A Same Sex, British Sign Language, Nature + Glamour Inspired Wedding at Rudding Park in Harrogate

Romantic, airy and beautiful; these three words came to mind as soon as I opened up the file of photographs for today’s wedding.

We’re destined for Yorkshire for the lovely, lovely wedding of Bethany and Chloe. On 6 May 2018, Bethany and Chloe married in the heavenly setting of Rudding Park, Harrogate, Yorkshire. The couple took inspiration from their loves of nature and glamour – representing their own personalities perfectly – to style their day. T

Film Bim Ajadi

The ceremony, in which they communicated their vows in British Sign Language, was held in the Park’s Chapel. And afterwards, the brides and their guests enjoyed a DIY reception in the house, which wove rose gold with spring flowers for an incredibly gorgeous celebration.

Bethany and Chloe met through a mutual friend and knew each other for six years before finally getting together.

“Sparks started to appear between us, we got closer and became interested in each other’s company. The love story began as soon as Chloe asked Bethany out on our first date.”  

Photography Dominic Wright Photography

Light and airy, these wonderful photographs from Dominic Wright Photography convey the joy and romance of the day so well. Dominic, your style has really got me.

“We had the wonderful Dominic and Zoe Wright from Dominic Wright Photography. They are absolutely brilliant and have been so patient with us. Both of them are so kind-hearted and we were amazingly comfortable in their presence. Their work is outstanding. We will always highly recommend them.”

Rudding Park’s grounds look so wonderful in the spring sunshine. Full of fresh leaves, it’s perfect for the couple’s nature-inspired day. A mixture of nature and glamour inspired their day, which they styled and planned themselves.

“The nature theme took over most of the day with woodland animals as our table names. The glamour theme came later in the evening with a spot of nature. Our cake stall was mixed with some splashes of rose gold along with rustic things like wooden crates to put the cupcakes in and a sliced wooden log for our Ferrero Rocher mountain to stand on.”

“We made quite a lot of things by hand; the menu, the seating plan, the Ferrero Rocher stand. We are very proud of how our wedding turned out as it was exactly the wedding we dreamed of. We made sure to throw our personalities into our wedding so people knew it was ours.”

“It was love at first sight for the both of us when we first visited Rudding Park. We also fell in love with their chapel and could so easily visualise our dream wedding there.”

Elegant, calligraphed stationery set the tone for the day.

“Amanda Williams from Love Invited designed our wedding day invitations and the order of service books. She also designed our thank you cards and Christmas cards. We would happily recommend her as she was fantastic to work with and is so kind. We handmade the menus for each guest, the table plans, seating plan and the labels of the guests’ names for the chairs; it gave a personal touch to our wedding day.”

 

The brides both chose to wear their hair in elegant low up-dos, with their make-up fresh and natural. Joanne and Nicola from L’Egance, Sunderland styled their hair whilst make-up was by Joanna Holmes-Branaghan.

“She is a mobile make-up artist and works in MAC too.”

The brides each chose their divine gowns at The Harrogate Wedding Lounge, although they visited at different times and with different people. Bethany picked out an Enzoani gown, with a deep V-neck back and intricate lace detail pooling out into a frothy skirt. Chloe’s fluted, cap-sleeved dress with a delicate row of buttons down its illusion back was a Maggie Sottero design. I cannot get over how incredibly well these gowns complement each other, especially the lace detailing, and the pair look divine standing side by side.

“Bethany went to two or three different shops but felt no connection to any of the dresses. Once she went into The Wedding Lounge, she immediately felt a connection and knew the dresses were suitable for her body shape, especially the one she fell in love with and said yes to.”

“Chloe only went into one shop which didn’t have the dress she was looking for. But, like Bethany, she found a dress on her first visit at The Wedding Lounge and straightaway knew it was the dress for her.”

“Bethany ordered a backdrop necklace which sparkled on her back. It was created personally for her and ordered from Miami, USA through Etsy. Bethany also wore earrings from Pandora and was given her mother’s pearls, which her mother wore at her own wedding many years ago, to wear as a bracelet that we made together.”

“Chloe popped the question to Beth. Chloe had a plan and amazingly it went so well that Beth didn’t suspect a thing. On the day Chloe proposed, 30 May 2016, she dropped Beth off at work early, went to a few shops to sort a picnic out and put it all in a picnic case with the ring box inside. Chloe hid it in the boot before she got ready to pick Beth up. Beth came home to a pathway of roses and a note saying ‘I am taking you out today’.”

“Chloe took her away to The White Horse, Kilburn near Thirsk in North Yorkshire. It was somewhere we have always wanted to go as we used to travel past there every week during our long-distance relationship – Chloe was based at Sunderland and Beth at Hull. It was a lovely, sunny day so we went for a walk before sitting down to the surprise picnic. Chloe allowed us to enjoy some food but before the sweet treats, she decided to do it.”

“Chloe said a couple of personal words before she got on her knee and proposed with the ring. Beth was so surprised and obviously said yes! It was a very personal and intimate moment for us.”

They booked their wedding for 22 months after their engagement, choosing Rudding Park as their venue.

The wedding was held in the Chapel in Rudding Park’s grounds. Its magnificent interiors were adorned with more flowers and lots of candles.

“At the chapel, we added a lot of candles to make it feel very romantic and classy. We also had homemade flags for each guest to wave in the chapel when we did our first kiss as Mrs and Mrs instead of clapping.”

“This is because of our deafness; we are very visual so it was lovely to see everyone celebrate when they waved the flags. We made homemade confetti from our garden plants which was put in homemade cones.”

Bethany and Chloe entered the chapel separately, Bethany to ‘Beautiful in White’ by Westlife and Chloe to ‘Amazing’ by Lonestar.

“Both of us had our fathers walking us down the aisle. They kept saying how proud they were – the proudest day of their lives, they said. It was very special to us too.”

The couple exchanged their vows in British Sign Language, and their interpreter did a voiceover so that the celebrant and guests could hear the vows.

“Our vows were personally created by ourselves for each other. The vows were very special to us at the chapel and we communicated them to each other in our language, British Sign Language.“

The couple asked one of Chloe’s old friends to read a poem, and they exchanged rings from Ernest Jones.

“Our reader, Lisa, was Chloe’s family friend who she knew all her life. She chose a reading she felt was suitable for us; it was a poem and very intimate in the chapel.”

“Both rings were from Ernest Jones which is also where we got our engagement rings from. Bethany chose hers because it has a full top half of sparkles which is what she was looking for. Chloe chose hers because it was a nice ‘twist’ from the normal ones and added a bit of sparkle. It also fits really well with her engagement ring.”

The bridesmaids wore gowns from Joy’s Bella Bridesmaids in York whilst the flowergirls were in pretty white dresses from Debenhams and John Lewis. Their bracelets and earrings were by Lovisa and they wore fresh sprigs of baby’s breath in their hair.

Light and airy, these wonderful photographs from Dominic Wright Photography convey the joy and romance of the day so well. Dominic, your style has really got me.

“We had the wonderful Dominic and Zoe Wright from Dominic Wright Photography. They are absolutely brilliant and have been so patient with us. Both of them are so kind-hearted and we were amazingly comfortable in their presence. Their work is outstanding. We will always highly recommend them.”

The wedding breakfast was provided by the Rudding Park team, and the wedding cake was an absolute showstopper; four elegant tiers with an exquisite sugar-flower wreath.

The wedding flowers were all styled by Caine of Harrogate, and they are the epitome of spring; so many beautiful tulips and so much fresh green foliage.

“We chose Caine of Harrogate because all of his florist displays were full of greenery without too much colour which we were looking for due to our nature theme. We had a bond with him because he was able to provide the kind of flowers we wanted to include in our wedding. Our bouquets were so beautiful. Bethany had a bit of ‘stand out’ bouquet to show her bubbly side and Chloe had a simple, ‘relaxed’ bouquet to show her laid-back character.”

Elegant, calligraphed stationery set the tone for the day.

“Amanda Williams from Love Invited designed our wedding day invitations and the order of service books. She also designed our thank you cards and Christmas cards. We would happily recommend her as she was fantastic to work with and is so kind. We handmade the menus for each guest, the table plans, seating plan and the labels of the guests’ names for the chairs; it gave a personal touch to our wedding day.”

The Hall’s dining room had been dressed by Bethany and Chloe with so many personal details. I love the floral and foliage table-runners, and the guests’ name-tags affixed to their chairs.

“We ordered personalised black pens for the men which read ‘Chloe & Bethany 6th May 2018’ with ring logos on them. The women all had a small candle with the name ‘Wedding Day’; they actually smelt lush! And for the kids, we made homemade ‘boxed bags’ which were filled with dunkers, sweets, colouring books, pencils and toys. There were only two young teenagers so we filled two jars with sweet for them.”

“Our cake supplier was Poppy Pickering from Ilkley who we met at Rudding Park’s wedding fair. We were blown away with her cakes and the flavours she could make. When we spoke to her, she easily understood and imagined our wedding theme so well and was happy to work with us to create the cake we were looking for. Bethany is a massive fan of cakes and Poppy was incredibly patient, encouraging us to continue giving her ideas about what we wanted until we agreed on a design.”

“Our cake was a simple but elegant four-tier cake with a blend of rose gold, eucalyptus green and white. We picked three different flavours – chocolate orange, white chocolate and raspberry & lemon.”

“The cake looked stunning when we saw it standing next to our top table. We knew straightaway it was the perfect cake. We have even ordered two mini-cakes to pick up for our first anniversary.”

“In the evening, we made a cake stand which was perfectly decorated with a rose gold throw across the table as well as a set of drawers to put the cupcakes on. A big, rose gold ‘love’ balloon stood behind the stand. The whole stand looked amazing with many sweet treats.”

The couple chose ‘All Of Me’ by John Legend as their first dance, and their interpreter signed the words for them to fully enjoy.

“We simply felt every word in this song says everything about how we feel for each other. It is a beautiful love song and we know we will always remember it. We had our BSL interpreter sign this song to us so we could feel the connection to the song in our first language on our first dance.”

“The whole day was very special to the both of us and it is so hard to pick a favourite part; we loved every second of it. We had a huge rush of happiness when we walked out of the chapel to a long path with our guests on both sides throwing the confetti. That is memorable because it was a time when our loved ones were officially celebrating our marriage.”

“We also loved the moment when we were both sitting on a bench in Rudding Park’s garden; it was a beautiful setting, out of this world. and we had a moment to ourselves to relax and be happy. We cannot think of anything that we would have done differently – it was literally the perfect day for us. “

As dusk fell, the couple’s glamour-inspiration shone through as Rudding Park was magically lit up by a fairy-lit backdrop for dancing, a photo-booth and sparklers.

“We had a DJ as part of the package with Rudding Park but we also arranged for a Mirror Photobooth from ProBooths Events to be included in the evening. It was enjoyed by so many people!”

“Before the evening came to an end, everybody had a sparkler to light up. They formed into two lines for the both of us to walk in between for photos and our video. It was very different and the colours were beautiful that night.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Your wedding day may feel like it has flown by so make sure to have a moment together to look around and be proud of the wedding you made. Most importantly, enjoy every second of it from start to finish. It really is the best day of your life.”

“If you are making homemade crafts for the wedding like we did with our menu cards, table drawings, seating plan and Ferrero Rocher cake, then believe us when we say all the hard work will be worth it, absolutely. It was amazing to see how our creations made our wedding day look so much more personal and beautiful.”

It has been such a privilege to share in your wedding day, Bethany and Chloe, so thank you for sending it in to us. I’m still so in awe of your gorgeous nature-inspired day and those lovely spring flowers. Sending many congratulations to you, and thanks also to Dominic Wright for these beautiful photographs and Bim Ajadi for your emotional film.

Ele xx