Sarah and Jennie’s Alice in Wonderland Wedding. By Paul Joseph Photography

I have a gorgeous wedding for you today from a wonderful pair of photographers, Paul and Kelly from Paul Joseph Photography. It’s the wedding of Sarah and Jennie and I’m sure you will agree that Paul and Kelly did a wonderful job of capturing the day. Sarah and Jennie chose a Alice in Wonderland theme for the day and mixed it in subtly with vintage touches and decorations, as well as some fabulous DIY projects. Both the girls agreed that planning is key when it comes to organising such an important day and give some great advice at the end of the post.

‘When people ask us what was the most important factor in planning our wedding day the answer is simple… for our friends and family to have a fun filled and relaxed day. Every element of our day was planned with our guests in mind and the reaction we received from everyone was just overwhelming. It simply was a perfect celebration of our relationship together shared with those that mean the world to us!’

Sarah and Jennie were married on the 24th May 2014 at the Black Swan Hotel, Helmsley. ‘We wanted a venue that had a vintage yet modern feel and it was love at first sight when we visited the Black Swan. The venue had so much character and we loved the fact we had lots of rooms to use as part of our day. The big winner for us though was their amazing reputation for food and drink, they certainly lived up to the hype! We had 70 plus around 25 evening guests and the wedding took 7 months to plan.’

How they met
We met through mutual friends at a party and have been together for about 9 years.

The proposal
Anyone who’s knows us is well aware of our love for travel, especially to America and even more so to Vegas! We planned our 3rd trip in late September 2013 and I decided the time had come for me to pop the question to Jennie. I have a soft side that tends to remain well hidden most of the time but decided I was going to go all out for this proposal. I planned the proposal to build up over a few days and had a vegas based quiz each day for Jennie to solve, on day 4 she had to unscramble the answers to reveal the big question…. Jennie will you marry me? The only problem is she found the day 1 quiz in my hand luggage the moment we boarded the plane and likes to say she guessed at that point but she played along anyway. The most amusing thing is friends and family back home who knew when I was planning to ask hadn’t factored in the time difference. I think there was a little panicking back home that the answer had been the wrong one. The proposal certainly made Vegas a place that will always be even closer to our hearts, but the most amazing part was getting to celebrate in style by spending the latter part of our trip with my step-brother Tim and his wife Angela who had joined us from San Francisco!

How did you spend your budget?
We were meticulous with our budget planning and recorded our spending to the finest detail. This really helped us to at a glance always know where we were with our spending and is something I would recommend doing to every couple.
We always knew our biggest expenditure was going to be the venue, followed closely by the photographers but these two were what we saw as the most important parts of our day and not an area to cut corners on. The one thing neither of us wanted to do was blow the budgets on our dresses, neither of us our big dress wearers. Don’t get us wrong we love to glam up once in a while but knew that for us more than anything we wanted to feel comfortable in our dresses and not see all of our budget go on the outfits.

Why did you choose your photographer?
We both love art and photography and we are often drawn to more modern and quirky images. We didn’t want your standard wedding shots, we wanted someone that would capture us a naturally as possible. We received two recommendations for Paul & Kelly Clapperton from Paul Joseph Photography when we were on the hunt for photographers and boy are we glad the other ones were busy and sent us their way. The minute we saw their website and noted their love of coffee, converse and Krispy Kreme donuts we knew we’d met our perfect match. We met up and we just instantly felt like we had known them forever. We loved having them as part of our day, and it felt like your mates were taking the photos. Our friends just loved them too and the resulting images as you will see were everything we wanted and more!

The dresses and accessories
My dress was from Coast and the brogues were from Clarks, I actually bought the shoes first as I have an obsession with brogues. I doubt many brides will build their big day outfit around their shoes!
Jennie’s dress was from Monsoon and sandals were from accessorize, her floral headband by Bundle Maclaren was Jennie’s something borrowed from her sister Anna.
Our hair styling was done by Jess Morgan from Innovations salon in York along with that of our mothers and bridesmaid Anna. Jess is one of our closest friends and having her with us during the getting ready phase of the day was simply amazing.

Suits and bridesmaids
No suits required for this wedding but what we did do was co-ordinate the Dad’s along with the ushers which were Jen’s brother Daniel and brother-in-law Olly. All wore their own navy suits and we bought them a matching teal tie and pocket square from Thomas Pink. The Dad’s received a special wedding day gift of a rabbit tie clip to match our Alice in Wonderland theme.
We decided at the last minute to have Jen’s sister Anna as a bridesmaid, she wore her own dress and carried a smaller bouquet to match our flowers.

Theme or colour scheme
We had an Alice in Wonderland theme, we never wanted it to overpower the day, just a subtle hint here and there and a challenge for people to spot the tie-ins. The links to the theme ran throughout the day all the way from the save dates (vintage Alice cinema tickets stubs) through to ‘eat me’ cake boxes for our guests at checkout. We sourced items with a unique twist for our day which included table centre of vintage dictionary pages with Alice quotes, a white rabbit placed beside the hired vintage ‘mad hatters’ hat box to collect wedding cards. We made our own limoncello as wedding favours and tied the labels on the bottles with small brass keys and ‘drink me’ labels.

The flowers
We had the fabulous Gemma from the Topiary Tree (based in Malton & Helmsley) do our flower arrangements. These included a selection of arrangements from Jennie’s bouquet of Lilac ‘amnesia’ & Cream ‘avalanche’ Roses with pale pink Peony cream and pink Wax Flower. A single pale pink peony and wax flower to wear on my dress, along with button holes of lilac roses and wax flowers for the gents. We also had arrangement on the tables and candelabras for the wedding breakfast which included trails of variegated Ivy, eucalyptus leaves, roses and peonies.

The decoration
We used the amazing Addvintage from Leeds to hire some additional props and decorations for our big day. This included the giant LOVE lights which were located in the ceremony room, and evening reception. They added an amazing atmosphere to the event and a real centrepiece for people to take shots. We also hired the vintage hatbox, parasol umbrellas (unfortunately we got a little rain), giant connect 4 which we hoped to have outside but set it up in one of the relaxing rooms. We wanted a homely feel to our day so also insisted on candles everywhere, so each room had a nice atmosphere to it. What’s so perfect about the swan is every room is setup perfectly, with big comfy tartan armchairs along with large relaxing chesterfields. It’s exactly the space you want for your guests to just relax and enjoy themselves.
We also had a selection of photo booth style props including moustaches, monacles and lips to add some amusement to people’s photos along with traditional board games for those wanting to kick back and relax.

The food
The food at the swan is truly exceptional which was one of the driving factors in choosing the venue. We served our guests a peach Bellini cocktail and canapés following the reception which included: asparagus & Parmesan fondue, crab tartlet, sun dried tomato & mozzarella tartlet, smoked salmon, cream cheese on rye
We then served for our wedding breakfast with matched wines per course:
– Pea & Mint risotto, brown shrimp & capers
– Braised feather beef, hot pot vegetables, mash & red wine jus
– lemon tart, fresh raspberries & sorbet
We then had an evening buffet.

The wedding cake
Where to start with the cake, it was truly a masterpiece created by the amazing Nicola Johnson owner and master baker extraordinaire of Fluffy Cakes in Whitby. We knew we wanted a very non-traditional ‘naked’ wedding cake decorated with flowers, and fruit draping over the tiers. We had the pleasure of sampling 3 of our chosen sponge flavours and decided on the following flavours: strawberry and champagne sponge for the top and bottom tiers, then lemon sponge for the middle tier. Nicola added a little bit of magic to the lemon layer and coloured the curd to make it look like strawberry to match the top and bottom. The cake was simply to die for and Nicola created something more amazing than we ever imagined.

The entertainment
I think anyone that knows us well understands our undying love of all things musical. Needless to say from the moment we set the date the epic journey of spotify playlist planning commenced. We spent literally hours of our life adding and removing songs from each playlist to ensure we had the right setting for each section of our day from the entrance which included classical renditions of modern songs (check out Vitamin String quartet) through to the upbeat afternoon selection to get people ready for the evenings dancing. We had a DJ for the night do which was included as part of the swan package, DJ George from Silver Linings Disco at Kirbymoorside was so accommodating. As you’ll have gathered we love music and had created a playlist that we knew was guaranteed to keep the party going and George played everything we asked for throughout the evening.

Buy or DIY your Stationery?
We had DIY stationery from the save the dates, invites, program of events through to thank you cards. We didn’t do this to save money although when planning weddings it’s always a bonus! The main reason was to ensure we had it exactly the way we wanted and to tie the theme and styling together in our own unique way!

Personal and handmade touches
We weren’t afraid to get a little crafty with our big day this included many hours searching pinterest for hints and tips to ensure we had some unique elements to our day. This included:
– Homemade limoncello, the sample run was a fun night with friends (just to make sure it tasted ok!)
– I-Spy games for the wedding breakfast tables with disposable cameras
– Table Centres, number cards and seating plans
– Program of Events, we wanted a lighter feel to the day and felt this suited us well
– Jenga guest book for that something to remember our day in a comedy way

Special moments or highlights
It may sound corny but sharing our day with our nearest and dearest and knowing they loved the day as much as we did. It made the whole day so much more amazing, especially when the noticed all the little details we put into the day.
Two of our favourite people, Jennie’s sister Anna and our close friend Nina chose readings for the ceremony. They both brought a tear to everyone eyes and made the ceremony that much more personal.
The other highlight has to centre around two songs which always cause a rapturous response in our circle of friends. The first was walking down the aisle to an orchestral version of Journey Don’t Stop Believing and the second was having a very much unplanned first dance to Ke$ha and Pitbulls Timber! We are not ashamed to admit loving the odd cheesy song here and there!

Biggest surprise
Two things stand out to us from the day both of which took us by surprise in different ways. Firstly the feeling of walking into the ceremony room together and seeing what 70 faces staring back at you looks like. Terrified would be one word but then seeing everyone’s smiling faces and knowing they are there for you means the world. Paul and Kelly captured this moment perfectly!
The second thing was receiving a personalised wedding message from Richard E Grant from our absolutely amazing best woman Abbie….. We demand the finest wines known to humanity as Withnail once proclaimed!

Advice for other couples
Plan plan plan!!
Seriously though take some time away during your day, we were given this advice from another couple and we are so pleased we took it! Thankfully we were whisked away by the amazing Paul and Kelly to take some shots away from the venue, this time was really special to us giving us the chance just to relax and enjoy the moment.
Also take it all in, everyone will tell you the day goes by in a whirlwind and it truly does. Enjoy every minute and appreciate that some things just won’t be exactly the way you want but other things will be beyond your expectations. Just enjoy every minute!

Supplier Shout Outs:

• Black Swan Hotel Helmsley – www.blackswan-Helmsley.co.uk
• Paul Joseph Photography – www.pauljosephphotography.co.uk
• Add Vintage – www.addvintage.com
• Fluffy Cakes – www.fluffycakes.co.uk
• The Topiary Tree Florist – www.thetopiarytree.com
• Innovations Hair Salon – 01904 798705

For more information on Paul and Kelly’s work please go to:

www.pauljosephphotography.co.uk
pauljosephphotography.co.uk/blog
FACEBOOK
@paul_PJPhoto