Rebecca in Made With Love Bridal for her Elegant Summer Wedding at Middleton Lodge

82 Middleton Lodge wedding Jules Barron Photography copy

Product Manager Rebecca married Corporate Finance Executive William on 17th June this year at North Yorkshire’s beautiful wedding venue, Middleton Lodge, based in Richmond.

The bride wore the most beautiful dress with the prettiest sleeve detail, by Made With Love Bridal, a discovery she made at The Aisle bridal boutique in Ilkley.

We are thrilled that our directory member and recommended supplier, the wonderful Jules Barron, captured these beautiful images and hope you love and enjoy them as much as we do.

The Dress

I wore the Peony dress, by Made With Love Bridal, from The Aisle bridal boutique in Ilkley.

My wedding dress shopping experience at The Aisle was amazing. I went with my mum and we made a mother daughter day of it. I had done lots of research (perks of the lockdown) of designers and dresses I wanted to try on, with a particular eye on the Peony dress.

Maisie who works at the aisle made my experience so lovely, she helped me pick lots of different styles to try on and told me to save the peony dress till last. I think I tried on eight dresses in total and as soon as I put the peony dress on, I just knew it was the one. Maisie helped me style it with the wings and the tulle sleeves too which just made me love it even more. Every time me and my mum did something wedding related, I always took a polaroid photo with her to keep as a memory.

I did this in the aisle and Maisie loved the idea so much that they bought a polaroid camera for their dress shop for future brides to capture that moment too!

I bought the dress on May 15th 2021. When my dress had arrived in store, I went for my second fitting and decided I wanted to style the sleeves a little differently and turn them into bows. Katie really helped me with this and explained how I could make it work and what to ask for when I get it fitted properly at The Bobbin in Ilkley. Helen at The Bobbin was amazing, she understood exactly what I wanted the bows to be like and made sure my dress fitted me like a glove.

I would totally recommend the aisle and the bobbin to every bride out there, my experience, even given the uncertain times we were in in 2021 was still so magical and I will treasure the memories forever.

Flowergirls & Pageboys

We had one flower girl, our niece Elspeth, She wore a dress from John Lewis.

We also had two page boys, our nephews Aubrey & Frank, who wore Beatrice & George, found via ChildrenSalon.

Shoes, Veil & Accessories

I didn’t wear a veil, but the wings on my dress were my version of a veil. They clipped onto my shoulders and created a long train when I walked.

I wore a pair of ASOS faux pearl ballet mules. I am 5ft 11, so never tend to wear heels, I just wanted something comfy that went with my dress as I knew they wouldn’t be seen and also may get a little ruined throughout the day with me being outside a lot.

My bridesmaid and sister in law Abbie bought me Jo Malone’s Peony and Blush perfume for Christmas, it was engraved with our initials and the reason she bought me it was because the name of my dress is Peony and all of my bridesmaids wore blush pink dresses.

Will bought me some wedding earrings from Beaverbrooks, which were my ‘something new’ on the day.

Venue & Location

We fell in love with Middleton Lodge as soon as we viewed it. We had scoped it out on Instagram initially and had a nosey at other weddings that had taken place there and it was just everything we had ever dreamed of and more.

The Main house is where we got married, it stands so beautifully and is surrounded by such lovely grounds.

As soon as we saw the staircase in the main room, I just burst into tears of happiness, I imagined myself walking down those stairs to my Dad to do our first look in my wedding dress. This moment did actually happen and I wish I could bottle up that feeling.

The fact that we could have the house exclusively, an outdoor ceremony and the marquee at the back for our reception was just perfect for us. Not to mention the secret cellar bar which meant the wedding could last till the early hours – it just ticked every box.

We didn’t have an event planner (that was my job which I loved doing!) but our stationery, cake and favours supplier, Natalie of Make Your Day, helped with the styling and set up on the day. Our florist Jane and her team at Weddings & Events Floral Design also helped with initial styling based on what we were looking for and the set up of the flowers on the wedding day.

We also had a dedicated wedding coordinator called Jen Brydon who works at Middleton Lodge and she was amazing. She made sure that everything ran smoothly on the day.

The Ceremony

My Dad walked me down the aisle to the sound of Etta James – At last, played by Isabella on the Cello.

We didn’t tailor our own vows, but we did include two lovely, heartwarming readings which were read by two of the groomsmen. We chose ‘He Never Leaves The Seat Up’, by Pam Ayres, as it’s quite tongue in cheek – it got a few giggles from the audience and made everyone smile.  Our favourite verse from this reading is ‘He’ll be more than just her husband, he’ll also be her friend, and she’ll be more than just his wife, she’ll be his soul mate till the end’.

We chose ‘On Your Wedding Day’ as our final reading as we felt it put a nice end to the ceremony, we love the last verse; ‘And with luck, all your hopes and your dreams can be real, may success find it’s way to your hearts. Tomorrow can bring you the greatest of all joys but today is the day it all starts.’

Will bought my engagement ring from Beaverbrooks, so we wanted to keep it consistent and get our wedding rings from there too.

Readers – discover wedding readings here.

Jules Barron Photography

I found Jules Barron on Instagram and immediately loved the style of her photography. I messaged her on Instagram in April 2020, she was one of the first suppliers we booked for our wedding and we kept in touch throughout the whole build up. Being honest, I am a worrier and Jules really did keep that excitement going for me through lockdown and all of the unknowns around the wedding industry at the time.

Even when she would have been worried about when her next wedding would be, she was always checking in on me and making sure I was ok. Jules is more than just a photographer, we really do feel we have gained a friend for life. She made us feel so comfortable on the day, the photos we were having just felt so natural and she took the lead when it came to the formals etc. which is so great because as a bride and groom you just want to enjoy the day and she made sure of that for us.

I would recommend Jules to every single bride and groom, not only is she extremely talented and amazing at what she does, but she is also such a lovely person and you need lovely people around you on your special day.

Hiring a Videographer

Our videographers, Craig and Charlotte of Hello There Films are incredible! So talented and such lovely people too.

We could not recommend them enough!

The Engagement

Will and I met at Hull University in our first year in 2012. We were in the same business school but were studying different subjects.

We both knew very early in our relationship that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. We were 19 when we met and have been together 10 years and we were engaged for two years and three months before we tied the knot.

When Will proposed on the 7th March 2020, I had no idea that two weeks later we would go into a lockdown with no end in sight. We did initially book our wedding date for June 11th 2021, however we very quickly moved this to June 17th 2022 so that we could enjoy the build-up and have no restrictions on our wedding day.

We were very lucky and didn’t have the stress that I know a lot of couples have had when planning their wedding during covid etc. and it was a dream come true that our wedding day could go ahead as we had always imagined it to.

Our engagement was a dream come true. It was March 7th 2020, together 8 years at this point and Will had bought me tickets to go and see Pretty Woman in theatre in London (my favourite film). He booked a hotel, a nice restaurant and we were making the weekend of it. I always thought I would make a good detective, clearly not! Will had everything planned, he had asked my mum & dad’s permission the week before (my mum screamed with excitement when he told her), all my family and his family were in on it. We got to London early afternoon, checked into our hotel, met up with Will’s brother Pete & his fiancée Sophie for a drink through the day (they gave nothing away!). I had forgotten to pack a phone charger, so whilst I got ready Will went to go buy one.

Little did I know, he actually met up with our sister in law Lizzie to give her the ring & go to the restaurant together to set up the whole thing. Will gets back, rather flustered after only getting a phone charger, aka, practicing going down on one knee and he quickly gets ready & we leave for drinks before our meal. When we got to the restaurant it was early, around 5:30pm, I did wonder why absolutely nobody else was in the restaurant but didn’t click that it was because

I was about to become a fiancée. Will nips to the toilet aka to get the ring from Lizzie who is hiding on the balcony ready to capture our engagement and he comes back and asks if we should get a photo outside because the view is amazing. He knows I love a photo so we headed outside, he told me to turn my back and he’ll take a photo of me first, so I did, he then asked me to turn back around & he was down on one knee. I couldn’t believe it, I wish I could bottle up the feeling that I felt when I saw him down there it was truly magical. We have the whole thing on video & lots of amazing photos captured of that special moment which we will both treasure forever.

We booked our wedding date six days after the proposal for June 11th 2021, but then moved it very quickly to June 17th 2022 so that we could really enjoy the build up and have the wedding we both wanted without any restrictions.

Bridesmaids

My bridesmaids dresses were from Pretty Lavish. I had a maid of honour and four bridesmaids who wore two different styles of dress, see here and here.

Each bridesmaid wore their own shoes and I bought them these earrings from notonthehighstreet.com.

Reception, Decor & Detail

We always knew that we wanted quite a classic wedding in terms of look and style. I am quite a plain jane when it comes to colour, so I always knew I wanted lots of white/nude/pale pink to be part of the wedding day.

We got lots of inspiration from Instagram, looking at other people’s weddings and knew that a black tux is timeless and just went with the overall look and feel we were going for.

Jane and her team at Weddings & Events Floral Design do the majority of weddings at Middleton Lodge – she knows the venue inside and out. I had lots of calls with Jane to go through the look and feel of the flowers I wanted and she was amazing, she totally got the brief.

To go with my dress, the bridesmaid dresses, Wills suit and the groomsmen I wanted lots of white, pale pink and nudes with a hint of gold throughout the styling and this is exactly what I got. It was so exciting to walk into the marquee for the first time and see it all set up on the day.

Natalie of Make Your Day made our wedding cake for us. In keeping with the style of the wedding we opted for a three tier cake (lemon drizzle, red velvet and raspberry and white chocolate) with white icing and elements of gold detailing. It was topped off with fresh flowers from our florist too.

Evening and Dancing & Favourite Moments

Our first dance was to Major’s ‘Why I Love You’. For some reason, we refer to this as our song. It is the song that plays in the background of our engagement video and fills our eyes with tears every time it plays.

It is so hard to pick a favourite moment – as it truly was the best day of our lives. But, if I had to, it would be the singing waiters. After all of the speeches, I had a surprise for all of the guests, one of the singing waiters fell over with some cutlery inside a champagne bucket and it made lots of noise and got everyones attention.

Immediately the guests were concerned, two of our guests went to help him up until he pulled a microphone out of his back pocket and started to sing Queen – Don’t stop me now. The guests cheered, everyone started clapping and then the party really did start. Highly recommend to anyone.

Words of Wedded Wisdom

Enjoy every single bit of the planning process. Take every little detail in, whether that be researching suppliers, choosing your dress, writing your vows, tasting wedding cake flavours and everything else you need to do. Just enjoy every bit of it, because trust me when I say the day is here before you know it and it flys by so quickly, you want to look back on the whole journey with a smile knowing you enjoyed every single moment. Whatever you have planned for your day, it will be your dream day and nobody else’s. I can honestly say I will never ever get over it, it was perfect I got to marry my best friend (finally!) and so will you one day. So take it all in, love every second because you’re getting married!

Being honest, we didn’t really have a budget initially as I had no idea how much everything would cost. We were so lucky that my parents paid for the venue, the food and drink on the wedding day and then myself and Will paid for all the suppliers, our outfits and any other additional bits e.g. gifts for the bridal and groom party etc. We spent around £30k in total.

Absolutely nothing. After the unknowns of covid and lockdown and the worry of if it would ever happen, we feel so unbelievably lucky that we had the day that we did. It was perfection from start to finish, no stresses, nothing went wrong (if they did I didn’t know about it!), the sun even shined for us and we can’t stop reliving it through all the pictures and videos that our guests took. It truly was the happiest day of our lives and I wish we could do it all again.

julesbarron.com

Credits & Thanks

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

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