WWW readers Nick and Helen wanted a quirky and fun wedding which reflected their personalities. They chose to hold their wedding at Cultra Manor, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, Northern Ireland. Making the most of their venue they decked it out in pretty pastel blooms and scrabble details. They had tickets for guests to get free sweets from the shop at the museum and had games to entertain their guests.

The bridesmaids looked oh so pretty in pastel dresses by Maids to Measure, Helen looked stunning in lace with Rachel Simpson T Bar shoes and the boys donned three piece suits with scrabble cuff links and buttonholes. What a wonderful wedding.

Thanks so much to Navyblur for sharing their gorgeous photographs with us today.

 

The Proposal… We were in Oslo for a short holiday and it was our last night. We didn’t have much Norwegian currency left so I suggested McDonalds for dinner- I knew something was up when Nick insisted we go to a fancy restaurant I had been admiring for the past few days! After dinner we went to Oslo opera house and went up on to the roof. Nick then brought out his iPad which had ‘Will you marry me?’ written on the screen. He had the ring which he slipped on to my finger and 5 minutes later I realised I still hadn’t looked at it and was then too nervous in case I didn’t like it!! When I finally did look at it, thankfully I loved it!

The Vision for the Day… We wanted our wedding to be fun, relaxed and to reflect our personalities. We wanted to keep certain aspects traditional but with a quirky twist and lots of little personalised touches. What was most important for us was lots of good food and all our friends and family together!

The Planning Process… We were engaged for about 10 months in total. We booked the church, venue and our lovely photographers before I jetted off to Uganda for 3 months! The planning was then mostly done in the 6 months leading up to the wedding when I came home.

Budget… We didn’t really set a budget, we knew we were only going to do it once so there were certain things we didn’t want to compromise on but other things we were happy to try and do ourselves to save cost.

The Venue… We booked the only place we looked at which was Cultra Manor, an Edwardian house set within the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum. We loved that it was a house with different rooms which could all be used and it was beautifully furnished and decorated. What really sold it for us was that as part of the museum, our guests had access to the whole park to explore in the afternoon and we had a fantastic and different location for our photos.

The Dress + Accessories… My dress was by Paloma Blanca from the bridal department in Logan’s Fashions. The staff there were brilliant and really helped me to find my perfect dress. I always knew I wanted the dress to have straps and lace so this one fitted the bill. I got silver T-bar shoes from Rachel Simpson which I loved. I accessorised with earrings Nick had bought me a few years ago, and a hairband which I bought online from Etsy to match the belt on the dress.

Finding the Dress… I was quite relaxed about finding my dress and my mum and I had a lovely time touring bridal shops! Eventually I narrowed it down to 2 so I tried them both on one after the other and I knew which one felt right! Naturally it was the more expensive one!

Groom’s Attire… The men were all kitted out in charcoal fitted suits which we hired. We then got ties made by The Maidsmen to match each bridesmaid for the groomsmen and a silver one for Nick. We got lilac spotted ties in Debenhams for our dads and ushers.

The Readings + Music… The service was the most important part of the day for us and it meant a lot to us to involve our friends and family. A good friend of ours, Mark, did the music for us and also sang ‘Grow old along with me’ while we signed the register. Our readings were 2 special Bible passages read by our lovely friends Rebecca and Katie.

Beautiful Bridesmaids… My bridesmaids were 2 of my cousins, Caroline and Charlotte and 2 friends, Hannah and Claire. I decided early on that I wanted them to be in different pastel colours and unknown to them decided which colour each girl was going to wear. Thankfully everyone was very happy with their colour and they all looked so beautiful on the day! The dresses were from Maids to Measure. We met Sara, one of their agents, in Dublin, tried on a few dresses and decided on the style then pored over the colour swatches deciding on the perfect shades of lilac, lemon, mint green and pink. The dresses were such lovely material and I loved how the colours looked together!

The Flowers… I don’t know much about flowers but after chatting with the florist about the venue and the colours we were using and my different ideas, I knew she knew how to make it perfect. I collected jam jars for months and decorated them with hessian, lace and coloured ribbon for the table centrepieces. I trawled charity shops for tea cups and also raided my granny’s house along with my mum’s teaset which was one of her wedding presents. These teacups and little milk jugs were filled with flowers and placed on the church windowsills and later around the venue on sideboards and dressers. All of the bouquets were made up of lilac, pink and lemon flowers, my bouquet also had peonies which were beautiful. Nick had bought me a bicycle for my 21st birthday and I had always wanted to use it at my wedding; the basket was filled with flowers and the bicycle placed outside the church hall.

The Cake… A friend made the cake for us. It turned out to be one of the loveliest surprises of the day. She had text me a few days prior to the wedding saying her efforts were “amateur but baked with love.” The fact she thought it was amateur really didn’t matter to me but when I walked into the dining room at the venue and saw the cake I couldn’t believe it how amazing it was! It was absolutely perfect! It was beautiful and couldn’t have fitted in with our wedding more. And even better, it tasted great! Each tier was a different colour to match the bridesmaids and edged with lace ribbon then little white flowers were scattered all over the cake.

Your Photographer… We spotted Navyblur on Facebook and knew their relaxed style and amazing photos were exactly what we were looking for. We were only further convinced when we met them. They are such fun, lovely people and fantastic photographers along with it! They have captured every moment of our day perfectly!

The Details + Decor… We’ve always loved Scrabble and decided straight away to have a bit of a Scrabble theme! Nick’s main wedding task was to design and print all our stationery, he was able to combine the scrabble theme with the pastel colours. We also made sweet coupons so each guest could get a free quarter of sweets in the Folk museum’s traditional sweet shop. I bought over 1000 Scrabble tiles off Ebay and spelt out everyone’s names on tile racks for the place names. I prepared a basket of emergency items for the girls’ bathrooms and deodorant for the mens! Because the venue was a house, we framed black and white photos of us throughout our relationship and dotted them around the house. We had afternoon tea in the church hall after the service and we decorated the hall with pastel coloured bunting.

The Honeymoon… We went to Croatia and spent the first 5 days on an island followed by 5 days in Dubrovnik. It was the perfect chance to relax and realize we were married!

Memorable Moments… So many!….Getting ready with my girls in the morning, my mum’s mobile phone being on top of the wedding car the whole way from my house to the church (about 6 miles!), getting my dress caught on the church door as I tried to take my first step up the aisle, the afternoon tea after the service, the speeches, Nick’s 6 year old nephew, Josh, doing Gangnam Style all by himself on the dance floor in his pyjamas, leaving the reception with my best friend and now husband reflecting on the best day of my life!

Advice for Other Couples… Stick together, be a team! You will get a lot of different ideas and advice from friends and family but as long as you agree with each other you can cope! Try not to be too ambitious, the week leading up to your wedding will be one of the busiest of your life, try to leave time to enjoy it all! Decide early on what you want to do and try not to get too distracted by new ideas and themes closer to the wedding and then try to incorporate them too- it’s sad but you can’t do everything!

Credit Where Credit is Due…

Venue: Cultra manor (www.nmni.com)

Dress: Logan’s Fashions (www.logansfashions.co.uk)

Bridesmaids: Maids to measure (www.maidstomeasure.com)

Suits: McQuillans Menswear (www.mcquillansmenswear.co.uk)

Ties: The Maidsmen (www.themaidsmen.com)

Florist: Sally’s Floral Studio (www.sallysfloralstudio.co.uk)

Afternoon tea caterers: Jane’s Kitchen (www.janes-kitchen.com)

Band: The Rockits (www.michaelmagillentertainments.com)

 

Ekkkkk. What a perfectly stylish, fun and colourful day. Thanks so much to Nick and Helen for sharing their gorgeous wedding with us today XOXO Lou