These two are the most adorable couple – beautiful and happy on their wedding day. Philippa is stunning in her 1920s style dress – and wonderfully honest about her experience of finding ‘the one’ when it comes to dress shopping. Their photographer was our lovely friend Grace Elizabeth, whose images are simply breathtaking. You will LOVE this! Have a magical weekend everyone! xxx

Wedding photographer’s website:

https://www.grace-elizabeth.co.uk/

How did you choose your photographer?

Philippa’s sister-in-law is a photographer so she helped us understand what we were looking for. She managed to get us a shortlist of 20 or so photographers who were available on our Wedding Day which we went through and picked our favourites. Grace Elizabeth was the first one we got in touch with and within a couple of hours we’d spoken on the phone, decided she was definitely the one for us and booked her!

Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!

Yes – we were delighted. From that first phone call we felt super relaxed and we kept that feeling all the way through to the Wedding Day and beyond. We had a wonderful day out in Brighton together with Grace on our Engagement shoot and though it was the first time we met there was an instant rapport between the 3 of us. Philippa and I met in Brighton at University, so it is one of our favourite places and to have such wonderful photos to mark our engagement is something we’ll cherish forever.
In the build up to the wedding Grace was super chilled so was one of the things we simply didn’t worry about. On the day, see seemed just as excited as us and felt more like a guest than a supplier, quickly became a member of the wedding, chatting to family members, hearing stories and taking some cracking shots on the dancefloor.

Tell us about the moment you saw your wedding photos for the first time?

It was actually quite nerve-wracking. The wedding photos were one of the biggest things we wanted from the day so we were very excited but also a little bit scared to open them!
We needn’t have been scared! From seeing the printed shots that Grace had chosen we knew she had captured the essence of the day. It then took us over an hour to look through all the photos while reliving the day all over again – it was an emotional rollercoaster. There are photos you instantly loved and more you knew that others would cherish too. Grace not only managed to capture our day but also the experiences of everyone else at our wedding – she has an incredible knack of recording moments and we have some incredible photos that really tell the story of our day.

Wedding venue:

Holmewood Hall – a stunning new venue in Peterborough. https://www.holmewood-hall.co.uk/

 

 

Can you describe your wedding in fewer than 10 words?

After much debate, not really!
Lots of laughter, lots of dancing, many happy memories!

Your wedding style or theme:

We had a travel theme, our tables were named after countries we visited and Mark made globe centrepieces for the tables. The favours were mini suitcases filled with mini toblerones. The seating plan was a world map and our welcome sign was a departure board.

Where did you find your suppliers? (Blogs, magazines, recommendations?)

Mostly online – google etc.

What’s your top tip for saving money?

We took a risk on the Wedding Venue as it was still being converted from an old conference centre into a Wedding Venue – in fact we were the first people to book it! We had to look past the building work but the fact we did meant we got a decent discount on what was an incredible venue when we came to get married. We appreciate this may not be possible for everyone, but it’s worth looking around!

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

Photos / photographer were worth every penny, despite being right at the top of our budget.
Philippa bought the extension package with her Hair/Makeup artist which meant she was there after the ceremony which was helpful after her Dad had stood on her veil accidentally during the ceremony!

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

We used a mixture of vistaprint (some good templates) and a website called canva where you can create designs from scratch.

Did you fall in love with your wedding dress?

Dare I say not until the day. There is a lot of pressure on brides to pick ‘the one’, to fall in love with the dress the second you put it on and although I loved it there was apprehension there until the wedding day. It was the first dress I tried on and I adored the style but wasn’t sure if it was bridal enough. This was not the case for everyone else though, our Mum’s both thought it was the one as soon as I tried it!
Even with the nerves in the run up, looking at it now, I’m completely head over heels with it!

Wedding dress designer and bridal boutique:

Maggie Sottero – Fleur de Lys, Saffron Waldon.

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

My dress had an air of 1920 elegance and I was keen for it to do the talking. Mark’s mum lent me the pearl drop earrings she had warn on her wedding day which not only gave me my something old and something borrowed, it meant a lot to me to wear something with a history. They also matched wonderfully to the hair band I’d chosen for the day.
Shoe-wise, I followed the reccomendation of my bridesmaid and got a pair of Rainbow Club shoes which were comfy right through til the evening – when I changed into a pair of sparkly flats so that I could fully enjoy the wedding DJ and the dancefloor!
Up until the evening reception I also wore a full length veil, laced with small pearls and crystals at the scalloped hem – which for me, fit really well with the dress and the venue.

And what did the groom wear?

Suit from Next – simple. Was just easier with groomsmen dispersed across the country for them all to pop into their local and try it on.

Beautiful bridesmaids: what did your best girls wear?

Hard to narrow down bearing in mind they tried on them all – literally.
One of my bridesmaids was pregnant and, to accomodate my hope to have them all in matching dresses, the other two agreed to wear a maternity dress from ASOS, although we had to try on alot, the dress we went with in the end worked really well!

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

Thankfully I had the talented Kate from Ruby Rouge Makeup to help me look my best on the day (https://www.rubyrougemakeup.com/).
As someone who doesn’t wear make up day to day, I worried that I’d not look myself if I wore too much but Kate managed to find the perfect balance which gave me an extra boost of confidence for walking down the ailse. What’s even more amazing, Kate and I only spoke for the first time a couple of weeks before the wedding after my previous make up artist was no longer able to make the day!

Describe your wedding flowers. Who arranged them for you? (florist details would be lovely please)

Keepsakes of Yaxley (https://www.keepsakesofyaxley.com/) – florist recommended by the venue who is local.
Lisa was lovely and she created amazing bouquets, buttonholes and croussages which gave a nod to our Yorkshire and Scottish roots.

General styling – did your venue need much decoration?

It is an all-year round wedding venue so we didn’t think it needed too much decoration other than a few of our travel-themed bits. We did bring a number of photo frames with photos of us in to place around the venue which many of our guests commented on as being a nice touch.

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

Mark hand-painted 9 polystyrene balls to make globes. They took about 4 hours each to do – was definitely a labour of love but they looked really good on the day! We also enlisted Philippa’s step-dad to help us make a travel distance pole (a pole with distances to a number of places we’ve visited together) which we placed in the main hall. Philippa cross-stitched a world map decoration for the top table. We also harvested rose petals from our garden throughout the summer to make rose petal confetti for the day.

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

We had 2 ‘cakes’. The first was conventional, three tiers – Vanilla, Raspberry and Elderflow sponge, Chocolate sponge with Baileys buttercream and a Carrotcake. This was decorated in line with our travel theme and was decorated with a map of the world and adorned with 2 edible suitcases.
(https://www.cakesbycarol.org.uk/)
The second ‘cake’ was a Wedding Pie! 3 tiers of Pork pie goodness. We can thoroughly recommend it – the only disappointment was that there was none left over the following day!
(https://www.toppingspies.co.uk/)

Entertainment: any musical recommendations, surprises or treats?

A few years ago we went to a wedding where the first dance was an acoustic version of Everytime we Touch by Cascade, before it dropped into the main version. We really wanted similar and one of our groomsmen made the dream reality by mixing an acoustic version of Rather Be by Jess Glynne into her version with a bit of House flair added on. Confetti canons going off as the beat dropped made our first dance one to remember!

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

Pick 3 things you really care about and focus your time and effort on them. Don’t labour too long on the other decisions.
Also, realise things will go wrong – often noone on the Wedding Day would ever notice, but you’ve spent so long organising the day every little detail seems important. Once the day is here, just relax and enjoy the experience, it goes so quickly!

What’s the best thing about being married?

Not having to plan a wedding – we’ve suddenly got our weekends back!

Favourite supplier web links for other brides and grooms:

Photographer https://www.grace-elizabeth.co.uk/
Venue https://www.holmewood-hall.co.uk/
Dress Maggie Sottero – Fleur de Lys, Saffron Waldon
Makeup (https://www.rubyrougemakeup.com/)
Flowers (https://www.keepsakesofyaxley.com/)
Cake https://www.cakesbycarol.org.uk/)
Pork pie cake (https://www.toppingspies.co.uk/)