Sharing weddings this beautiful brings me joy. I beam at my screen while I’m writing, I really do! Hannah & Danny’s day is glorious, full of colour and bursting with love. The happy couple look amazing, the venue is twinkly and cosy and rustic, the florals are out of this world and the photos by English Wedding member Mark Battista Photography are utterly perfect.

Have a lovely weekend everyone! Here’s Hannah & Danny’s Lake District wedding to make you smile and inspire your planning!

Wedding photographer’s website

Mark Battista https://www.markbattistaphotography.co.uk

Wedding photographer review

Mark is an exceptional wedding photographer! He was fun, professional, and took amazing photos. We had such a blast on our wedding day and he fit in perfectly. We’re so happy with the photography! He gave really clear directions, and was well prepared for the slightly adverse weather conditions with a supply of umbrellas and a can do attitude! We had such a wonderful day, big thank you to Mark for capturing our Lake District wedding so beautifully.

Your best wedding moment or memory

Danny’s best moment: The choir singing as Hannah walked down the aisle.
Hannah’s best moment: Honestly the entire day! I can’t pick a favourite!

Tell us anything you did differently – we love hearing about NEW traditions (or none at all!)

Our friends/bridesmaids sang as Hannah walked down the aisle as one would in a church service, however this was a civil ceremony. It added something so special to the atmosphere of the day.

Venue name + review

Eden Wedding Barn

Extremely professional, the day ran incredibly smoothly. The in-house catering by Southcott was incredible! They ensured the whole day went perfectly.

Tell us a little about your outfits – both of you!

Danny had a suit hand made when we visited Vietnam in 2019. For the wedding we wanted a unique colour of suit – everyone wears black, navy or grey! Danny got in touch with the tailors in Vietnam to find out if they could make him another suit, and luckily they still had his measurements! So via video call he selected the fabrics and designed the suit you see in the photos custom.

Hannah’s dress was picked out on a trip with her mum and chief bridesmaid, Meg. I fell in love with it the moment I tried it on. It’s whimsical, fun, elegant, the whole package! I chose not to have a veil, but to have drapes from my shoulders instead as I thought that was a bit more unique and meant I could have flowers in my hair.

Dress or suit shop name + review

The White Yard

Florist name + review

Rocke ‘n’ Roses

Daisy created the most beautiful flower arrangements which perfectly fit our vision for the day. The flowers were fun, colourful and fragrant.

Daisy also managed to create a fresh flower hairpiece for Hannah which survived all day without wilting at all. She was so creative, and utterly professional. She took it in her stride when we added a couple of last minute bouquets for the mums!

Any crafty projects or homemade styling touches?

• • • • Meg, one of our bridesmaids, hand drew our wedding welcome sign.
      • Ben (Hannah’s brother) created our table plan from hand folded paper cranes, fishing line, an Ikea clothes rail, and A5 cards with names and table numbers on.

    

    • Alison (Hannah’s mum) made the wedding cake and decorative sugar flowers by hand.

  

  • Our friends formed a small choir and sang during the ceremony which was utterly magical.
  • Sarah (Danny’s mum) kindly made tags to put on the chairs in the pews to reserve seats for immediate family and the bridal party near the front of the venue.
  • John (Hannah’s dad) drove her to the venue in a 1961 Morris Minor 1000 which Hannah’s Grandpa had driven her mum to their wedding in back in 1995 and has been in the family ever since. He put a lot of work into restoring the vehicle for the day.

• • Hannah decorated the wedding car herself.
  • Elaine, one of Hannah’s relatives, created the floral buttonholes as a gift to us.
  • Hannah and the mums worked together to create the table numbers using old childhood photos of us at the corresponding ages.
  • Hannah and her bridesmaids collected glass vases from charity shops and saved jam and sauce jars for over a year for putting candles and small floral arrangements on the tables in.
  • Danny’s mum made the golden capes he and his best man wore later in the evening.

• A family friend, Jenny of Jolly biscuits by JD, hand made custom biscuits for every guest which were their name cards at dinner.

Wedding transport

We arranged transport for our guests to and from the venue with Cumbria Classic Coaches who had such fantastic touches – the bus destination was “Wedding Special”, they had custom tickets for our guests with the date and our names on, a guest on each bus got to wear the conductor hat and use the ticket machine, and they decorated the coaches beautifully!

Wedding readings?

JRR Tolkien – Poem for his wife I Will Love You Forever, from the ‘The Amber Spyglass’, by Phillip Pullman

First dance song? Playlist recommendations?

La Vie En Rose by Louis Armstrong played live by Eden Valley Ceilidh Band
We would highly recommend booking a live Ceilidh band and caller for a wedding. It was the most fantastic fun!

Finding choral music appropriate for a civil wedding ceremony proved very difficult! In the end we chose:

• Rise up my love by Healey Willan
• The Road Home by Stephen Paulus
• My heart in Thine by Charles Villers Stanford

Hair + makeup name + review

Enhance Hair and Beauty for hair. Christine was so patient with my finicky hair which was refusing to hold a curl! She cut my hair through all my childhood and still does my mum’s hair, so it was lovely to be in such trusted and experienced hands.
Hannah did her own makeup.