I’ll sing from the mountaintops about the Lakes as the ultimate UK destination for weddings! Today’s lovely couple Zoe & David were married at popular venue Cragwood Country House, and chose one of my favourite photographers – Jaye Peg Photography – to capture their day. A beautiful reminder that while our lakes have to come from somewhere, weddings in these parts are always stunning, romantic and relaxed. As ever, find more on our instagram – follow @englishweddingblog

Wedding photographer’s website

Lake District wedding photographer Jaye Peg Photography

Wedding photographer review

Jaye was very engaging from our first meeting by helping us navigate our way along our wedding planning journey.

We took the opportunity to have a prewedding photoshoot in April where we were put at ease as she got to understand us and vice versa, this really benefitted us on the day as we knew what to expect.

Throughout the day Jaye was excellent in making sure that all our guests were involved in all the photos giving us ample brilliant images to chose from.
To top it all off when we received our album, we were left speechless with how stunning it was!!

Your best wedding moment or memory

Coming back to the hotel and hitting the dancefloor in the evening!

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

Looking back on our wedding there were a few things that we did differently to give it a personal touch. During the ceremony, David surprised me by composing the music that I walked down the aisle to. Speaking of walking down the aisle, both my parents walked me down the aisle.

We also had both sets of parents sign as witnesses to us getting married.

As we got married at our reception venue, we treated all the guests to a boat ride on Lake Windermere between the speeches and the evening reception. We found this to be ideal for us and our guests to relax before the party started.

Venue name + review

Cragwood Country House Hotel, Windermere. Absolutely amazing venue that offered ample views and access to the lake!! The venue offered us the intimacy and space that we were looking for. Holly and Hannah, the wedding coordinators, were very helpful and understanding of all my phone calls and emails particularly in the months leading up to the wedding.

Venue styling

We had Mr & Mrs Jones, Bowness-On-Windermere style our venue. On our first meeting, Yvonne managed to describe what we wanted the venue to look like throughout the day. Even when we changed or added details, they successfully accommodated the decisions without overloading the look.

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

Even though most of our wedding day would not fall under the ‘traditional’ bracket, I still wanted to incorporate the ‘Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue’ wedding tradition. My something old was my grandma’s garter that she wore on her wedding day, that was then passed on to my mum for her wedding day and finally down to me. If possible I would like to continue this tradition in the future. The something new was my wedding dress which was a classically timeless dress designed by Sassi Holford, that helped me achieve my idea of feeling like me but elevated and gave me the confidence I needed for the big day. My something borrowed was my wedding jewellery that came from my mum that fit into the overall colour scheme. Finally, my something blue were Sophia Webster heels that were the absolute perfect shade of blue with a sparkling heel.

Looking at what David wore for the day, we decided to go for something different to his usual colour scheme. By doing this it allowed us to narrow down the choices of suits that were available. Eventually, we decided on a Guthrie and Valentine suit in light grey. This had the added bonus in coming in a darker grey, which we chose for all the groomsmen as well as our dad’s! We paired all the suites with a burgundy tie and each member of the groomsmen were gifted a personalised tie pin.

Dress or suit shop name + review

Zoe’s dress was selected and purchased at Julia Tasker Bridal Couture, Bowness-On-Windermere. Julia was absolutely amazing from start to finish in helping me find the right style of dress, through the processes of measurements and fittings, to receiving it in time for the big day.

David’s suit and tie was purchased from Slaters Menswear in Liverpool. Slaters Menswear were very informative about how a suit should feel and selecting the right size suits for every member of the wedding party as well as giving advice on alternative options to belts to those who needed it.

Zoe’s wedding and engagement rings are both part of the Compose by Clogau collection. David’s wedding ring was designed by Brown & Newirth jewelers.

Florist name + review

We were lucky enough to have David’s mum, Sharon, sort out and craft all of our flower arrangements for the day. This including everything from the bride, bridesmaids and flower girls’ bouquets, the buttonholes, flowers for the table decorations as well as all the other flowers needed to decorate the venue.

Cake maker name + review

The Icing On The Cake, Kendal. Debbie managed to capture our idea of having a traditional wedding cake that had personality perfectly! The idea was that we would have a three-tiered cake that for the most part was a white wedding cake, yet on one portion of the cake there were elements of David and I shown. This included a hand painting of the image that appeared across the majority of the stationery – the view from the jetty that David proposed on. Followed by a variety of key characters from our favourite films, Harry Potter & Star Wars, and a recognisable icing model from Mario Kart. We topped the cake with a laser cut sign reading “We Solemnly Swear That We Are Up To No Good!”.

Stationery maker’s name + review

Lauren Young Illustration. Lauren managed to capture our vision for how we wanted our stationary to look to a tee! After sending over the initial ideas and photos, she expertly hand painted the photos and transferred them to a digital form so that we could layer the text over it accordingly.

Any crafty projects or homemade styling touches?

For our seven table names we asked Zoe’s dad, Clive to 3D print the individual shapes of each lake that we chose within the Lake District.

Hair + makeup name + review

Steph and Louise at Uglee Betties Beauty, Carlisle. I honestly couldn’t imagine anyone else being part of our special day! Being able to feel confident in Steph and Louise to make the right choices, even if it meant diverting slightly away from the original idea!