Real weddings: A purple and pink themed wedding with a Big yellow taxi…oh and the bride gets a speeding ticket on the way to the church!!

Today’s wedding is from one of my very lovely sponsors Anna Clarke. Having met Anna I can highly recommend her for anyone’s wedding, she brings with her a level of fun and life as well as a great eye for a picture. There will be more from her next week on the blog.

Full names
Jonathan and Michelle Solomon

How did you meet?
We met through work (E.ON) and both worked together in the Market Research team. We have known each other for over a decade and fancied each other for just as long, but the timing was never right and we remained good friends until just under 3 years ago when Mich sent me a text telling me that she fancied me…the rest is history

Date of wedding
19th March 2011

Location
Ceremony – Ault Hucknall Church, Derbyshire
Wedding Breakfast and party – Blackbrook House, Belper, Derbyshire

What made you decide to get married where you did?
Barring the fact that the church is an amazing +600 year old church in stunning Derbyshire countryside, it is also a parish close to my heart as my dad was once the vicar here in the 1970’s. He is buried in the church yard and the priest, organist and a number of the choristers who were there at our wedding new him personally
Blackbrook House was the only venue we looked at for the ‘Do’, because from the moment we first stepped through the door we felt that it was our day and that they would ensure that it happened how we wanted it to. Lavinia and Clare are a great team and walked us through every step of the organisation, and with their years of experience this was really smooth and not at all daunting. The chef is also amazing, helping us to design a really personal menu and carrying it off excellently on the day. Everyone commented on the food. It is a real fun and friendly venue, a beautiful building and grounds with great professional people making it a really special day

Who was your dress by?
It was handmade by the fabulous sisters Maxine and Dawn at Couture Bridal in Nottingham. It was an amazing experience.

And the suit?
I always wanted an excuse to buy a Hugo Boss suit and this seemed like the perfect opportunity (I stayed true to Nottingham with the underwear though – Paul Smith all the way)

How would you sum up your day?
Amazing, fun and intimate – we kept it quite small with only our best friends and closest family there. Guests were there for the whole day (no day/evening split) so everyone got to experience everything. The church was where my dad was once the priest and he is buried in the churchyard, and Blackbrook house were amazing and tailored the day to our requirements, catering for all our needs

Did you have a theme/colour scheme?
The theme was – simple, stylish and fun, the colours were purples, pinks and silvers

Did you have any personal touches? Or things that you did yourself?
The personal touches are the best – these really make the day. One of our friends did the church reading, another made our wedding cake (two in fact – one for show and one to eat), the videographer is a friend of Mich from work and his wife was our amazing photographer, and the band was also a friends band. We designed the menu, Mich provided the ladies with toiletries to keep them fresh and amazing through the day, we created our own playlist for music throughout the day (when the band weren’t playing) and we decided on a bright yellow taxi cab as the wedding car (we are city people at heart)

How many guests?
We had 50 close friends and family.

What were your special moments/highlights?
The special moments were just about spending the day with the people we really love. I really loved the whole church service, I felt full of love of everyone who was there with us.

Is there anything you would do differently?
Not a thing – it was an amazing day

What advice would you give any other couples?
Give yourself enough time to plan things properly.
It is your day, stick to your guns and don’t let others (parents usually) try to influence you i.e. we decided that no kids were invited barring our nephews/nieces because we wanted our friends to enjoy themselves not worry about what their children were getting up to
Make it personal and make it yours i.e. don’t hold the do in a hotel with other guests that have nothing to do with your big day (or even maybe another wedding taking place) – choose a venue that is solely yours.
Most of all enjoy yourself and your day – it is not going to be often that all the people you love are in one place together celebrating with you, so make time to be together during the day and enjoy those moments
And remember that life happens when you’re making plans, you can’t control everything that happens around the wedding and equally leave as much as you can to the experts. They know what they’re doing.

What was your biggest surprise of the day?
Mich’s wedding car getting caught for speeding (45mph in a 40 zone), on the way to the church. The policeman continued to give the ticket (really slowly) even though it was obvious that there was a bride in the back of the car! Luckily we managed to get wind of this and so I wasn’t too worried that she was running late (we did get the bell ringers to stop until we knew that she was close though – to save their energy!)

For more infomation on Anna’s work go to:
www.annaclarkephotography.com
www.annaclarkephotography.com/blog
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