Jennifer and Dean’s Woodland Themed Yellow Wedding by Gareth Newstead

Happy Friday everyone. I do hope you’re well and happy and looking forward to the weekend ahead! Today I’m off work and going to watch Paddington 2 at the cinema with Dexter. He’s pretty excited so it should be a fun afternoon. Tomorrow we have a child-free night as he’s off for a sleepover at his friend’s house, so Nik and I are out on the town! Woo hoo! No idea what we are doing yet, but I’m hoping it will involve lots of food, as I have been dieting all week! What about you? What have you got planned?
On to today’s wedding and it’s the turn of Jennifer and Dean, who are sharing their beautiful woodland themed wedding with us. Not only is the decor filled with lots of lovely woodland touches, but it also has a gorgeous yellow theme. The flowers and table decor are just lovely. Big thanks to Gareth Newstead for the wonderful images.

We were surrounded by all the people we love most in a beautiful setting. It was perfect with a beautiful woodland vibe.

Jennifer and Dean were married on 30th July 2017 at Normanton Church in Oakham and Normanton Park Hotel. ‘We had one of our very first holidays together there. Dean made the joke at the time that it would be a great place to get married. When he finally popped the question it just made sense! The views are beautiful too! We had a year in total but we did most of the busy stuff (making centre pieces, choosing music, writing vows etc.) in the 2-3 months on the run-up to the day – it got quite busy. We had 71 guests.’

How they met
We met whilst training to be teachers. Dean’s best friend introduced us and within a year we were living together. We’ve been together 6 years.

The Proposal
Dean took me for a walk in the countryside where we live. We were on our usual route to a lovely pub were we like to go to for lunch. We stopped at the top of the hill to admire the view and when I turned around he had the ring out and that was that!

How did you allocate your budget?
We bought the big stuff first and then bought little bits every month. There were spreadsheets and all sorts! We didn’t want to go crazy as we were moving house too so we always had the budget in mind.

Where did you splurge and how did you save?
The fireworks (Komodo Fireworks) were a splurge but we both love them and thought they’d look great on the lake – they did! We saved on making our own centre pieces and table decorations – the bridesmaids were a huge help there!

Why did you choose your photographer?
We used Gareth Newstead Photography. Gareth was the photographer at Dean’s best friend’s wedding. He was great! All the pictures looked amazing and he was so enthusiastic and supportive – we knew we were going to book him too!

The Dress
The Bridal Suite in West Bridgford, Nottingham. They were great.

The Suit and Bridesmaids
Dean got his suit from Slaters in Nottingham. The bridesmaids’ dresses were handmade by my mother – she was amazing and saved us an absolute fortune!

Theme or colour scheme
A woodland theme. We love walks in the countryside so little bird houses for table pieces, slices of wood for centre pieces and lots and lots of pine cones.

Flowers
We used Flowers on Mainstreet and had gorgeous lemon David Austin Patience Roses mixed in amongst yellow Buttercup Roses, white Lisianthus, Waxflower, Threspie and Eucalyptus for my bouquet, and I chose a smaller version of this for my bridesmaids – the same but minus the David Austins! Dean’s buttonhole, alongside the rest of the gents’ and mum’s corsage were made up of small white Spray Roses with Threspie and Waxflower, which really brought the whole look together. This is the link to the blog she did about the day:

Decoration
Twisted Willow was used around tall Lily vases with Roses, Lisianthus, Threspie and foliage, plus an added extra of Delphiniums to create the centrepieces. The idea was to create a woodland setting, something which looked amazing inside venue.

Food
It was three courses and people had options. There was pork, lamb and a vegetarian dish.

Wedding Cake
We bought the three plain tiers from Marks and Spencers and decorated it ourselves. We would recommend it!

Entertainment
A DJ from Bright Stars. We gave him a rough playlist and he went from here. He did a great job.

Personal Touches
We wrote our own vows which was important to us. They got a lot of tears so we must have done something right!

Special Moments
The fireworks were a great way to end the day, but it was all wonderful really. The walk along the lake to the church was wonderful too.

Advice for other couples
Focus on the things important to you. Get the big stuff booked and don’t fret over the little details – they tend to sort themselves out!

Biggest Surprise
I wasn’t expecting Dean and his best man to perform a flash dance tribute but I don’t think they were either! The weather was huge surprise too as it had rained all week on the run up to the day!

SUPPLIER SHOUT OUTS

• Church: Normanton Church
• Venue: Normanton Park Hotel
• Photography: Gareth Newstead Photography
• Hair: Thompson and Gregory
• Florist: Flowers on Mainstreet
• Rings: Goldsmiths
• Dress: The Bridal Suite
• Suits: Slaters
• Cake: Marks and Spencers
• Fireworks: Komodo Fireworks 

For more information about Gareth’s work go to:

www.garethnewsteadphotography.com / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / TWITTER

I absolutely love capturing intimate and natural moments such as the father of the bride seeing his daughter for the first time, the bridesmaids fussing over the dress, the face of a cheeky child trying to sit still at the church, a shared joke between the groom and best man, but I also love to capture some exciting shots! I’m a creative / documentary / natural / unobtrusive / call it what you like wedding photographer based in Staffordshire. All I know is that I love my job and I’m passionate about capturing the real moments and creating wow photos. Making your experience as relaxed and fun as possible is as important to me as giving you awesome images. I don’t want to steal you away from your guests for hours on end, and my photographs will retell the story of your wedding day for years to come.