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It might be Monday morning but today we're sharing with you Jennifer and Robert's stunning Yorkshire wedding, brimming with so much prettiness, that it's bound to turn any frown upside-down.
Talented bride Jennifer, assisted by her uber helpful mum, crafted all the gorgeous decorations and the beautiful flower arrangements themselves to create a homemade wedding that is elegant through and through. Huge kudos ladies!
With images by Sarah Beth Photography.
jennifer says: We got engaged on Christmas Day in 2008. We were at home opening our presents and Rob handed me a little present and when I opened it there was my ring and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was so surprised and so happy. It was extra special as we were expecting our baby in the January.
Our wedding date was Friday 24 July 2015. We chose this date as we wanted a summer wedding and we had to fit in with the school holidays as Rob is a teacher and our daughter Isabelle is at school. Also we wanted to go on our honeymoon soon after the wedding so this date worked perfectly.
We had our whole wedding at Saltmarshe Hall, near Howden, Yorkshire. Rob goes road biking and he found the hall when he was biking in the area. We went to see the hall soon after and we knew it was just what we were looking for. We chose the venue as the hall itself is beautiful inside and out and the surrounding gardens are lovely and very picturesque.
We did not have a theme as such, I just wanted a homemade feel to everything and something that was simple but classic which made it possible for me and my mum to do all the decorations ourselves for the whole wedding.
The colours I decided on were pinks, greens, nudes and ivories because I wanted to go for natural pastel colours which were summery and went with our homemade theme.
I chose a ball gown style dress by Jasmine which had a heavy laced bodice and a tulle skirt. I had a drop veil with lace around the edges which went perfect with my dress bodice. I got my dress and my veil from The Wedding Collection in Beverley. I always wanted a simple and elegant dress and when I saw my dress in the shop I knew it was 'the one'.
Vicci my bridesmaid did my make-up and Zoe of Toni & Guy did mine and my bridesmaids' hair, which all looked beautiful on the day.
Rob wore a dark blue three piece suit from Slaters with a tailored white shirt with a pink and blue striped tie which fitted in with the colour scheme. He also wore brown shoes from Slaters which went well with his suit.
I had four bridesmaids, our daughter Isabelle who was 'chief' and three older bridesmaids: Lizzie, Vicci and Jane. Isabelle wore an ivory dress with a ruffled top and tulle skirt. The older bridesmaids wore beautiful nude dresses from Little Mistress at House of Fraser. All of the dresses had high necklines which were similar to mine. I bought each of the girls a pearl bracelet to wear on the day as a thank you grift and they went perfectly with their dresses.
Rob's best man, Chris, wore a matching dark blue suit and the rest of the groomsmen wore blue suits and brown shoes with matching ties.
Sarah Beth Photography was our photographer. She had already done our pre-wedding pictures which were brilliant so we knew our wedding photos would be the same. Sarah is a very talented photographer who takes natural/relaxed photos which was just what we wanted. We would highly recommend Sarah as she is very friendly, easy to work with and put us at ease.
For mine and Isabelle's flowers my mum made us a hand tied bouquet of avalanche roses and gypsophila with hessian and ribbon around the stems. For the other bridesmaids she made hand tied bouquets of gypsophila, which also had hessian and ribbon around the stems. My mum ordered the flowers from a local wholesaler and put them together on the morning of the wedding. She practiced the bouquets numerous times before the wedding so she knew exactly what she was doing.
We wanted to use natural petal confetti which we ordered online from Shropshire Petals. We filled cones with petals and put them in a pretty basket for Isabelle to hand out to all the ladies to throw.
For Rob and all the groomsmen I made buttonholes using gypsophila and entwined small pink beads to match the colours we used.
As with everything for the wedding I wanted as much homemade as I could so I went for simple ideas and seasonal flowers and plants which I knew, with help from my mum, we could do ourselves. All the flowers we used were sourced from wholesalers, various garden centres and all the greenery was from my mum's friend's garden.
For all the tables we used various sized glass vases, which we personalised by wrapping jute around and tied pretty ribbon bows which we then filled with avalanche and heavenly pink roses and gypsophila. We also put mirrored plates under the lit hurricane vases for the centre pieces and had lots of glass tea light holders around the tables.
To decorate the hall we used potted hydrangeas and geraniums which when put in large unusual metal hanging baskets, wicker baskets and urns, creating large impressive arrangements in keeping with the hall.
The mantel arrangement on the entrance fire place was bunches of different greenery, hydrangeas and roses which we put together to look like a garland and, with the glass hurricane lanterns on either side, made it quite a feature.
My mum made some wicker hearts well before the wedding and to some of them we wired dried hydrangeas and tied jute and ribbon bows on for the staircase. The rest we tied on fresh gypsophila for the chair ends at the ceremony.
As well has making our own arrangements I also made the napkin holders, which I wrapped pieces of hessian and pink ribbon around and tied a luggage tag with the guest's name on. I made the table plan using a board with jute string attached at both sides and I hung cut-out squares of hessian (name list printed and stuck on) with pegs.
Finally, I decorated a sweet table for everyone to tuck into on the evening. I used a long trestle table and put all the sweets in jars. I put small pink potted flowers on the table and I made the 'sweets' banner by cutting out squares of hessian and then using a stencil and white paint to put the letters onto each piece of hessian.
For favours, I filled kraft brown pillow boxes from Hobbycraft with Ferrero Rocher and tied raffia around finished off with a small pink artificial rose. These went down well after the wedding breakfast.
We decided not to go for a traditional wedding cake and instead had a vintage style stand with a Victoria sponge cake on the top tier and cupcakes on the bottom tiers. The cupcakes were vanilla, chocolate and lemon. I wanted it to be simple but pretty so the cake was plainly iced, with ribbon around the bottom and a simple rose on the top. The cupcakes were iced with little flowers/sprinkles on the top. All this was done by Cupcake Carousel who we would definitely recommend as it all tasted delicious.
We used Bon Appetit, located in Broughton, as our caterers who supplied a carvery for our wedding breakfast as we wanted something we enjoyed and loved having at home with our families. We followed this with a trio of desserts, which was lovely so we could all have a little of each. For the evening reception we had a fish and chip van (which was a big hit) and had the cupcakes as the dessert.
For the entertainment on the evening we had a DJ, Andy and Jamie of Ace Disco Party Sounds, as we wanted a room where people could go and have a dance which everyone enjoyed. We used Ace Disco because we have already used them on a previous occasion and they were excellent and again at the wedding they did a brilliant job and the dancefloor was packed all night.
We would highly recommend Saltmarshe Hall to other couples as it is a beautiful place and the grounds, which overlook the River Ouse, are amazing. Kate, who owns the hall, and Katie her wedding coordinator, could not have been more accommodating. We met with Kate and Katie at the hall a number of times before so we could let them know how we wanted our day and they ran through everything with us. On the day they made sure the whole thing ran very smoothly and it went to plan perfectly. We hired the hall for the day and we were able to decorate it just how we wanted. There is also accommodation in the hall and cottages in the grounds for any guests which are wanting to stay over.
The ceremony and the approach to the ceremony were my favourite parts of the day as it was so nice to walk down the stairs and through the hall and see all of our hard work put into place and then to walk down the aisle with my dad, daughter and bridesmaids seeing Rob at the end and all of our close family and friends there to celebrate our special day with us.
On the Sunday after the wedding, we jetted off to Alcudia in Majorca. It was lovely and relaxing and a perfect way to finish off our wedding celebrations. We took our daughter with us so it was also a lovely family holiday.
It was great doing a lot of the wedding ourselves and made it all the more special on the day, but my top tip to other Brides Up North would be make sure you give yourselves plenty of time to find what you need and to practice beforehand to make sure you get it how you want it. It is worth every minute when you see the finished results!


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Ever since yesterday evening, I have been having major eye problems, mainly in the left eye. Usually when I get sick, it starts with me having a soar throat, then stuffy nose and head. Then travels down the body afterwards. This little sickness I have is weird. It started with a huge headache, soar throat, slightly stuffy nose. But the weird thing is my left eye has been gushing out this sticky and liquidy, green eye crap constantly and it won't stop. It's like having a runny nose, but it's the eye instead. It's sooo incredibly infected now that it hurts to blink, and it's redder than it's ever gotten before. Kinda scary!
When I was waking up from the mix of dreams, I felt as if someone had glued my left eye closed completely. It was a mess trying to reopen it, but I did it. I think that I also rubbed it way too much over night in my sleep, which is another reason why it's infected and swollen... Ooopsy. Anyway, I'm putting this Silver water stuff on it, since my dad said it would help it get better within a day or so. So i hope it works.
Not sure what I'm doing today, but I feel part of my cold disappearing, except for the eye problem. The sun is creeping out a little today, which is also a good sign. Sun and happiness are always good things in life.
will write more laterz. Sorry for this being a long post.

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