Featured Post
Samantha and Harrison’s Laid Back, Modern London Wedding by Babb Photos
I have been lucky enough to feature the gorgeous work of Babb Photos quite a...
10
Jun
2015
Today I have a fabulous wedding to share with you from two of my favourite wedding suppliers. Jaye and Matt from Tux and Tales provide the gorgeous photos, while the barn at East Riddlesden Hall provides the venue for both the ceremony and the reception. Rachael and Matthew put together a food themed wedding with the help of Rachel from Simply Vintage Events to reflect their love of all things cooking. With amazing food on the menu and food utensils scattered around the venue, beautiful centrepieces as well as a collection of quite stunning spring flowers this wedding is brimming with details and wedding goodness. It’s bright, cheerful, fun and most of all filled with love and laughter, perfect!
Matthew and Rachael were married on 24th April 2015 at The Barn at East Riddlesden Hall. ‘We happened upon East Riddlesden Hall through twitter. It was strange because Matt’s parents have lived in Keighley for years and Matt didn’t even know it was there. We went to visit and we knew the barn would be perfect for us because it was a beautiful blank canvas and because we could have the ceremony and the party there. We felt that was the perfect option for our fuss-free attitude to the whole thing as we had a lot of guests travelling in from afar so we thought it was better if they only had to get to one location and then kick back and enjoy. We also loved the fact it was National trust and we didn’t look anywhere else. We had 60 guests in total. We only took a few months really. I was completing my masters so once we booked the venue, setting the date, we wanted to get all the main things arranged before I was too busy studying. I collected ideas and jars over the summer as I was studying but knew we wanted to make and do as many things ourselves for the decoration as possible. I didn’t start the real planning until February, just two months before the wedding after going to see the wonderful Rachel from Simply Vintage. She gave me lots of inspiration and helped me come up with the kitchen/foodie theme for the day.’
How they met
We met at work but only got to know each other when we became house mates. We were only housemates for 3 months before we were in a relationship. We have been together for 5 years.
The Proposal
We just started talking about it as a few of our friends had gotten married the previous summer and we mainly wanted to have a big party with all our friends and family there and lots of food.
We are both really shy and I knew Matt would never propose in the traditional way on bended knee, it would be his worst nightmare and it just wasn’t us. It was a dreary Monday 13th January 2014 and I had just come back from a yoga class. I was not looking glam at all. Matt asked me something whilst preparing dinner, I can’t remember what it was now. Anyway whatever I answered he came back with a remark about when I was his wife. That was his way of saying he wanted to get married and he was ready.
How did you allocate your budget
We decided that very early on that the food would be one of our top priorities and allocated most of our budget on that. The next was the photography as we wanted to capture amazing memories and throw in some additional extras like an engagement shoot to get us used to having our picture taken and a photo booth for the party to add to the fun for our guests.
How did you choose your photographer
We met Tux and Tales at a Wedding Fair at the barn and booked them a week later. We loved Jaye and Matt’s style and the vibrancy of their photographs. Also they are both so friendly and made us feel at ease immediately.
The Dress
My dress was by White Rose from Confetti and Lace. I knew I wanted a t-length dress and not a long one because that style suits my shape better and I am clumsy. So a full length gown that I could trip over was not really an option. I loved the satin peter pan collar as I hadn’t seen that on any other wedding dress. I borrowed my sister’s Azendi pearl earrings, wore an Olivia Burton watch which was a wedding gift from Matthew. My shoes were ‘Katy’ from Rainbow Club.
The Suit and Bridesmaids
The tuxedo and shoes were all from Ted Baker. The bridesmaid dress was from Kelsey Rose and the shoes were ‘Jennifer’ by Rainbow club.
Theme or Colour Scheme
There wasn’t a colour theme as such. We wanted a bit of a mismatched, higgledy-piggledy vibe to the decoration and we told everyone to wear what they wanted to so it didn’t feel uniformed..
Flowers
Petite spring flowers such as double scented daffodils, ranunculus and daisies in pastel shades of lilac, blue, pink, green, ivory and lemon.
Decoration
Bunting, lots of glass jars, tin cans, tea lights, fairy lights, flowers, herbs and kitchen paraphernalia.
Food
We had wonderful canapés straight after the ceremony, we didn’t want anyone going hungry. There were salmon gravlax, mushroom fricassee and Hoi Sin duck pancakes. We had share boards of antipasti, cured meats, prawns, houmous, breads and mackerel pate to start followed by BBQ which included sliders, lamb shawarma, chicken skewers and grilled Thai shrimp with lots of beautiful sides such as tabbouleh, Greek salad, spicy slaw and potato salad. We were absolutely stuffed but could not stop eating and we did manage to find room for our Kilner jar Eon Mess and brandy snap. For the evening we had gourmet hot dogs, falafel pitas and cheesy chip butties.
Wedding Cake
Matt’s grandmother is a fabulous cook and baker and she made our wonderful wedding cake. It was a traditional fruit cake with lots of brandy. We were so happy she wanted to make it for us as we knew it would be amazing and it was so personal.
Entertainment
We used an ipod and simply created different playlists for different parts of the day. We had very upbeat songs around the ceremony. I walked down the aisle to (Your love keeps lifting me) Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson and we ended the ceremony with ‘Move on Up’ by Curtis Mayfield. We had various soundtracks from our favourite films playing throughout the meal and guests turned this into a bit of a quiz on the tables. Our first dance was to ‘Friday I’m in Love’ by The Cure. This was a song suggested by one of my good friends for the party and it seemed perfect for the first dance as we got married on a Friday and was upbeat – we didn’t want anything slow or cheesy. We had asked guests to suggest their favourite jam on our RSVP cards for the party and this ranged from Michael Jackson to Kate Bush to The Urban Cookie Collective. There was also a choreographed routine to ‘Let’s get ready to rumble’ by PJ and Duncan by a couple of guests. The request list meant there was something for everyone, it made it easier for us and again it was personal. Also it made us laugh and wonder if we really did know our friends and family when we got some of the suggestions.
Buy or DIY your Stationery
Due to my masters I simply couldn’t make everything I wanted to so I bought the save the date cards, invitations and rsvp cards by Ginger Ray at HobbyCraft. I did make individual place cards for each guest with a different food or kitchen utensil related illustration that was relevant to them. Each card was different with various patterns and colours. The seating plan was completely DIY in the style of a menu with each table named as a course such as the Desserts, Cheese Board and Fine Wines. Each table name was written on to a wooden spoon. The same seating plan book doubled as a guest book so we could keep everything together.
Personal or Handmade Touches
I collected lots of jars ranging from jam to pickling jars, glass coca-cola bottles and tin cans. I decorated each individually to hold flowers and tea lights. They were all different and I covered some of them with pages from an old recipe book and greaseproof paper, this was particularly effective with the tea lights. I used lace, ribbon, string, hessian and tons of Washi tape. We drilled holes in the cans and used battery operated tea lights as the cans got too hot with real tea lights. We provided jars of dried grains and pulses from our kitchen, our recipe books, Cornish wear jugs, mixing bowls, graters and copper pans for the decoration of the barn.
Also we ran out of time to buy favours as we couldn’t make up our minds about what to do. We couldn’t think of anything personal and we left it a bit late so I made personal meal vouchers for each guest to cash in and have a slap up meal at ‘Chez Sherriff’ with no expiry date. Everyone seemed to love this idea and we have had bookings already. Though this was really simple it means we can arrange to spend more time with the people we love the most, as a lot of our friends and family live quite far away. This made them more meaningful favours, it fitted in with our food theme and our guests appreciated it.
Advice to other couples
Planning – just go with your gut instinct and don’t do things just because you think you have to, there are no rules. I stuck with local and independent suppliers on the whole, this not only helps small businesses; it was also handy for popping to see them for last minute appointments. All of our suppliers were fab and it made things much easier for us. They all gave us great pieces of advice. One gem from our photographers was to plan in the time with your guests. It’s seems a silly thing to plan at first as you think that will just happen but you need to do it or it just won’t happen, as time goes so fast. We planned in loads of time and both managed to spend time with each of our guests which was the whole point in having them there. Also another piece of advice I got for the day was not to drink too much alcohol so you can enjoy and remember everything. I stuck to Prosecco and made sure I had plenty of water. It kept me going so much so I ended up tidying up and collecting all the presents up for the taxi at the end of the night. Matt mixed his drinks but managed to remember most things. Also remembering it is about the marriage and not just the day, it can be easy to forget that in the build up with some much to think about and do.
Special Moments
There were loads of special moments and highlights. Matt said the barn doors opening just before the ceremony began to look out over the lake at East Riddlesden was fantastic. Seeing each other for the first time felt wonderful and Matt dropping the ring during the ceremony – It was a funny moment that broke the nerves. The speeches by my dad and the best man, Adam were great and I was also proud of myself for doing a speech as Matt didn’t want to do this due to his shyness. We both loved our private photo shoot to relive the ceremony and talk about our mornings. The food was amazing and lots of our guests commented it was the best food, not just wedding food, they had ever had. Dancing the night away and seeing everyone having a good time was the best feeling. Also getting home on the night of the wedding and opening all of our cards and presents was really nice – as well as our morning cups of tea in our new Mr and Mrs mugs.
Biggest surprise
Not having the nerves we thought we would. We both felt very comfortable and it felt really natural. We had a great team at East Riddlesden Hall who couldn’t do enough for us and Jaye and Matt from Tux and Tales were worth their weight in gold for helping everything come together. It really was the best day of our lives and we do wish we could do it all over again.
www.tuxandtalesphoto.co.uk
www.tuxandtalesphoto.co.uk/#blog
FACEBOOK
T – @tuxandtales
I – tuxandtales
Fantastic story!
Awww we absolutely loved photographing Rachael & Matt’s big day. They are two of the loveliest people you would ever meet!
Love this blog. One of my favourite photographs is the first bride and groom photographs – such a beautiful photograph with the blurred blossom