Avoid Dancing Gangnam Style in a Kilt… at a Christmas Wedding

There’s so much to enjoy here — the win­try sun­shine flood­ing through the win­dows of Ald­wark Manor sets the scene for one of the most beau­ti­ful Christ­mas wed­dings I’ve seen. Then there’s our gor­geous bride and groom, whose por­trait pho­tos are lit in such a mag­i­cal way. Some of my favorite images are of the chil­dren at Emma and Tom’s Christ­mas wed­ding… those end­less beads in glass bowls really do look tempt­ing, don’t they?!

Con­grat­u­la­tions to Emma and Tom and thank you for shar­ing your wed­ding story (about half way down the page) with us all today! Thanks also to York­shire wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Ian Wal­lace for sub­mit­ting the fea­ture to Eng­lish Wed­ding Blog. Do share a com­ment at the end, we’ll all be so very happy to hear from you! Enjoy. Claire xxx

Wed­ding venue:

Ald­wark Manor

Wed­ding photographer:

Ian Wal­lace www.ianwallacephotography.co.uk

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

A tra­di­tional win­ter wed­ding, with a touch of Christmas!

A lit­tle about the wed­ding ceremony:

We had a sim­ple civil cer­e­mony in the Wals­ing­ham Suite at Ald­wark Manor, over­look­ing the frosty grounds – get­ting mar­ried in win­ter we wouldn’t have been too dis­ap­pointed with bad weather, but it was a bright sunny day and sur­pris­ingly warm stand­ing at the top of the aisle with the sun shin­ing through the big windows!

Which read­ings did you choose?

Cap­tain Corelli’s Man­dolin
By Louis de Bernieres

Love is a tem­po­rary mad­ness,
it erupts like vol­ca­noes and then sub­sides.
And when it sub­sides you have to make a deci­sion.
You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together
that it is incon­ceiv­able that you should ever part.
Because this is what love is.
Love is not breath­less­ness,
it is not excite­ment,
it is not the pro­mul­ga­tion of eter­nal pas­sion.
That is just being “in love” which any fool can do.
Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away,
and this is both an art and a for­tu­nate acci­dent.
Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other under­ground,
and when all the pretty blos­som have fallen from their branches,
they find that they are one tree and not two.

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

The whole color theme was based on Aldwark’s Christ­mas dec­o­ra­tions of red and gold, we didn’t decide what our colours would be until we saw their Christ­mas dec­o­ra­tions and made sure they dec­o­rated their tree in the same colours this year!!

Once we had decided on our color scheme, we sat down with Anne Baker from Silk Flo­ral Art and let her know what sorts of things we liked, what types of flow­ers and styles of cen­tre­pieces, then left it with her to use her imag­i­na­tion! When the day came the venue looked beau­ti­ful, with spi­ral can­dle cen­tre­pieces, bay trees with lit­tle LED lights at the top of the aisle and a long win­tery spread along the venue’s grand old fire­place – every­thing tied in won­der­fully with the big Christ­mas trees and roar­ing fire!

Invi­ta­tions and recep­tion stationery:

Home­made invi­ta­tions and sta­tionery with bur­gundy bows.

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

Lee Jon wed­ding singer and his wife Hol­lie (DJ)

What did you wear?
Emma wore a full length A-line ivory dress by Phil Collins from Brides of Har­ro­gate with a fluffy stole, fin­ger­tip length veil with hair slide and peep toe shoes.

Tom wore a black morn­ing suit from Jeff Banks, ivory waist­coat and bur­gundy cravat.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

• See­ing each other for the first time as Emma came walk­ing down the aisle look­ing amaz­ing, then our first kiss as hus­band and wife!
• The brides­maids arriv­ing at my bed­room at 9.30am – cham­pagne in hand to start the day!
• Fin­ish­ing the day Gang­nam Style – which the wed­ding party prac­ticed in the cor­ri­dor before hand – one tip; be care­ful with this song if you’re a Scots­man wear­ing a tra­di­tional kilt!
• The bride and brides­maids putting on their wellies for the out­side photos.
• Spend­ing time in the evening out­side the venue get­ting some pho­tos under the moon.

Wed­ding day advice:

Don’t worry about plan­ning every­thing down to the minute on the day, things will prob­a­bly take longer than you expect on the day, and tim­ings may go out of the win­dow, but it doesn’t mat­ter – it espe­cially helps to have a mas­ter of cer­e­monies so you don’t have to worry about keep­ing every­one in line!
Try to make some time for a moment with just the two of you a few times in the day, as it all goes by so quickly.
Make sure one of the grooms­men has got a pair of scis­sors with him for unpick­ing all the pock­ets on the suits, and that some­one knows how to fold pocket squares.
Don’t have a mas­sive list of group shots – the can­did shots are the ones you will really love when you get the pho­tos from your photographer!

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

• http://www.silkfloralart.co.uk/
• http://cakeybakeyheart.com/
• http://www.bridesofharrogate.co.uk/
• http://www.leejonweddingsinger.co.uk/
• http://www.ianwallacephotography.co.uk/
• http://www.ambiencevenuestyling.com/