Kate and Daniel married last month in a Church ceremony followed by a reception at Nailcote Hall, Warwickshire. They wanted their summer wedding to be traditional yet relaxed with a purple colour scheme.

There were beautiful purple and white hued blooms, a stylish wedding party and smiles a plenty. An utterly charming day,

Thanks so much to the brilliant Daffodil Waves for sharing her photographs with us today,

 

 

The Proposal… We were on holiday with friends in southern Spain, we had gone up to a town in the mountains called Mijas, when we sat down for dinner Dan said that he wanted to go and take a photograph of the sunset. When we got there he proposed and we then spent the evening celebrating with our friends with lots of Champaign.

The Vision for the Day… We wanted the day to be traditional but not overly formal, there were certain things that we likes such as a Church setting, speeches, formal wedding breakfast but we wanted the overall feeling of the day to be relaxed and fun. Straight away Dan said he wanted the colour scheme to be based around purple as it’s his favourite colour! He likes anything bright so we went for liliacs, blues and some brighter purple shades. We wanted it to be summery and bright but I didn’t want everything to be too purple! We wanted a marquee from the outset as we loved the bright airy feel that they have and also that the room wouldn’t have to be turned around between the meal and the evening reception meaning that the two should flow nicely into each other. We had chosen a summer date so we also wanted some nice outside space, we imagined a drinks reception on the lawn.

The Planning Process… I spent  a lot of time looking through magazines and cutting out pictures of flowers and details. I knew that I wanted the wedding to be at the local church in the village I had lived and my parents still lived so we booked that straight away. Once that was sorted I phoned all the venues I liked the look of and then visited the ones that were free. We pretty much only looked at ones with a marquee but did have a look at other options just to be sure. We went to a wedding show at the NEC, mainly just for fun but we actually ended up finding the flowers, ban, photographer and my dress designer, I’d definitely recommend going along to one if you still have lots left to do.

The Venue… Nailcote Hall was actually the first venue we looked at and we loved it immediately. It is a small hotel and golf course with an old black and white building and amazing views. They have a fixed marquee on the back lawn which has marquee interiors but also 2 sides of glass windows which have amazing views out over the golf course and country side.

The Dress + Accessories… The dress was designed and made by Angela Vickers, based in Nottingham. I tried on a dress at the wedding show just as a nice thing to do with the Mums but I fell in love with it. I didn’t even realise that I was at a couture stand but that made it easier to commit there and then as I was picking the designer rather that the actual dress. We got a discount so it was well worth it. We visited the studio in Nottingham where I tried on a couple of dresses and picked the bits I liked to go into the final design of my dress. I knew I wanted lace and that I didn’t want strapless but picking the length of the sleeves was the hardest part, in the end I went for small cap sleeves. I also wanted a fairly fitted dress but still something to make me feel like a bride so picking the shape took a while, Angela made me a calico version to make sure I was happy with the final decision. My veil was one of my favourite parts, it was a huge cathedral style veil with lace detail and tiny sparkles scattered occasionally. I wore it until about 9pm! My shoes were a simple design by rainbow club and were so comfortable!

Finding the Dress… At the wedding show, I had only been to one shop before but once I had picked it I still had to go to the designers another 3 times so still felt I had all the fun of trying dresses on.

Groom’s Attire… Dan didn’t want tails as it was hopefully going to be a hot day, he chose a dark grey suit with a bright ivory waistcoat and of course a bright purple tie! It was called cadburys purple, the suits were hired from Peter Posh.

The Readings + Music… We chose the classic bible reading from Corinthians and a poem called the blessing of the hands which was recommended to me by my friend Jade as I was completely stuck trying to find anything that I liked. We had 3 hymns, Lord of the Dance, Sing Hosannah and Jerulsalem, we wanted hymns that were upbeat and that most people would know.

Beautiful Bridesmaids… Sarah, Rosie, Fiona and Emma are all friends from school and are all brilliant friends with each other as well as me so they really were an amazing team! Rosie is extremely creative and she was a massive help with designing and making invitations, deciding how to have our hair etc, she also helped with make up on the day and made the flowers for our cake. They also all organised a fantastic hen do which I knew absolutely nothing about apart from the date, they hired a huge house in the countryside and organised loads of fun games and activities. I was shopping with Sarah when we decided to look at a few dresses in John Lewis, we found the dress and I decided that it was prefect as the colour complemented the scheme and the shape was very pretty and flattering for everyone. I bought the dresses online and then gave them to the girls to try on, it was all very stress free!

The Flowers… The flowers were by Passion for Flowers. I knew Gemma from school and had heard what a fantastic reputation they had. They have a wonderful elegant style and had brilliant ideas such as having the tall vases filled with pearls and the mix and match button holes for the men. The colours were just as we wanted and really brought everything together.

The Cake… Dan’s aunty made and iced the 4 teir cake for us, we had fruit cake, vanilla sponge and chocolate sponges which were all delicious. The flower decorations were made from sugar paste by Rosie, one of my bridesmaids. She is so talented! She was able to match them to the real flowers we were having.

Your Photographer… Nicola Fergusson of Daffodil Waves was absolutely fantastic! She was so lovely and fun on the day and helped with a lot more beyond taking photographs. She was very relaxed which suited us and didn’t take long over the group shots or the couple shots so we had more time to enjoy the drinks reception. She stayed well into the dancing and totally captured the atmosphere of the entire day!

The Details + Decor… We decorated the church ourselves the day before, we planted flowers into small white buckets and hung them on the pews using ribbon. After the ceremony we took them to the venue to put on the tables that were out on the lawn. The marquee was mainly decorated by our fantastic flowers but we also had place cards that we made ourselves, sprinkles on the tables, the favours were homemade sloe gin or sweets for the kids tied with ribbon that complemented the colour of the sashes on the chairs. Our tables were named after countries we went to whilst travelling so I found a postcard with each name on and used these as the table numbers, we also made our own table plan using a framed vintage style map and luggage labels. We had a sweets table too with old fashioned scales as a feature.

The Honeymoon… We went to Morocco, to Marrakesh, the atlas mountains and Agadir. It was wonderful with great food and wine, very hot weather though!

Memorable Moments… Walking into church and catching the eye of various different people, meeting at the front and laughing about whether we were allowed to be talking or not, being given a gift by our vicar to open during the ceremony…it was a toilet roll and he wished our marriage to be similar, long, soft and strong! Waiting to enter the marquee after all the guests had made their way in and having 10 minutes just the two of us. All 3 speeches were fantastic, but when Dan starting singing it was hilarious! Cutting the cake and then our first dance, when we called everyone to join us it really was everyone that came, the dance floor was packed and stayed that way the entire night! Singing hit the road jack with my bridesmaids and the band during their final song. Sitting in the guest bar as people were leaving, left with just our close family and friends, still drinking champaign and thinking how amazing the day had been.

Advice for Other Couples… enjoy the planning and try to make a few things yourself if you have someone creative to help as it is really fun and makes the day more personal. Also do something fun the day before and the day after with all your closest family and friends if you can, the big day goes so quickly you won’t get chance to spend time with everyone.

Credit Where Credit is Due…

Photography: Daffodil Waves Photography

Venue: Nailcote Hall

Flowers: Passion for Flowers

Bridesmaid Dresses: John Lewis

Suits: Peter Posh

Oh that shot of Kate’s dad seeing her for the first time is just wonderful. Thanks so much to Kate and Daniel for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today XOXO Lou