Elinor and Sean’s Beautiful DIY Village Hall Wedding. From Paul Joseph Photography

I just love todays wedding, so it seems apt that it comes from two of my favourite wedding photographers Paul and Kelly from Paul Jospeh Photography. This wedding is perfect and sums up just what a Boho wedding is in my opinion. Flower crowns, a VW camper van, beautiful flowers, great decoration, DIY details and amazing photography. Elinor and Sean have put together a magical day that is brimming with wedding pretty that I’m sure you will agree is just stunning!

‘It was the greatest day of our lives, full of everything we want and to share it with all our family and friends was just perfect.’

Elinor and Sean were married on 3rd August 2013 at The Angel Inn Hetton Wine Cave with the reception at Cracoe Village Hall. ‘We both wanted a very informal ceremony & the Angel Inn at Hetton & Cracoe Village Hall were just the perfect venues for what we wanted. Also it was very personal to Elinor as she grew up in Cracoe Village. We had 65 guests in the day & 150 in total for the evening. We started planning straight after we were engaged, so it was just over 16 months in the planning’

How they met
We met at work, Aireville School, a friendship that developed into a long term relationship, then to us being married. We have been together just over 5 years.

The proposal
The proposal was amazing, something Sean had obviously been thinking about it for a while. It was April 20th 2011 and it was the anniversary of Elinor’s sister Vicky’s death so always a very sad day for Elinor I and the family.
We set off to her grave with flowers after work. The weather was not good either so that can dampen the mood. Elinor layed the flowers and I stood with her and was there with open arms to comfort her. She always likes a little chat with her sister and also her granddad Ronnie is next to Vicky.
Elinor saw me shaking and said I won’t be long I know it’s cold. As she turned away from me I bent down one knee and asked her to marry me. Elinor of course said yes but really couldn’t believe it. We stood and hugged and cried and before making our way to the car.
That evening we were due to meet Elinor’s parents as we always do on the day but tonight was going to be different as we had some lovely news for them. At the restaurant we told them the news they were so happy for us ( they thought the news was that Elinor was pregnant)and Sean explained the reason for choosing this day. One thing I really remember is mum saying to Sean how brave and poignant this was especially on such a sad day. A magical day that we will never forget.

How did you allocate your budget?
We didn’t really have a budget as such; we knew early on what the elements we wanted. i.e. venues, food, drink photographer, DJ,Singer etc. etc.. We spent a lot of time researching the things we wanted, always trying to save money but not cut any corners on what we wanted.
We decided that we wanted a wedding that was personal to us both, simple but stylish, Elinor’s mum is an interior designer, so we knew that with our combined ideas the village hall would look beautiful and we can honestly say ever element we chose for the day was a success.

Why did you choose your photographer?
Elinor’s Mum & Dad wanted to play a part in who we chose as the photograph’s were something we wanted as the lasting memory of the day. We only spoke to two photographers & we knew straight away that Paul & Kelly Clapperton were the ones we all wanted, after spending over two hours in their company. We talked about us as a couple, them as a couple, the journey of their photograph career so far, what they offered, what we wanted from the day. We class them as friends and as they the rest is history.

The dress
My dress was from Phase Eight, the shoes were a family pass down and suited the dress perfectly and I also had a vintage bag and fresh flower crown.

The suit and bridesmaids
Ruby and Isla my adorable flower girls wore a Monsoon dress with suited the style of our wedding.
Sarah my bridesmaid wore a very simple ivory dress from Kos and some Clark’s wedges.
Sean bought a 3 piece light grey suit from Topman, White Shirt & pink tie, Brown Hudson Shoes

Theme or colour scheme
Everything was neutral from whites to blush pinks with grey gingham.

Flowers
Bride’s hand tied bouquet – loose in style old Dutch roses, dill, white freesia, rosemary, lavender, stephanotis with grey foliage– bound with own lace
Bride’s circlet of flowers – as bouquet – grey foliage and contorted willow – ‘Midsummer Night Dream’ style.
Bridesmaid’s hand tied bouquet – smaller version of bride’s
Flower Girls -Grey wooden hearts – same flowers as the bride’s – tied with grey gingham ribbon
Buttonholes – old Dutch rose and small white flowers
Decorate one side of cake – arrangement to look like bride’s headdress
Table flowers were a mix of the above with a few added extras these were placed in white jugs. We also had a lot of plants inside and out.

Decoration
We had a theme of hearts so lots and lots of wicker hearts tied with grey gingham. It was very county/ shabby chic. Grey gingham table liners and tied up napkins.

Food
Starter: Ham Hock Terrine
Main Course: Chicken Forrestiere, Bacon lardons, button mushrooms and red wine jus
Served with spinach and dauphinoise potatoes
Dessert: Angels Sticky Toffee Pudding, Butterscotch sauce, crème Chantilly
Coffee and petit fours

Wedding cake
3 tier cake with fruit and 2 sponge cakes one vanilla and chocolate, bound with grey gingham ribbon and fresh flowers on the top. Very simple looked stylish and tasted delicious.

Entertainment
Jen Armstrong vocals and piano, Jen is an old school friend. Mark Waddington the magician and Hi-Tek Entertainment DJ for the evening

Buy or DIY your Stationery?
DIY Elinor’s Dad mainly sorted this. Elinor made up the invites and save the dates they really did look amazing. 3 large hearts with all the relevant info tied up with grey gingham. The order of the day, Menu, Name cards and table were all made & printed by Elinor’s dad

Personal or handmade touches
Elinor’s dad again!
• He made two signs one for the sweet table and one for the signing table.
• A white heart shaped board to pin the seating plan on.
• Heart shaped covers for the large lights on the village hall walls.
• Enlarged photographs of us both that were place in the trees and bushes outside the village hall.
• Two old style crates that had our names on them.
• Homemade gingham bunting
• Homemade candle holders
• Elinor’s mum arranged all the flowers for the village hall

Special moments or highlights
Seeing both our families and friends together to celebrate our wedding day
Hearing the first note of Greatest Day as Elinor was coming in to the wine cave
Seeing each other for the first time in the wine cave, we both had a tear in eye
Loving my dress and crown s much I didn’t want to take it off (which I didn’t till around 3 in the morning)
Never felt like a princess before, but today I did
All the speeches, especially Elinor’s which surprised everybody as the brides don’t do speeches, the way she spoke about myself, her late sister Vicky and her mum and dad as well as presenting me with a marriage survival kit
Laughing so much at our first dance (a fabulous cover of Arctic Monkeys I bet you look good on the dance for floor by Jen Armstrong) as neither of us can dance and we never practiced before the big day. It was very funny and enjoyable.
Having the photographs taken at Elinor’s parents’ house in the early evening sunshine, some of the best and most memorable photographs were taken there.
One last memory was at the end of night we were the last two left at the village hall when we realised that we needed to get back to the Angel where we were staying and had no way of getting back but luckily the company who ran the bar for us were still there and one of the owners offered to run us back in there big white van. Very funny end to a perfect day!
Advice for other couples.
Follow your heart and dreams and do what you want to do it’s your special day after all. Enjoy every single minute and take everything as it comes because the day will go very fast.

Biggest Surprise
Sean is a massive campervan fan. Dad told us a family friend would drive us to the venue as it was only a short ride and it would save money. We were both happy with this. But just as I was applying the finishing touches I heard a loud noise. Isla one of my flower girl who was 2 at the time said look a bus is outside. I cried he was a lovely blue campervan called Monty and was so amazing.

Supplier Shout Outs 

• Mark Waddington magician www.mark-waddington.co.uk
• HookedNCooked  www.hookedncooked.co.uk
• Jen Armstrong Music www.jenarmstrong.tv/official/Home.html
• Angel Inn Hetton www.angelhetton.co.uk
• Hedgerow Florist Grassington www.floristsinskiptonandthedales.co.uk
• Hi-Tek Entertainment www.hi-tekentertainment.co.uk
• Cover Couture www.covercouture.co.uk
• Cracoe Village Hall www.cracoevillagehall.co.uk
• G&P Events & Mobile Bars www.eventsandmobilebars.com
• Paul Joseph Photography http://pauljosephphotography.co.uk
• The Campervan Company www.thecampervancompany.com/index.html
• Walkers Artisan Bakery www.walkers-bakery.co.uk

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

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