Sarah and Robert's 'Elegant Boho' Derbyshire Wedding by Lauren Elliott

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you have had a good week and that you are ready for the weakened ahead! My week has been super busy and very productive, so I’m ready for a couple of days off now. We are off to our friends 10th wedding anniversary party on Saturday afternoon, and then Sunday I am hoping to get out into the countryside for some fresh air! I hope if you have a wedding to go to this weekend or if you are getting married yourself that the weather is kind and you have an amazing time. On with today’s wedding and it’s the turn of Sarah and Robert who had to re arrange their original Derbyshire wedding date because of Covid, so they went form an October wedding to a July one! They chose a modern classic theme with elegant but fun decor. Gorgeous white draping, matched with white hanging lanterns, as well as the most stunning flowers. All captured perfectly by Lauren Elliott

A modern classic filled with fresh flowers, champagne and laughter! We have never felt so much love in one room, a truly special day.

Sarah and Robert were married on 10th July 2021 at The Riding School, Calke Abbey, Ticknall in South Derbyshire. ‘Our original wedding was set for 2020 however with Covid our venue went bust meaning we had to start again with planning. My sister works for the national trust and the riding school was a favourite building of hers so on her recommendation we went for a look and it was love at first sight! We had 70 guests for the full day, we’d originally had 100 but due to restrictions at the time we had to make some very tough decisions about making our guest list so much smaller! The planning actually didn’t take to long and with the help of Emma and Rebecca at The Riding School it was really smooth, I’d say around 6 months from changing venues we had everything in place!’

How they met
Rob and I met on a dating app called “Bristlr” so called as it’s for women who like men with beards! My friend had put me onto it as I had a broken leg at the time and she sensibly suggested I had a lot of free time and to give it a go. Rob had to wait 8 weeks for a date with me as I refused to meet a stranger without being able to run away!! we had a couple of months of dating and weekends away before we made it official and got engaged after 5 years together. We’ve been together for 7 years this August.

The proposal
It was October 3^rd 2019, I’d had a long day at uni and Rob met me at the train station with our two dogs and said we were going for a walk at Hardcastle Crags in Hebden Bridge (near to where we live). It’s a lovely wood to walk through and in the middle is an old disused mill that has a stream to it with stepping stones across it, we meandered down to the stream edge and Rob just popped the question, I had to ask if he was joking as I was so stunned! But immediately said yes! We went back to our house and he’d put the champagne on ice and we sipped away whilst sharing our good news with our family and friends!

How did you allocate your budget?
Our budget very much got blown out of the water after our first venue went bankrupt (as you can imagine, we lost deposits for a lot of services) however a lot of our providers were able to move to our new date and carried over the price that they’d committed to which was an big help!

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
Splurges we’re definitely on the food, drink and entertainment! The key to throwing a great party that everyone would remember! The flowers were also one of the bigger expenses especially as I really wanted a floral arch and the amazing man power involved in the wonderful Briege building it the morning of the wedding meant that it was more costly (but worth it as the end result was just unbelievable!)
We saved on table decorations and seating plan (all DIY thanks to my wonderful sister and her partner) we also decide to skip the favours as we both felt that they often get left behind or not used so felt that people wouldn’t miss them!

How did you choose your photographer?
The wonder Lauren Elliott was recommended to me after our original photographer couldn’t do our new date. After seeing her images on her instagram and her blog we knew we’d lucked out, she was just amazing and her eye is unmatched!

The dress
My dress was Stella York (style 6850) the veil was also Stella York my hairpiece was Ivory & Co, Earrings Chopard, Tennis bracelet Mappin & Webb. My wedding dress was from Ava Rose Hamilton in Silsden

The suit and bridesmaids
The suits were bespoke from Hugo Morris Tailors in a Brighton ( our original date was October 2020 so the wool worked well for that, however I think they were all a bit hot in July!) The Bridesmaid dresses were from Monsoon and they all chose their own shoes!

Theme or colour scheme
After we’d found the bridesmaid dresses we settled on a dusty blue and silver theme for decorations and the cakes!

Flowers
We had a variety of roses: O’Hara and Tea roses mainly, these were all creamy/white and blush coloured with lots of greenery to give quite a classic look, the smell of the flowers was just lovely and as a breeze passed through the room you’d just catch the scent of them every now and then.

Decoration
We had white lanterns and festoon lights on the ceiling throughout the riding school, fresh flowers throughout the venue and on the tables, silver frames and travel books for centrepieces to match the theme and a vintage suitcase for all the cards, we also had a neon sign behind the cake table! The Riding School really is a blank canvas and you can do so much with the space, Emma and Rebecca very much help you to achieve whatever it is you see for your day!

Food
We gave people a menu to choose from:
Starters: goats cheese salad or butternut squash soup
Mains: Beef wellington or sea bass and for our vegetarian guest mushroom wellington all of these came with seasonal veggies and dauphinois potatoes
Dessert: Lemon Posset or Chocolate Marquise
Evening food was burgers and chips and truffle mac and cheese- helped to soak up all the fizz!

Wedding cake
Was made the amazing Buttercup Cakes in Whaley Bridge
Bottom tier: white chocolate and raspberry
Middle Tier: Lemon with lemon buttercream
Top tier: chocolate with vanilla buttercream
My sister is GF and was very kindly provided with her own set of 6 cupcakes that included each flavour so she wouldn’t miss out!

Entertainment
We used a company called “Under the Covers” and had an acoustic duo during the day for canapés and drinks and had a 7 piece band in the evening, they were absolutely unbelievable and a real highlight for a lot of our guests! We weren’t ready for the party to stop!

Who supplied the stationery?
Wedding invites, save the dates, place cards and thank you cards were all from a website called Papier

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We went to Dubai and the Maldives

Personal touches
My sister and her partner made our centre pieces and table plan. We chose a travel theme for our tables and put pictures of ourselves in the locations we’d named the tables after! My wonderful mum had also hand crocheted a bride and groom for us which took pride of place next to the cake so everyone could see her hard work!

Special moments
Being with our friends and family after a long wait and a difficult time for everyone due to Covid, it really made us appreciate how lucky we all were to be together!
My highlights were getting ready with all of my best friends, my Dad giving me some very reassuring squeezes of my hand just before we went in (my nerves had kicked in at that point) saying my vows and smiling from ear to ear once we were married! Loved dancing the night away and seeing everyone having such a good time!
Rob loved having his friends and family with him, his best man’s speech, the food and good drink and reading the guest book the day after!

Advice for other couples
The best bit of advice I was given was don’t have evening guests-the same people all day! It works really nicely, everyone’s got to know each other by the evening and you as a couple have got round to see everyone and say thank you meaning your evening is just time to relax and party!
Also just do whatever it is that you want to do! People will always have an opinion about what you do/don’t do/spend/ don’t spend but as long as it’s what you want then you’ll always be happy with your choices!

Biggest surprise
How beautifully everything came together into the most beautiful day and how much you enjoy yourself after all of the planning and nerves! It goes so quickly and you just wish you could do it all again!