Traditional Stylish English Coral Wedding at Rudding Park Hotel, Yorkshire | Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

Traditional Stylish English Coral Wedding at Rudding Park Hotel, Yorkshire | Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

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Traditional yet stylish would be how I sum up Polly and Joe's gorgeous wedding day which was held on Friday 25 th April, 2014 at Rudding Park Hotel & Spa. They planned their wedding from Canada and were super organised to ensure everything ran as smoothly as possible. It was important to them to have great music and great photography, of which there certainly was.

I love the subtle coral colour scheme running through the day, from the blooms mixed with succulents to the peachy bridesmaid dresses, it worked wonderfully. Polly looked elegant in lace, while Joe donned a bow tie. Adore.

Thanks goes to the marvellous Bloom Weddings for providing these images today.

THE PROPOSAL | We went to New York City to spend Christmas 2012 with Joe's family. After a few days in the city, Joe proposed on the shores of the Hudson River with the famous skyline behind us. He had designed the ring himself and had it made at their family jeweller - it's diamonds surrounding a large Sapphire and absolutely unique! I had always said that if someone were to propose to me I would like it to be somewhere private, so that I don't feel pressured to say yes. Joe took this into account and there was no one around. I said yes immediately and we went to the first shop we could find and bought some champagne to take back and celebrate with the family!

THE VISION | We wanted a very traditional, simple, family-oriented English wedding. Since we both have family in the North of England, we knew straight away that we would have it there. We wanted to make sure that we had the opportunity to speak to all of our guests, and that everyone would share the entire day with us so we kept it to 100 guests. We wanted to incorporate our own personality as a couple into the day subtly, whilst not over-complicating things and ensuring that we enjoy the day as well as our guests. Our priorities were to get good music to get everyone up dancing and have great photographers that would document the day - we succeeded in getting both!

THE PLANNING PROCESS | Planning was a little unusual as we both live in Vancouver, Canada so had to do it all from there with the help of our family and friends. Because of this we had to be extra organised! We visited England twice during the planning process; once a year before and again 3 months before. During these visits we scheduled lots of meetings and managed to sort everything we needed to. The rest we did from Canada via email and it was actually surprisingly stress-free.

THE VENUE | We had a church wedding at Our Lady Immaculate and St. Robert's Church in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. The reception was held at Rudding Park Hotel nearby in the small village of Folifoot. It is a small, privately-owned hotel which was once a stately home. It is surrounded by beautiful Yorkshire landscape and we knew straight away it was perfect. They have a separate wing for weddings so we had our own area for the whole day. We cannot compliment the staff enough for how great they were. From start to finish, they made us feel so special and the day ran so smoothly and was totally stress-free for us.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | I wore a Ronald Joyce dress with sleeves and a lovely plunging back. I knew immediately that it was the one for me when I tried it on. I loved the mermaid cut and the low back and together with the three-quarter length sleeves it was classic and mature but still very chic. It was completed with a long veil with lace trim. The veil was actually much longer than I had initially pictured but it came as part of the dress ensemble and went so well that I couldn't resist going a little over the top with it! My shoes were from Nine West, which we bought in Vancouver when my Mum & Dad came over to visit.

FINDING THE DRESS | I bought the dress on our first visit back to England as my Mum had told me that I was not allowed to try on a single dress without her there! I had done some research and knew that I wanted sleeves of some sort. I made appointments at a couple of stores in London first for my Mum and I but nothing was quite right. I found that they either seemed too casual for what I was looking for or they didn't really feel like 'me'. We then had a couple of appointment booked up in Harrogate and as soon as I tried the dress on I knew it was the one.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Joe wore a tailored, custom-made navy blue suit courtesy of Indochino. To accompany, he wore a double-breasted grey tweed waistcoat and a matching tweed bowtie. To finish off the outfit, he wore classic black brogues and a crisp white shirt with his initials embroidered in the cuff. He has a coral and green buttonhole to match the brides flowers. Joe knew straight away the look he wanted to achieve and was very specific about it from the get go! In the end, he was really pleased with the result - and so was I. The groomsmen and Father's all wore navy suits from Mark's and Spencer's, complimented with coral striped pocket squares and grey ties.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Our ceremony was a full nuptial mass so we chose 2 readings from the Bible which were read during the service by Polly's older brothers - Nick & Chris. We also had the poem 'Desiderata' by Max Ehrmann read by Joe's Uncle Julian and a selection of bidding prayers read by his other uncle, Craig - both of which added personal touches to the ceremony. The music was played on the Church Organ and for the Bride's entrance, we chose 'Canon in D' and at the end, Joe and I walked out to 'The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba'. We also chose 3 hymns for during the ceremony, it began with 'Morning has Broken', then 'Be Still' then we finished with 'Jerusalem' which went down very well with all our guests!

During the drinks reception, we had a pianist playing. He was fantastic and played a great variation of music, as well as taking requests from people. For the evening entertainment, we had a DJ who started off the night by playing our first dance song - 'I won't last a day without you' by Paul Williams. After that, my dad had requested 'Just the way you look tonight' for our Father/Daughter dance.

We also had a band - Vibetown - who played 2 sets of motown and modern pop songs. They were absolutely amazing and, together with the DJ, had the dancefloor filled all night!

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I had 3 bridesmaids and a Maid of Honour. My bridesmaids were Lizzie (Joe's Sister), Sarah (my Sister-in-Law) and Helen (my best friend from school). My Maid of Honour was also called Helen - my best friend from University. It took us a while to hunt for dresses that worked for everyone. My initial thought was that they would be a rich coral colour. Above all, I wanted everyone to be comfortable with what they were wearing and I was not going to force anyone to wear anything they hated! After looking for a long time in both specialist stores & on the high street, we ended up finding the perfect dress in Marks & Spencers! It was a light peach, knee-length dress, which suited everyone really well. As for accessories, they wore any shoes that they wanted to. On the morning of the wedding, we had a room at Rudding Park where we all got ready together. My thank-you gifts to the girls had a necklace with their initial on, a pashmina to keep them warm (it was April after all!) an a floral robe that we all wore on the morning to get ready. They all looked absolutely beautiful on the day. I am really happy we went for a softer peach, they were subtle and classy and matched the coral and green bouquets so well.

THE FLOWERS | Joe really loved the idea of having succulents incorporated in the flowers so that afterward we could keep them and re-plant them. We loved the idea of having rich coral and peaches together with natural green foliage. Our florist was Rudding Park's in house florist and was fantastic. She understood exactly what we were going for! We had coral & peach ranunculus, coral double tulips, peach miss piggy roses, berried eucalyptus, echiveria & gypsophelia.

The Groom, Groomsmen & Father's wore a buttonhole made up of a peach Miss Piggy rose & a small echiveria succulent.

We had the same flowers incorporated into our table decorations. The top table, which was horseshoe shaped had a long arrangement along the top edge. The rest of the tables were circular with wreath arrangements that surrounded silver candelabras.

THE CAKE | It took a little while for Joe and I to decide on the filling - he loves fruitcake but I don't like it at all, but we also liked the tradition of saving the top tier of the cake for the first Christening! So, we compromised and had a 3-tier cake - the bottom and top tier were fruit cake and the middle tier chocolate sponge. We kept it very simple, white icing with flowers cascading down that matched our table arrangements.

We went to an antique market in Vancouver to find a unique cake topper. We eventually found one that was a bit unusual but we loved it immediately! It was a little sculpture of a goose couple and it looked perfect sat on top of the cake.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Chris and Annie, from Bloom Photography, were awesome! We were unable to meet with them initially as we booked them from Canada. We wanted someone who would just capture the day as it unfolded, so that we could just enjoy the day and not having to spend too much time away from our guests doing posed shots. We met Chris and Annie at Christmas, 3 months before the wedding for our engagement shoot. We had no idea what we wanted as we are a little camera-shy but they made us feel so comfortable straight away! On the day, Chris captured Joe and his groomsmen getting ready whilst Annie stayed with the girls and captured our preparation. They stayed for the entire day, right until the end of the night and also did a fun photobooth for us too.

We loved their creativity; they really looked at the uniqueness of our venues and looked for different ways to capture it and our guests. They even managed to use the rain outside as a feature, putting the flash behind us to create an almost fairytale effect. The result is amazing, and we are able to re-live the entire day over and over.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We had a couple of unique features to our décor which we thought really displayed our personalities as a couple. We named our tables after ancestral family names, displaying the name, family crest & motto on each table and on the plan. This was our way of making sure that those who couldn't be there with us were remembered.

Initially we were not going to have favours, but Joe had a great idea that we were able to do on a budget. My dad had recently cut down some trees in the back yard, so we asked him if he would cut them into thin slices. We designed and bought a fire brand which said 'Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words - P&J' and branded each wood slice. After this, we varnished them (lots of coats!) and finished them off with some coral ribbon and a thank-you tag. Each guest got either a magnet or a coaster to remember the day. We were really happy that we put the time in to make these, they turned out really great and each one was unique, which made it even more special.

THE HONEYMOON | We spent our honeymoon in Italy, travelling to Rome a couple of day after the wedding. We stayed there for 2 nights then travelled down to a town called Praiano on the Amalfi Coast for a week. We chose to stay in a small, family-run hotel, which had a fabulous view of the coast. The food was fantastic, fresh pasta, seafood and Champagne all day - plus amazing Limoncello! It was our first proper holiday together in over 4 years, so we took advantage and did absolutely nothing - just relaxed!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | When we left the church as a married couple, we got into a vintage 1930's Roll's Royce, which was lovely. I had hidden a gift for Joe in the car and when we were in, with a glass of Champagne I gave Joe his first gift from his wife - a new Swiss-made watch. I'd had it engraved on the back with the date of the wedding and part of a Mark Twain quote - 'Always Beside You'.

The speeches were fantastic, my dad got some laughs, but finished up making everyone in the room sob - including me! Joe forgot his speech notes and did it from memory, but he did a great job!

I threw the bouquet from the top of the grand staircase, which was a lot of fun. We had lots of girls battling to catch it but in the end it was caught by one of our male friends - that got lots of laughs!

The whole day was absolutely perfect, everything went really smoothly and neither of us felt stressed at any point - the only problem was that it went too fast!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Keep it simple - don't try to do too many things and remember that whatever happens on the day is OK! Little things will go wrong, but ultimately everyone will have fun and it will be just as you wanted it to be.

Have a receiving line! We wanted to do this to keep with the traditional feel of our wedding and we are both so happy that we did. We had it from the reception into the dinner and it was us and both sets of parents. It was a lovely opportunity to say 'Hi' and 'Thank You' and have a little catch up with every guest, taking a little pressure of us worrying that there would be guests that we didn't get chance to talk to. It's also a great time to regroup after the ceremony and reception & have a breather before dinner - I would recommend that all couples should have this!

Also, be over-organised. We got as many things finalised as possible in Canada before we travelled home. This meant that the week leading up to the wedding was very calm and we could just enjoy spending time with family & friends.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Church | Our Lady Immaculate & St. Robert's Church, Harrogate

Venue | Rudding Park Hotel & Spa

Photography | Bloom Photography

Dress | 'Philippa' by Ronald Joyce from Harrogate Wedding Lounge

Grooms Suit | IndoChino

Flowers | Flowers by Colette

Cake | Sugar Crafted Cakes

Cars | Wedding Car Harrogate

Pianist | Matthew Watts

Band | Vibetown

DJ | Audio Events

Dinner Chairs | YF Events

Stationery | Wolf Whistle Studio

Make-up | Sharon Hart Makeup

Gorgeous, and proof that a rainy wedding day can be amazing - just see that rain shot!

Thanks so very much to Polly and Joe for sharing their brilliant wedding story with us here at WWW XOXO Lou

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