A Botanical, Country Inspired Wedding with Blush Pink + Green Hanging Lanterns

If you’re partial to the colour green, then today’s wedding is one for you! Full of lush greenery and lots of lanterns, it was a joyful and love-filled day, sure to put a smile on anyone’s face.

Digital marketing manager Harriet and her groom, digital marketing executive Charlie were married on 16th September 2017 at St Saviours Church in Harome, North Yorkshire, which they followed up with an evening reception at The Star Inn.

“We really just wanted a simple country wedding with lots of flowers! We wanted something classically pretty and suitable for the countryside setting. We wanted it to feel simple yet beautiful.”

Sally T Photography

“My bridesmaid wore a beautiful pink embroidered dresses with a low back from Needle and Thread. I only had my sister as my adult bridesmaid, which meant she could pick whatever she wanted. Lucy, my other bridesmaid, wore a dress from Monsoon. My flower girl dresses were from Zara and they wore pink sparkly shoes from Next with them. They also wore flower crowns from Etsy.”

“I had my dress made for me since I knew exactly what I wanted and I’m so glad I did. I went to Chambers, a tailors not too far from our London home and they did an amazing job. The dress was beautiful and the tailoring was perfect. I wanted it to be classic and timeless, but also pretty and flattering. It turned out so much better than I could have imagined! Chambers also provided my veil and my shoes were a blush pink pair of Stuart Weitzman shoes I bought whilst in America.”

“We used florist Busy Liz’s in Kirkbymoorside for all of our flowers. We met with Liz and talked through the options and she came up with the most beautiful ideas for our flowers. We wanted hedgerow, local flowers with lots of greenery, whites and some dusky pinks.”

[JP-VIDEO]

“We agreed to not pick specific flowers and she would choose whatever was fresh and beautiful when she was putting the arrangements together. Liz came up with the most gorgeous flowers, especially the ones in the church.”

The bride and groom met through an online dating site way back in 2012 and, after a mountain-top proposal in the Brecon Beacons, gave themselves 18 months to plan the day of their dreams.

“I didn’t want to climb the mountain but Charlie insisted. Once we got to the top he said he had a present for me. I didn’t know what it was immediately but he told me it was a Welsh spoon which Welsh men give to their wives. He then got down on one knee and proposed with a bracelet of white roses – it was very romantic!”

“We chose the church and venue as we loved the idea of being able to walk between the two. They’re also both very beautiful places and places my family have celebrated at before.”

“Since our wedding was a little bigger than The Star Inn can usually accommodate, we also had a marquee in the garden, supplied by Florida Marquees. Oh, and the food at The Star is delicious!”

The couple chose to have a traditional Church of England church service, officiated by the wonderful Reverend Susan Binks.

 

Harriet’s father walked her down the aisle to the ever popular Pachelbel’s Canon in D in a beautifully relaxed lace sleeved dress, made by London-based tailors Chambers.

“It felt more about us than the other Bible readings and we’ve heard it less frequently so it felt fresher to us. Harry and Meghan recently had it in their service too so I think we’ll probably hear it more often from now on.”

“The second was an extract from Emily Bronte’s Jane Eyre, which was a lovely quote from Mr Rochester to Jane Eyre. I particularly liked this quote because it mentions marriage and not just love. Plus, it’s a wonderful book!”

 

“Reverend Susan made our day so special. We really got to know her in the run up to the wedding day and she made the sermon so special and personal to us.”

“We also chose to have one Bible reading and one non-Bible reading during the service. We had Song of Solomon, Chapter 2 verses 10-13; Chapter 8, verses 6 and 7, which is a really beautiful reading.’

Captured on camera by the brilliant North Yorkshire based wedding photographer Sally T, it was a day to remember.

“Sally was amazing! We loved her style of photography, which is much more relaxed and less formal than some wedding photographers we had seen. She was brilliant on the day and captured so many moments we didn’t even know were happening at the time! We honestly couldn’t recommend her enough.”

After the ceremony, the newlyweds retreated with photographer Sally for their couples portraits before heading over to The Star with their guests for more celebrations.

“The best part of getting married in a small village is that we could walk to and from the church. Walking through the village in my dress with my dad, mum, step mum, sister and bridesmaid was such a special experience and one I’ll never forget. After the ceremony, we walked back up the highroad with all of our guests. It meant we didn’t need to worry about cars or any form of transportation too.”

“The little boys all wore shirt and chinos from John Lewis with gorgeous green bow ties from Mrs Bow Tie with cute little tractors on them.”

“All of the men, including Charlie, wore pale grey suits. We also bought matching ties and pocket squares. The groom, best man, ushers and our fathers were all matching and looked very smart.”

“To accessorise I wore fresh flowers in my hair and I borrowed my mums diamond earrings. Charlie also gave me a silver bracelet with infinity symbols on it on the morning of the wedding as a gift which I also wore. My perfume was Gold Lily by Shanghai Tang which is my absolute favourite smell!”

“Mandy and Leanne from Jem’s Hair Design in Kirkbymoorside did my beautiful make up hair, and the rest of the wedding party’s. We went to them as the service wasn’t until 4pm and it was such a fun and calming atmosphere. Also, going there made it feel like more of a ‘normal’ day, which made it less overwhelming.”

“All of our wedding stationery was done by the talented Emily Mayor and had a botanical country theme. It was all so gorgeous and felt very fresh and light.”

The couple decorated the marquee in which the wedding breakfast was served exquisitely, using hanging paper lanterns in greens, pinks and whites to create a simply joyful ambience, and decorated the tables with gorgeous floral centerpieces.

“We didn’t want the marquee to look too plain so used The Hanging Lantern Company for lanterns in complimentary colours and they were lovely. They swayed with the marquee in the breeze and we added LED lights so they added a simple but subtle light in the evening.”

“We also had sprigs of fresh rosemary, from my dad’s garden, at each place setting. Each table was named after a sports team we support, which is also associated with a place, and we had Polaroids printed of us in each of those locations.”

“We also decided we wanted to continue the botanical theme and hired two real trees from the local garden centre, which we positioned either side of the wooden bar with fairy lights.”

“We didn’t do wedding favours for everyone, but we did do packages for each of the children. These were wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string with their place names on them. Inside we put a colouring book, some crayons, an animal mask, some finger puppets, some bubbles and a curly straw.”

“Since some of the children were quite little, we also added a small room on to the marquee and borrowed some toys from a friend. This meant that there was somewhere the little ones could expel some energy and didn’t get too bored.”

“We also had a couple of birthdays on the day or days surrounding so we made little birthday packs which had a badge, a hat and a birthday card in them, which was delivered with their puddings. We wanted to mark their days too.”

“My step mum Kate made our wedding cake and it was beautiful. We didn’t want a formal or traditional cake, so we had a roughly iced 4-tier Victoria sponge with butter icing. It was decorated with more flowers and fresh rosemary from their garden, which made it smell incredible!”

“After the wedding breakfast and speeches, we chose Hey Ho! by The Lumineers for our first dance song. We chose it as it’s ‘our song’. On our first holiday together it was playing almost constantly and so has very fond memories for us.”

“I don’t think I can pin down an exact favourite moment from the wedding day as the whole day was wonderful! I think time immediately after the ceremony is probably the peak. It was such a relief that we were married and everything had gone well. If everything had gone wrong from there (it didn’t, thankfully!) then we were married and surrounded by people we loved and that was all that mattered.’

Words Of Wedded Wisdom

“It’s a very overwhelming day. You’re aware that the people in your life love you and love your relationship but they don’t often tell you. Except on your wedding day, when everyone does. It’s completely overwhelming so try to get your head around that before the day. I didn’t and there were a lot of happy tears!”

“I know it’s often said, but really do try to get 10 minutes just the two of you. After we’d finished our photos and before we went into the marquee, we stood outside with a glass of champagne and watched everyone inside (it was a clear sided marquee).”

“It was wonderful just to have a few moments to ourselves and appreciate the moment.”

“Also speeches! We did ours before the meal and it worked brilliantly. It meant everyone had a set amount of time before they brought the dinner in and everyone was sober enough to remember them. That is a definite recommendation I’d make to brides when planning their weddings.”

Thank you so much to the happy newlyweds for sharing such a joyful day with us, and to Sally T for capturing it all so well on camera! You can really see the love and joy pouring from the photos.

Until next time…

Much love,

Holly x