Again I cannot express enough how much fun this wedding was to work on, Caroline and Aaron are the best!

Planning Details

How long did you take you take to plan the wedding?
It was over 2 years of thinking and saving, but we didn’t start booking things until 9 months before!

Planning advice
- Check if things include VAT
- Get everything in writing
- Negotiate for extras to be included
- Write your own ceremony and vows – make the promises that mean something to you and ones that you really plan on keeping!
- Use a wedding website (usually free) to let your guests know all the little details
- Don’t be afraid to change your mind – we dropped our first venue after a year of thinking it was “the one”!
If you can’t manage everything on your own – book Kelly! Do everything you can to help keep your day stress free – it’ll be the best money you spend

What planning service did you book from me?
Venue search, Supplier searches and on the day co-ordination

What made you decide that you wanted to book a planner?
We decided to get help with the venue search after deciding against our first venue choice with only 9 months to go and after really struggling to find somewhere that fit our long list of requirements.
We choose to keep Kelly on for the co-ordination of the day after we realised that we couldn’t be in 2 places at once! As we booked things, it became obvious that bringing everything together and keeping things running on the day needed to be done by someone who wasn’t attending the wedding, and it needed to be a professional who understood the different elements. After received such a great service during our searching stage, Kelly was the obvious choice.

What do you feel were the biggest benefits of having a planner involved with your wedding?
It meant that we had someone looking at the wedding from a more logical and practical point of view, asking the right questions to make sure everything would work out on the day
It gave us confidence in what we were doing, especially the suppliers that we chose we knew that you had first-hand experience and that the people we were using would work out well.
It was good to be kept to a timetable, and be gently herded without having to keep an eye on a watch

What was the best bit about having me involved with your wedding?
You found our venue, our florist, our photographer and our caterer and they were all perfect and just about in budget. As we were so late with planning it meant I could get on with things and not spend my time on endless and confusing Google searches!
On the day it allowed us all to relax and enjoy it all, we had someone to go to sort out any issue which meant the conversations with suppliers etc around solutions were being had without us having to even know they had happened…

‘You’re passion about unusual weddings meant I felt comfortable in doing things differently. I wasn’t quizzed as to why things weren’t more traditional you helped and encouraged me to keep things unique, fun, personal, special, and nothing was impossible or weird!’

Please show Caroline and Aaron some love, and let them know what you  thought of their wedding!…………for me AMAZING! I really did love every minute.

Big Boho Love
Kelly xxx

Supplier shout outs
Wedding Planning – www.bohoweddingsandevents.com
Photographer – Lee Allen www.leeallenphotography.com
Venue – Newton Grange www.yorkshirenet.co.uk/stayat/newtongrange
Caterer and bar – Coco Catering  www.cococatering.org.uk
Florist – Berries Florist  www.berriesflorist.co.uk
Portable toilets – Dr Loo-  http://drloo.co.uk/home
Bouncy castle – Abacus bouncy castle- www.abacusbouncycastle.co.uk
Ceremony – One Life Ceremony www.onelifeceremonies.co.uk/wedding-ceremony
Marquee Hire – Marston Moor Marquee- www.marstonmoormarquees.co.uk

For more information on Lee’s photography services go to:
www.leeallenphotography.com
www.leeallenphotography.com/blog
info@leeallenphotography.co.uk
TWITTER
FACEBOOK
07855 443437

I love this wedding so much that I have had to split it into to two parts, there are simply to many photos for me to choose from. Part 1 is the ceremony, and part 2 will be the reception and party, and I mean PARTY! Caroline and Aron didn’t go to bed till the sun came up the next day!

The couple is Caroline and Aaron Hamilton who got married on 30^th July 2011 (which must have been the hottest day of the year this summer) at  Newton Grange, near Skipton in North Yorkshire with 85 guests. It really was a stunning day, boiling hot, blazing sunshine,which was just perfect for their outdoor ceremony which was conducted by One life ceremonies. The wedding had all the things that for me make up a perfect wedding, great guests, a relaxed attitude, some amazing colourful decorations, hay bails, a bouncy castle, camping, a BBQ, amazing speeches, an awesome band, loads of partying, loads of dancing ………..and a couple so completely and utterly in love with each other.

Caroline and Aaron really are one of the loveliest couples you could ever wish to meet, and they both made my job an absolute joy. So relaxed and chilled out, and just perfect for each other. I cried all the way through the 30 minutes service, you’d think by now I’d be immune to such wedding emotion, but it’s something about having an outdoor ceremony that has been personally written for you that gets me ever time. One Life ceremonies are amazing, that is all I can say, I have been lucky enough to work with them before and I cried then as well! EVERYONE should book them for their wedding!

I also had the pleasure of working with Lee Allen and may I say if you want an up beat photographer who is going to get stuck in, and really get on with your wedding guesst then Lee is your man, he stayed till 1 am capturing the night party shots and really went out fo his way to capture every moment for Caroline and Aaron. Co Co Catering were the caterers for the day and as always a joy to work with, amazing BBQ that they provide! I can highly recommend.

The day went without a hitch and will go down as one of the highlights fo my summmer! Congratulations Caroline adn Aaron, you rock! and you knwo how to throw a fabulous wedding!

Caroline and Aaron describe their day as ‘A summery, relaxed, fun and unique day filled with friends, family, laughter and lots of love. Every aspect was special and personal to us, celebrating both our individuality and our love for each other.’

How they met
We met at a rock night in Leeds, having been introduced by a friend. We have been together over 5 years now.

The proposal
It was my birthday and Aaron took me to a magical place called The Forbidden Corner (such a cool place and we considered it for our wedding – you should check it out!). He gave me my birthday card, in which he had secured the ring with a ribbon. As I opened it, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!

The Venue
We wanted a wedding venue with as few restrictions as possible, somewhere that would let us bring in our own suppliers/entertainment, do our own decorating, set our own schedule and ultimately create the day we wanted from scratch, (plus having an unlicensed and unusual venue meant it was much kinder on the budget!) We also needed a venue that had the space outside to accommodate an outdoor wedding, but still felt intimate and having the onsite accommodation was also really important. We had lots of demands but somehow this venue had it all!

The dress
My dress was from a website (www.goweddingdress.com) Shoes were by Else and accessories were ordered online and handmade by Flutterby Weddings

The suit and bridesmaids
Aaron got his suit from Topman and his gorgeous shirt (which had a menagerie’s worth of animals on it!) was Simon Carter, from House of Fraser. His trainers were K Swiss from the USA. Bridesmaid dresses were from Warehouse, shoes from Schuh

Theme
The outdoor element set the theme and so I think I was working towards Secret Garden/Posh Festival! My love of Sunflowers set the colour for the bridesmaids dresses

Food
BBQ, served family style rather than buffet to keep it as a sit down meal, but still very relaxed and simple

Entertainment
We got garden games, an adult bouncy castle and silly things like temporary tattoo’s to keep people entertained during the day.
My brother reformed his old group and with my Dad stepping in to play bass, they became our Band for the evening – they were called Foo D Fighters! Their set was all our favourite tunes and it went down a storm. We then had an iPod disco with playlists we had put together.

Flowers
It was important to me to have lots of flowers as I really wanted that summery vibe and I wanted them to be bright and interesting to look at. I had sunflowers and red roses in my bouquet and the table pieces were filled with lots of different flowers, all in striking colours. The vases also had slices of lemons and limes in them which was something I really wanted after seeing it in a magazine. It made them different and really worked against the white marquee and countryside backdrop. I LOVED OUR FLOWERS!

Decoration
My wonderful Mum sewed miles of bunting which decorated all of the marquees and hung from the trees joining the outside spaces together (– the bunting material was actually the first buy for the wedding before we even had a venue!). We then hung lots of lanterns and fairy lights from the trees as well as some wicker hearts and little ornaments; there was even a windmill flowerbed!

Personal touches
- As a gift, my mum had the diamond from my Nana’s engagement ring set into a necklace that I wore, so I was actually wearing the diamond my Pompa (granddad) choose to propose with.
- I used my late Pompa’s old vintage suitcase as our card box and next to that was a white china bird which was the last present I gave my Nana before she passed away. This meant that they were a part of the day in some way
- The table plan was a favourite of mine as it was actually just a heart shaped wind chime that I hung the individual table tags off but it looked really interesting and different
- As Aaron is a massive fan of Marvel comics we had a printed picture of Spiderman and of Wonder women on each of the toilet doors
- Instead of favours on the dining tables, we had bright coloured fan’s and bottles of water on the chairs for during the ceremony as our wedding was outside and I wanted people to feel comfortable on what turned out to be a very sunny day.
- The venue was in the middle of nowhere and so I had a friend paint us some pretty, summery signs that we put up on route to direct people – it was lovely to think that our guests were getting a sense of our day before they had even arrived!
- We had a wedding website that I set up with all the important info about the day. We put the address in the invites and were able to do our guest list via it too. This made it really personal, modern and different. We were able to go it to lots of detail about the day (rather than cramming info on to an invite) so everyone could know what to expect and start looking forward to it.
- Our cake was made by our chief bridesmaid Karla as our wedding gift and there were a lot of compliments- it was delicious!
- We had a camp fire area in the evening which worked really well, we just brought along my parents portable fire pit and bought some wood and people were sat on hay bales. It just really added to the festival vibe.

Special moments
- The day before was actually really exciting. Everyone was chipping into get the venue ready and it was such a buzz to see all our ideas coming together. It felt special that people had taken days off work and come to help with the set up, I think our bridesmaid Katie spent most of the day up a ladder hanging bunting!
- As we had the registry office ceremony in the morning, it did feel like we were getting married twice which was exciting! We kept referring to that as “the boring part” and we kept it very casual (I was wearing shorts and a vest top!). We only had our 2 witness’s there – the best man Alex and my Chief Bridesmaid Karla. It was simple and short but we were surprised by how official and emotional it felt and it made us so excited about doing it for real a few hours later.
- Writing our own ceremony with One Life Ceremonies made it really special and totally about us. Everyone commented on how much they enjoyed listening to it and all the personal references meant people were laughing and tearful throughout.
- My Mum had written us a beautiful poem comparing love to the feel of coming home, it brought tears to everyone’s eyes and I still get goose pimples when I read it back.
- I had bought sky lanterns for everyone to do during the party but it never happened and as the new dawn broke, and Aaron and I were the only ones left standing, we let 2 off together; it was lovely to get that moment together to end such a special day.
- The band’s 2 sets were fantastic, we were all singing along and playing air guitar, there was virtually a mosh pit during a Nirvana cover – it was so special knowing they had been rehearsing it all just for us, we loved it!

Anything you would do differently?
I have only one thing that I would go back and change but it’s quite huge…I really regret not personally thanking my family during my speech. I left the family topic for Aaron to cover as I thought I might cry! But I should have said more myself. They were so fantastic during all the planning and the set-up of the wedding we couldn’t have achieved the day without them, but most of all I am really lucky to be best friends with my parents and my brothers and I wish I taken the chance to tell them so in front of everyone.

Biggest surprise
In my Dad’s speech he joked about Aaron’s tattoos and he then took his jacket off to reveal his own full sleeves of ink, courtesy of a joke shop! We really weren’t expecting it and it was hilarious- some of the guests even thought they were real!
The weather also surprised us. So much of the essence of the day relied on it being sunny and warm- there was no plan B that would have come close! It turned out to be a perfect Summers day that meant we could go ahead we everything as we had planned.  I thought I would cry my eyes out all day but I actually just spent every minute beaming from ear to ear!

Make sure you come back this afternoon to catch Part 2 of this amazing wedding.

Supplier shout outs
The suppliers were fantastic, but it was a please to share the day with Kelly, Blanche at CoCo and Lee. They felt more like very helpful guests than suppliers!

Wedding Planning – www.bohoweddingsandevents.com
Photographer – Lee Allen www.leeallenphotography.com
Venue – Newton Grange www.yorkshirenet.co.uk/stayat/newtongrange
Caterer and bar – Coco Catering  www.cococatering.org.uk
Florist – Berries Florist  www.berriesflorist.co.uk
Portable toilets – Dr Loo-  http://drloo.co.uk/home
Bouncy castle – Abacus bouncy castle- www.abacusbouncycastle.co.uk
Ceremony – One Life Ceremony www.onelifeceremonies.co.uk/wedding-ceremony
Marquee Hire – Marston Moor Marquee- www.marstonmoormarquees.co.uk

For more information on Lee’s photography services go to:
www.leeallenphotography.com
www.leeallenphotography.com/blog
info@leeallenphotography.co.uk
TWITTER
FACEBOOK
07855 443437

Saying that I am off to another wedding fair today, this time it’s the wedding event with a difference put on my the lovely ladies at Save The Date. I blogged about this show a month ago and you can read my report on it HERE. It’s a fab show so I’m really looking forward to meeting a few new suppliers while catching up with some old ones.

So today’s Fabulous Photo is brought to you by Lee Allen and it’s actually a sneak peak as well because it’s one the weddings I worked on this summer!

Lee sent me over the photos this week and I just couldn’t wait to show you this one, there are so many more AMAZING! photos to share with you, so I’m hoping to get them posted in the next week or so.
The wedding is of Caroline and Aaron who are just the most wonderful couple you could ever wish to meet, so well suited and so totally in love with each other. Yes that may seem like a stupid thing to say, after all it’s a wedding, but with some people you just get a really strong feeling about, and these two are so wrapped up in each other it’s a joy to see them together.
The wedding was so much fun!….a proper rock star day, with an outdoor ceremony, hay bails, a sing song round the camp fire, sunflowers, camping, a bouncy caste (for adults only) and a mosh pit! It really was one of the highlights fo the year! Awesome in every way!
watch this space for the full set!

For more information on Lee’s photography services go to:
www.leeallenphotography.com
www.leeallenphotography.com/blog
info@leeallenphotography.co.uk
TWITTER
FACEBOOK
07855 443437

Today’s Fabulous Photo is brought to you by a good friend of mine Lee Allen. Lee is a great photographer and I can’t wait to work with him on a rather fabulous outdoor wedding in July! I’m also going to be exhibiting with him on 27th of February at The Yorkshire Sculpture Park so if you are around pop past and say hello.
I have decided that the fabulous photo doesn’t have to be wedding related, this is a chance for me to celebrate everything that is good and great in photography!

I just love this picture of the New York skyline! I went to new york about 3 years ago and just loved it, I’m hoping to go back next year for my 40th birthday. The photo was taken at the top of the Rockefeller Building and it really is the best place to see the New York Skyline (and the best place to get a cocktail while your at it!) I love the use of light, it looks like something out of a movie…very blade runner! it almost doesn’t look real!

For more information on Lee’s photography services go to:
www.leeallenphotography.com
www.leeallenphotography.com/blog
info@leeallenphotography.co.uk
07855 443437

So I hope these pictures make you feel all nice and festive!…………I’m off for a mince pies now (I ate all the shortbread yesterday!) enjoy!

James Stuart

Katy & Carl who got married at the Sitwell Arms in Debyshire in late 2009 . The wedding and the reception were both at the Sitwell Arms in Derbyshire which saved people having to negotiate the ice, that is apart from the group shots, Katy had brought her wellies so we could get some portraits in the grounds.
www.jamesstewartphotography.co.uk
www.jamesstewartphotography.co.uk/blog

Michael Palmer

Lauren and James got married at Rhinefield House Hotel in Dec 2010
http://blog.michaelpalmer.com
http://www.michaelpalmer.com

Lee Allen

Tom and Laura  got  married in mid December 2010 in the Lake district. It’s was a 3 day event. These pre wedding pictures were taken 2 weeks prior to the wedding in Leeds.
www.leeallenphotography.com
www.leeallenphotography.com/blog

Midway media

Corrin & Mike’s winter wedding with the church decorated inside and out together with some snow for their more romantic shots on their own.  The ceremony took place on 31 December 2009 at St Peter’s Church, Edensor situated in the Chatsworth House Estate, with a reception at Hassop Hall, nr Bakewell!
www.midway-media.co.uk

House of Mooshki

The shoot took place at a gorgeous place called Otterburn Hall in the wintery depths of Northumberland. It was a little cold to say the least but it made for some fantastic shots.
Dresses by House of Mooshki
Photos by Redboat Photography

Sara Thomas Photography

The couple are Hannah and Adam  they were married on December 18th 2009 at Hintlesham Hall near Ipswich in Suffolk.
www.sarathomas.co.uk
http://sarathomas.co.uk/blog/

S6 Photography

Daniel & Heather Miles married  on Monday 21st December 2009. The ceremony was at a church at St John’s University in York and the reception was at The Parsonage Hotel, Escrick, York. It was beautiful, a perfect winters day, it was the first lot of snow we had and it really shows off well in the photos. With clear blue skies and an amazing low sun.
www.s6photography.co.uk
http://s6photography.co.uk/blog

Once again I’d like to say a massive thank you to all the wonderful photographers who sent me in their work to select pictures from, it’s much appreciated! I hope you liked this 2 day Christmas photographyspecial, it has certainly helped me get in the Christmas spirit!

Merry Christmas
Kelly xxx

It is a little known fact that YSP is licensed to hold civil ceremonies and partnerships, and with it’s amazing surroundings why wouldn’t you want to get married here?

The stunning five hundred acre setting and intimate function spaces make Yorkshire Sculpture Park an outstanding location. Whether it’s a civil wedding ceremony in the Auditorium, an intimate dinner in the YSP Restaurant or celebration drinks and canapés on the outdoor terrace, enjoy your special day in the unforgettable surroundings of Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

The ceremony itself is held in the Roger Evans Auditorium: The Auditorium is licensed to hold civil ceremonies and partnerships and is situated in the award winning Visitor Centre. This contemporary space has been designed to offer maximum flexibility for intimate gatherings of 30 or large celebrations of up to 120. This versatile space can be adapted and dressed for every occasion.

The reception is then held at the YSP Centre and Restaurant: The entire YSP Centre can be exclusively hired for special evening entertaining, including the beautiful 18th century terrace in the formal Garden. Enjoy pre-dinner drinks and canapés on the Centre concourse or outdoor terrace overlooking YSP’s rolling landscape. Enjoy a delicious evening meal for up to 130 guests in the fabulous licensed restaurant, which opens up panoramic views of the Country Park and Henry Moore’s monumental sculptures.

Sally The wedding and Events Manager advices that weddings are held later on in the day, ideally at about 4pm-5pm. The Park outlets are shut at 5pm and the park it self at 6pm so this then leaves the wedding party complete exclusivity to the whole venue.
There is also the option for a small cost of hiring the underground gallery for an exclusive viewing, this is a fantastic option for the art loving couple who want to offer their guests something a bit different.

The parks award winning restaurant will cater for the wedding breakfast and offers a huge amount of variety in it’s menus. You can choose from a 3 course sit down wedding breakfast, a hot fork buffet, snack menu, canepes and a large selection of drinks packages.
As well as the food the park offers an alternative gift list. The couple are able to make up their gift list from the parks shop, which is full of art, individually made jewelery pottery and a selection of books.

And if you are looking for a photographer, the park has it’s own official photographer Lee Allen. Of course they allow you to use whom ever you like, but Lee has been given exclusive access to all of the parks grounds and has the insider knowledge of the best places for those amazing shots!

Since my meeting with Sally, Boho has been put on their prefered supplier list for wedding planning, so if you have any questions, or need help for you big day I am the person to speak to.

A big thanks to Sally for meeting up with me and taking time out of her busy day to show me around the grounds. It really is an amazing venue, and certainly on top of my list if I were to renew my vows. The grounds are amazing and the ceremony and reception it self, modern, light and really offers something different for your wedding day.

For more information go to www.ysp.co.uk
or mail Sally at: weddings@ysp.co.uk or call 01924 832 508.
More more information on Lee Allen and his photography go to www.leeallenphotography.com.