"I was inspired by rustic French barn images, the countryside in Northumberland, Love my Dress and brown paper – my staple for business stationary. I think my regular trips to antique fairs inspired a lot of the look too…"
I'm a little bit excited about this wedding. And yes I know I've already featured two Jenny Packham brides this week, including one wearing Eden already, but I've been waiting for this questionnaire back for weeks so I'm not waisting any time in sharing this with you!
I just love this wedding, the brides wonderful smile says it all. Julie and Vinny tied the knot on Friday 28th October 2011, with a ceremony at St Charles’ Church in Gosforth Newcastle, followed by a reception at Newton Hall at Newton By The Sea, Northumberland.
Julie is a really talented interior designer and a fellow North East lass 😉 I first met her She is responsible for having designed and styled all the cool spots in my home town of Newcastle Upon Town, where she now lives, prior to which she was responsible for designing a number of other trendy haunts in London, where she spent several years honing her skill and developing her signature style.
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Image Newcastle
I first met Julie last year after receiving an email from her telling me how much she loved to visit Love My Dress and how it had inspired her in planning her own wedding. Thrilled to see Julie lived not far from me and was also an interior designer, I hooked up with her and asked if she would like to get involved in planning the Love My Dress Summer Soiree {heck, I had a whole BALTIC flower mill to style!} and whilst Julie was unable to attend the event, she assisted hugely in creating a concept and vision for the evening, something for which I will be forever grateful to her for.
Having met Julie just a few times, I soon realised what an exceptionally brilliant designer she was. How many brides do you know who actually designed their own wedding venue – I'm talking bricks and mortar design and interior styling here, not just popping some bunting up from the rafters!
Julie wore Jenny Packham's 'Eden'…
"It was the first dress I picked up off the rack and knew it was 'the one'…"
"From designing for The Apartment Group for the last couple of years my style and look has evolved. As you Like It {one of Newcastle's uber trendy night spots} is the height of faded vintage glamour and when the Newton Hall project came up to design the ultimate wedding venue I jumped at the chance. I was so keen to get involved, as some venues I looked at were a bit too up themselves, a bit too posh, a bit… not me. As The Apartment Group have a different approach to everything we both came up the perfect venue, which caters for any style, attitude or party.
Originally the Newton Hall project was to style the mansion house out as a self contained house on the beautiful Northumberland coast, before the wedding venue. So I spent a lot of time out of signal up there and I fell in love with coastal line. Vinny and myself spent many times up at Newton by the Sea and after a cheese ploughman’s sandwich and half a bitter, Vinny popped the questions on Newton beach. We couldn’t have our wedding anywhere else…"
"We got married in Gosforth at Vinny's Church but drove straight up to Newton to get our photos on the beach. (Voted one of the top ten beaches in the UK) It was such a sunny day. From styling some of the shoots for Newton Hall I had a list of ideas I wanted to add to the style of the wedding.
This included original vintage beach huts and moustaches and lips that we both stayed up late three nights in a row to make sure every one had one with their desert…"
"Also a lot of my working relationships sent me pressies and Absolutely Fabrics gave me my love sign which I can't wait to put up in my baby’s nursery…"
Julie and Vinny recently discovered they are expecting their first baby – YAY! 😉
Julie's Jenny Packham veil was ordered without a comb and sewed into my headdress to make a cap veil..
Gorgeous florals by Lotte & Bloom…
"The Newton Hall project was to take down the existing out-houses and build a new function space terrace and glasshouse to sit 200 people. Duncan Fisher who was the client but also a great friend let me push the project forward not only to build to complete it for the first wedding – but for the first wedding to be my own.
Believe me it was truly stressful but very exciting and everyone worked so hard to get my dream day and they didn’t let me down. It was everything and more I dreamed of.
I took inspiration from the landscape and sourced reclaimed materials. We stayed true to the original buildings so we had a lot of exposed stone, brick and wood. But the large windows let you appreciate the surroundings. I designed large circular wood tables, as I wanted people to have to choice not to have fussy tablecloths. I sourced a lot of antique sofas and armchairs to have a relaxation lounge area with heavy mis matched fabric. We have also given the chance to get married out side on a purpose made hill and an exterior terrace with a retractable roof with external fireplace…"
"The Bridesmaids were all asked to buy nude shoes that reflected their personalities…"
"I’m not religious but VInny is a practising Catholic so he wanted to get married in his church. I must say I was nervous about this but they were so lovely and happy to involve me even though I am not Catholic. My best friend Sarah, who I grew up with (chief Bridesmaid) Mam’s a vicar -who was also my teacher and I wanted her to speak for a bit on my behalf as she knows me very well and knows my beliefs…."
"My Dad and I walked down the aisle to Canon in D, Pachelbel – this was Vinny's choice, though he surprised me when we walked out the church to The Verve’s 'Lucky Man'… ☺"
"As I designed the whole venue, I wanted to keep a vintage French theme not over the top but let the surroundings speak for themself. I sourced original French vintage large green glass jars (which in France are used in flower shops), which also housed the flowers and had the table numbers on in chalk pen. Also the original sash windows from the build I kept and used as the table plan (wrote table plan myself on the glass). Also sourced vintage French linen as the table runners (very rustic)…"
"We danced to Elbow's 'One Day Like This' – the live lounge version…
Words of Wedded Wisdom…
"Don’t build your own venue he he!!
I would say treat it as a big party and think what it would be like as a visitor to your own wedding/party and realise that sometimes you shouldn’t sweat the small stuff. Also best piece of advice was to sneak away a couple of times during the day to have a kiss and giggle with each other.
The things that stood out on the day were the wonderful smiles of everybody, the heartfelt hilarious speeches the beach photos. The photo booth will go down in history with my family. Plus our band, which made the evening, go far too quickly…"
Love love love everything about this wedding, and want to congratulate lovely Julie and Vinny on tieing the knot and thank them so much for allowing me to share these images 🙂 Huge thanks too to Serena Taylor of Image Newcastle for supplying these lovely photographs that have so made me smile today 🙂
I'd love to read your comments on this wedding. There has been a lot of Jenny Packham love on the blog this week, and I guess it's no surprise when when she designs frocks like this! Julie, you look incredible and I love how you styled your veil and had fun on the beach with those styled shots 🙂 So let's show lovely Julie some love peeps!
And brides, be sure to check out Newton Hall at Newton By The Sea in Northumberland for a beautiful North East UK wedding venue. It has Julie's charm stamped all over it 🙂
Can't wait to hear from you all 🙂
Much love all – and have a super afternoon,
Annabel
♥
Photographer – Image Newcastle
Venue – Newton Hall, Northumberland
Brides dress & hair accessory – Jenny Packham via Noble and Wright Atelier + Vintage fur wrap from chic antiques
Brides Shoes – Kurt Geiger
Brides veil & hair accessories – Jenny Packham
Grooms Suit & Brides Father – Reiss + Reiss white shirt + burgundy socks + skinny ties from Next. Brown leather Shoes from Topman.
Bridesmaids Dresses – Coast
Flowers – Lotte & Bloom
Cake – Stewart & Co Jesmond
Decor & Detail – All designed and styled by the bride herself, Julie Chambers
Entertainment – Jack Rabbit And The Slims
Love Sign – Absolutely Fabrics
