Super Pretty Lemon & Blush Marquee Wedding

High House Weddings

Magical fairy tale, romantic, exciting, fun.

Gareth and Danielle

Happy Monday lovely ones! I hope you had a great weekend? It may be a bank holiday but I just had to share WWW readers Gareth and Danielle’s super pretty High House Weddings celebrations in Essex with you. They were hitched on the 11th July 2019 in an outdoor ceremony before partying in a marquee. After deciding to marry in the UK rather than in Italy, they added a subtle nod to their favourite place with their blush and lemon theme. It’s a really unique colour palette which looks really wonderful. I love all the bright flowers (hello bouquets and flower arch of dreams!), the delicate stationery designs and the coordinating lanterns on the ceiling in the marquee.

Danielle looked really beautiful in her sleek and chic Maggie Sottero gown with her hair worn in loose curls, while Gareth and his groomsmen wore blue suits and champagne ties to match the sequin bridesmaid dresses. So stylish. I think you are going to love the two cakes, the rustic table centrepieces and the really cute transport. WWW faves and Supplier Love members V-Dub Rides provided the really cool VW camper, awesome!

These stunning images are courtesy of Grace Elizabeth Photography, huge thanks to Grace for sharing them with us today.

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The Proposal

We were on holiday in The Dominican Republic. I (Danielle) had no idea that Gareth had the proposal planned. We booked a few excursions for our 10 day holiday, one included a private yacht and tour.

It was a beautifully sunny day, we boarded the yacht with around 20 others and immediately made friends with two other couples.

We spent most of the day snorkelling, drinking and visiting private caves. We stopped at a beautiful Blue hole cave. Gareth and I were the first off the bus, which I found a bit strange as we weren’t at the front, but we carried on walking!

We were having a dip in the crystal clear water, Gareth then got down on one knee on a rock and proposed, it was perfect. There was a bottle of bubbly on hand and our friends we’d made came to join us to celebrate.

The Vision

We originally wanted to get married in Sorrento, Italy. It’s our most favourite destination. We changed our minds and found our venue within days of deciding to have our wedding in England, we didn’t visit any more venues!

We have both been in the events industry, we both had ideas of what we didn’t want but also what we wanted too.

The Planning Process

We got a lot planned quite quickly, we set a budget and got to work. We made a lot ourselves which kept our budget down; DIY photo booth, stairway to heaven ladder, bathroom baskets, centrepieces, ceremony and wedding signs and table plan.

We had our invites and stationery made by an old school friend of mine, Jen. We wanted an Italian feel that included the blush and lemon theme. I had mini campervans made as a magnet from wood with our initials and wedding date on the bumper for our guests to keep.

Budget

We set our budget at £16,000, we did go over which I’m sure most couples do. We ended up spending just under £21,000.

The Venue

High House Weddings, Althorne. We cannot recommend this venue enough. From our show round to the wedding day itself, every single detail was dealt with and managed professionally, the staff were absolutely amazing!

I’m a complete OCD organised freak and Gareth is quite particular too, I couldn’t fault a thing.

Jean, our wedding planner worked tirelessly to ensure everything was perfect every moment of the day. Jean was always on hand if we had any queries on the lead up to the big day.

The venue itself is beautiful, full of seasonal flowers and lots of outside space with a huge pond at the back. There is a separate area for the bride and her bridesmaids to get ready with a swimming pool. There are two bedrooms on site for parents or close family and a bridal suite.

Our food was catered by Valentine Cuisine, who are the only caterers the venue use. Everything was prepared freshly and we received so many compliments about the meal.

Your Outfits & Accessories

Danielle:

Dress- Maggie Sottero, Evangelina, from Clifford Burr Bridal, Bishop’s Stortford.

This was the 3^rd dress I tried on. I went to two more bridal shops, but couldn’t stop thinking about this dress. I wanted to buy local as much as I could as well, so this ticked all the boxes for me.

Veil – Clifford Burr Bridal

Shoes – Rainbow Club (through Clifford Burr Bridal)

Gareth:

Suit, Tie & Shoes – Burton Menswear.

Gareth found his perfect suit in a pale blue, but unfortunately couldn’t find all of the sizes for his 6 groomsmen. We wanted them all to match so he changed to a darker blue which was just as perfect.

We had a few issues with sizes and locating them but Burton, Bishop’s Stortford were so helpful at helping us and getting them delivered into the branch for us.

Danielle was in charge of matching the ties to the bridesmaid dresses. Which proved the most difficult task of all! I was in Burtons one afternoon picking some of the groomsmen’s suits up and I spotted the ties on the sale rail, they were perfect, I bought them all!

Shirt – Debenhams

Beauty

Hair & Make Up – Love Locks Hair & Make Up Lounge

Georgia and Paige were fantastic on the lead up to the wedding. I had in mind that I wanted my hair up and had two trials with Georgia.

I was discussing with Gareth a few days before the wedding about his hair and he said “I just hope you’re not having your hair up!!” My heart just sunk.

Georgia was amazing and I just went with her expertise on the day, I was so happy with everything she did.

My bridesmaids all had their hair done by Paige and my sister, Sophie had her make up done by Georgia too.

The Readings & Music

We chose to play a playlist for the ceremony, songs that are special to us.

For the arrival of guests, reception drinks and after our meal we had fabulous music from our friends Chris and Beverley, “This Guy and That Girl”. Our guests were enjoying their music so much they didn’t want it to end, neither did we.

We had the venues resident DJ Harvey in the evening. We had previously sent a playlist to him, the dance floor was rocking all night!

Facebook: This Guy That Girl Duo

Our playlist:

• Walking down the aisle: Canon in D – Pachabelle
• Signing the registrar:
• All For Love- Rod Stewart
• At Last- Etta James
• Can’t get enough of your love- Barry White
• One & Only- Adele

Gareth and Danielle Walking out: Just You and I- Tom Walker

Our readings were read by two of Danielle’s close friends, Beth and Roxanne and one by Gareth’s mum, Christine.

• Roxanne read “Love” by Roy Croft
• Beth read “He/She isn’t perfect” by Bob Marley
• Christine read “Falling for you” quote

Your Photographer

Grace, Grace, Grace, what can we not say about the wonderfully talented Grace Elizabeth!

Grace photographed my cousins wedding in 2018, then attended a charity event that I held to photograph for me.

We booked Grace without any hesitation, her work is out of this world.

The wedding day was so hot, I was so concerned about Grace and her pale skin! She was such a trooper, making sure all the shots we had requested got taken in time and even more on top of that.

We still haven’t chosen our album photos as there’s so many outstanding ones to choose from.

Your Filmmaker

Special Occasion Videos.

This was the last thing we booked as we couldn’t decide whether to have a videographer or not. If you’re debating this, GO FOR IT, it’s the best decision we made.

Everything captured was incredible, such special memories that we can watch over and over again.

Bridesmaids

Dresses – Maya Taupe Blush from ASOS

Shoes – New Look

The Details & Décor

Big Event Drapery provided beautiful lanterns to go in the marquee, blush, lemon and white.

Our table names and place cards were by Designs by Jen.

We collected empty Gin bottles from friends, family, local bars (and of course ourselves) to be our centrepieces. Our florist filled the gin vases with flowers and placed them on the wooden logs we had sanded down and varnished.

Our table plan was empty apple crates that I bought cheaply from eBay, the frames were from The Range and Designs by Jen made the inserts. We then decorated with Gin bottles, flowers and candles.

The venue supplied our Sweet Cart, we bought the sweets ourselves along with some extra containers and asked friends to refill through the evening.

The Flowers

Floral Desire, Bishop’s Stortford. Amy and her team did an outstanding job of all our flowers, especially our beautiful flower arch.

The Cake

I own a Tearoom in Bishop’s Stortford so my fabulous bakers made my cake and my awesome manager, Glenn put this together on the day and decorated with Amy’s flowers.

It was a three tier semi naked cake, red velvet, chocolate fudge and lemon drizzle, delicious!

We also had a “cheese cake” provided by Ben & Ella’s Farm Shop, Baythorne Hall, this was right up my street.

The Honeymoon

We had a short break after the wedding to Wales with our darling Bailey Bear (Chocolate Labrador!) This was a nice relaxation as we stayed in a little Bluebell Hut with a hot tub outside, lots of long walks, food and drink.

We waited until January 2020 to go on our honeymoon, we wanted a little bit of time in between.

We flew to San Francisco where we stayed in The Carlton Hotel for 4 nights. We’ve always wanted to visit SF and would recommend to anyone, we cannot wait to return in a few years! We then flew on to Miami and picked up a cruise with Royal Caribbean around 6 different islands. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t everything we’d hoped it would be, but this didn’t stop us having the most amazing time. We had an all inclusive package, which we would highly recommend as the drinks are so expensive if you’re not on a package.

Memorable Moments

My present to Gareth was a ride in Lyla Lovebus as he’s a VW Campervan enthusiast!

Hayley picked up Gareth and his groomsmen from Bishop’s Stortford and drove them to the venue, she let Gareth drive down towards the venue which was really nice.

Hayley stayed until after the ceremony so we could all have some photos with Lyla. Thank you Hayley for keeping the surprise and making everything so special.

Spending the morning with my sister, two bridesmaids and my niece Penelope.

Getting ready and having special time with them before I got married was really great.

Seeing my Mum and Dad for the first time before the ceremony was really emotional. My mum has later stage Huntington’s Disease, so unfortunately couldn’t be with us getting ready.

We went for a walk at about 7:30pm, just the two of us to reflect on the day so far, this was really memorable as it’s really important to take time out from the wonderful whirlwind.

Advice For Other Couples

Take in every single moment or your wedding day.

Don’t worry about other people’s opinions, it’s YOUR DAY!

Book that videographer!!

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Does it get any more pretty?! So lovely.

Gareth and Danielle thank you ever so much for sharing with us your darling wedding celebrations xo Lou