The 2018 Winter Wedding of Mr and Mrs Brown

After meeting via mutual friends, Dean was smitten straight away, but Laura needed more persuasion. Thankfully, due to Dean’s persistence we got together in June 2014 and have never looked back since.

The Proposal

Having chosen a ring together I knew that a proposal was going to happen sometime ~ but the actual event was a complete surprise to me. During a break in London, Dean had arranged to hire a private pod on the London Eye. So on the 18th August 2016, as we reached the topmost point on our “flight”,

Dean got down on one knee and proposed with the magnificent sights of London at sunset as our backdrop.

​The Dress

The day I bought my dress hadn’t started out as a Wedding Dress shopping expedition, just a ‘let’s call in here and see what they’ve got’ visit. I’d seen some dresses on line that I wanted to look at, and the shop had my favourite in stock. So I didn’t hang around; I tried it, bought it and took it home that day. When you know, you just know and I knew this was the one!

The Venue

Nothing we had seen felt right until we visited Redworth Hall. We loved how authentic the Great Hall was, it’s styling, warmth and character creates a unique atmosphere we had not experienced before. We also loved the fact that we would be the only wedding that day. Exclusivity meant it was our day our way.

We knew we wanted to get married in the winter and this is a perfect venue for a winter wedding with the beautiful grounds and grandeur of the hotel.

The Great Hall on the day was perfectly set just like we had visualised. All of our requests had been met from every little candle, to the real coal fires being lit. There was nothing to do or to worry about. Redworth Hall took care of it all.

We would absolutely recommend Redworth Hall to other couples looking for a venue. The overall feel and understanding from the staff make this an easy decision to make when booking your wedding.

Wedding Photography

We decided to work with Claire Hirst Photography as Claire had been recommended by a friend. She made us feel at ease from the start and understood our requirement to capture moments with natural shots.  This was very apparent from the detail that Claire put into the pre-wedding shoot; the morning of the planned shoot it had snowed, so Claire rang us very early to change the time so that we benefited from the pristine snowfall as a perfect backdrop to those photographs. Claire was very professional and we would give her a 10 out of 10. When we first saw our photos it felt really strange, as we really hadn’t had time on the wedding day to appreciate all the happy moments that she had captured for us. Seeing it again made us relive the day over and over again.

Venue Styling

My wonderful mam took charge of this and made all of the table centres, table numbers, seating plan, menu cards and the post box. We chose brownies as favours for our guests from Love Brownie in Ilkley; they came in beautiful boxes, smelt amazing, tasted delicious, and with a surname of Brown, what else would you expect!

Wedding soundtrack

We played classical music as our guests arrived, before the ceremony and throughout the wedding breakfast. While we signed the register, we chose music from films that meant something to us throughout our relationship. I walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of ‘Chasing Cars’ by Snow Patrol and we chose ‘Never Too Much’ by Luther Vandross for our first dance.

Memorable moment

There are so many: seeing Dean as I walked down the aisle, saying our vows, the speeches, the Great Hall set up exactly as we had envisioned, the laughter, the first dance.

One of my favourite times of the day occurred when I was getting ready in my room. Dean had left a present in a box for me with instructions not to open until the photographer arrived. I didn’t have any idea what was inside the box. When I opened the box, there was a lovely note from Dean and a pair of my dream shoes!

Honeymoon

We will be flying to America for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We are driving from New York to Boston, Niagara Falls, Washington and Philadelphia and back to New York for three days of sightseeing.

Hints & Tips

Look at every option, be savvy and do your research. Don’t let the budget run away with you. You know what you want so keep your vision in mind. Listen to recommendations and check out Pinterest for ideas.