Victorian Luxury with a Personal Twist: Durham Castle Wedding

“Sit­ting at the top table with my new hus­band, look­ing around at all the peo­ple who mean most to us & feel­ing full up with love.”

This is what wed­dings are all about. Not the details, not the plan­ning, not the dress or the read­ings or even the ring. The love. I hope you’ll enjoy today’s blog post for what it’s truly about: vol­umes of love which sing higher than any­thing else you’ll see today.

With pho­tographs by Holden & Jones, and a fan­tas­tic wed­ding report by gor­geous cou­ple Chrissy and Jenn. Enjoy! (I know you will!)

Chrissy and Jenn — an incred­i­ble, per­sonal Durham Cas­tle wedding

Who pro­posed, and how?

Chrissy says, “I pro­posed. It was Christ­mas Day 2010 and Jenn loves Russ­ian dolls. I’d put the ring inside some Russ­ian dolls and had her open them on Christ­mas morning.”

The wed­ding venue: Durham Cas­tle

The cer­e­mony was at the church Jenn and her fam­ily have attended for over 10 years, St Michael’s and All Angels in Houghton-le-Spring where we both grew up. It’s over 1000 years old and is a beau­ti­ful venue. The recep­tion was at Durham Cas­tle. We received our guests in the court­yard, made pos­si­ble by the per­fect weather we had on the day. Our meal and evening cel­e­bra­tion were in the great hall, and the room really lives up to this name.

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher: Holden & Jones Wed­ding Photography

Rob and Bri did a fan­tas­tic job on the day.

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

We orig­i­nally had the idea of Vic­to­rian lux­ury with a gothic twist. As the plan­ning went on this mostly faded away and the only over­rid­ing style or theme that really pre­vailed could just be described as ‘us’. There were a few per­sonal ele­ments that didn’t fit in to any over­all theme but seemed to come together really well.

Which read­ings did you choose? Song of Solomon. 8:6–7 read by Jenn’s Aunt, Dorothy, and an excerpt from Plato’s Sym­po­sium read by my sis­ter, Kirsty.

What were your wed­ding highlights?

Jenn: “The whole day was just incred­i­ble so it’s really hard to pick just a few moments. Stand­ing out­side the house, wait­ing to get in the car & hear­ing the church bells ring­ing for us was amazing.

Unsur­pris­ingly, turn­ing down the aisle & see­ing Chrissy stand­ing at the top, look­ing even more hand­some than usual & wait­ing to become my hus­band was a truly beau­ti­ful moment.

After that, the day was just so much fun — from stop­ping traf­fic to pose for pic­tures to par­ty­ing in the bridal suite with our favorite peo­ple– it was all just per­fect.“

A designer wed­ding dress from House of Mooshki

“I wore an amaz­ing dress that was designed and made for me by House of Mooshki, based in Mur­ton, Co. Durham.

They were incred­i­ble to work with and man­aged to bring together some dis­parate and, at times, odd ideas (includ­ing Miss Haver­sham as a major inspi­ra­tion– not often invoked at a wed­ding!) into some­thing that was both exactly what I wanted and could never have imag­ined. I wore this with cus­tom made pearl jew­ellery from Etsy & I also had fan­tas­tic, huge hair & dra­matic smokey eyes, per­fectly styled by Lisa Jones, hair & make up artist.”

… and morn­ing suits and hi-tops for the men!

Chrissy: “My wed­ding party and I wore tra­di­tional gray morn­ing suits from Moss suit hire with black hi-top train­ers by Famous Stars and Straps. This was one of the small touches that took a pri­mar­ily tra­di­tional wed­ding and added a lit­tle bit of our personalities.”

Wed­ding venue styling and details:

Jenn: “The Great Hall at Durham Cas­tle is amaz­ing– all dark wood & stately por­traits. I wanted some­thing fit­tingly grand so we had tall can­de­labra with flow­ers & can­dles for each table cen­tre. The wed­ding colours were ivory, pale pink & aubergine so the flow­ers tied into this. They had a faded, lux­u­ri­ous look which was exactly what I wanted. The cake & place set­ting also matched– both ivory & dec­o­rated with lace, aubergine rib­bon & pale pink roses. Through­out the plan­ning I wan­dered on & off the path of my cho­sen theme, but I was incred­i­bly pleased with the way every­thing worked together on the day.“

More mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

Jenn: Feel­ing over­whelmed by emo­tion as I walked down the aisle, only to be shocked back to real­ity by my garter falling down!

- Sit­ting at the top table with my new hus­band, look­ing around at all the peo­ple who mean most to us & feel­ing full up with love.

Chrissy: It’s hard to pick out spe­cific moments. I really could list dozens. I enjoyed the whole day so much, one thing that stands out is the thing I expected to not enjoy. In the build up to the day, peo­ple would ask me if I was ner­vous. The only thing I was ever ner­vous about, at all, was my speech. I don’t speak well when I’m read­ing from a script, so my notes were very sparse, and this meant I wasn’t sure how it would go. When I got into it, I said every­thing I wanted to say, pro­voked a few tears and got some really good feed­back. It stands out as the thing I was sur­prised by how enjoy­able it was.

Wed­ding day advice:

In the build up to the day, most of the advice we received from other cou­ples seemed to stem from regrets. Peo­ple would say “I wish we’d spent more time with…” or “We should have…”.

For us, we really don’t have any regrets as every­thing just worked exactly as we wanted. I think the advice I would give would be not to com­pro­mise on any­thing. Take your time with plan­ning. I think we talked about the wed­ding, in at least a minor way, every day for 18 months, and you have to be pre­pared for this if you want the day to turn out the way you envision.

Jenn and Chrissy’s rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

• Pho­tog­ra­phers: Holden & Jones Wed­ding Photography
• Dress: House of Mooshki Bridal
• Hair & Make-up: Lisa Jones Hair & Make-Up Artist
• Flow­ers: Blooms Flow­ers, Chester-le-Street
• Cake: Kelly-Ann’s Cakes, Houghton-le-Spring
• String Quar­tet: Arco
• Pop­corn cart: Vic­to­rian Sweet Cart Com­pany, Shildon
• Car: Webb’s Spe­cial Occa­sion Cars
• Jew­ellery: Element4you, via Etsy