Emma and Mark had a gorgeous autumnal wedding full of love and laughter…
“We met in February 2002, I was in my last year of university and we were both on a night out in Leeds with our respective friends. Needless to say we had enjoyed a few drinks so got dancing and laughing together in a bar. The rest is history…” smiles Emma.
“After eight and a half years, lots of dropping hints and a number of romantic holidays where I thought it might happen, and it never did, I had pretty much given up hope that he would ever get round to popping the question! However, completely out of the blue and a week (to throw me of the scent apparently) into our holiday in Jamaica, he did it! He arranged for a candlelit dinner on the beach, we had our own private waiter, who served us Champagne and a lobster dinner. I was so surprised I nearly fell off my chair!” laughs Emma.
“I’m still so pleased that I bought my dress from Hoops-a-Daisy Bridal shop in Wakefield. They were fab, and they made me feel really special from my very first appointment. The whole team there were so relaxed and helpful. After reading wedding magazines and cutting out pictures of dresses that I liked for my wedding planner, I knew that I wanted lace on my dress. My chosen dress was by Maggie Sottero and called “Vienna”. I had also decided that I wanted a soft scalloped bottom to my dress and a sweetheart neckline so Hoops-a-Daisy’s seamstress worked with me to personalise my dress, which made it even more special,” she adds.
“Mark and his eight groomsmen (two best men, four ushers, two dads) hired their suits from Slaters menswear as they have national coverage and everyone was scattered across the country,” explains Emma.
“I had three bridesmaids who were my sister, Leigh-Anne, Mark’s sister, Lisa and my closest and oldest friend Katy who was my Maid of Honour,” says Emma. The three gorgeous girls wore soft-satin gowns in a romantic Cappuccino colour from dessy.com.
“Our ceremony was held at All Saints Church in Kirk Deighton, near Wetherby, which is where I was christened. Our vicar Myra made us both feel very relaxed and added some nice personal comments about us both throughout the ceremony, which was lovely, and made it all the more intimate,” remembers Emma.
“For the flowers I used Jill Springall, and she was brilliant, not only is she a lovely lady, she is also very talented. Jill gave me some good suggestions as to how I could save money too, and didn’t talk me into having more than I could afford,” recalls Emma.
“I am very fortunate to have a very kind aunt and uncle who let us use their Duck egg blue, 1930 Sedanca De Ville Rolls Royce called James for the day. They arranged a chauffeur for us (who was also a Rolls Royce mechanic – just in case!) and we had a bottle of Moet waiting for us when we got in,” smiles Emma.
“Instead of a guestbook we had a picture from our pre-wedding photo shoot with our Photographer Melissa from Looking Glass Photography. Our photo had a large border, which we asked everyone to sign for us.
I also bought some antique cream lanterns and large candles to put inside the entrance hall of Swinton to give it a romantic feel when people arrived in the evening. I also moved my flower pedestal from the church to here.
Finally, I bought some artificial bay trees and planters from Country Baskets, and put solar fairy lights in them; these went outside the front of the church and outside the entrance to Swinton Park for the evening, which looked really sweet. I now have these outside our home, a wonderful reminder of the wedding,” smiles Emma.
“I got our cake from Sugar Crafted Cakes. We had three tiers; the first was chocolate, the second lemon and the third coffee and walnut – all our favorites! Mark’s Mum also makes the best fruit cake in the world – so whipped us one up to go with the cheese we had in the evening. We served this as dessert for our evening meal,” says Emma.
“We had exclusive use of Swinton Park Castle. It was stunning, and they really treated us like royalty. We stayed in ‘The Turret Suite’ – so I really was a princess for the day! Our wedding co-coordinator Hannah Hinchcliffe made sure everything went like clockwork and we didn’t have to think about a thing on the day, it just happened for us,” smiles Emma.
“We wanted the evening part of our wedding to have a really big party feel,” explains Emma. “We had an incredible band called The Right Stuff. They did three sets throughout the evening – a 70’s, 80’s and 90’s set. They even dressed up themselves and the stage for each different music era! Everyone was dancing and involved, there was a really fun atmosphere. In between the sets we had a DJ playing,” she adds.
“Melissa at Looking Glass Photography was lovely from the first time I met her, she was really easy to get along with and a pleasure to have with us on our big day, she respected our guests’ wishes and was not intrusive. Her style of photography was just what we wanted and she has taken some beautiful pictures for us. We would definitely recommend her to other couples and will hopefully use her for taking photos of our babies when we have them,” smiles Emma.
Photography: Looking Glass Photography
