Laura & Patrick’s Informal, Light & Sunny Wedding. By Paul Joseph Photography

I have an absolutely gorgeous wedding for you today, thanks to two of my very dear friends, Paul and Kelly from Paul Joseph Photography. There isn’t much that makes me go ‘wow’ any more within the wedding world, I have seen so much, however when I saw this first image I did a ‘wow’ out loud to myself! Isn’t it just beautiful! Couple that with a great venue, pretty details and an amazing couple and you have the recipe for a full on fab wedding!

“A happy and relaxed day full of family, friends and fizz. It was all about the dancing, lunging, crepe munching and sparkling!”

Laura and Patrick were married on the 31st May at All Saints Church in Broughton, Nr Skipton, with their reception at Utopia, Broughton Hall Estate, also nr Skipton. “We absolutely loved the stunning venue. It is light (even on a grey day), peaceful and private, with beautiful gardens. The perfect blank canvas for our wedding.”

How they met
We met 7 and a half years ago as students in York – friends of friends!

The proposal
A complete surprise – no-one expected us to get engaged on a random Tuesday afternoon on top of a big rock at Brimham, least of all me (Laura)! Patrick packed all the essentials to turn our day trip into a perfect proposal – a picnic, a bottle of fizz and a lovely (albeit temporary) ring! We loved heading off afterward to choose my ring together.

How did you allocate your budget?
What budget?!! No seriously, we started off with the best of intentions and then totally lost track of what we’d spent where. But the key things we budgeted for were the venue and catering to make sure everyone was well fed and watered and of course our fantastic photographers. We also prioritised the band and things to make the venue look even lovelier like lighting and flowers.

Why did you choose your photographer?
We saw Paul and Kelly’s photos of the venue on their blog and absolutely loved them! Their style is so natural and they are great at capturing the emotion of the day.

The dress and accessories
My dress was by Essence of Australia from Ava Rose Hamilton. My shoes were Rachel Simpson and jewellery were online purchases.

The suit and bridesmaids
The suits were from Victor Valentine. Bridesmaids were Dessy and the flowergirls were Monsoon.

The theme
There was no strict theme as such – we just wanted everything to be, fairly informal, light and summery with lots of lights and flowers. The key colours were soft peaches and greens.

The flowers
Lisianthus, gypsophelia and stocks with eucalyptus leaves – nothing formal, just stems in bottles and jars

The decoration
Paper lanterns, ribbons and lots of lights! We also had a giant light up L&P from Add Vintage which we loved!

The food and wedding cake
We ate fig and goats cheese tart to start. A broad bean, pea and pancetta risotto (essentially posh rice and peas!) and then a trio of puds – mini pavlova, jam rolypoly and custard and a pomegranate jelly. In the evening we had sweet and savoury crepes – delicious!! They were a hit! The wedding cake was made by Laura’s mum’s friend. It was three tiers – the peach tier was fruit cake, the gold tier was lemon and the white tier was victoria sponge.

The entertainment
We had a coconut shy to keep people entertained during the drinks reception, along with two members of the fantastic Retrosettes playing some lovely acoustic tunes. We then had the full complement of the Retrosettes in the evening to get everyone up and dancing!  People also seemed entertained by the 11pm sparklers on the decking!

Buy or DIY your Stationery?
We didn’t technically do either! Laura’s super talented sister runs a wedding stationery business (Paper Arrow Press) and provided all of our stationery as a wedding gift.

Personal or handmade touches
-We put together a photo board with pictures of each of our guests and also had an instax camera photo guest book for everyone to snap and sign.
-Our favours were baby succulents expertly potted and wrapped in hessian by Laura’s parents.
-We also made the hessian table runners.
-Patrick’s mum sourced us the brilliant coconut shy.

Special moments
Getting ready with my mum and bridesmaids was lovely. The service was really special and the speeches were fantastic.
Our absolute favourite moment was seeing ALL of our friends and family up on the dancefloor at the end of the night, smiling and singing! Everyone looked so happy and we loved it!

Advice to other couples
-Book a venue that you love! It makes such a difference to your day.
-Don’t panic about how it will all come together – somehow it just does!
-Let people help you! We had so much help from family and friends and it helped to make it such a special day.
-Look at blogs and Pinterest for ideas.

Biggest surprise
The weather! And also that when we started a conga line as a joke, EVERY SINGLE PERSON joined it! We had to conga round the venue it was so long!

Supplier Shout Outs:

• Paul and Kelly at Paul Joseph Photography www.pauljosephphotography.co.uk
• Rachel Russell at Paper Arrow Press www.paperarrowpress.co.uk
• Elizabeth Horner – hair
• Add Vintage – giant light up L&P – www.addvintage.com
• Wedding Venue Lighting – festoon lighting – www.wedding-venue-lighting.co.uk
• DubTrips – Jeremy the campervan! www.dubtrips.co.uk
• Lynne at Stem Designs www.stemsdesign.co.uk
• GFS  www.gfscatering.co.uk
• The Retrosettes www.theretrosettes.com
• Ava Rose www.avarosehamilton.co.uk
• Victor Valentine www.victorvalentine.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