Today we hear from Kate about her’s and Ben’s beautiful wedding. Their reception was at the fabulous Beeston Manor – one of the Little White Books wedding fair venues.
I just love the details in this one!
We got engaged in New York, August 2010. Ben planned to propose when we booked the holiday. He had planned to do it on the evening when we arrived but I was in such an awful mood after the long flight and seeing our not so lovely hotel that he decided to wait until the following day. In the morning we took a walk through central park, he suggested we sit in a lovely secluded pagoda by the lake and here he went down on one knee. On our honey moon in New York our first stop was to visit the pagoda where it all started.
We were married on 30th June 2012 at St James church in Brindle, Lancashire followed by a reception at the beautiful Beeston Manor. The congregation at St James church are so welcoming and the church is stunning so when we got engaged although this is neither myself or Ben’s local church it is was our first choice, in the process of planning we regularly attended on Sunday and now feel part of the church community which is lovely. We chose Beeston Manor firstly because the location is stunning, set on the edge of the Ribble Valley. Inside it was just what we where looking for, a beautiful natural venue with a heart, and most importantly with no busy carpets or curtains!!! Not to mention that the owners are just lovely, Janet and John where so helpful right from the start.
We didn’t really have a theme – I just wanted lots and lots of flowers so I guess it turned into a bit of an eclectic country garden filled with all the things Ben and I love. There was no colour scheme as such either; I knew I wanted the palette to be soft and muted and for the mixture of flowers to do the talking. Key colours included sage green, soft vintage pink, lilac, white and grey.
Our bridesmaids wore lovely charcoal wrap dresses by Phase Eight teamed with dusky pink shoes. Being a menswear designer, this is really where I went to town: all the men wore navy suits, I bought some floral fabric from Liberty in London which the factory I work with in Hong Kong very kindly made Ben a shirt and tie from and his outfit was finished off with a spotty chambray pocket square from Ted Baker. His groomsmen all had white shirts, floral ties and navy and white spot hankies, the dads had white shirts floral ties and navy and lilac spot hankies and his best man had a white shirt and floral hankie with a lilac tie to set him apart a bit. My nephew Euan and godson Archie were page boys and wore skinny chinos, blue chambray shirts, navy and white spot bow ties and blazers and my lovely flower girl Matilda wore a dress from M&S Autograph and patent navy ballet pumps.
We had a team of fantastic suppliers and helpers. Ashton Photography took amazing shots, Dance Floor Couture provided the music, Margaret Mason did the bouquets and button holes, Jenna from Serenity in Chorley did the makeup and Stacy, also from Serenity, did the hair. The rest of the flowers were bought wholesale from Thomas Cornall and Sons in Preston. Jenny masterminded the centre piece arrangements which myself, sister Helen, good friend and hairdresser Stacy, my other good friend Jennie and both lovely mums helped to construct. We all worked on the flowers in the church. Finally Jenny’s mum Hilary did the amazing arch above the church door! All in all a real team effort, I can’t thank everyone enough!
We focused on special touches as part of the reception decor. I made bunting to decorate Beeston Manor, collected vintage books and cut glass vases for centre pieces, I have lots of tea cups where filled with flowers and dotted around the church and top table, mum made the most fantastic herb boxes which were also in the church and then taken to Beeston Manor. Jenny and I made damson gin and rhubarb schnapps for favours, and I collected vintage embroidered table clothes for each table.
The flowers I carried were a mixture of memory lane roses, lavender, hydrangea, sweet peas and many more I don’t know the name of, needless to say Margaret Mason did a fantastic job in capturing the natural undone look I wanted.
An amazing musician, Dan Wilde, played M Ward’s version of You Still Believe in me as I walked down the aisle, a truly emotional experience, He also played during our wedding breakfast; tracks from his album ‘This is the place’, plus more from his repertoire. Our DJ got everyone dancing at night with a playlist requested by us and guests.
A good family friend and talented cake maker Sue Mault made our cake, she even did a yummy gluten free centre layer especially for my mum. On the day we traveled in a vintage white Bentley driven by the lovely Ray who did a sterling job through the rain despite having tiny wind screen wipers, what a guy!
Favourite part of the day….Neither myself or Ben could pin point one moment, we loved the whole thing!
Top tips….Do exactly what you want, don’t think you have to have what convention tells you a wedding should be! And don’t stress about the weather, we had torrential rain, fork lightening and cloudy skies, it added to the drama!
Images courtesy of Ashton Photography.