Over the Border for a North Wales Wedding!

This is a wed­ding where the most impor­tant ele­ment is peo­ple — being sur­rounded by the peo­ple in their lives was a top pri­or­ity for Emily and Lau­rence. They were lucky to have a glo­ri­ously sunny day (back in Sep­tem­ber of 2012) and their wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Dar­ren Williams joined them at Bodrhy­d­dan Hall for some beau­ti­ful wed­ding day images.

Emily has shared her wed­ding report to go along with the images of the wed­ding day. I hope you enjoy the read! It would be won­der­ful if you could leave a com­ment for Emily and Lau­rence too — they’re a fab cou­ple and I know I’ve really enjoyed read­ing about their wed­ding day. Enjoy! Claire xxx

A wed­ding in North Wales: Lau­rence & Emily Bailey

Wed­ding venue: Kin­mel Manor Hotel, Abergele, North Wales. Such lovely group of staff we dealt with there. Food was yummy too! Would totally recommend.

We used Bodrhy­d­dan Hall (Rhud­d­lan) for our Wed­ding pho­tographs. We’d vis­ited the manor house and fell in love with it and ever since I was deter­mined to have it part of our wed­ding day pho­tographs. The gar­dens there are just stun­ning. We really hoped the weather would be good to have pho­tos there and 7th Sep­tem­ber when we got mar­ried was prob­a­bly the sun­ni­est, hottest day of the sum­mer! Very fortunate.

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher: Dar­ren Williams Wed­ding Photography

So glad we chose such an amaz­ing pho­tog­ra­pher. Being quite a fussy bride when it comes to pho­tographs, I was blown away with how well he cap­tured our spe­cial day! A good pho­tog­ra­pher is ESSENTIAL!

A lit­tle about the wed­ding ceremony

We were mar­ried at the King­dom Hall of Jehovah’s Wit­nesses in Prestatyn. It was so lovely. The Min­is­ter who took the cer­e­mony has known me since I was about 2 and both of us right through our courtship so it was very per­sonal to us. We had just over 140 at the cer­e­mony! There was so much excite­ment and hap­pi­ness there. It was the best. All our favorite peo­ple together!

The Min­is­ter picked out scrip­tures about how we can really blend together as a mar­ried cou­ple. Eg Colos­sians 3:14 which says: beside all these things, clothe your­self with love, for it is a per­fect bond of union. Also, 1 Corinthi­ans 13:4–8.

Tell us a lit­tle about your wed­ding venue styling and details

Our venue theme was baby pink and blue. We had uplight­ing onto a ceil­ing with drapes. Beau­ti­ful flo­ral cen­tre­pieces that our florists kindly did for us. We had sim­ple white favour boxes with curled rib­bon in pink and blue filled with lit­tle creme eggs! Lit­tle gems on the tables and activ­ity books for the chil­dren to keep them occu­pied. The table plan and place names were also DIY jobs that took nights of stick­ing down gems and print­ing but I was so pleased with the results. It was all part of the excite­ment going to the venue the day before with all the wed­ding party who’d trav­elled over to spend some time together set­ting up the venue! Loved it.

Invi­ta­tions and wed­ding recep­tion stationery:

Our invi­ta­tions were post­card style invites. We ordered them online at such a good price. I designed them myself with a tem­plate I found online and found a deal where we had all 200 invites printed for under £25! They were lovely!

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

As a zumba instruc­tor, we had some zumba rou­tines included through­out the evening DJ’ing which went down a treat. We’re both sur­rounded by fam­ily & friends who love any oppor­tu­nity to get up and dance the night away… and we did… until 2am!

What did you wear?

My Dress was a Jas­mine dress style code: F420. The last dress I would’ve picked in the shop. The shop assis­tant insisted I tried it on and I’m so glad she did… LOVED IT! My shoes were Ben­jamin Adams shoes and acces­sories from Deben­hams. I was SO stuck over how I wanted my hair. I have very curly, thick long hair and my hair­dresser did the most gor­geous curls on the morn­ing of the wed­ding. I slept with rollers in and just wanted it big and curly with my veil in. She did it beautifully.

Lau­rence wore a Hugo Boss Suit. He then had it tai­lored to fit him. His tie was from Paul Smith, pocket square and shirt from Reiss.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

Where to start? We loved every last bit. For me, to have all my brides­maids and fam­ily there for the morn­ing was just the best way to start the day. I’m a bit of an organ­i­sa­tion freak and made sure there was an itin­er­ary stuck to the fridge for every­one to fol­low! We had a beau­ti­ful wed­ding cer­e­mony. I think because it was per­sonal to us. I think above it all was our speeches. They were so, so lovely! The best man was Laurence’s brother Jeremy. Between him, my Dad and Lau­rence, every­one was between tears and laugh­ter. It was so great to sit back and see the day you’ve planned for just under a year all come together and go even bet­ter than I’ve ever imag­ined. Every­one was just so happy to be together.

Wed­ding day advice:

• Don’t go over the top. Spend on the things that really mat­ter to you. My main things were my dress, my brides­maids and the photographer.
• I was happy to set­tle for a venue that orig­i­nally I may not have con­sid­ered but decided we rather have all the peo­ple we want there rather than pay the world for less.
• I had no idea on color or themes or any­thing but it was as soon as I saw the brides­maid dresses that I knew they were the ones I wanted.
• Don’t panic too much… I was glued to my to do list right back from Decem­ber 2011 and that was my lifesaver.
• I was able to tick off most big things early on so this kept the stress lev­els down. In fact, I can hon­estly say I absolutely LOVED plan­ning my wedding.
• Just enjoy it and have all the peo­ple who mat­ter there. I want to do it all over again!

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

• Brides­maid Dresses: Coast
• Wed­ding Dress: Cariad Bride in Abergele. Sara the owner is AMAZING!
• Pho­tog­ra­pher: Dar­ren Williams Wed­ding Photography
• Florist: Dar­ren Edg­ley Florist, Craig Y Don
• Hair: Emma at Ash Hair­dress­ing, Craig Y Don