For the last 6 months we’ve been planning our wedding, and then finally, on 8th April the day actually arrived! I have the most amazing memories of our wedding day – everything from not sleeping the night before and shaking with nerves before walking down the aisle, to the beautiful ceremony itself and then spending the day with my favourite people. It was genuinely the best day of my life and although I was careful not to post anything about wedding planning on here before the event, it’s now time to share all the details!
Venue:
When we first started looking for our wedding venue I thought we’d find it in Manchester, where there are so many to choose from. But as we searched it became clear that we weren’t going to find what we wanted. Then after speaking to a colleague we decided to view Eaves Hall in Clitheroe and oh my goodness, it was just perfect for us! It was further afield than we’d planned, but otherwise it ticked every single box! It’s a stunning venue, with beautiful rooms and gorgeous grounds for photographs. We loved the idea of an exclusive use venue and this one had so many spaces for people to chill and chat. Also the price was within our budget thanks to a late availability deal. Of course, this gave us just 6 months to plan the whole thing, but it was worth it!
Invites:
I wanted something pretty yet simple and in the end our invites were a DIY project, designed and printed by us, and featuring calligraphy by me. Creating our own invites was just one of the ways that we made sure our wedding didn’t cost the earth! Take a look at my previous post to read all about our DIY wedding calligraphy.
(This image was taken by me, not our photographer)
What we wore:
I was so worried about finding a dress that I loved just 6 months before the wedding date, so my first port of call was off-the-peg bridal retailer Wed2b, and what do you know – I found “the one” on my first visit! I can’t explain my joy at finding this beautiful tulle and lace dress (at a decent price), and then being able to take it home with me that same day!
Choosing a bridesmaid dress was also quite easy because I had just one bridesmaid, giving us a lot of flexibility to choose the perfect dress for her. I was determined that the dress would be found on the high street, and so ordered about 20 for her to try on in various shades of pale green and blush pink. The one we settled on was a pale green Jenny Packham dress from Debenhams because the fit and colour were just lovely. As a bonus, it was on sale, and just so happens it was the last one in stock!
Hair and makeup:
Oh our hair! I can’t even explain how much I loved our gorgeous boho braided styles. I had a Pinterest board dedicated to wedding hair (of course) and it was full of all sorts of flowery braids, and I’m so impressed at how our ideas were brought to life. I would highly recommend our hair and makeup team Ashley (hair) and Kate (makeup).
(These hair images were taken by Ashley, not our photographer)
Flowers and decorations:
This leads nicely onto our beautiful flowers by Victoria at Lancashire Floristry who captured my “ivory and blush pink with plenty of greenery” vision perfectly!
She also provided the flower arrangements for this pretty wedding bike, which ended up being quite the feature! The bike itself was provided by my dad who restores vintage bikes. Isn’t it cute?!
We chose our venue partly because it is so beautiful that it doesn’t need dressing up in any way. This saved us a lot of budget and stress, but we did decide have a couple of feature “décor” pieces in the end. As well as the vintage flower bike we also had these large light-up LOVE letters that are so popular at weddings right now. They are pretty cool, and Craig was very keen to have them, so we did!
Music:
Music is a big decision for weddings as it’s so personal and you have to get it right for both of you.
I chose to walk down the aisle to Pas de Deux from The Nutcracker, which was lovely for a small, intimate wedding ceremony room. It’s from my favourite ballet and is such a romantic piece!
During the ceremony we also had two further pieces of music. My friend sang for us, which was lovely! She sang Promise, the Closing Music from Epcot, because the lyrics are perfect for a wedding (and it was also a subtle nod to my love of Disney!) And we also had You Belong To Me sung by Jason Wade. Finally walked out to You’re So Cool, the instrumental music from the end of True Romance, which I love because it sounds cute and joyful.
Following the ceremony and throughout the breakfast we had a lovely pianist playing, because Eaves Hall has an amazing grand piano that would have been a shame to waste! And in case you’re wondering about the first dance, we finally settled on Can’t Take My Eyes Off You by Andy Williams.
Wedding Cake:
And our cake, which we’d decided to have very simple in design, had a different flavour for each tier. Chocolate and salted caramel for the largest tier, lemon for the middle tier, and a top tier of carrot cake – all of which tasted delicious.
Wedding Photographer:
The photos used in this post were taken by Claire Fromm of The Fromm Shoppe. She was so amazing and we couldn’t be happier with our gorgeous photos from our day!
English Rose from Manchester's Blog 
Absolutely gorgeous! Love the venue and the photos are stunning 🙂 That’s a beautiful bouquet as well! Xx
Thank you! I loved my bouquet so much! xx