Good morning all! This wedding is such a treat for all you lovers of mid-century bridal fashion style. Bride Emma, who tied the knot with her beloved Stuart in April this year, wore a 50’s inspired gown with a fabulous, short, poofy, 60’s inspired wedding veil, that I think finished off her look perfectly.
The couple’s laid back, relaxed and fun Spring wedding was held at the charming Leeds country hotel wedding venue, ‘The Woodlands’ and these photographs were taken by Paul Joseph photography. Annabel and I particularly love Paul’s portrait shots and how well he has captured the affection between these two lovely newlyweds.
“We didn’t want a fancy wedding, but one where people felt comfortable and could be themselves and share in the day with us. We wanted the day to be fuss-free, but to show off our personalities and tastes too. We also wanted a simple venue that we could add our personality to, and The Woodlands seemed ideal. The grounds are amazing for a drinks reception too, and we thought it was great to have the whole hotel so that the only people there were involved in our wedding and people could have a little ‘time out’ if they needed in one of the many rooms beautiful accommodating rooms.”
Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Paul Joseph photography
“I always knew I wanted a backless dress. At my first visit to Timeless Couture I was telling the girls what styles I loved and what I wanted the bridesmaids to look like and they suggested I try on Chloe. The dress was a strapless one, so we talked about what I liked and made the top half full of lace and took the back lower, so it became backless and a one off! Each time I tried it on I loved it more and more! It was so simple and yet perfect and I felt very much myself in it.
The girls were amazing, I knew I would be able to dance and move about and not worry about tripping up over the front and just be able to enjoy the dress.”
“We spent loads of time on the day with them and didn’t feel like we were missing out on any part of the wedding as it felt we were having a laugh with our mates. We did some great photos before the reception, and just felt totally comfortable with them and what they were asking us to do. The photos are great, and we find ourselves looking at them all the time! We could not recommend them highly enough.”
“The bridesmaids had amazing outfits, I thought! They had grey tulle skirts from Doris Designs, which were amazing and had so many layers of tulle! The three adult bridesmaids and our flower girl had the exact same outfits on. The tops were from Miss Selfridge. Harrison, the page boy had a navy suit from Next, which matched the colour of the men’s suits and some little black Converse high tops!”
“We chose Paul Joseph Photography to be our photographers. I met them at a wedding fayre and went straight home to tell Stuart how amazing I thought they were. We the meet at Krispy Kreme to get to know each other and to make sure they were what we wanted and they could give us the shots we were after.
We left the meeting and sent an email straight away saying we would love to book them! They were amazing, and we have become friends! Stuart and I are not keen on posing for photos and they understood that from day one.”
“They got the family shots we asked for but after that they were a part of the wedding. We spent loads of time on the day wwith them and didn’t feel like we were missing out on any part of the wedding as it felt we were having a laugh with our mates. We did some great photos before the reception, and just felt totally comfortable with them and what they were asking us to do.
The photos are great, and we find ourselves looking at them all the time! We could not recommend them highly enough.”
“We first met at school when we were 11 years old and were in many of the same classes together throughout school. We then got back in touch in 2011 through Facebook (cliché I know!) We got engaged on New Years Eve 2012 after a walk up with our dog, Ralph, to Temple Newsam. It was a cold day, with heavy rain, and Stuart kept asking if I was happy all the way around on the day. I was thinking, “no, its New Year’s Eve, and I need to get ready and I’m cold and wet!”
As we got back to the car, he asked for my hand, and I gave him my right, to which he said no the other one and he pulled out the most gorgeous ring and asked me to marry him. He had asked my parents permission the evening before, which he knew meant a lot to me, and everything was lovely!”
“I used my friend, the amazing Caroline Kilbride for makeup. A Harvey Nichols trained ex professional, Caroline knew what I wanted and we had practiced many times before so I had no shocks on the day! Caroline did my Mum’s make up and helped with the bridesmaid’s also. It was nice to have someone I know doing it, as it meant from the moment the preparations started everyone was relaxed and having fun! For my hair, I went to Cherie Hair Design at Iveridge Hall in Rothwell. Following the ‘simple’ theme, Cherie knew how I wanted my hair and made sure it didn’t move all day long!”
“We chose Annemarie Wilkinson for the flowers and we were so happy with them! I had in my mind large arrangements at different heights to break the marquee up as people walked in. We went for baby’s breath in large blooms in tall glass vases and also then in short vases. Around the centre of the table we had smaller hand tied arrangements of pink and champagne coloured roses and lots of tea lights.
It was lovely having the big blooms and we gave so many away at the end of the night, and the rest my Grandparents took to their community centre for a tea dance the following week!”
“I used my friend, the amazing Caroline Kilbride for makeup. A Harvey Nichols trained ex professional, Caroline knew what I wanted and we had practiced many times before so I had no shocks on the day! Caroline did my Mum’s make up and helped with the bridesmaid’s also. It was nice to have someone I know doing it, as it meant from the moment the preparations started everyone was relaxed and having fun! For my hair, I went to Cherie Hair Design at Iveridge Hall in Rothwell. Following the ‘simple’ theme, Cherie knew how I wanted my hair and made sure it didn’t move all day long!”
“I had a simple hair up-do and chose a lovely headband, cut to look like a hair clip/brooch, from Accessorize. My perfume was Issey Miyake ‘L’Eau d’Issey’. Stuart brought me the perfume home from his stag do in Vegas, and I’ve always loved the smell.”
“I had two pearl bracelets that Stuart bought me a wedding gift. I had pearl drop earrings that were borrowed from my Grandma that she has had since she was 21, and I had a set of pearl studs that were a gift from my parents the night before the wedding.
I also had my Mum’s garter, that she had replaced for me, so that lace matched the colour of my dress and featured a wooden button – as I always like to be able to touch wood for good luck! My brother had to dash back for my garter!”
“We chose Rothwell Holy Trinity Church for the ceremony and Woodlands, Leeds for the reception. I’ve always wanted a traditional ceremony, we have both lived in Rothwell nearly all our lives and wanted to have part of the wedding local to us, somewhere that we see on a regular basis. Growing up, I watched lots of weddings in the church, and always knew I would have mine there.
The church is on a small hill and has a lovely gateway and path up to the door, which was exciting walking up.”
“My Father walked me down the aisle. I think we were both as nervous as each other and I couldn’t think of anyone better to be there with. It really was something that I had always dreamed of and the car journey to the church was lovely. We picked a Daimler V8 from Lavelle Classics, which is a 1964 Jaguar and was amazing! The red leather interior was so lovely. It was a great car to have.
All the girls went to the church in it with my Mum, and then my Dad and me and Stuart and me enjoyed a bottle of champagne on the way to the reception in it. It made for some great photos.”
“For the readings, we chose Eskimo Love Song;
‘You are my husband, you are my wife
My feet shall run because of you
My feet dance because of you
My heart shall beat because of you
My eyes see because of you
My mind thinks because of you
And I shall love, because of you.’
Our friend, Jenni, who was 6 months pregnant at the time, read this for us. We loved this reading because of all it says. It may be short, but it sums up a husband and wife for us, everything we do is because of the each other and we are so happy due to the other person – so it was perfect.”
“We had a range of glass votive’s on the top table which we got from BHLDN – it is such a great shop! We also had a glitter Mr and Mrs sign from there which was on the entrance to the marquee.
For table favours we made a donation to Cancer Research UK and everyone received a pink or blue pin badge. It was a very personal choice for us to do this but also an easy choice. It was quite emotional seeing people when they noticed the badges, but I thought the best thing was people wearing them. I loved that!”
“We went with Dots Kitchen for our cake. We had four tiers- I hate odd numbers- which had a different design on. We had a chocolate layer, a plain sponge layer and two fruit layers. We kept the top layer, as per tradition. We also had a Costco cake with a photo of our bulldog, Ralph on, as one of the guest was adamant we should have a Costco wedding cake! Anne Marie made a small flower arrangement to go on the top too, which finished it off nicely.”
“I loved our table plan for the wedding, we had all different photo frames for each table with everyone’s name in and this was surrounded with a few tea lights and some of the hand tied flower arrangements. The best thing is we can now use all the frames to create a photo wall with lots of the wedding photos in of us and the guests – which I think will be lovely.”
“Stuart got his suit from Slaters in Leeds, along with all the groomsmen and family bridal party. It was a lovely 3 piece navy suit with a waistcoat. He also treated himself just before the wedding to a gorgeous watch, he had his eye on one for a while so went and made the impulse purchase around a week before the wedding.”
“The best man was John, one’s of Stuart’s closet friends from school, who he has known since he was 11. He made a great speech, with a few shocking words, of which there is a great photo of my Dad, me and Stuart all looking extremely shocked!”
“I honestly don’t think I could chose a favourite part of the day, it was honestly all amazing. I loved the journey with Stuart to Woodlands as it was the first proper chance to chat with him that day about the wedding. I loved the evening reception, where we were all the dance floor just having an amazing time and dancing with our family and friends – we were so happy and relaxed and surrounded by everyone we love – I don’t think it can be better than that! I wouldn’t change a thing, I loved every minute of it.”
“”We had Jason Murz, ‘I won’t give up’ for our first dance which was played by the band. I just love how the song talks about not giving up on someone no matter if things get tough and I think that is what marriage is about. There may be times when it becomes harder, but that is life and that is why you chose that person, so you can get through the tough times together.”
Words of Wedded Wisdom
“Remember it is your day. You can get so lost in what other people think and their opinions. The people who really care about you won’t have a bad word to say about the wedding. Everyone is different and likes different things, and at the end of the day, the most important part of the wedding is the marriage.
It isn’t a competition – some people seemed to want to know what things cost and what we were doing for certain things – each wedding will be different. There isn’t meant to be a wedding framework that you all work from, it is meant to be individual and special to the couple getting married.”
Thank you so much to Emma and Stuart for sharing their day, which was obviously extremely special. Thank you also to Paul Joseph for capturing all that happy emotion on camera.
Love Susie xxx
Photographer – Paul Joseph Photography
Venue – Woodlands
Dress + Veil – Timeless Couture
Hair Accessory – Accessorize
Shoes – Rachel Simpson
Bride’s Scent/perfume – Issey Miyake ‘L’Eau d’Issey’.
Groom – Slaters
Bridesmaids – Doris Designs skirts + Miss Selfridge tops
Page Boys – Next
Florist – Annemarie Wilkinson
Cake – Dots Kitchen + Costco
Transport – Lavelle Classics
Glass Votives on the tables – BHLDN
That dress! And all of the emotion! And the tanker (more weddings should have a tanker involved I reckon). Great set of pics from what was clearly a fantastic day. Lovely stuff. x
Thanks for your lovely comment Hannah! Isn’t this wedding lovely? I really do love the way Paul has captured such honest and loving shots 🙂