Vintage Teacups and a Horse Called Brian: Lancashire Wedding

I also love Jamie’s wed­ding corset and skirt; I love the teacups and bird­cages, the vin­tage table plan. I love how beau­ti­ful Jamie is, and I love the look on her mum’s face as much as I love the laugh­ter and the hug Steven gives his lit­tle boy after what I hear was the best speech of the day.

Jamie and Ste have writ­ten their own wed­ding report, so I will leave you to read that (and it’s worth spend­ing a few min­utes hav­ing a real, proper read of this one I promise!) and to admire the lovely and sen­si­tive images taken by con­tem­po­rary Lan­cashire wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Anurag Sharma (Shut­ter­leaf Pho­tog­ra­phy). Let’s kick off with a few engage­ment pho­tos though, sim­ply because these are gor­geous! (And I miss sun­shine!)

The bride and groom: Jamie-Emma & Steven Hugo

Steven pro­posed after a roman­tic meal, we went back to his mother’s where he had set the house out with a thou­sand tea light can­dles and fresh roses and rose petals.

He then blind­folded me as I walked through the house, and took me into the liv­ing room where he had also writ­ten “will you marry me?” in the liv­ing room mir­ror! He then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

He had my fam­ily and friends wait­ing across the road so when I said yes they all came over and sur­prised me and joined in the cel­e­bra­tions!!

An ele­gant, vintage-inspired, Lan­cashire wedding

I wore an ivory two piece skirt and corset top, the skirt was Demetrios and the corset top had been designed by myself and made by a dress cou­ture designer. I also made a few alter­ations to the skirt.

I also had a cathe­dral length ivory and crys­tal veil and ivory bowed shoes.

Ste – I wore a dark gray suit from the Peter Posh col­lec­tion

Wed­ding venue – St Bartholomew’s church, Chipping

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher – Anurag Sharma http://shutterleaf.co.uk/

How would you describe your wed­ding style? Vin­tage Elegance

Read­ings for Jamie and Ste’s church wed­ding cer­e­mony: Today I mar­ried my best friend and Eccle­si­astes – chap­ter 4

Wed­ding day highlights

Jamie-Emma: My high­lights were get­ting ready at Gib­bon Bridge with all my brides­maids, mother, fam­ily & friends; and when I saw Ste’s face when I was walk­ing down the aisle. He was really ner­vous and really emotional.

Steven – My high­light was when I saw Jamie walk­ing down the aisle. Her dress was amaz­ing and noth­ing like I had imag­ined — she just looked breath­tak­ing. I also really enjoyed singing Oasis on stage with the band in front of my wife, fam­ily and friends — it was really good fun.

The wed­ding recep­tion – Gib­bon Bridge Hotel

Venue styling– we went for a summer/garden/vintage feel as the recep­tion room was a glass fronted con­ser­va­tory which looked out onto a beau­ti­ful garden.

So for my cen­tre­pieces I had cream bird­cages dressed in lace, organza, pearls, rib­bon and bird feath­ers and then I had can­dles inside the mid­dle of the birdcages

The tables were also named after birds.

Also on the tables I had vin­tage tea cups and saucers with fresh ivory and baby pink ger­bera flow­ers in.

My table plan was a vin­tage style screen which was dressed in lace, pearls, rib­bon, dia­mond jew­ellery and all kinds of vin­tage loveliness!

For the children’s table I went for a vin­tage cir­cus theme where I had all over the top bright coloured sweets, cam­eras, games, and bubbles.

For the cen­tre piece I had cir­cus themed cup­cakes on a bright red cup­cake stand.

My favorite part was the huge red lol­lipops which had lit­tle lol­lies inside as my table place names.

My wed­ding cake was beau­ti­ful — it was a green vin­tage style bird­cage with lovely white birds and flow­ers on.

Mem­o­rable moments

Jamie – when my aun­tie Edwina gave me my bou­quet as I was get­ting ready as she had done all my bridal flow­ers and venue flowers.

My cousin Beth had an ivory rib­bon made with my old ini­tials and new ini­tials on. They were wrapped around the stem of my bouquet.

In the horse and car­riage with my mum, maid of hon­our and two brides­maids on the way to the church.

My mom walk­ing down the aisle and giv­ing me away to Ste, and the two of them giv­ing each other a huge smile.

Steven – My Best Man’s speeches and our first dance as Mr & Mrs Hugo

Wed­ding day advice

Enjoy every moment lead­ing up to the wed­ding no mat­ter how stress­ful it becomes.

Try and stand back on your wed­ding day for a few min­utes to look around at every­one and take it all in with your hus­band as every­body will tell you how fast the day goes but it REALLY does.

Rec­om­mended Lan­cashire wed­ding suppliers:

• The band – The Heat www.alivenetwork.com/bandpage.asp?bandname=The Heat (Based in Hampshire)
• Pho­tog­ra­pher – Anurag Sharma, Shut­ter­leaf Pho­tog­ra­phy http://shutterleaf.co.uk/
• Horse and car­riage – Sue Bur­ras www.BurrasWeddingServices.co.uk
• Makeup Artist – Ash­leigh Beasley 07871977837 (Based in Blackpool)
• Hair – Emma O’Brien Glee­son – 07852249342 (Based in Blackpool)

We’re not done yet. I spent a fair while on pho­tog­ra­pher Anurag’s web­site today read­ing about Jamie and Ste’s wed­ding day in his own blog post here: Lan­cashire pho­tog­ra­pher Jamie and Ste and in the same fea­ture, about how Anurag works.

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy — behind the scenes

I often won­der about the gap, if you like, between the per­cep­tion of how much work goes into wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy and the actual processes and time involved. Key to me is that pho­tog­ra­phers can’t really explain their work meth­ods in great detail to brides and grooms, and yet it’s key to under­stand­ing pric­ing and the ded­i­ca­tion of a great wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher to his or her work.

Anurag doesn’t set out to jus­tify his prices, or to ‘edu­cate’ brides and grooms, but offers an under­stand­ing of the process which I wish every cou­ple get­ting mar­ried could read. (Read ‘behind the scenes’ from about two-thirds of the way down this page.)