Dodmoor House Christmas wedding with navy & gold colour scheme

There's a definite chill in the air today, it feels like Autumn is well and truly here (in fact over on our lifestyle site today we're sharing an excellent edit of easy Autumn fashion)...and so it feels totally acceptable to be using the C word. Christmas that is. Now when it comes to Christmas weddings, most people (understandably) worry about things looking too twee, or perhaps sponsored by CocoCola. Well worry no more, as Kristina and Nick are about to show you exactly how to make a Christmas wedding look super stylish. With a navy, gold and white colour palette, tonnes of twinkling fairy lights and elegant, thoughtful details. Images come from Chris Barber! Enjoy!

The Bride

Kristina the Bride: As soon as we had booked our wedding date our plans went into overdrive, and first on the list was the dress! As we had booked our wedding date for just before Christmas, and we knew it would probably be quite cold (this is the UK after all!!), I decided that I wanted something quite covered up and was also keen on having something really plain. However, as soon as I tried on the gorgeous Ellison by Maggie Sottero, all of those ideas went out of the window! I completely fell in love with the beautiful lace and beading - and loved the fact that it was backless - it was like nothing I had seen before! The girls at Wedding Belles of Four Oaks were super helpful, and made sure that the dress was altered to fit me perfectly. They also found a stunning headpiece that finished the dress of perfectly. As the dress was quite detailed, I decided against any jewellery, and just wore a pair of diamond stud earrings that my Aunt had gifted me for my 18th birthday, so I had my something old! I also found ‘THE’ shoes around the same time I found my dress - some gorgeous gold Christian Louboutins - but Nick and I both decided that these could wait until nearer the time as they were a bit expensive! We went on holiday to New York in the December after we got engaged, and on the last day had a couple of hours to kill, so we decided to have a little look around Saks department store...low and behold they had THE shoes...in the sale...it must have been fate! When it comes to make-up, I am a bit clueless...but I wanted to look a bit glam without ending up looking like a clown on my wedding day. I found the very lovely Rowena through a friend of mine – and oh my gosh - she was just fantastic! She used an airbrush foundation, which made us all have beautiful flawless skin which didn’t feel like we were wearing any foundation at all – it was magical! Rowena really knew her stuff, and was so calming on the wedding morning, and our make-up lasted through the day and night (I was tempted to see if it would last the next day too haha!)

The Groom

Everyone that knows Nick knows that he is fussy – REALLY fussy! So I knew that when it came to him choosing his suit it would be a mission and a half! Nick decided that he wanted both of his brothers, who were his Best Men, his father, and my brother, who gave me away, to all wear the same suit - bar accessories. So off we went around numerous hire shops and department stores, to no avail surprise, surprise! In the end we came across an amazing shop in Leamington Spa, called Gent Boutique. Joe was so helpful in finding the perfect suit, and even made sure they were tailored to fit all of the groomsmen. Nick then chose some Oliver Sweeny Monk shoes and accessories from Reiss to finish off his outfit. They all looked absolutely gorgeous, and I was so overwhelmed when I saw Nick for the first time on the day!

The Venue

Choosing the right venue was really important to us both. We wanted somewhere really informal and relaxed, but with a bit of WOW factor – and Dodmoor House ticked all of those boxes! Not only are the converted barns stunning, being family run the entire team were really hands on – and boy, do the wedding planners live and breathe weddings! They all ensured that our day ran seamlessly and they had a plan for every eventuality, which took a lot of stress away from us! Their attention to detail was impeccable, and they used all of the decorations we provided to style the venue beautifully. Dodmoor also had numerous ‘Open Evenings’ throughout the year, so we could meet their suppliers – which was great - plus it really helped us as well, as on the wedding day itself we had visited so many times we felt right at home and it took away any wedding nerves!

The Décor

Although it was Christmas time, we didn’t want a ‘cheesy’ Christmas theme, so opted for navy and gold, with LOTS of fairy lights and candles, with a hint of Christmas here and there. We used Amanda at So Betty for our wedding stationery. Not only did she create some gorgeous bespoke wedding invitations, with our own little logo, she also made stickers that we popped on the Christmas crackers we put on the dinner tables for our guests, prints which were placed around the venue as decoration and the wedding bingo and sweepstake games which we played during the speeches, all to match our theme. Nothing was too much trouble for her, and when everything came together it looks fabulous. Nadia at JamJar wedding and events created our ceremony seat signs and sparkler tags, along with lovely goody bags for our two page boys filled with lots to keep them entertained during the speeches!

The Flowers

Our venue suggested Anna at Julie-Anna Flowers...florists were a minefield to us, so we were really happy to take the recommendation! We wanted something really simple, with whites and greens to compliment the wintery navy and gold theme we had going on. Anna was amazing and completely understood what we were after. After showing her the pictures I had collected on my Pinterest board she just went ahead and created – and we couldn’t have been more delighted with her ideas! The buttonholes and bouquets she made were stunning. She also trailed ivy along the long trestle tables we had set up for the wedding breakfast, and hung it from the candelabras in the barns, and provided loads of clear hurricane vases and tea light holders which made the barns twinkle! It all looked beautiful!

The Wedding Party

The bridesmaids wore beautiful tulle, navy floor length, multi-way dresses, which I found at Victoria-Lou Bridal. Vicki had an amazing range of colours and the dresses were really well priced too! I was really conscious that I wanted the girls to feel comfortable, and with the dresses being multi-way they could wear them anyway they liked! We chose our two gorgeous nephews as page boys, and they had suits to match the groomsmen, with the most adorable brogues from Marks and Spencer’s. They also carried signs made by The Old Potting Shed down the aisle – which added to their cute factor!

The Ceremony

The ceremony was the most magical part of our day, we loved every second and it was so special to us. I think I pretty much ran down the aisle to Nick as I was so excited to see him! We did have a moment where some of the ivy on the Registrars table caught alight just before Nick's Uncle Dave did his reading. Coincidentally he is a Fireman, so that made it even more comical! (No one was hurt in this incident!) We chose two readings – ‘He Never Leaves the Seat Up’ read by Dave, which we chose because we thought it was fun and relaxed (and I do clean a lot!), and also ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ read by my cousin, who was also my bridesmaid, Becki. This reading meant a lot to us, as we felt that it summed our relationship up perfectly!

The Entertainment

As soon as we started planning our wedding, Nick put ‘live band’ to the top of his wish list. Finding a good wedding band is really difficult - you are presented with loads of entertainment websites with little snippets of recordings that don’t actually give you a feel for what the band would be like live! Luckily for us, we found the ever so cool Burgundys! They are based in Nottinghamshire and play gigs in local pubs so pre-wedding folk can go and check them out before they commit to booking them! They were really fab – and even learnt of first dance song especially for us (Coldplay’s Sky Full of Stars – this song means so much to us and also didn’t want anything too slow that we had to awkward shuffle to!) Our guests were shouting ‘one more song’ each time they tried to finish their set – which is a sign of how fab they were! During the ceremony and drinks reception we has the amazingly talented Ariella Strings playing – walking down the aisle to them was just beautiful, and our guests commented on how gorgeous they sounded! They are the nicest people and had such a huge range of songs to choose from! We also wanted our guests to have loads of fun, so found a fab vintage photo booth hire company call Oh!Photobooth for our evening party. Our guests loved it, and they provided two copies of each photo – one to pop in our guest book and the other for our guests to take away with them, which was lovely memento!

The Food

Portfolio Events based in Northamptonshire were brilliant, they catered for our vegetarian and vegan guests really well too, and all of their food was delicious! We were really conscious that the break between the ceremony and the wedding breakfast was quite a long time, so Portfolio came up with a selection of yummy canapes to keep everyone’s hunger at bay. They brought in a little bit of Christmas serving pigs in blankets and miniature Christmas dinners amongst others! We had a traditional three course dinner – our favourite being the trio of deserts we chose – the sticky toffee pudding was something else! We had a scrummy three tier cake with chocolate fudge sponge, Madeira cake, finished off with red velvet cake for the top tier created by Gardeners Bakery with our wedding theme in mind. They also designed heart shaped cookie favours which doubled up as place names, to fit our theme too. As Nick has a sweet tooth, we also decided to have a sweet table for the evening party. Hannah at Sweet Retreat in Rugby provided us with copious amounts of sweet – including cola flavoured Christmas Trees and Gingerbread man gummies, with the jars finished off with navy ribbon to fit in with our theme!

The Photography

One of the most important things we wanted to have after our wedding day was wonderful memories to look back on, which is why it was essential for us to us to have an amazing photographer to capture them all! When we came across Chis Barber’s work, we were totally in love! We don’t think we are cool enough for the pout/pull a serious face pose, so we knew that we would be really comfortable with Chris, as none of his pictures were over styled or ‘staged’ looking! He absolutely had us and our guests in stitches whilst taking the ‘formal’ photographs (if you can call them formal as they were so fun!) and he just captured what came naturally. We have ended up with the most amazingly beautiful relaxed shots that we can’t stop looking at – he is an absolute genius! Chris worked so so hard on the day, and it really helped that he was such a nice guy and so easy to get on with. He also worked incredibly well with our videographer - considering they had never worked together before, they were a total Dream Team!

The Videography

Also on our list of ‘wedding must haves’ was a videographer – although we weren’t keen on seeing ourselves on screen - we were desperate to have our special day captured so we could re-live it for years to come. Craig, at Amazingdayz was actually on our venues suppliers list – and after following him on Facebook and seeing his creativity, we were sold! Not only is he an absolute top bloke, he was completely in the background and didn’t intrude on our day whatsoever! He captured every moment and we were blown away with our finished DVD – happy tears were flowing for sure when we watched it! You can check out our highlights video here: https://www.facebook.com/138118836266923/videos/1657719040973554/

Advice

Your wedding day is the day that you will treasure forever – it’s the start to a brand new chapter in your lives together, so you want it to be everything you dreamed of…within reason of course – turning up to your wedding on a Unicorn is a dream that ain’t ever gonna happen! Make sure you are super organised (get those excel spreadsheets at the ready!), look on Pinterest and of course RMW for ideas, don’t let any of the wedding politics dull your wedding sparkle – but most importantly, always keep in mind that your wedding day is about marrying the one you can’t live without, in front of all of your beautiful friends and families! If you remember that, you day will be as magical as can be – filled with love and laughter – and you can’t ask for anything more special than that!

{Watch The Film}