of items to make a hair piece for me, and also a small bracelet to match, leaving two earrings as well. All were utterly was perfect. I was wearing something from my Grandma’s past and I know she would have been thrilled for me to use it in this way. It was my something old and something new.

My sister got married in November and she wore it too – my Nan would have loved that we bore wore it on such special days.

Shoes – So this wasn’t an issue for me, I wouldn’t say I hated wedding shoes, but I really don’t like them. I knew very quickly I wouldn’t find a pair for me. So one trip to Debenhams later and there they were – a little pair of gold sparkly numbers, those and red toe nails were far more suited to me.

FINDING THE DRESS | I didn’t do lots of dress shopping, in reality I was a bit daunted by it. I had a vague idea of what I wanted but knowing where to start felt like the hard part. I am not someone who had done research on this and in reality I couldn’t care less about the make or designer. I went to 2 shops and the second, Posh Frocks in Guisley Leeds had a dress hanging there that I really liked. I tried it on and my Mum and Best Friend sat there in tears – it felt like a good sign. It was a bit big and there were a few elements I wanted to change and in the end Patricia agreed to have a dress made for me. This was great as we took all the best bits from the original dress and made the tweaks I wanted to create the ‘perfect one’.

It was made inch perfect and didn’t need a single alteration. I loved wearing it on the day knowing it had been made for me. I can’t tell you how many times I have looked at it and wanted to wear it again.

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Tim loves clothes and knew early on that he wanted a classic 3 piece suit in a classic navy blue. TM Lewin had the perfect one and it was paired with some gorgeous shoes from Reiss and a smart but fun tie from Paul Smith. His 2 best men matched, along with the two Dads.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | In church we had 2 readings; one from Corinthians and the second was from my favourite book and a film we both love – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. It’s a perfect summary of how our lives have intertwined into one set for life. I recently re-read the book and my heart lit up when I got to the verse we used.

We both have a sister so they each read one in Church which worked perfectly.

Music was a big deal. We have both grown up in households listening to and loving music and as a couple we love music (one of our favourite summer pastimes is packing up and heading to Glastonbury). We knew it would take some serious thought to get music just right.

One of our very good friends is a fantastic guitar player and we had an idea that maybe he would play in church as people arrived and then as I walked down the aisle. Thankfully for us he happily said yes. Tom played soft acoustic songs to welcome people into church and as I walked down the aisle he played Jeff Buckley’s – Hallelujah. We had some many compliments about how nice this was and the tone it set.

Leaving church we walked out to Elbow – One Day Like This. The song made us think of a time at Glastonbury watching them with some of our very best friends, in the sun, happy and filled with love (and maybe a bit too much cider).

We debated a band vs. DJ for months, I inclined towards a band, Tim was edging towards a DJ. So we met in the middle.

We had heard Matt Baxter play in and around Leeds a few times, he played our kind of music with a wonderful gravelly voice. We asked Matt to play during the reception and into the meal, and he was great. A total hit. It created such a lovely atmosphere that only live music can do and we had so many compliments on him. We would highly recommend Matt and his wonderful voice.

Following the speeches we had a playlist on before the DJ got going.

Now we were a bit lucky with our DJ. As the day edged closer we hadn’t found ‘the one’. One of our very best friends and photographer went away with other photographers for a weekend, and on one of the nights they had a DJ play for them. She came home from the weekend raving about the DJ and told us to look him up.

We did and we should have known just from the website that Deckheds (Married couple Karl the DJ and Kate his wife) would be a winner. We immediately made contact and sadly Karl and Kate told us they had a potential booking on the day of our wedding. We were gutted. They said the booking was pending and that they would let us know if it didn’t go ahead. One week later we got the call the booking hadn’t gone ahead and they were free – utter jackpot!! We can’t rave about Karl and Kate enough. Karl is music obsessed; he literally knows music inside and out. We have a few Skype sessions and talked about our thoughts on dancefloor music – we just knew Karl would nail it. He plays real decks and literally had our dancefloor pack from the minute our first dance finished to the point the lights came on. In fact no one wanted it to end.

Our first dance was relatively easy to pick– we both LOVE LOVE LOVE Fleetwood Mac and knew it would be one of theirs. We had 2 songs in mind and had the good fortune of seeing them a month before the wedding at Leeds Arena – the decision to pick ‘Everywhere’ was made that night. It was such a happy few minutes whirling round the dancefloor together to our perfect song.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | Nice and simple, my gorgeous sister and equally gorgeous best friend – Sara and Kate. With a side helping from my niece Molly. These two were absolute rocks, they know me better than anyone and were great at giving honest advice right when you needed it. They also threw a mean Hen Do in Barcelona…

We got two lovely soft blush pink dresses from Whistles which went perfectly with the colour scheme and the theme for the day. They both looked beautiful in them.

THE FLOWERS | My lovely mum who has had a passion for flowers all her life knew she wanted to help as much as she could with this. And to help we were recommended a lady called Gerry Sayers, who had done a friend of a friend’s wedding. We met Gerry and instantly we all clicked. She was passionate about flowers and had a passion for wild, natural looking garden flowers. Gerry was happy to work with my Mum to get them just perfect. We wanted a natural look with soft colours, lots of sweet peas, larkspur and gyp. My mum did my bouquet and those for Kate, Sara and Molly which really meant something. In fact the day before the wedding my mum and Gerry transformed mums garage into a mini florist. My mum was in her element. We all grew flowers, and my mum sourced sweet peas from Joe Maiden, and Gerry got those we couldn’t grow.

Between mum and Gerry the flowers in church, those at East Keswick and all of the flowers we wore and carried were exactly what we wanted. The Church and East Keswick looked and smelt so beautiful on the day.

THE CAKE | We wanted a naked cake rather than a traditional wedding cake. A bakery called The Little Cake Cottage local to where I work were really helpful and made delicious cakes. We had 3 tiers, the first was fruit cake made by my mum, and then for the next two tiers we picked a flavour each. I went with carrot cake and Tim went with coffee cake.

All 3 layers were delish!! Our only error on the day was not to leave enough flowers to decorate it, so it ended up looking a bit sparse but the taste made up for it!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Our gorgeous and very talented friend – Natasha Cadman. We couldn’t love our photos more if we tried, they represent such a happy day which we will be able to look back on for the rest of our lives.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | The church is beautiful so added flowers made it look even more prefect. East Keswick was decorated with a huge internal marquee; we had big round tables, with flowers and candles everywhere. We had lots of pictures of us dotted around and we added lots of handmade touches including lots of signs. We wanted it to feel quite rustic and pretty from all the flowers.

THE HONEYMOON | A quiet 2 weeks in a small village in Northern Spain followed by a few days in Barcelona straight after the wedding, followed by an American Road Trip a year later in July 2016.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | We don’t even know where to start with this so we picked 3 each;

Tim – Seeing Laura arrive at Church (15 minutes late!!) and saying our vows in front of our family and friends.

Laughing a lot at the speeches.

Having a beer with my best men watching a lovely sunset that evening.

Laura – The morning at home getting ready with my Mum, Sara, Kate and Molly followed by the 10 minutes dad and I had alone at home before we left for Church.

Not leaving the dancefloor from the moment our first dance started to the very end surrounded by all our loved ones.

Seeing Tim at the end of the aisle with a huge beaming smile.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Don’t let it all get too serious and absolutely stick to what you want – it’s your day completely!!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Natasha Cadman

DJ | Deckheds *WWW wedding directory members*

Bus | Red Bus Days

Cake | The Little Cake Cottage

Catering | Pizza Fella

Jewellery | Victoria Walker

 

 

Just perfection.

Laura and Timothy, many thanks for prettifying our Friday with your divine nuptials xo Lou