Nothing Good Gets Away — a Vaulty Manor Wedding Blog

I love a Christ­mas wed­ding — some­how all the love and friend­ship along with twinkly lights and lit­tle red acces­sories and details turn the cold­est time of the year into a warm and wel­com­ing occa­sion. My par­ents chose Decem­ber for their wed­ding, and I can def­i­nitely see why it’s such a pop­u­lar time of year to get hitched.

Any­way — I know you’ll enjoy today’s real wed­ding on the blog so grab a cuppa and scroll down to see all the images. Thanks to Nicola and Tim for shar­ing, and to the very lovely Tracy Morter Pho­tog­ra­phy for sub­mit­ting another gor­geous wed­ding to the blog!

Oh! And I warn you, if you click through to read the text from Tim and Nicola’s wed­ding read­ing, you will cry. I did! Claire xxx

Noth­ing good gets away! Nicola and Tim’s Essex wed­ding blog

Wed­ding venue:

Vaulty Manor, Essex www.vaultymanor.co.uk

Wed­ding photographer:

Tracy Morter www.tracymorter.com

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

Cosy Christ­mas

A lit­tle about the wed­ding ceremony:

The cer­e­mony was held at Vaulty Manor; I walked down the aisle to a song called ‘Marry Me’ by Train and we had one read­ing by the bride’s brother, David. Tim and I chose to have addi­tional vows added to the cer­e­mony to recite to each other, how­ever, we had com­pletely for­got­ten about it until the reg­is­trar had announced it!!

Which read­ings did you choose?

A read of a let­ter called ‘Noth­ing Good Gets Away’ http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/nothing-good-gets-away.html

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

We tried to cre­ate a nice cosy feel­ing in our venue, and tried to make it feel as Christ­massy as pos­si­ble by adding sub­tle lit­tle details around the venue. We served mulled wine to our guests for the recep­tion drinks and added mince pies to the table to go with the after din­ner coffee.

We added holly leaves (picked from the bride’s grand­par­ents gar­den) to the cake and the guest book table, hooked candy canes over the guests’ wine glasses and included Christ­mas crack­ers to the tables as well as the favour boxes. The favour boxes were pre­sented like lit­tle Christ­mas presents and included a choco­late rein­deer and a Can­cer Research pin badge.

Our florist dec­o­rated an 8ft Christ­mas tree for us on the morn­ing and we chose can­de­labras for our cen­tre­pieces to add a nice can­dle glow over dinner.

To add a lit­tle fun to the evening, we bought a bunch of nov­elty Christ­mas hats for the guests to wear while hav­ing their pic­tures taken for our guest book. Def­i­nitely a fun idea after a cou­ple of drinks

My favorite ‘fin­ish­ing touch’ was our cake top­per, made by Art­locke Designs. The cake top­per was made to look exactly like us on the day and also includes lit­tle details that meant some­thing to us. We had our cat included on the design and had police tape wrapped around us as the groom is a detec­tive. It was, by far, one of my favorite items!

Invi­ta­tions and recep­tion stationery:

All sta­tionery was made and printed by Wed­ding Invi­ta­tion Bou­tique. We chose the ‘Santa Baby’ range to fit in with our Christ­mas theme. http://www.weddinginvitationboutique.co.uk/

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

Dur­ing the recep­tion drinks and din­ner, we made a playlist of jazz and Christ­mas music to play. We played songs by Diana Krall, Harry Con­nick Jr, Ella Fitzger­ald and sim­i­lar artists. For the evening party, we hired a soul singer called Irie J. http://www.iriej.com/

What did you wear?

My dress was a Mori Lee design and was a vin­tage look­ing dress with a lace design. To make the dress unique, I picked a detailed beaded belt to add around the waist. My shoes were Jimmy Choo and I fin­ished my look with del­i­cate pearl jew­ellery and pearl hair pins.

The groom wore a suit from Moss Bros, in the Sand­ford style.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

• The father of the bride, Groom and best man speeches. All very, very funny!
• Our first dance, Let’s Stay Together by Al Green, sung by Irie J.

Wed­ding day advice:

Make sure you take a moment to sit back and take in what’s going on around you. The day goes by so fast that it’s easy to miss the lit­tle things.

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

Singer: Irie J http://www.iriej.com/
Sta­tionery: Wed­ding Invi­ta­tion Bou­tique http://www.weddinginvitationboutique.co.uk/
Pho­tog­ra­pher: Tracy Morter http://www.tracymorter.com/
Florist: TJ Designs http://www.tjdesignerstudio.co.uk/
Light Cur­tain: Starlight Dance floors: http://www.starlightdancefloors.co.uk/
Bride and Brides­maid Dresses: Bridal Bou­tique, Southend http://www.bridal-boutique.co.uk/
Cake Top­per: Art­locke Designs http://www.artlockedesigns.co.uk/