Rachael and Mark – fabulous ivory and aubergine

Today I’m sharing this gorgeous wedding with you, sent through by Jules Fortune Photography. The bride is make-up artist, Rachael Bottomley, who works alongside Jules on her Black Books boudior shoots.

Rachael shares the details of the wedding day:

Where and when did you get married?

Saturday 2nd July 2011, St Matthew’s Church, Chadderton, followed by a reception at Clough Manor, Denshaw.

Why did you choose that time of year?

Despite English weather, we had always wished for a summer wedding, so we chanced our luck, took the plunge and opted for July! However we knew that even if it was pouring with rain, then the setting inside the venue would make for perfect photos as well. Luckily, it was a glorious day and the sun was shining throughout. Although if Mark had answered this question, his reply would be… “July didn’t interrupt the Football Season!!”

What did you like about the venue?

My cousin had her reception at this venue quite a few years ago and I had remembered it being a lovely place. This was the first and last venue that we looked at. As soon as we stepped in, we loved the modern and light decor. The wedding function room was totally separate to the restaurant side of the hotel, which we loved and it felt even more private with our own bar area.

The views from the hotel overlooked Denshaw and Saddleworth which made a great backdrop for the photographs, however I wasn’t too worried about this, as I knew Jules, our photographer, would work her magic and come up with her own quirky, unique images and she didn’t fail to wow us! Lastly, we knew that the food at the Clough Manor was delicious as we have had many meals here prior to the wedding and there were never any complaints, and more importantly the wedding menu was fantastic, which was very important as we wanted our guests to really enjoy the wedding breakfast.

What colour theme did you go with?

I wore ivory and my bridesmaids wore aubergine. This theme was carried through to the stationery, cake, table centres and throughout.

Give us all the details on the outfits?

Bliss Bridal in Bolton was the first dress shop that I went to and my wedding gown was the 4th dress that I tried on. I loved it the second i put it on and wanted to say yes there and then. However, we went to a couple of other shops to try on a few more but nothing compared to it and so we went back to Bliss and ordered it!

It was a taffeta ivory gown, with a sweetheart neckline, embroidered detail from top to bottom and tiered on the side. Without looking tacky, I wanted to “bling” as much as possible, so I had a Liza Designs tiara and a cathedral length veil for the final touches. My earrings were a lovely gift from Mark and my necklace was my “something borrowed” from my Mother In Law.

I wear flat shoes for work everyday so high heels may have been a risk for me, so I opted for a small heeled ivory shoe, with the words “I Do” stuck on the bottom as my something blue!

Mark’s outfit was more of a task than my wedding dress!! Being quite particular about his suit, it was a tough decision on what colour to go for. After traipsinga round almost very suit shop in Manchester, we ended up at Slaters, who were very helpful. The final decision was that the men would wear a black suit, with tail coat, (but said no to the top hat!) the suits were very traditional, with an understated waistcoat and an ivory cravat for Mark and aubergine cravats for the best man, ushers and fathers.

What kind of feel did the wedding have?

I would say our wedding was very traditional! There was nothing out of the ordinary but we enjoyed every second of the day, everything went without a hitch and as soon as the first dance was over with, it really was party time!! We had a fairly big wedding, with about 80 guests in the day and around 150 in the evening.

What about the reception?

We got our creative juices flowing and decided to hand-make all of our invites and order of services, still staying with ivory and deep purple, we opted for simple, but effective! I’m not that into greenery in flowers so I decided to stay with ivory and white roses, with minimal green to set them off. I was so pleased with my bouquet and it was just what I imagined.

Mark’s job of the wedding was to choose our music, he decided on Etta James, ‘At Last’ for the first dance – I thought it was the perfect choice.

We wanted to create a romantic and subdued atmosphere during the wedding breakfast so after hearing a group of saxophonists play in a restaurant a while before the wedding, we booked them to play as background music.

Obviously a few golden oldies, Motown and Indie music were thrown in during the evening, which everybody seemed to love!