alternative weddings Archives - English Wedding

Naomi & Chris’s warm and creative autumn wedding, with Hannah Hall Photography

Claire Gould — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 08:55:41 +0000

Today’s wedding is a beauty. I’ve been holding on to Naomi & Chris’s gorgeous autumn wedding with all those magical golden, rust and red colours. Today feels just a little crisp and autumnal – perfect to share their day with you! The personal touches go above and beyond, with tables named after special people and styling touches like little felted birds on branches. They’re adorable! Naomi’s Needle & Thread dress is beyond beautiful, as is she! There are so many creative ideas, all captured in amazing photos by Lake District wedding photographer Hannah Hall. Hannah gets a glowing review from Chris & Naomi, who have lots of supplier recommendations to share with you so do keep reading! As always, there’ll be more favourite pics on our instagram at @englishweddingblog later!

Wedding photographer’s website

Hannah Hall Photography (https://hannahhallphotography.co.uk/)

Wedding photographer review

If you hire Hannah, you’re not only hiring a brilliant photographer, but someone who will whole heartedly help you in anyway that she can. Whether that be an answer to a silly wedding question, helping you navigate the morning of, making friends with all of your guests to get the best shots possible or sending a funny video to make you laugh for the day.

We HUGELY recommend booking Hannah for your wedding if you want to look naturally beautiful in your photos and capture the personality and life of your friends and family on your big day. We weren’t big on the idea of having loads of posed photos and when we saw Hannah’s website we knew she was the one. We chose her because she is the best at capturing those small moments that you miss on the day (as well as just being a really lovely person), for the best examples of this just go to her website (https://hannahhallphotography.co.uk) and watch the pictures scroll through. That was pretty much all we needed to know she was perfect (the ladies in the pink hats are what sealed the deal for us).

Your best wedding moment or memory

Naomi – For me, it was seeing lots of different groups of people in our lives meetings and mingling. It was like The Avengers movies when hero’s from different movies finally meet. It makes you appreciate the people you’ve met that helped you get to that day.

Chris – There are so many best moments and memories that it’s difficult to choose but as well as what Naomi said about seeing all our friends and family mingling, it was probably the first moment we were together after the ceremony, where we could just spend some time together on our own and talk about how the day had gone for us so far (there was a mammoth mission at the hotel before to make sure we didn’t see each other).

Tell us anything you did differently – we love hearing about NEW traditions (or none at all!)

We had a nice mix between traditional and strayed away when it made sense to us.

Rather than finding a Maid of Honor, we stuck with Naomi’s best friend Ryan who became her “bridesman”.

We stuck to the tradition of not seeing each other before the ceremony on the day.

We also didn’t do wedding favours as we didn’t want to buy a load of things that people wouldn’t really want and would leave them and they get thrown away.

It was important for us to somehow include family members we have lost over the years. Chris had a great idea to name our tables after those people and include a little bio about those people on each placemat.

Our main focus was to ensure that we had the wedding we wanted and didn’t feel bogged down by traditions or by going out of our way to buck all trends and traditions. We borrowed certain traditions (first dance, not seeing each other before the ceremony and speeches) and did our own thing as well (no bridesmaids, no groomsmen, no wedding favours)

The only thing we can add is to take the advice we were given which is simply to make the day the way YOU want. There may be some people who try to get involved and tell you what to do and whilst you should always listen to advice, don’t feel like you have to do what they want. At the end of the day, it’s your wedding day and your memories. You can always tell them you’ll do that thing they’re telling you to do but then just… don’t. They’ll only find out on the day and by then it’ll be too late!

Venue name + review

The Pumping House in Ollerton. We cannot recommend them enough. Not only is it a beautifully unique venue in a stunning forest location but the staff were exceptional (special shoutout to our wedding coordinator Megan).

Tell us a little about your outfits – both of you!

Naomi’s dress was Needle + Thread. She had wanted something very embellished that complimented her figure but, most importantly, something that was comfortable. This ticked every box and then some.

Naomi just wanted to shout out having a fitting in your own home with friends and family. We made a day out of it and everyone felt they could relax without feeling pressured from dress sales people.

Chris’ suit came from Cavani at Coney’s in Lincoln – I wanted a nice tweed suit and I wanted a slightly different colour, as opposed to beige or blue so I went shopping for suits with my parents. We went all over the place and I almost bought a different suit until my dad said he had seen a nice suit shop in Lincoln. So we hightailed it over there as it was almost the end of the day and found the perfect suit that was green, so matched the colours for the wedding perfectly.

Chris – The staff at Cavani at Coney’s in Lincoln were absolutely brilliant. They couldn’t do enough to help me and gave honest advice and even stayed open a little past closing time to ensure I got the best suit. They also did a little bit of tailoring to the trousers and got them back to me within a couple of days. And the suits are all really reasonably priced.

Florist name + review

Our florist was the wonderful Danielle, owner of Peonies and Plumes.

As soon as we saw her work at The Pumping House open day we fell in love. She was a dream to work with and over delivered on our brief. We’re a big believer of letting experts do their thing so we briefed her with a few colours and explained the mood we were looking for: autumnal forest/berries/mosses/deep colours. And boy! We got more than we had hoped for.

Cake maker name + review

Our cake maker was Naomi’s Nan and Aunty, the Chief Cake Makers for every family occasion. Not only was the cake tasty (who can beat the baking of a grandma?) but it has extra meaning to us. And she does make one hell of a cake!!

Stationery maker’s name + review

Probably the subject that caused Chris the most stress. Naomi designed every piece of stationery in her free time. The invites, signs, menus and table names. Again, even though we ended up with tight turnarounds and took a long time to draw and design, we’re glad we did it to give our wedding more meaning (and probably saved a good amount of money doing so). We opted for a forest floral inspired design and peppered it with animals that mean something to us. In our signs we had a sleeping drawing of our cat.

Any crafty projects or homemade styling touches?

We’re big birdwatchers and knew we wanted to add that element into our day. We (but mainly Naomi!) made several felted birds and we worked with Peonies and Plume to incorporate them into each display. It helped to create a whimsical animal woodland feel and gave the kids something fun to go around and spot.

Wedding readings?

We didn’t want our ceremony is become too long, we opted for only 1 reading which was a selection of the best meaningful pieces of advice from the book The Human’s by Matt Haig: – Everything Matters.

Every ingredient inside a star is inside you – You shouldn’t have been born. Your existence is as close to impossible as can be. To dismiss the impossible is to dismiss yourself – Kindness is always courage and caring is what makes you human. Care more, become more human. – One day humans will live on Mars. But nothing there will be more exciting than a single overcast morning on Earth. – Don’t always try and be cool. The whole universe is cool. It’s the warm bits that matter. – There are a lot of idiots in your species. Lots and lots. You are not one of them. Hold your ground. – When you watch the news, and see members of your species in turmoil, do not think there is nothing you can do. But know, it is not done by watching the news. – Don’t aim for perfection. Evolution, and life, only happens through mistakes. – No-one is ever completely right about anything. Anywhere. – You don’t have to be an academic. You don’t have to be anything. Don’t force it. Feel your way, and don’t stop feeling your way until something fits. Maybe nothing will. Maybe you are a road, not a destination. That is fine. Be a road. But make sure it’s one with something to look at out of the window. – A quark is not the smallest thing. The smallest thing is the regret you will feel on your deathbed for not having worked more. – Even when the darkness is total, remember you are moving through the galaxy. Wait for the brightness of the stars. – It is not the length of life that matters. It’s the depth. But while burrowing, keep the sun above you. – If there is a sunset, stop and look at it. Knowledge is finite. Wonder is infinite. – Be alive. That is your supreme duty to the world. – At some point, bad things are going to happen. Have someone to hold onto. – Don’t ever be afraid of telling someone you love them. There are things wrong with your world, but an excess of love is not one. – You are lucky to be alive. Inhale and take in life’s wonders. Never take so much as a single petal of a single flower for granted.

First dance song? Playlist recommendations?

Our first dance was actually a fun Eurovision song. Daði Freyr, 10 years. Again, the big focus for the day was to make sure everyone was having fun, as well as ourselves. We would have felt awfully awkward if we forced out a romantic song and slow dance. We love Daði Freyr and the fact that he wrote this song specifically for his wife felt so right. And, yes, we did a really cheesy disco dance along with it. Shout out to The Pointer Brothers for their inspiration and Hannah for believing in us to pull it off.

Hair + makeup name + review

As well as skilled artists, a calming and friendly environment for the morning was an essential part of finding Naomi’s hair and make-up so we asked Hannah (photographer) who she recommended. Naomi’s hair was styled by Hannah Blinko Hair who created a lovely Hollywood wave that lasted ALLLLLLL day. Hannah was great in every step along the way to the big day. Chatting over emails about styles, opening up her house for a trial run and being wonderfully funny on the day. Make-up was expertly applied by Ruby Jones who was able to make every brief come true. Ruby was great in guiding Naomi through the process and what was needed, even hoping on a call to chat things through. Again, Ruby opened up her home for the trail which was a calming and friendly environment. On the day Ruby was able to create different styles and looks for multiple women and remained calm and friendly all morning. A very welcome vibe to calm nerves.

The post Naomi & Chris’s warm and creative autumn wedding, with Hannah Hall Photography appeared first on English Wedding.

An incredible dress for Rae & Jason’s joyful North Cadbury Court wedding, with Smiling Tiger Studios

Claire Gould — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 13:15:31 +0000

I’m the happiest wedding blogger in the world today! It’s a joy to be sharing this beautiful Somerset wedding with the most amazing bespoke gold dress for stunning bride Rae. Jason’s suit is the loveliest purple shade, and the happy couple look fabulous in every single picture. They chose Dorset wedding photographers and videographers Smiling Tiger Studios to capture their day.