We Immediately Fell in Love with Ashfield House – Hannah & Sam West

The Wedding of Sam &
Hannah is one of real significance to Little White Books as we feel we were with them through every step of their wedding planning journey. We first
met them at the Great Northern Wedding Show, it was the first wedding
fair they had visited and we continued to see them at many of our other events.
Eventually we became friends and they agreed to take part in a photoshoot that
put them on the front cover of one of our previous magazines, as well as on billboards throughout
the North West! Hannah even took part in one of our Great Northern Wedding Show catwalk shows too, wearing her very own wedding dress on our catwalk.

Here’s
their wedding, in their own words.

Sam and I met at a
football and netball competition in Blackpool when we were 16 years old. Sam
lived in Beverley, East Yorkshire and
attended a youth group and I attended the same youth group but in
Standish, Wigan. Our parents would take us to see each other and then Sam moved
to Standish to go to university and has lived there ever since.

We attended a Little White Books wedding
fair at Ashfield House and fell in love with the venue straight away. It was
exactly what we were looking for – elegant, stylish and a blank canvas to match
the style and colour scheme of our wedding. We also needed accommodation at the
venue for those travelling from Yorkshire. Ashfield House has a personal
connection, as my grandparents lived nearby and used to walk past the venue to
Ashfield Park weekly.

We wanted the day to be
unique and personal to us, so we decided for a Lancashire/Yorkshire theme (no
war of the roses!). Tracy from T for Two Bespoke Wedding Stationery created fabulous invites incorporating
a map of Standish to Beverley, and table
names of landmarks on the M62 journey, including service stations, farms
and Ikea!

To find the perfect
suppliers for our special day we attended a lot of Little White Books wedding
fairs across different venues to speak to suppliers and look at their work. All
our suppliers were recommended through
Little White Books, as we know they are reliable. My make-up artist, Kerry Baker also recommended suppliers she thought would
suit our style of wedding. I don’t know what I would have done without Kerry’s
advice – she introduced us to Carly (hairdresser) and Teri (photographer) plus she helped us decide what to walk back
down the aisle to (Carnival de Paris – as we both love football).

We tried to visit as many
wedding fairs and open evenings as
possible. We never missed an Ashfield House open day – we loved seeing
how the venue changed each time we visited.

My dress was ‘Erin’ by
Ronald Joyce – I loved the back detail and beading. I had tried on quite a few
dresses, but when I tried this dress on, as soon as
I walked out my mum and sister cried, so I knew it was the one for me!
The gorgeous headpiece created by Eleventh Heaven, plus the make-up by Kerry
Baker and hair by Carly Creations finished the look perfectly.

We wanted the colours of
the bridesmaid dresses to match the colour of the flowers and because we were
getting married in June we wanted bright flowers. We chose stunning hot pink, Grecian style bridesmaids dresses from Amelia’s and Sarah from the Rose Boutique matched
the colour perfectly with peonies – my favourite flowers. Amy from Polka Pops
created an amazing ombré style cake – tying in with our colour scheme.

We
had an amazing day and I will never forget my grandad singing his favourite
song – American Pie by Dom McLean. He sung every word – thank you to Steve from
DFC for helping us make these memories. Also, walking (well dancing)
back down the aisle to Carnival de Paris was so much fun. We are
both massive football fans and got engaged in Paris so this song was perfect
for us.

We booked DFC to host the
whole day from start to finish. Having Steve there all day was a weight off our
shoulders. Picking our first dance song was the most stressful part of the planning; some couples have ‘their song’
but we don’t, so it was hard to pick the right song for us. We finally decided on James Morrison, ‘You Make it Real’ for our
first dance.

I
think family and friends enjoyed how relaxed the whole day was. The Ashfield
House staff were so efficient that the day was completely stress-free.

For anyone planning a
wedding, our advice would be to enjoy the planning process and don’t get hung
up on small details. A few months before the wedding day everything seems to
tie together. Trust your wedding suppliers – they are the professionals.

Can we say massive thank
you to Little White Books, staff at Ashfield House and our suppliers. Everyone
was amazing from start to finish; they offered advice, gave recommendations and
made the day run smoothly. It was a day we will never forget. When people say
it is the best day of your life – it really is!