Morning lovelies, i hope you had a great weekend? I am here to share a beautiful WWW reader wedding this morning… yay!

Andrew and Joanna were married in August at Judges Country House Hotel in Yarm. They wanted their day to be vintage and romantic with an English country garden feel. They crafted and DIY’d their wedding to perfection, with an abundance of pretty details adorning their wedding reception room. Lace, flowers, cupcakes, bunting, birdcages and badges to name a few… WOW! The only real flowers in the day were in Joanna’s bouquet and it works so well. Such a beautiful day.

How beautiful does Joanna look in her customised tea length dress and that headpiece, wow!! Joanna tells me how WWW helped her; “I read WWW religiously – checking at 9am and 2pm every day. I loved the bucketload of inspiration and looking at the beautiful real weddings. Following the stories of the real brides really makes you feel you are part of a community and I love the friendly feel of your blog. Some blogs feel very intimidating, especially when you are newly engaged, but WWW is like chatting with a friend!” Ahhh thanks so much Joanna, big smiles. I am thrilled WWW helped you plan your wedding.

Thanks so much to the fabulous Sally T Photography for sharing her photographs with us today.

Names….   Andrew and Joanna

Wedding Date….  6^th August 2012

The Proposal….  We got a engaged Christmas day 2009.  It was a bit of a surprise – even though I had been emailing Andy pictures of engagement rings I liked for a while! :-) To be honest, I had thought we would get engaged on a summer holiday to Rome earlier in the year but when it didn’t happen then I put it to the back of my mind.  Anyway, on Christmas Day I was really poorly and spent the day in bed, while Andy went to his parents for the day.  When he came home, he was trying to get me to go for a late night walk in the snow but I kept refusing because I felt so ill. (He later said I had foiled his plans of proposing on a midnight snowy stroll!)  I had hair like a birds nest, no make-up on and was in my dressing gown and slippers!!  He made me go to the window and opened it wide and came in to the room with two glasses of champagne.  In a perfect moment, it started to snow for the first time that day and Andy got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!  I promptly burst into tears and said yes! 

The Vision for the day….  The vision for the day was vintage/romance with an element of English Garden Tea Party thrown in for good measure!  It was just everything we love.  Andy pretty much left all the décor to me, so I had a lot of fun scouring Ebay, Etsy and charity shops for pieces and spent pretty much all of the two and half year run up to the wedding crafting something or other!  Aside from the décor, we wanted an intimate gathering of our nearest and dearest, with the focus on everyone having a good time.

The Planning process…. I’ve got to be honest I was OBSESSED with wedding blogs.  I was there, every morning, at 9am waiting for a lovely new wedding on Whimsical Wonderland Weddings!  I did read all wedding blogs but my favourites were obviously WWW, and Love my Dress for inspiration.  Because the wedding was what we loved already, I already had a vague idea of what we wanted.  I made the majority of things for the décor, including centrepieces etc, which was great fun but I’m not going to lie, sometimes it was a bit much!  I can honestly say, it was all worth it in the end though.  

Budget…. We didn’t work to a set budget, we just tried to do everything as cheaply as possible!  We got married on a Monday, made pretty much everything we could, and scoured the internet for bargains.  Holding the wedding on a Monday meant we could ask suppliers for a week-day discount, which also reduced costs.

The Venue…  Honestly, I cannot speak highly enough of our venue – Judges Country House Hotel in Yarm.  The venue itself is lovely with beautiful grounds but for me, as soon as I walked in, it was the relaxed feeling I loved.  It just felt so comfortable and the staff are so friendly and go above and beyond to make sure everything runs smoothly.  I must say a special thank you to Emma Williams, the Wedding Coordinator for putting up with my gazillion emails and Neil, the gentleman who set everything up for us.  I had provided Judges with a photo booklet of how to set everything up (control freak, moi?!) and they did everything to perfection.

The Dress + Accessories….. I bought the dress online and it originally came with a huge train and a zip back.  It was the first dress I tried.  I took it to a dressmakers to remove the train and get a corset back put in so it was exactly how I wanted.  The belt was from Debby Hoffman Bridal on Etsy.  My headpiece was an amalgamation of two – the forehead band originally had a large flower attached but I removed this and attached the piece from another hairband I had bought on Ebay for £15!  My shoes were from Henry Kaye.

Finding the dress….  I found the dress online and when I ordered it, I thought I would just send it back when it came but then I really liked it.  It was a bit of a journey with the dress as I had numerous dress wobbles but in the end, it is just a dress you wear for one day.  Plus, on the morning of the wedding, when I put my dress on, my little niece said in an awed voice “you look like Cinderella”!  What more can a girl ask for! :-)

Groom’s attire… I thought my husband looked so handsome in his suit.  We knew we didn’t want anything formal and I really don’t like the traditional morning suit.  We were looking for a three piece grey suit (who can resist a man in a waistcoat!) and we found the one in House of Fraser, Leeds. I bought champagne gold ties online.

The Readings + Music….  I walked down the aisle to Jesu Joy of Mans Desiring – a piece I have always loved – and we walked out to The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.  The readings were beautifully read by my friends and colleagues, Jo Stephenson and Julie Richardson.  Jo read an excerpt from Far From the Madding Crowd and Julie read Corinthians 13.  They did brilliantly considering the vicar forgot all about the readings and they were tagged on to the end of the ceremony.  The poor girls didn’t know what was going on!

Beautiful bridesmaids…..  My sister Sarah was my Maid of Honour and only bridesmaid, and my niece Tegan was flowergirl.  My other niece, 4 month old Sophia, also came for the church service and wore the same dress as Tegan.  Sarah’s dress was a Dessy design and Tegan and Sophia’s dresses were from Monsoon.  The hair bands and jewellery were from Etsy. All three looked stunningly gorgeous and I cannot thank them enough.  Sarah and I got ready together and it was such precious time together as sisters.

The Flowers… The only real flowers we had were my bouquet, Sarah’s wrist corsage and the buttonholes for the guys.  They were from Flowerhouse, Hartburn and as I had used foam flowers in the centrepieces and lavender in the table settings, they cleverly matched up our flowers so the colours were practically identical. My favourite was Sarah’s wrist corsage, I thought it was just beautiful.

The Cake… The cake was one of my favourite things!  I knew we would have cupcakes as we couldn’t justify a large tier cake for the number of guests we were having and I liked the idea of giving guests a whole cupcake to take home but I am not fond of them set up on a usual 3 tier stand.  So I collected various bits of china and cake stands for the table to go with the vintage tea party theme.  The cakes were made by Christine Clark from The Anticipation and she was fantastic at decorating them in the vintage style I wanted.  They were a mixture of lemon, vanilla and chocolate cake – yum! The bird cake topper was a present from my mum and was from What Katy Did Next on Etsy.

Your Photographer….  Sally Thurrell.  We originally had another photographer booked but as soon as I saw Sally’s pictures on Facebook, I knew she was the something special we wanted.  We had an engagement shoot with her and the photos were amazing. We hate having our picture taken but she totally put our minds at rest.  Sally becomes a friend and is a joy to be with on the day – we cannot recommend her highly enough.

The Details + Decor…. I made all the décor and thoroughly enjoyed it!  I enjoy crafting anyway and although at times I felt I had bitten off more than I could chew, I can honestly say that it was all worth it on the day!  Everyone commented on the details and it’s so nice to see all your hard work come together.  I did the centrepieces, table plan, wish tree, goody bags for each couple, place settings, favours, orders of service….the list goes on.  It made the day so personal to us.  I have to say a big thank you to my dad who constructed the photobooth wall and after my disastrous attempting at papering it, sat and cut and repasted out all the air bubbles! 

The Honeymoon…. Florence, Italy.  A-maz-ing.  Really and truly amazing.  A lovely week of sightseeing, much needed rest and relaxation and lots of eating!

Memorable moments… How much help and support we got from people, especially our parents. Walking down the aisle.  THE scariest thing I have ever done in my life.  How I held it together I do not know! The vicar freestyling the service!  Very funny! The whole day as husband and wife.  We honestly had the best day ever. Hartlepool Male Voice Choir in the church.  Beautiful and emotional. Dancing and laughing all night long with all the people we love the most.

Advice for other couples… Don’t worry.  Whatever goes wrong, it will not matter a jot. You can’t help the weather.  The rain was so heavy there was flooding but it didn’t make a difference. It’s one day.  A special,  magical day, but just a day.  A wedding is lovely, but the marriage….well….the marriage is the best thing ever.

Credit where credit is due…

Photographer – Sally Thurrell http://www.sallytphotography.com/

Venue – Judges Country House Hotel http://www.judgeshotel.co.uk/

Cake – Christine Clark at The Anticipation http://www.theanticipation.co.uk/

Flowers – Flowerhouse http://www.flowerhouseuk.com/

Car – TPJ Prestige Cars http://www.atouchofclassic.co.uk/

Singer – Jeff Dingle & The Moodswing Trio http://jeffdingle.com/Home.php

Magician – Magical Memories http://www.magicalmemories.co.uk/

Thanks so so much to Andrew and Joanna for sharing their gorgeous wedding with us today XOXO Lou

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