A Very Elegant English Wedding with Lizzie and Chris

That’s not to men­tion the lovely styling and blue color tones, another rea­son I selected this wed­ding to share with you on the blog today. I’ve learned a few things from Lizzie — Eryn­gium, any­one? Beau­ti­ful. (There’s a clue in the photo above!)

Thank you to wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Jo Gar­like from Sum­mer Love Pho­tog­ra­phy for today’s sub­mis­sion, and my warmest con­grat­u­la­tions to the very gor­geous Lizzie and Chris! Every­one — enjoy! Claire xxx

Lizzie and Chris — a clas­si­cally ele­gant Eng­lish wedding

Wed­ding venue:

St Michaels & All Saints Church, Ayl­sham, Nor­folk & recep­tion at Hunter’s Hall, Swan­ton Mor­ley, Norfolk

Wed­ding photographer:

Sum­mer Love Pho­tog­ra­phy (Jo Gar­like)
Direct link to Lizzie and Chris’s Hunter’s Hall wed­ding blog

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

Tra­di­tional, ele­gant with win­ter sparkle (mid­night blue & ivory color scheme)

The wed­ding cer­e­mony was very per­sonal to us. Lizzie’s uncle Paul is a vicar and he con­ducted the ser­vice with the local vicar Rev’d Andrew Beane.

Chris’s brother Paul was his best man, Lizzie’s sis­ter Anna and best friend Gwen were her two brides­maids, along with close friend Sean who was her brides­man. We had four ush­ers – Lizzie’s brother James, and three of Chris’s friends – Bill, Matt and Nick.

The music was really impor­tant to Lizzie and there was lots of it on our wed­ding day! In the church we had a string quar­tet called Vivace Quar­tet who played a range of well-known love songs and clas­si­cal music while every­one was wait­ing for the bride to arrive. Lizzie walked down the aisle to an arrange­ment of the Bal­cony Scene by Craig Arm­strong (from the film Romeo & Juliet), put together by Lizzie’s dad Ian. This was per­formed by Vivace Quar­tet and Lizzie’s cousin Louise on the church’s grand piano.
We sang two hymns – Amaz­ing Grace and Shine Jesus Shine (one of Lizzie’s favourites from school days).

While we were sign­ing the reg­is­ter, our amaz­ingly tal­ented friend (and Chris’ work col­league) Donna sang a beau­ti­ful ren­di­tion of Kiss­ing You (Desiree) accom­pa­nied by the string quar­tet and Louise on the piano.

We walked up the aisle to the string quar­tet play­ing Great­est Day by Take That.

Which read­ings did you choose?

Bible read­ing: Let Love Be Gen­uine, Romans 12: 9–18 (read by Lizzie’s close friend Sean)
A Lovely Love Story by Edward Monk­ton (read by Chris’ dad Michael)

What did you wear?

Lizzie wore an ivory lace Mag­gie Sot­tero dress (Lorie) with an angora cardi­gan from Phase Eight, a church veil (bor­rowed from sister-in-law Cathy) and Ben­jamin Adams wed­ding shoes (Pal­trow). Acces­sories included a pair of Vin­tage Lee Beg­man angora gloves ordered from Lucy’s Closet Vin­tage through Etsy.com, a pearl and crys­tal hair comb from Sweet­heart Vin­tage, pearl pen­dant & aca­cia pearl Bridal Ear­rings from Olivier Laudus, as well as a beau­ti­ful mini pearl bracelet bor­rowed from my friend Tanya, who wore it for her own wed­ding over twenty years ago!

My bridal bou­quet was a hand tied bou­quet of frosty ivory ‘Akito’ roses, com­bined with white Hyper­icum berries, blue Eryn­gium this­tle & Blue Mus­cari styled into a com­pact dome, with stems styled with ivory rib­bon & blue pin detailing.

Chris wore a three piece morn­ing suit from 1860 Suit Hire by Green­woods, includ­ing a navy her­ring­bone tail (morn­ing) coat with ‘mil­ton’ waist­coat, navy stripe trousers, navy ruche and hanky, with a light gray top hat.

The brides­maids wore full length satin mid­night blue Mon­soon dresses with faux fur white jack­ets from lightinthebox.com

Invi­ta­tions and recep­tion stationery:

Home­made with help from fam­ily & friends

Tell us a lit­tle about your wed­ding venue styling and details:

The hall at Hunter’s Hall is a con­verted Vic­to­rian barn with a high ceil­ing, wooden beams and lots of amaz­ing rus­tic details. It is very atmos­pheric which we added to with lots of can­dles and lanterns, plus large vases with sil­ver twigs. Our favorite detail was the six foot ‘snow-covered’ win­ter tree, which we hung cards with mid­night blue rib­bons with the table plan on. This also dou­bled up as our equiv­a­lent of a guest book. We put cards on each table ask­ing guests to write their mes­sages to us on the back of their place card and then hang it on the tree. By the end of the night the tree was heav­ing with cards!

The wed­ding break­fast took place in the mar­quee. Round tables were dec­o­rated with mid­night blue feath­ers, jew­els and the favours – lit­tle boxes con­tain­ing Bel­gian choco­lates (a favorite of Chris’s!) Plus the cen­tre pieces, which were either tall taper vases filled with crushed ice with a dome of flow­ers and foliage nestling on top, includ­ing white roses, white Hyper­icum berries, blue Eryn­gium This­tle and com­pli­men­tary sea­sonal blue and white flow­ers, placed on round mir­rors. Or rings filled with sea­sonal foliages and flow­ers fin­ished off with a hur­ri­cane vase with a church candle.

A lit­tle about the wed­ding ceremony:

The church is a beau­ti­ful large medieval flint­stone build­ing with amaz­ing stained glass win­dows. It has mean­ing for Lizzie as it sits right next to her first school and nurs­ery, and was only five min­utes from her old house.

It didn’t need much dec­o­ra­tion, just two flower pedestals con­tain­ing all aspects of the wed­ding flow­ers and church candles.

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

At Hunter’s Hall guests were wel­comed to the recep­tion with the quar­tet play­ing pop­u­lar music, while guests warmed up with glasses of warm Win­ter Pimms, hot choco­late and canapés.

In the evening we danced our first dance to ‘our song’, Jen­nifer Hud­son — Giv­ing Myself. Straight after, every­one danced the night away with the bril­liant wed­ding band Dyna­mite. They were incred­i­bly enter­tain­ing and really got the crowd going.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

There are so many!

Lizzie’s favorite moments were:

• Walk­ing down the aisle with my dad to the beau­ti­ful music to meet Chris. It was very emo­tional and I cried my eyes out!
• Donna singing while we signed the register.
• The speeches were all bril­liant, but my dad’s in par­tic­u­lar had every­one laugh­ing and cry­ing. He had writ­ten the whole thing as a poem!
• Dur­ing the first dance when Chris spun me round and my dress strap popped off. It was very funny, espe­cially the guests reac­tions as they thought I’d bro­ken the dress!
• And finally danc­ing most of the night away to the bril­liant Dyna­mite band with my fam­ily and friends.

Chris’s favorite moments were:

• Lizzie walk­ing down the aisle look­ing amazing.
• Hold­ing Lizzie close to me as we did our first dance.
• The speeches!
• Danc­ing to Livin’ on a Prayer at the end of the night

Wed­ding day advice:

• If you have the time and help, make your own sta­tionery. It saves a lot of money!
• Ask for help! We found that most of our close fam­ily and friends were really keen to help with lit­tle jobs.
• Pay for some­one to do your hair and make-up – it is just so much more relax­ing, and you don’t have to worry about get­ting it wrong.

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

• Sum­mer Love Pho­tog­ra­phy – Jo Garlike
• Hunter’s Hall
• Dyna­mite band
• Vivace Quar­tet
• Hair & make up by Beauty Bridal
• Flow­ers — Spring Flo­ral Design