Delbury Hall is one of Shropshire’s loveliest wedding venues. With a country house, a lake with swans and ducks swimming about and beautiful gardens it is the perfect place for a wedding. Beautiful bride Siân and her gorgeous groom Edward were married there in the summer and chose Tony Fanning to capture their day. It’s perfect… and I have to say I love their wedding hashtag and the beautifully realised shed to go with it! Siân – Edward… get it?!

“When you plan a wedding for the first time, you discover so many suppliers in the local area that you didn’t know existed! We always asked suppliers for recommendations of others they had worked with before, with the idea that they would have a good knowledge of who was reliable in the local area. With seven months to plan the wedding, we did find that some suppliers we tried were booked up for our date, but they were always happy to recommend someone else and we didn’t struggle at all.

Wedding photographer’s website:

www.tonyfanningphotography.co.uk

Tony was recommended to us and as soon as we saw the pictures on his website we could see why. It was really important to us that our wedding photos should be natural and capture all the emotions of the day. We travelled up to North Wales to see Tony in his studio and his friendly and professional nature told us straight away that he was the photographer for us.

We can’t recommend Tony enough. He was friendly, enthusiastic and worked extremely hard all day. Along with our second photographer, Becky, he really blended in with the guests and as a result, he managed to capture amazingly natural photographs. We are both quite camera-shy but we had so much fun having our photos taken as a couple. Tony was so encouraging and positive that we loved the whole process and it made us feel really special.

Only a few weeks after the wedding, we received a beautiful wooden presentation box from Tony with all our photos. When we watched the slideshow that he had put together especially for us, we both cried and laughed at how wonderful it was. The photos are a perfect record of our day and each one conveys the happiness of us, our friends and family. Even now, we can’t stop looking at them and smiling.

With seven months until the wedding and the bare-earth of a new garden, my Dad offered to grow our flowers for us. The time he put into growing the flowers was his present to us and the result was beautiful and so full of meaning. Dad arranged all the vases of flowers for the tables and created an amazing willow archway for the entrance of the church and willow hearts to decorate the reception venue. We were really lucky that ladies from the local flower club offered to arrange the flowers for the church, which we then transferred to the reception venue.

The bridal party’s bouquets and buttonholes were created by Fran from Big Little Things. She adapted to my last minute change of colour palette when many of Dad’s dahlias turned out to be bright pink! Fran came to pick the flowers for the bouquets herself from our garden. I cried with happiness when she delivered the bouquets on the morning of the wedding.

Wedding venue:

All Saints Church, Berrington and The Coach House, Delbury Hall in Diddlebury.

Can you describe your wedding in fewer than 10 words?

A happy, home-grown celebration of family, friends and love.

Your wedding style or theme:

A Shropshire country wedding with vintage elements.

What’s your top tip for saving money?

Make as much as you can yourself! Also, look out for items you can borrow or find in charity shops. Edward’s Dad allowed us to borrow a fantastic collection of his Grandmother’s books which we placed on the tables and our families spent many hours scouring charity shops in search of cut glass vases and cake stands. It became quite an addiction!

… and which elements of your wedding are you glad you spent more on?

Quite late on in the planning process, we decided to book a second photographer to work with Tony and when we saw the photos, especially those taken from different angles in the church, we were really glad that we did. We also hired Oscar, a cream and black 1937 Morris 10/4, from ‘Hiring Miss Daisy’ for the drive between the church and the reception venue and it turned out to be one of our favourite parts of the day. As we drove up the main drive to Delbury Hall, it was like we had gone back in time!

Where did you buy or source your wedding stationery – or was making it a labour of love?

Edward’s Mum, Janice, painstaking made all our wedding stationary and it really was a labour of love. She made the orders of service to match to the invitations, which were sealed with little stickers, individually stamped with flowers and leaves.

Did you fall in love with your wedding dress?

I loved the process of trying on wedding dresses and tried quite a few on before we went to the Brides of Ludlow boutique in Shropshire. I tried my dress on first and loved walking around swishing the floaty skirt! Unlike a lot of the heavier lace dresses I had tried, this one was light and graceful and the sparkle of the beadwork made it feel really special. I felt amazing in it on my wedding day. As it was quite a windy day, I really maximised on the fluidity of the skirt with my long veil and ribbons on my bouquet!

Wedding dress designer and bridal boutique:

My dress was by Ella Rosa from Brides of Ludlow. My seamstress, Alyson Staple, was wonderful and even gave me a lesson on how to get in and out of the car.

Tell us about your accessories: jewellery, shoes and anything else!

My shoes were by Paradox London. My hair vine, earrings and bracelet were all made by the talented and lovely Julie-Ann Bird. From the moment I met her, I realised that she was a real find. She is very passionate about her work and gave me so much advice about everything to do with weddings! She designed each piece to match the beading on my dress and also made matching jewellery for my Mum to wear on the day.

And what did the groom wear?

Edward wore a Hugo Boss navy suit with an antique pocket watch, my present to him on the morning of our wedding.

Beautiful bridesmaids: what did your best girls wear?

My bridesmaids wore navy Lori-Lee dresses by Coast.

Hair and make-up – did you DIY or hire a professional?

Rachel Savine did all our makeup on the morning of the wedding and we were so fortunate to find her. She is very experienced and I really felt like I was in safe hands. Our hairdresser was Jane Forbes who did a wonderful job with my hair.

General styling – did your venue need much decoration?

The Coach House at Delbury Hall is a really light and airy space and pretty-much a blank canvas, which is what we liked about it when we first visited. We kept the decoration quite simple with the garden flowers and Dad’s willow hearts and also hired sparkling fairy lights from Love Me Do Bridal.

Crafts and makes – tell us about any homemade elements of your wedding… did you enjoy them?

We are really grateful for all the help that our friends and family gave us in preparing for the wedding. My mum spent hours laying out petals to dry for the confetti and Edward’s Dad helped to make the signs. I dried the lavender for the place-settings in our garden shed and made the table plan out of a rustic barn door, lent to us by a friend. We really enjoyed making the homemade elements and it gave us so much satisfaction when it all came together on the day.

The wedding cake: what kind of cake did you choose and why?

We had many willing volunteers who made cakes for our cake table and they went down very well! Edward’s Mum made the amazing chocolate cake that we cut, chosen because it is our favourite.

Entertainment: any musical recommendations, surprises or treats?

We had a ceilidh in the evening as it is a fantastic way to help people to mix and added to the Shropshire-country atmosphere. There were some hilarious dance moves and Tony’s photos capture it brilliantly. We also surprised our guests with a vintage crepe van, Van Chaud, arriving for our evening catering. The crepes were really popular and the guests are still talking about them now!

Words of wisdom: share your best piece of advice for other couples:

Ask people for help. We found that they were more than willing and your day will feel all the more special because of all the personal touches. If you do happen to find a venue you love at relatively short notice, do not be put off. You don’t need years to plan to have a fantastic day!

What’s the best thing about being married?

Everything.

Favourite supplier web links for other brides and grooms:

https://julieannbird.co.uk/
http://hiringmissdaisy.co.uk/
http://www.rachelsavine.co.uk/
https://www.biglittlethings.co.uk/
http://www.vanchaud.com/
https://en-gb.facebook.com/janehairandmakeup/