An English Tea Party Wedding in Derbyshire

Cather­ine and John chose the brilliantly-named Pix­ies in the Cel­lar to pho­to­graph their wed­ding. Their big day was at Har­gate Hall just out­side Bux­ton in Der­byshire. It’s a dream of a wed­ding day with vin­tage styling, gor­geous lit­tle details and cre­ative ideas. Watch out for the brides­maids, the girls on the stairs (so cute!), and all the lovely vin­tage bot­tles — I need some of these!

With thanks to Cather­ine and John for the wed­ding report, and to Pix­ies in the Cel­lar (always makes me smile!) for their Har­gate Hall wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy. This is truly beau­ti­ful — enjoy!

Who pro­posed, and how?

We had been trav­el­ling around New Zealand and on one warm beau­ti­ful evening whilst we were camp­ing, look­ing over the most amaz­ing views, John pro­posed. It was so roman­tic and perfect.

Wed­ding venue: Har­gate Hall, Buxton

www.hargate-hall.co.uk — the venue is hold­ing a wed­ding open day in Sep­tem­ber — see their face­book page for more infor­ma­tion www.facebook.com/HargateHall

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher: Pix­ies in the Cellar

www.pixiesinthecellar.co.uk Peter and Sara are pro­fes­sional wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers based right on the bor­ders of Cheshire, Lan­cashire, Der­byshire and York­shire and close to the Peak Dis­trict — per­fect for every­where!

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

We wanted a relaxed and infor­mal wed­ding where we could do things exactly our own way. We went for a vin­tage / Eng­lish tea party wed­ding theme. In the lead up to the wed­ding we had a great time vis­it­ing vin­tage mar­kets to get ideas and buy bits and bobs.

The wed­ding cer­e­mony at Har­gate Hall

We had a civil wed­ding cer­e­mony and for our read­ings we chose two poems: ‘The One’ and ‘The Day You Will Always Remem­ber’ both by unknown poets.

John had a kilt made in his own fam­ily tar­tan. Cather­ine wore ‘Tabitha’ by Char­lotte Balbier.

I’ll never for­get the feel­ing as I walked down the stairs and then saw John stand­ing there, look­ing so hand­some in his kilt. The cer­e­mony was per­fect and really relaxed. Every­one got to have a bit of a gig­gle as John was forced to say all three of his mid­dle names.

The tea party wed­ding reception

• We kept the styling of the venue sim­ple. We hung bunting in the hall where we got mar­ried and in the mar­quee where we had the wed­ding breakfast.
• There were fairy lights wrapped around the banister.
• We dot­ted vin­tage post­cards and pho­tographs around the place and also had an old type­writer for guests to type mes­sages on.
• We made our own cen­tre­pieces using jam jars and old bottles.
• We also set up a vin­tage style tea­room in one of the apart­ments which was just off the main hall. In this we used many of the teacups, cake stands etc. that we had bought at vin­tage markets.
• Friends bought along all sorts of home baked cakes and, after the cer­e­mony, our guests enjoyed these and some other nib­bles we provided.
• We also had gar­den games going on through­out the day for the chil­dren and adults, as well as a dress up box that proved enter­tain­ing later on in the evening.

It is really dif­fi­cult to choose the high­lights as the whole day for us was per­fect. The bouncy cas­tle and the band were both very pop­u­lar with guests, young and old!

Wed­ding music and entertainment

We had a range of music on our iPod, start­ing out with 30s and 40s music early in the day as guests enjoyed our tea­room. We had a band called the Henry Revue in the evening who played a vari­ety of songs in a reg­gae style. The band was amaz­ing and really got the party rock­ing.

Wed­ding day advice

Make sure you have a good group of friends and fam­ily to help make the day run smoothly and to ensure you don’t have to worry about a thing.

Don’t worry about whether all your guests are hav­ing a good enough time – they will be.

Avoid drink­ing too much early on as you want to be able to remem­ber every sin­gle moment. Finally, get a bouncy cas­tle! It kept the kids (and adults) amused all weekend!

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers

• Our cater­ing was by Golden Roasts. They were fan­tas­tic. http://goldenroasts.co.uk/
• We are over the moon with our pho­tographs by Pix­ies in the Cel­lar. www.pixiesinthecellar.co.uk and on face­book www.facebook.com/pages/PixiesintheCellar-Wedding-Photography
• The bouncy cas­tle was hired from FT Bouncy Cas­tle Hire. www.ftbouncycastlehire.co.uk
• We used Sheffield PA Hire for the sound sys­tem. www.sheffieldpahire.co.uk