Breakfast at Tiffany’s and a Wedding at Eshott Hall

The set­ting is cap­tured just as beau­ti­fully by wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Ali­son Groves (who I was lucky enough to meet just a few weeks ago: she’s a lovely lady as you’ll see from Becky and Ben’s own tes­ti­mo­nial at the end of this wed­ding blog).

There’s a lot to inspire in this real wed­ding fea­ture: lit­tle details done grace­fully, a theme cre­ated with style and per­son­al­ity. Watch out for the danc­ing and singing towards the end, with some of my favorite pho­tos from the day (and unlike any I’ve shared on this wed­ding blog before, I think!)

I’ll hand over to Becky, who wrote a wed­ding report and shared her sup­plier rec­om­men­da­tions; and to Ali­son Groves for the beau­ti­ful wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy. Enjoy!

Real wed­ding at Eshott Hall: Becky & Ben

Ben pro­posed on a sur­prise trip to New York out­side of Tiffany’s.The ring was in a cracker Jack box. Break­fast at Tiffany’s is my favour­tite film so we bought boxes of Cracker Jack as the favours for every­one from www.nationwidecandy.com. Our wed­ding was inspired by Break­fast at Tiffany’s, Audrey Hep­burn and The Great Gatsby. The retro glam­our theme was inspired by Audrey and the film. Even the table plan was New York themed — each table was a dif­fer­ent area. We played the Henry Mancini sound­track through­out the wed­ding breakfast.

We hired a 60s Jaguar MK2 for the week­end from Cameron’s Clas­sic Cars near Bolton www.cameronsclassiccarhire.com

The brides­maids

Brides­maids’ dresses were from Coast — and we had a dress­maker make a sep­a­rate ver­sion of the dress for my 8.75 month preg­nant brides­maid! The brides­maids wore ivory fas­ci­na­tors from Tie Rack.

Becky’s wed­ding dress

My wed­ding dress was Augusta Jones — Ali — bought from Mor­gan Davies Bridal, Isling­ton, Lon­don www.morgandavieslondon.co.uk — a great shop with really help­ful staff. I had com­pletely ruled out lace but Michaela at Mor­gan Davies per­suaded me to try this dress and I fell in love straight away — I wanted under­stated glam­our, a time­less piece and I think it was perfect!

I walked down the aisle to a bit of the Sound of Music! Because I secretly love Julie Andrews Nancy the organ­ist learnt the wed­ding pro­ces­sional from the film just in time!

Ben’s bespoke suit

Ben and his Best Man (his brother Liam) had match­ing bespoke suits made by Blaqua in Soho, based on the suits worn by Robert Red­ford in the Great Gatsby. Becky didn’t know any­thing Ben’s suit til she walked up the aisle. www.blaqua.net

The wed­ding flowers

www.cinnamonrose.co.uk — Mar­tine was great — as I had cho­sen an all ivory theme for the dresses I wanted to run a color scheme just through the flow­ers and table dec­o­ra­tions. I really wanted an Eng­lish coun­try wed­ding with a retro glam­our twist and the flow­ers really worked I think. We had Flower types: Cool Water roses, some Ivory roses, muted blue and mid pur­ple and laven­der hydrangea and mus­cari , veron­ica plus spray stocks and laven­der dou­ble lysianthus to con­trast and add tex­ture. Euca­lyp­tus, salal and rose­mary to blend in with gun­metal gray. Pretty, fresh, muted tones with some move­ment, with a hint of coun­try. Herbs and salal foliage to com­pli­ment roses and add scent.

Bridal hair and make up

My hair and make up were by Marie at ND Make up Artists New­cas­tle — really friendly staff and they did an amaz­ing job on hair and make up– I wish I could use them every day — would def­i­nitely rec­om­mend. www.ndmakeupartists.co.uk

The wed­ding rings

Ele­ment Jew­elry Heb­den Bridge -www.elementjewellery.com Ben chose my engage­ment ring from here and it is a jew­ellery shop in the small town where we have bought a house and spent the last 6 years so it’s really nice to have that link.

The wed­ding and recep­tion venues

The ser­vice took place at St Michael & All Angels Church, Fel­ton, Northum­ber­land and the recep­tion was at Eshott Hall, Eshott, Northum­ber­land — we actu­ally picked Eshott while it was a build­ing site but fell in love with the place imme­di­ately. We wanted a venue that the full wed­ding party could stay at for the whole week­end. We could tell from what had been com­pleted already that it was going to be stun­ning when it was fin­ished. Cater­ing was included in the pack­age at Eshott, the food was amazing!

Grooms­men attire

The Grooms­men and the Dads wore gray Moss Bros Sandown lounge suits with match­ing waist­coats and vio­let ties/squares. www.moss.co.uk

Wed­ding day karaoke!

http://www.rockaoke.co.uk — Rec­om­mended by our pho­tog­ra­pher and they were amaz­ing — they even how to play Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” and War­ren G’s “Reg­u­late” just so we could do our favorite karaoke songs on the night — real pros and every­one young and old loved them!

The first dance

Bill With­ers’ “Lovely Day” — a song we love — we knew the words were great and every­one could get up and dance with us. We made it a bit of fun by chore­o­graph­ing a rou­tine with Alan and Ginny from www.danceforfun.me.uk

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers

Ali­son Groves — www.alisongroves.com — we couldn’t have done it with­out Ali, from help­ing us find our enter­tain­ment to keep­ing us both nice and calm on the day — she was great! Her pho­tos are amaz­ing too of course, she’s a legend.

Cakes for U — Hor­den — 2 lay­ers of fruit cake, one of vanilla sponge and one car­rot cake dec­o­rated in ivory cing with 2 fila­gree lay­ers and ivory rib­bons, pearls and flow­ers. I wanted a very clas­sic look and we all know that not every­one is a fruit cake fan! The fila­gree and pearls went really well with the lace in my dress.

Advice for other brides and grooms:

Be the Bride you want to be and make sure it’s the day you want. Lots of peo­ple will give you ideas and opin­ions but stay true to your­self and the day will be perfect.

See more of Becky and Ben’s wed­ding day on Ali­son Grove’s wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy blog: Becky and Ben at Eshott Hall