Katie & Mike

Hold on to your hats team, as this wedding is a total blast from start to finish. Gorgeous fashion and details are kind of a given with RMW real weddings, but we feature photographers and videographers with lots of different styles (quality being the similarity between them all). And today it's all about fun and creativity. Katie and Mike chose The Crawleys as their photographers and This Modern Revelry to film their big day - these guys both love to capture the individual personalities brought to a wedding day and I have a feeling you're going to really like looking at the images and watching the film. So grab a cuppa, get comfortable and enjoy...the joy is simply infectious!

The Venue

Katie the Bride: I’d visited Walcot Hall as a teenager and the venue had always stuck in my mind due to its rambling countryside and quirky accommodation. As soon as we visited the venue and met with Caitlin (the general manager at Walcot Hall), we knew it would be for us. All of our family and friends could stay within the grounds so there was no need for taxis, and you’re allowed to choose your own suppliers - and the sky’s the limit when it comes to decorations.

The Bride

I found my dress by combining the elements I’d liked from different dresses I’d tried. A fishtail shape, a low back and a v-neck in front. By focussing on this when I tried on my wedding dress I found the ‘Elia’ Atelier Pronovias dress I wanted to wear on the day, which flattered my body shape and was simple with a lovely beaded detail on the capped sleeves. I bought my dress from Leonie Claire in Hove. They have a great variety of brands so you can try on different ‘genres’ of dress. They were also so friendly and flexible when I needed to make appointments. I wanted to keep my accessories simple, I wore vintage sapphire and diamond earrings which were a gift from Mike for the day. My shoes were round toed heels from LK Bennett – I chose these as I wanted shoes to match Mike’s suit and as my ‘something blue’. My veil was borrowed from my beautiful and most stylish bridesmaid Clare - it’s very simple and easy to wear. I then had freesias tucked into my hair for when the veil came off for party time! My hair was done by the lovely Tabby (Hair by Tabitha) – she’s talented, friendly and thorough!

The Groom

Mike’s suit was from Paul Smith it was tailored to fit him, nipping it in at the waist and lifting the arms slightly so the edges of his shirt cuffs could be seen. As Mike wears a suit and tie every day for work, we jazzed the suit up with a soft pink tie from Reiss and a lightly checked grey waistcoat and brogues from Ted Baker. This was topped off with a sapphire and pearl tiepin which belonged to my great-grandfather which was worn by my dad on his wedding day too.

The Decor

As Walcot Hall is so beautiful – especially in summer with its gardens in bloom, I didn’t go overboard with the decorations. I sourced my flowers from a local florist who grows her own flowers. Kath also created the bouquets for myself and my bridesmaids. I originally wanted all white flowers but quickly realised that this probably wasn’t going to be possible with local seasonal flowers, so we went for white and different shades of pink. My very talented friend Victoria was our florist - I chose hurricane lanterns with a white candle in and with a wreath of flowers surrounding it (we got these from Ikea). For the main decorations we had big vases of flowers around the venue. For the ceremony I had some David Austin rose trees topping and tailing the aisle. They smell delicious and are grown in Shropshire where our wedding took place.

The Wedding Party

Our groomsmen wore soft grey suits from River Island – we bought these from ASOS, and thin blush ties from Ties Planet (these were so hard to find!). I had 7 bridesmaids and I knew I wanted them to wear white dresses, and we found some really simple good quality ones from Thread at John Lewis which suited everyone. As a gift I bought all of the girls a pair of pearl earring which were handmade by a lady on Etsy (link below), all of my ladies wore these on the day.

The Ceremony

It was important to us to get married at the venue; Walcot had the option to get married outside in their garden next to a beautiful fountain (we got so lucky with the weather). Finding readings was one of the things we deliberated over the most. Mike’s dad read ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling at our ceremony which is one of our favourite poems, he introduced it so well by saying that it was good advice to a new couple starting marriage as well as from a father to a son. One of my best friends Mainga also read Blessing for a Marriage by James Dillet Freeman, which echoed what we wanted to say about our relationship and marriage. At one point the registrar said “Take your wife” when she meant to say “take your husband” that really made us giggle helped us let go of some of our nerves.

The Entertainment

We booked Funky Buddha music 7-piece band and they were incredible! As well as a 2 hour set in the evening they also offered us a 30 minute band set during our reception. We also hired Prop Ltd as our photo booth on the night, which was excellent fun. The guys who run it are so friendly and accommodating, I love seeing our photo booth photos and messages.

The Food

Our cake was a cake made of delicious cheeses from The Cheese Hamlet in my hometown of Didsbury. My mum and in-laws also as a surprise bought a Melton Mowbray pork pie cake, which was the preference of my husband to be (I’d originally vetoed it). By the end of the night that cake had been completely demolished. Our wedding breakfast and canapes were made by a local catering business Oak Apple. We had a delicious 3 courses of salad with dolce latte cheese, parma ham and melon, followed by beef fillet, dauphinoise potatoes and seasonal greens. We topped it off with a lemon tart which was light and zesty! The food was incredible and such good value. The evening food was all done by the grooms wonderful parents Pete & Lorraine who spent weeks making endless quiches and chutneys to go with the cheese cake.

The Photography

We chose the amazing Crawleys – Liam was so friendly, he knew Walcot Hall really well and came up with so many clever angles and ideas on the day. We loved working with him, the pictures he captured are so lovely and natural.

The Videography

I was lucky enough to know Laura from This Modern Revelry from my school days, so through my own Facebook is how I first heard about their company. Laura and Alan are so friendly, so cool and so creative – we love the video they created for us and still watch it weekly. They capture your personalities and the essence of our relationship; which is and I hope will always be love and fun.

Special Details

We created our stationery by a friend sketching sections of the venue and we put this together with two fonts we chose. A creative friend put these together for us after I sketched out how I wanted them to look and I sourced a local printer to print these for me. It did take up quite a lot of time but I love how personal the stationery was to us and our wedding.

{Watch The Film}