Bridesmaids in White for an Elegant and Modern City Restaurant Wedding

Lovelies, prepare to enjoy today’s nuptials, as we turn the clocks back to the delights of long summer days and view these beautiful images by Matt Penberthy Photography. Stephanie and Jonathan, both teachers, married on the 30^th of July 2016 at the very beautiful St Paul’s Church in Jarrow, then held their music-filled celebrations at the cool and quirky venue As You Like It in Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne; a place that meant so much to the couple, as it is where they had their first date together and the location of Jonathan’s proposal to Stephanie.

“I based the wedding day around our tastes, but also around the décor of the venue. I absolutely love As You Like It – it is such a unique and quirky wedding venue, and it is very different, which is what we wanted. I used to be a wedding singer and I had seen so many different weddings, and had a good idea of what I liked and it turned out Jonathan had very similar tastes to me. We are both very musical and so that helped us choose a table theme too.”

Photography by Matt Penberthy

Stephanie’s maids wore a range of white lace overlay dresses from Coast, Monsoon, Debenhams and Dorothy Perkins with their own shoes and accessories, topped off with gorgeous flower crowns made by Floral Quarter.With such a detailed dress, Stephanie chose to keep accessories to a minimum, simply adding a clip from Guess in her hair that she borrowed from my bridesmaid, a borrowed pearl clasp bracelet, and finished with a spritz of her favourite perfume Coco Chanel No5. And I just love this story about shoe choice – comfort wins every time!

“I am not a big shoe girl and I wanted to wear trainers, but I was talked out of it. So, I wore Debenhams own brand heels and then in the evening I wore lace slip-on trainers from Tesco so I could dance. No one could see my shoes as the dress was so huge, which was perfect for a non-shoe girl like me!”

“Hair was by Shireen and Vicky from Beau Bridal and they were amazing, knew exactly what I wanted and so professional. I told Vicky I wanted messy plaited hair, but still neat and she just did it. She even told me she practised loads of different plait styles on her daughter! The two of them were like a well-oiled machine and I couldn’t have asked for better hairdressers.”

“Christie-Leigh Galloway was my make-up artist and she was fantastic. She’s so laid back and kept everything so calm on the day. She spent so long making sure I was happy and my make-up flawless and to my liking. All in all, I don’t think I could have picked a better hair and make-up artist and both were so reasonably priced.”

The beautiful bride donned a gorgeous (and very aptly named) Opulence gown – the ‘Biscay’ style – found via the bridal shop I Do Wedding Specialists.

“I tried a short version of the dress on – it was actually in the window of the shop and it just felt right. I tried lots of dresses on and couldn’t get that one out of my head, but I really wanted a full-length dress, as it’s not every day you get to wear a huge dress.”

“The lady in the shop then checked to see if it came in a full-length version and the rest is history. I loved the lace and sparkles, especially on the back, and I felt like it was a little quirky but at the same time classic as it was a full skirt. I suppose my dress style is a little unique, probably by accident, and so I wanted my dress to be a little different.”

The florist, Vicky from Floral Quarter, decorated the entire venue, made the beautiful flower crowns and provided lace tie-backs and runners for the couple, all for an affordable price.

“I showed Vicky a few pictures, she said ‘leave it with me’ and even threw in a few extras which we hadn’t paid for. I found her online and looked at some of her photographs, enquired, went to visit her shop in Gosforth and it was just so quirky. The venue was beautiful and so were the bouquets and flower crowns.”

“I told my florist the kind of flowers I liked and described what I wanted and she came up with these. I loved the flower crowns and I had total flower crown envy on the big day!” 

“I had the youngest flower girl try on huge flower girl dresses and in the end she loved one from Monsoon, which was quite bohemian and had almost like a cape around her shoulders. This inspired the older flower girl’s dress; a cream bridesmaid dress from Tonia Ann Bridal and then I bought a separate cape to match the youngest from ASOS.”

The couple hired a wedding car from AMV Cars, as well as a London bus from Henry Cooper Coaches to transport the guests from the church to the reception. They chose traditional vows, two readings – Corinthians 13 and a passage from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – and a friend played a beautiful song for the aisle walk.

“Our friend Jonny Winter, who is an exceptional musician, played us down the aisle with a piano instrumental version of Bon Iver’s ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ and then he played a few songs in-between the signing of the register. I can’t recommend this man enough.”

“Jonathan and I met at work as we both worked in the same school and we got engaged after we’d spent almost a year in China teaching and living together. We got engaged in June 2015 when Jonathan popped the question over a romantic meal in As You Like It.”

“Jonathan bought a Vera Wang twist engagement ring for me and I wanted the wedding ring to match. Our wedding rings were via Goldsmiths and when we were there I managed to talk Jonathan into getting the more expensive wedding ring, as it was his wedding too. They provided a great service and we love our rings!”

“I loved all of our wedding day! And I really liked being in the wedding car with Jonathan and just having a little chat before we were pulled between all of our guests.”

“I was so happy to have found Matt from Matt Penberthy Photography. When we viewed his website it was just what we were looking for.”

“I enquired and luck would have it he was available and for a very reasonable fee. He was absolutely perfect for what we wanted. He was everywhere all day and never stopped snapping. Even guests commented on how hard he worked and in the end we had to tell him to go home as it was late!”

“He was very easy company and made us feel at ease especially since we’re not a very “let’s take photo’s” couple. We loved it and everything from him was of a quality standard. I couldn’t recommend him anymore. What a find!”

“We designed our own stationery and we didn’t assign seats, just tables, due to the amount of weddings I had been to and in the end just swapped seats.”

The tasty wedding cake was crafted by Gayle from Daisy Cakes.

“I originally asked the baker that has made cakes for my family for years, but he didn’t do wedding cakes and recommended Gayle. I went to see her, showed her the pictures and her price was so reasonable. A few months later she produced a beautiful cake which tasted amazing and everyone commented on how lovely it was.”

“Our first dance was Curtis Stigers ‘You’re All That Matters To Me’, because it came on in the car one day when we first met and we both started singing along. I said, “Do you know this song?” and he said, “Know it, my mam’s got his album!” and ever since then it became ‘our song’, so it had to be our first dance.”

The guests were thoroughly entertained by The Philippa King Band, which just so happened to be the band of one of Stephanie’s very musical bridesmaids.

“I went to university with the rest of the band, so we were all friends. Even though they were friends, they learned new songs and kept the dance floor filled all night long!”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Don’t stress. Everyone kept saying to me “you’re so laid back – are you not stressed?” and I just thought, no, if you can’t do anything about it, don’t worry about it. I also didn’t even worry about the weather and I had a beautiful day.

The one thing I would say from being in a wedding band and seeing so many weddings is don’t keep people waiting around. We were married, and then while we had our photos taken, the bus took the guests to the reception venue where they had drinks and canapés. Then about an hour later we arrived and did speeches, then the wedding breakfast and the day just ran so smoothly.

One of the best things I did was go to my parents’ house in the morning and have my hair and make-up done there. We had all the bridesmaids together, then my brothers came, and then my sister-in-law and nieces who were flower girls and we all had food and drinks – it was so lovely before the day. I also recommend getting married a little later in the day – we got married at 2pm and it was perfect!”

Such brilliant advice from a very beautiful bride – thank you Stephanie for these gems! I’ve so loved sharing your most delightful day and just adore the joy-filled images captured by Matt.

Take a look at these other wonderful weddings in summer from our archives for even more inspo for your own big day.

Love Jo -x-