Stirk House was Definitely the Right Choice – Brittany & Gareth

Brittany & Gareth married on the 24th July 2019 at Stirk House. Gisburne. Here’s their story:

Gareth and I worked together at The Coronation Street tours, I was a shop assistant and Gareth was managing and training the tour guides. We became good friends after having a common interest in Disney and Shrek the Musical. We would talk for days about upcoming theatre shows and eventually we went to see Shrek the Musical for our first official date.

The proposal

We were touring America with my parents, Gareth had planned to propose during our visit to the Grand Canyon, but it was too busy with tourists so decided to leave it until the end of our trip in Las Vegas. We walked along the Vegas Strip admiring all the lights and stopping for a few drinks along the way, without realising how far away from the hotel we had gone. Gareth had left the ring at the hotel and needed to get back, but without telling us why, so he told us he needed to change his shoes as they were hurting his feet. We decided to wait where we were and quite a long time later he returned wearing the same shoes! He told us it was his socks that needed changing…I wasn’t buying it. We then decided to go to see the Bellagio Fountains and it was there that he suddenly went down on one knee… he didn’t say anything at first, he said it was so stressful trying to find the right time to say what he wanted to say. He then asked me to be his wife and of course I said yes.

The venue

We were originally sent the website link to Stirk House by my eldest sister the moment we got engaged. A couple of years later we were driving through Clitheroe and noticed a wedding fair sign, so we headed in and just fell in love with the place. It was perfect and the staff were lovely so we booked it there and then. Turned out it was the same venue 
my sister had been telling us about two years prior and we had no idea. Definitely the right choice. 

The theme

Our wedding theme was rustic (lots of natural colours – browns, greens, greys and white with burgundy bridesmaid dresses) with the slightest hint of Harry Potter as we didn’t want it to look tacky, but wanted to make it personal to us. We handmade all our invitations and favours and between Stirk House and Creative Events, they made the venue perfect. 

Finding wedding suppliers 

Our venue decor was by Creative Events. We met them at the Stirk House wedding fair and were highly recommended by the venue as they dress a lot of weddings there. Their prices and decor were faultless, they provided trees for our tables and 8ft trees for behind the top table, it was truly beautiful and more than we could have wished for with our small budget.

Our wonderful photographer was Claire Fromm, who I stumbled upon on the Little White Books website where she was nominated for the best wedding photographer award. I picked her out of the list as her business name grabbed my attention the most. As soon as I saw her website I was sold. Her pictures are natural, warm and so beautiful, we knew straight away that we wanted Claire to photograph our day. 

The dress

I initially found wedding dress shopping quite stressful, as I am not very confident, but Lee at The Bridal Shop in Accrington helped me a lot and made me feel relaxed. I tried a few other shops and found my perfect dress at Bliss Bridal in Bolton – Matiz by Pronovias. I wore this with a long, plain veil.

For our first dance song we chose “As The World Falls Down” by David Bowie from the film Labyrinth – our favourite film. We have a Harry Potter/Disney/Movie themed house and we love collecting props from various films. As soon as we met we always said that if we got married we would dance to that very song, and we did. We found the first dance a bit awkward though, having everyone watching us, but that actually made us laugh. 

The honeymoon 

For our honeymoon we went to Africa for a three-day safari. We stayed at the Entabeni resort, surrounded by the Waterberg mountains, it was stunning. We saw so many animals, way more than we expected. Although it was very cold which we didn’t expect! I would recommend you always research the weather in the country you intend to visit and don’t just assume that Africa is hot 24/7. From Africa we flew to Mauritius for five nights and had a wonderful time there, we even got the chance to see sperm whales. Then we went to Dubai for the remaining three days of our trip. 

Friends and family

Our family and friends said how much they enjoyed the day and loved watching us get married. For us it was a great day to relax, eat, drink and enjoy each other’s company surrounded by our friends and family.

My advice to other brides and grooms-to-be would be not to plan your wedding for everyone else, plan it just for yourselves. It’s so easy to fall in to the pattern of trying to impress everyone and seeing ideas online and trying to replicate them because you think your family and friends will love it. If you do this, you’ll spend way more than expected and realise it really doesn’t matter on the day. Planning a wedding can be really stressful, so listen to each other’s plans and themes, take all ideas on board and most of all compromise! 

Favourite three things about the day 

Walking down the aisle (I was dreading this, but walking through those doors with my dad, seeing the venue full of our friends and family – it’s a feeling I’ll never forget). 

Dancing (literally all night. How often do we really get to dance anymore? Get yourselves a good band and some willing dancing partners).

Drunken friends and family (everyone loves you even more when they are drunk, but it also comes with some funny stories, falls and fantastic memories).

Many thanks to:

Photography: www.thefrommshoppe.com

Venue: www.stirkhouse.co.uk

Venue Styling: www.creativeevents.company

Band & Afternoon Acoustic Singer: 
www.entertainment-nation.co.uk/boogie-brothers

Wedding Dress: www.blissbridalbolton.co.uk

Dress Alterations: www.bridalitalia.co.uk

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