{"id":178639,"date":"2016-09-27T07:00:41","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T06:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whimsicalwonderlandweddings.com\/?p=178639"},"modified":"2024-11-13T14:29:59","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T14:29:59","slug":"gold-sequin-outdoor-humanist-botanical-gardens-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/gold-sequin-outdoor-humanist-botanical-gardens-wedding\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold Sequin Outdoor Humanist Botanical Gardens Wedding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gold<\/p>\n

Sparkle heaven. I am definitely a magpie and so when I clapped eyes on this sequin filled affair I was smitten.<\/p>\n

WWW readers Claire and Paul were married on the 5th<\/sup> May 2016, on the day of their anniversary, in an outdoor humanist wedding at Ness Gardens. They then headed to Mere Brook House<\/a> in the Wirral for their stylish reception, which was decorated perfectly. With a relaxed and personal celebration in mind Claire and Paul opted for rustic touches including, log slices, hessian, sequins and blooms galore.<\/p>\n

Now let’s talk about the stunning outfits. Claire looked effortlessly radiant in her sweetheart Ellis Bridals<\/a> gown with sweet Charlotte Mills<\/a> heart heels. Paul was very dapper indeed in a grey suit and floral tie, which really was a great combination. Then there were the bridesmaids who wore head to toe gold sequin gowns, lucky ladies, they looked stunning.<\/p>\n

Thanks so very much to Emma Hillier Photography<\/a> for sharing these delightful shots.<\/p>\n

\"Pink\"Flowers \"Charlotte\"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"VW \"Ellis \"Ness \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Bouquet \"Bridesmaid \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Wooden\"Gold \"Gold \"Gold\"Decor \"Gold\"Macaron \"Gold \"Gold \"Rings \"Ruffle \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold \"Gold<\/p>\n

THE PROPOSAL | Paul proposed on our 5th<\/sup> Anniversary trip in 2014 to Barcelona (we\u2019d spent our first holiday together there in 2009). He proposed in a beautiful little courtyard, Pla\u00e7a Sant Iu, where we had sat 5 years earlier while he taught me bits of Spanish, although he very nearly forgot how to find it! After rummaging in his rucksack for a while (he\u2019d hidden the ring in a sock in his bag) he, not too smoothly, slid onto one knee. It\u2019s fair to say I was shocked, so with my hand to my face I said \u201cnooooo!!…. I mean YES!!!\u201d I couldn\u2019t tell you what the people around us thought of it as we were both completely lost in the moment.<\/p>\n

THE VISION | Straight away we knew what date we wanted and where we wanted it. Having been together for 5 years we\u2019d had casual chats about marriage and we\u2019d always agreed on an outdoor wedding and as we went \u2018Facebook Official\u2019 on May 5th<\/sup> we thought that would be the perfect date for a spring \/ summer wedding. We wanted a relaxed, personal wedding with just those closest to us.<\/p>\n

THE PLANNING PROCESS | I attended a few (lots) of wedding fayres, from big ones to small ones. The favourites being vintage wedding fayres that I visited in Chester and Liverpool. Attending these gave me the ideas for my favours (macarons) and flowers that I liked (wild flowers, looking like they were \u2018just picked\u2019). Much to Paul\u2019s annoyance I spent A LOT of money on bridal magazines too.<\/p>\n

We set our hearts on Ness Gardens and visited on the 4th<\/sup> May the year before to make sure that was what we wanted, from then there was no doubt. I planned all the fun stuff and decorations and left Paul to the administrative duties and finding a band.<\/p>\n

THE VENUE | The humanist ceremony took place at Ness Botanical Gardens with the wedding breakfast and evening being held at Mere Brook House. The ceremony was at a little rock garden with a wooden hut overlooked by a bridge over a pond and, as it was the beginning of May, we were surrounded by snowdrops and bluebells.<\/p>\n

Mere Brook House is an Edwardian country house set in beautiful grounds with plenty of wild flowers in the grounds. With a small courtyard inside and small pond to the front. It was decorated in true country house style with rustic mis-matched furniture which gave a real homely warmth. The food was incredible from the first to the (forced) last bite. We\u2019d visited a few weeks earlier for a canap\u00e9 tasting session and painstakingly decided on the 5 to serve. The meal was one of the best roast dinners we\u2019ve ever had. All locally sourced and cooked to perfection\u2026 and there was the 2nd<\/sup> helping before dessert. In the evening they served a barbecue, again with locally sourced meats, that couldn\u2019t be beaten. Along with some of our family we stayed over in the beautiful Honeymoon Suite.<\/p>\n

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress was by Ellis Bridals. A tulle and satin ball gown cut. Layered tulle with sequins to give a little bit of sparkle if the light hit it. The bodice was sweetheart neckline embroidered with beads and precious stones.<\/p>\n

My bracelet and earrings were Jon Richards.<\/p>\n

My shoes I fell in love with as soon as I saw them and I knew I had to have them! They were by Charlotte Mills, \u2018Andrea\u2019 style with a block gold glitter heel and gold heart shoe clip. On the bottom of the shoe was the rhyme \u2018something old, something new and a silver sixpence in her shoe\u2019<\/p>\n

FINDING THE DRESS | My bridal party and I visited quite a few dress shops about 5 or 6 before visiting Tilly Anna\u2019s in Farndon. I didn\u2019t want to try anything on as was having an \u2018off\u2019 day but was forced into trying it on by my maid of honour and immediately fell in love. Even my mum and maid of honour (who had shown themselves to be very hard to please!) burst into tears upon seeing it!<\/p>\n

GROOM\u2019S ATTIRE | Paul isn\u2019t a top and tails or morning suit kind of guy. We\u2019d decided early on that he would go and buy a suit, probably a 3 piece. He bought a light grey 3 piece from Marks and Spencer\u2019s. A plain white shirt and a cotton tie in a gorgeous lilac and green floral pattern from Frederick Thomas and tan brogues from Dune, which were my only demand. He wore personalised cufflinks (a wedding present from me) with the map co-ordinates of Pla\u00e7a Sant Iu and a local place where we first said I love you. Paul\u2019s ring was from Justin Duance \u2013 and contained the wood of an ash tree.<\/p>\n

THE READINGS & MUSIC | At Ness gardens we had a harpist (Nerys Hewitt) play for guests first and then Nerys played \u2018Can\u2019t help falling in love\u2019 by Elvis during the bride\u2019s entrance and for the couple exit she played Pachelbel canon in d.<\/p>\n

We had 3 readings from each of our bridesmaids. Natalie read a poem called \u2018The Promise\u2019 by Eileen Rafter, Jordyn read and anonymous poem called \u2018Maybe\u2019 and Nicole read \u2018Foxtrot from a play\u2019 by W H Auden.<\/p>\n

We selected each poem because we felt it meant something to us, and what we loved. We asked the guests to repeat an Irish blessing after our Celebrant Maxine.<\/p>\n

For the evening dances we hired a band called the Jack Rabbits who were incredible. First up was Claire and her Dad who danced to \u2018You\u2019re my Best Friend\u2019 by Queen. Then it was time for the First Dance, we wanted something a bit more \u2018us\u2019 than your regular \u201cslowy\u201d and as we\u2019re quite fond of dancing round the living room we went for one we\u2019ve danced to many times; \u201cYou Make My Dreams Come True\u201d by Hall & Oates. The band had learned it from scratch and really came up trumps! I think it surprised a few people but it went down very well. Paul also surprised me a little later on with another favourite of ours \u201cI Need My Girl\u201d by The National which he\u2019d organised in secret with the band and Sarah from Mere Brook to make sure everyone was in the right place at the right time.<\/p>\n

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I had 3 bridesmaids. Natalie, my maid of honour and best friend, my cousin Jordyn who I grew up with and Nicole, Paul\u2019s niece. They chose their own style of dress from the range of gold sequined Sorella Vita Modern Metallic range. Jordyn and Nicole both chose the floor length boat-neck dress with cowl back which definitely fitted in with my vintage theme and Natalie chose a strappy floor length version with a blouson bodice.<\/p>\n

THE FLOWERS | I specifically wanted a non structured bouquet, almost \u2018just picked\u2019, but in colours like lilac and sage. We went with a local florist called Pure Floral Design, in Brimstage. I met up with them a few times to discuss what I would like and they mocked up a few designs while I was there.<\/p>\n

The bridal bouquet consisted of lilac roses, lisianthus, lavender and gypsophila to name a few. The bridesmaids had smaller bouquets of similar but without the roses.<\/p>\n

Button holes and corsage wristlets also tied in. All bouquets were then used for table centrepieces.<\/p>\n

THE CAKE | Our cake was made by Sue Gates from Bella\u2019s Cake Pantry. Her work is amazing and the detail is fabulous. She made us (following a consultation) a three tier cake, each tier a different flavour, red velvet, Victoria sponge and lemon. The cake was decorated with a ruffled base, icing flowers and a gold sequinned (edible!) top tier.<\/p>\n

For our favours we went for macarons from The Little Macaron Shop in Waterloo, Liverpool. We went for three flavours; salted caramel, violet and Matcha green tea and white chocolate. We packaged them ourselves (we ordered a couple too many as our reward) and finished them with mixed ribbons to tie on our home stamped labels. Apart from those Natalie and I had at Ladur\u00e9e in Paris, they were the best macarons I\u2019ve ever tasted!<\/p>\n

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Emma Hillier was our fabulous photographer! Loved her work from the minute I saw it and knew we had to book her. She put us at ease with a pre wedding photo shoot which helped to put my photo shy husband at ease! On the day Emma was as fabulous as we thought, capturing amazing photographs! Even taking time to capture a few photos of our 5 week old niece as well. It was most definitely like having a friend at the wedding there with all of our guests commenting on how lovely she was. We had a few sneak peaks of a few shots before went on our honeymoon and then came back to the finished package with which we couldn\u2019t have been happier. She really captured the feel of our wedding, the relaxed, close, fun vibe that we\u2019d always hoped for. As well the incredible, fairytale-esque shots at Ness she blew us away with some really beautiful, natural pictures.<\/p>\n

THE DETAILS & D\u00c9COR | Due to the nature of our reception venue being an Edwardian country house we didn\u2019t decorate too much because we wanted the character to speak for itself. We kept the details and d\u00e9cor rustic with a hint of sparkle\/glamour. I love candles so there were a lot of tea lights\/candles dotted along the hessian runners down each table. Differing in size and colour, some gold sequinned and some on log slices. For the cake table I touched on the sequins again and covered it in a gold sequinned cloth. Each chair was tied with a hessian bow by the bridal party the night before (hessian is harder to tie than I thought!)<\/p>\n

I had made our seating plan out of an old ladder that Paul had lovingly sanded down over 3 days!! The seating plan was strung up with lilac baker\u2019s twine and fairy lights twisted up around the ladder.<\/p>\n

I wrote out each name on small chalkboard in white and gold chalk pen for name places (plenty of which went home with guests at the end of the night!)<\/p>\n

We had an old suitcase on our entrance table with a card sign for guests to place cards and gifts along with our guest book and again candles!<\/p>\n

For a little bit of fun we had a sign made for the dance floor stating the \u2018rules\u2019 such as \u2018dance offs should take place where appropriate and often\u2019, \u2018lunges are law\u2019 and \u2018putting a tie around one\u2019s head is encouraged\u2019. Most of which were obeyed!!<\/p>\n

THE HONEYMOON | We had no preconceived ideas of where to have our honeymoon, we just wanted it to be somewhere a little out of the ordinary so, after looking at a few options, we settled on the Sensimar Kalamota Island Resort on the island of Kolo\u010dep, just outside Dubrovnik. We decided to wait until he end of May as the weather was supposedly better then, and it really was the right move! The island was beautiful, practically untouched, life went at 2 mph and it was perfect for us after the hectic build up to the wedding. The hotel we couldn\u2019t fault and the Mojito bar kept us mingling with the other guests every night. We did the Game of Thrones tour in Dubrovnik, stopping off at various sites used in the filming of what is one of our favourite programmes, including the chance to sit on a replica of the Iron Throne and film our own version of the \u2018Walk of Shame\u2019. Our tour guide, organised through the hotel, was a young local guy with a degree in history who had worked as an extra and a runner on the show so really knew his stuff. We also went into Dubrovnik one evening to enjoy a romantic meal for just the two of us. The only problem we had with Dubrovnik was that we didn\u2019t get the chance to see enough of the beautiful city. We came back with far too many photos to share (and some on the local nudist beach we couldn\u2019t!) and more than enough fantastic memories to keep with us forever.<\/p>\n

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The whole day was just unforgettable, we were so lucky with the weather having been forecast \u2018wintry showers\u2019 only a week or so earlier but the sun shone all day which only disappointed our photographer as the sun reflected a little too much off Paul\u2019s bald head. The image of Emma getting excited whenever a cloud passed\u2026 and then swearing when it cleared\u2026 will always make us laugh! The speeches were fantastic, although the Best Man\u2019s speech could well have been \u2018cutting it fine\u2019 and the food at Mere Brook, especially the second helpings, will go down in history! One of our favourite sights was that of Paul\u2019s 93 year old grandad adhering to our dance floor rules and dancing with his tie around his head!<\/p>\n

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Do it your way! There are so many \u2018should do\u2019 ways of getting married but, especially with the help of Maxine, our humanist celebrant, we found out that we can make it as personal to us as we wanted, even if it did raise an eyebrow or two, after all it was our<\/em> big day! So I\u2019d definitely recommend looking down that avenue if, like us, you\u2019re not particularly religious.<\/p>\n

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |<\/p>\n

Photography | Emma Hillier Photography<\/a><\/p>\n

Brides Dress | Ellis Bridal<\/a> at Tilly-Anna\u2019s<\/p>\n

Bride\u2019s Shoes | Charlotte Mills<\/a><\/p>\n

Bridesmaids\u2019 Dresses | Sorella Vita<\/a> at Tilly-Anna\u2019s<\/p>\n

Brides hair piece | No1 Jenny Packham @ Debenhams<\/p>\n

Groom\u2019s Suit | Marks & Spencer<\/a><\/p>\n

Tie | Frederick Thomas<\/a><\/p>\n

Groom\u2019s shoes | Dune<\/a><\/p>\n

Cufflinks | Sally Clay<\/a><\/p>\n

Rings | Brides rings both Chisolm Hunter<\/p>\n

Grooms ring | Justin Duance<\/a><\/p>\n

Make Up | Emma Lampkin Makeup<\/a><\/p>\n

Hair | Hair by Carol Ellis Thompson<\/a><\/p>\n

Flowers & some d\u00e9cor | Pure Floral Design<\/p>\n

Cars | Chase the Sun<\/a><\/p>\n

Celebrant | Maxine Beech<\/p>\n

Harpist | Nerys Hewitt<\/a><\/p>\n

Ceremony Venue | Jen Lemon at Ness Gardens<\/p>\n

Reception Venue | Mere Brook House<\/a><\/p>\n

Macarons | The Little Macaron Shop<\/p>\n

Cake | Sue Gates at Bellas Cake Pantry<\/p>\n

Band | The Jack Rabbits<\/a><\/p>\n

Table cloth, chair covers & ties, & suitcase | Sweetpea & Ivy<\/a><\/p>\n

Honeymoon | Sensimar Kalamota Island Resort<\/p>\n

Oh so pretty.<\/p>\n

Thanks so much to Claire and Paul for sharing their wonderful wedding story today xo Lou<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sparkle heaven. I am definitely a magpie and so when I clapped eyes on this sequin filled affair I was smitten. WWW readers Claire and Paul were married on the 5th May 2016, on the day of their anniversary, in an outdoor humanist wedding at Ness Gardens. They then headed to Mere Brook House in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":178664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,4],"tags":[2986,2148,4280,21,2270,4281],"class_list":["post-178639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-modern-wedding","category-real-weddings","tag-ellis-bridals-wedding-dress","tag-gold-wedding-ideas","tag-mere-brook-house-wedding-venue","tag-pink-wedding-ideas","tag-sequin-bridesmaids","tag-wirral-wedding"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":178664,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/whimsical-cdn.wedissimo.com\/2016\/09\/CP-outdoor-ceremony-Ness-Gardens25-300x200.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}