Diana & Sean’s New York Themed Castle Wedding. By Nick Rutter

Today’s wedding is set in the most fabulous of venues. It’s not often I feature castle weddings on the blog but when this one arrived in my inbox I said yes to it straight away as it is just so beautiful! Diana & Sean chose Lulworth Castle as nothing they saw after this compared and you can understand why! The beauty of the castle was mixed in with a New York theme after Sean proposed to Diana in New York, I am loving the yellow taxi as well as the human trees! Big thanks to Nick Rutter for the photos.

A beautiful sunny day in a fairy tale castle, surrounded by our closest family and friends. The day incorporated a New York theme mixed with a soft romantic decor, everything we had planned fitted perfectly together.

Diana and Sean were married on 6th September at Lulworth Castle “The location was exactly what we wanted, it was first place we had seen and nothing compared to it afterwards.” Surrounded by 120 guests, the 11 months it took to organise was completely worth it.

How they met
We met through a mutual friend on Facebook. Sean was living in Bristol at the time (I was in Poole) and he was just about to transfer to this area for work, so got in contact with my friend to see if I was single…then when he found out I was he “poked” me. We have now been together for three years (& expecting our first child at the end of August!)

The proposal
Sean proposed to me under one of the arches on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. It was my birthday (30th August 2012) and we had just gone for a stroll over the bridge. I had no idea he was going to do it. He planned everything before hand, even down to the New York themed Tiffany engagement ring. He got down on one knee, much to the excitement of the 100s of passing tourists on the bridge, and proposed…after that it was a bit of a blur, I think it was the shock. We then went for champagne at the River Cafe on the Brooklyn end of the bridge, a very romantic setting overlooking the NYC skyline.

How did you allocate the budget?
A lot of our budget went on our location, of course if you want a castle it’s not going to be cheap. We did overspend on a lot of things, but even now we don’t regret anything, it was just so perfect and definitely money well spent.

Why did you choose your photographer?
We searched online for local photographers and the first person we saw was Nick Rutter. As soon as we met him his passion for photography shone through and his ideas were exactly what we had in mind so we didn’t need to search anymore, we had found our photographer.

The dress and accessories.
Mia Solano from a shop in Wimborne called Prettymades. My hair piece was from Next and my shoes were an online bargain from Crystal Brides.

The suit and bridesmaids
Suits were from Well Groomed in Bournemouth and the Bridesmaid dresses were from Fab Frocks in Westbourne.

The theme
We had a New York theme to the wedding mixed with romantic softness, the colour scheme was very neutral, greys mainly with light romantics flowers.

The flowers
Flowers were soft romantic, peaches creams whites yellows, I can’t remember the actual flowers.

The decoration
Very minimal decor in the ceremony room, mainly just trees on the outskirts, candles down the aisle and a few candelabra at the end of the aisle (the castle was beautiful enough on its own) We also had a string quartet for the ceremony and for afterwards on the lawn for drinks. (Stringendo) We saved all our flower decor for the dining area, then in the evening we transformed the ceremony area into one part a seated area with white sofas, reused the trees, flowers and candles and the other part was taken up for the dance floor and the band on a stage.

The food and wedding cake
We started off with Ham Hock Terrine with a deconstructed Piccalilli, followed by Steak, Triple Cooked Chips and cherry tomatoes, dessert was Vanilla Panacotta with a coffee foam. In the evening we had a Hog Roast. The wedding cake was one tier chocolate sponge, two tiers vanilla sponge, with white icing decorated with a New York themed skyline around the bottom tier. There wasn’t a piece left at the end of the night, was a delicious cake.

The entertainment
Evening entertainment was a band called The Brightside Band. Excellent mix of current, 60s, 70s 80s and 90s…something for everyone and the dance floor was alive all evening. We also hired an amazing photo booth for four hours in the evening which went down a storm and have since had lots of people ask for their web address.

Buy or DIY your stationery?
We ordered our stationery from Bunny Delicious on-line, we went for the New York theme again, amazing lady and adapted the invitations to our specific requirement changing her original template to incorporate a few of our NYC experiences.

Special moments
Can’t really pinpoint anything specific, the sunshine on arrival to the castle was pretty special, it had rained in the morning, but the castle was sunny and dry and remained so for the whole day/evening…and of course being announced as Mr and Mrs Cooper at dinner. The day just went so perfectly.

Advice to other couples
Just go with what YOU like, don’t be influenced by others, it is your day after all. And if it’s just your ideas, you can take all the credit when it turns out so perfectly…and just relax and enjoy it, other people are there to sort out the problems so leave it to them.

Biggest surprise
I organised a surprise on the day for Sean and the guests. I hired a couple of human trees / living topiary to greet everyone on arrival and to hand out the after ceremony drinks and entertain them while we were off having photos done, they went down amazingly and definitely something I was pleased I had arranged and kept a secret.

Supplier Shout Outs:

• Lulworth Castle – www.lulworth.com
• Photographer – www.nickrutterphotography.co.uk
• Bridal gown – www.prettymades.co.uk
• Flowers – www.nomadfood.co.uk
• Quartet – www.fantasiamusic.co.uk
• Hog roast – www.bealesgourmet.co.uk
• Wedding cake – www.sweetserenity.co.uk
• Band – www.thebrightsideband.com
• Photo booth – www.the-photo-lounge.co.uk
• Stationery – www.bunnydelicious.com
• Live topiary – www.thelivingstatuecompany.com

For more information on Nick’s work please go to:

www.nickrutterphotography.co.uk
www.nickrutterphotography.co.uk/blog
FACEBOOK
@nickrutterphoto
07968 449930 / 01202 979372