Laura & Scott

OMG lovely ones, this wedding!!! I don't think I've ever blogged anything quite like it. Laura and Scott live on an airfield and so Eshott Airfield felt like home from home for them. The lofty, industrial space of an aircraft hanger is just SUCH a cool space for a celebration and Laura flew in, yes FLEW IN, to her wedding. As if that wasn't enough, the couple totally nailed the decor too - with Scott being really handy and Laura having a great eye for design, the overall look is gorgeous and very current. I won't even mention the fact that Laura looks like Katy Perry crossed with an Old Hollywood Siren AND the photography from Nigel John is simply stunning...SO much love for this one...

The Photography

Laura The Bride: We instantly fell in love with Nigel’s work when we saw it, we loved the way he captures ‘real’ moments. We had already decided we didn’t want formal wedding photographs, and Nigel understood exactly how to capture our day in a way that reflects us as a couple. Nigel visited our venue beforehand (he brought cherry pie which always helps!) and he immediately put us at ease. He identified where the best lighting would be and at what time, which allowed us to plan in our time for photographs perfectly. I love that the private photographs of us are at sunset!

The Bride

When Scott proposed in February he also announced he had booked our wedding venue...only 6 month away in August! This made most bridal shops I visited gasp in horror and instil panic in me to order a dress as fast as possible (not helpful seen as I had no idea what I wanted). When I walked into Kathryn Trueman’s the staff and Kathryn where amazing and instantly put me at ease. They have a huge selection of styles, which made the whole process so much easier. The dress I ended up buying I almost didn’t try on because of how it looked on the hanger...I would definitely recommend trying every style on as they look entirely different on. If I could have had a dress change every hour I would have just to be able to wear all of the styles I loved. I initially thought having such an industrial venue meant I should look for a more informal wedding dress. I love getting dressed up so thought sod it, and went full on old school Hollywood glam. Probably not what I would have imagined given where our wedding was! My engagement ring and wedding band are two rings connected to make one ring. I once told Scott half joking that I didn’t want a diamond engagement ring...‘Just buy me a wedding ring and tell me when to show up’ I remember saying...that is exactly what he did! My good friend Jayne and her husband are amazingly talented jewellers and Scott knows I adore their work. He secretly took a piece of costume jewellery which I always wore and gathered unwanted and broken gold from his family. Lulu and Charles melted this down and then used the costume ring to create a template for my engagement/wedding ring. He also managed to sneak in a lovely big diamond from an old engagement ring given to him by his mother. There was a little gold left over from mine so when I found out what he had done after he proposed I went on a little gold hunt myself and used some old jewellery from my parents to create his wedding ring. We actually used old engagement/eternity rings (both our parents are divorced) We love how Lulu & Charles are able to make both our rings from the same gold and they are totally unique. They cost a fraction of what high street jewellers would charge and it makes them more personal and special to us. I chose Perspex sandals that only cost £30...however they were about as comfortable as they sound and I ended up in a pair of white converse the whole time!

The Flowers

It was Nigel our photographer who recommended Wildflower to us, no researching required! We had a meeting to discuss colours/styling and agree on D.I.Y bouquets which were perfect. D.I.Y bouquets are made up of a selection of flowers/foliage from my colour palette and delivered to the venue the day before, meaning I could dress the venue to keep costs down. I knew I wanted wild delicate flowers to act as a contrast to our industrial venue, with lots of greenery included too. We hired a large light fitting to suspend above the bar and this was dressed with huge green foliage and looked so impressive. All of our suppliers worked amazingly well together as they had worked on previous weddings together, this made constructing our venue so much easier and less stressful.

The Venue

Our venue, Eshott Airfield, was very much the focal point for our wedding. Scott booked this before he had proposed and it is exactly where I would have chosen too. We live on an airfield and our wedding venue was a huge aircraft hanger. With the hanger doors fully open it frames an uninterrupted view of rural Northumberland. The scale of the venue was not only impressive but also terrifying! It’s a working hanger, so up until 3 days before the wedding was home to over 40 aeroplanes (and birds). I knew straight away I didn’t want to over dress the venue. We thought it was the ideal setting for a pop up style wedding, and wanted it to have more of a food festival vibe than traditional wedding. We had to be pretty organised as the hanger had no running water or electricity… or staff! Where do you store ice cubes for drinks?! What do you drink out of?! We hired/ borrowed/made everything that went inside. Generator, fridges, furniture, bins, bar, toilets (we didn’t make the toilets by the way!) … there was so much you had to consider! The flexibility of the space outweighed the stress of setting the venue up, and we love that we are the only people who have every been married there. We held the service outside, meaning the hanger could be dressed for the wedding and not need an isle/seating arranged after the ceremony.

The Decor & Styling

The décor and styling really took on a life of its own! We didn’t want the hanger to look too ‘dressed’ however what we did dress it with needed to be impressive enough to sit within such a huge space, or we would run into danger of props looking like – in the words of our florist ‘a pea on a drum!’ We tackled lighting first, and hired Festoon Lighting. This completely transformed the venue; this is where we also hired the cognac case light fitting that went above the bar. I would defiantly recommend investing in a focal point if you are holding a wedding in a venue not set up for weddings. Lighting was so important and helped us create a real atmosphere. Scott was amazing at dressing the venue, we up-cylced and made a lot of stuff (well he did), mainly to keep the costs down but also just because we could! Scott converted a shipping container into a workshop and set about building benches made from old wooden boards and beer kegs he made huge A-frames for our bar and food menu, all of the wooden signs to direct our guests. His best idea to date as putting some huge oak trees in the venue. We have a tree nursery business, so used our stock to transform the venue and add a bit of greenery. Watching a huge farm machine tilt a 25 foot high oak tree sideways to fit through the hanger doors was one moment that will stick with me for some time! When it came to dressing the tables, my amazing bridesmaid kindly put me in touch with her sister-in-law who owns YouFolk Studio. She was amazing and helped me decide what each of the tables needed then hired us the jars to dress the flowers in. I didn’t want anything to match; this can be a hard task to achieve especially if you are buying everything at once! So hiring items to dress our venue was a perfect option for us.

The Food

My sister made our cake which was devoured by our guests before I even saw it! We had cake table which we filled with pies and sweet treats and welcomed guests to tuck in to a bit of everything! To go with our food festival vibe we chose The Earl of Pitt Street to do our outdoor catering, not only is this one of my favourite places to eat but also owned by my close friends. We wanted our guests to choose where they sat and what they ate, so I made food tokens, which were given out on arrival. We made food available for a couple of hours and guests could swap their token for some hot food whenever they fancied! Mark Lagun helped put together an eclectic menu of food that we love. We deliberately didn’t tell people what was on the menu, but we wanted our guests to experience delicious food that they maybe wouldn’t normally choose. If I had told my Granda we were having squid or Lamb Rendang curry he would have asked for a ham sandwich! As expected the food was a huge hit and completely cleared! One of Scotts friends owns a gin distillery and had recently converted an old Citroen into a gin bar. This made not only a fantastic prop inside the hanger, but also offered guests a chance to try out Newcastle Gin, which we both love. We also hired a bar and bought some kegs of beer.

The Bridesmaids

Choosing bridesmaid dresses was quite a hilarious process. I made the mistake of telling my two very honest bridesmaids that they could choose their own dresses, as I know how particular they are and wanted them to feel comfortable. Que months of them hating everything I chose, them liking every style and colour that clashed with everything I had chosen. Their suggestions ranged from dressing up as the groom, each other or a pantomime horse! The more this stressed me out the more they enjoyed the process. They pulled it out of the bag though and chose a stunning (bargain) navy lace dress, which they found in the sale in Debenhams. They made the whole build up to the wedding so much fun by keeping things light hearted (I will put them on my supplier list out for hire...they are an essential for stressy brides who take their weddings too seriously!)

The Groom & Groomsmen

This was also super easy. Scott and his two best men wore navy trousers and a simple tie. We wanted them to feel comfortable all day. My little brother walked me down the isle and he loved matching the big boys in their smart shoes!

The Stationery

I did all of our stationery myself. I am a surface designer and have just set up a laser cutting studio so our wedding was a perfect opportunity for me to utilise my skills! I mainly use wood from our land, which made everything all the more personal and special. I made our signs, confetti, food tokens and other bits to decorate our tables.

The Entertainment

The Baghdaddies were awesome! I heard about them from various suppliers who told us about the amazing atmosphere they created...I couldn’t even tell you what style of music they played. Some sort of fusion, funk, brass band eclectic mix. I loved that you could hear the Geordie accent in their voices! They rocked up in a van half way through the wedding and serenaded me and Scott...all of our guests thought this was all pre planned but it really wasn’t! They created such an awesome atmosphere and everybody was up dancing. By far one of the most fun elements that we added.

The Transport

Transport was pretty easy holding a wedding on an airfield...I flew in! Our good friend Rob hired a plane and flew us both in separately. Flying over our venue and seeing all of our guests sat outside waiting for me was quite emotional. My little brother flew with me and walked me down the aisle. I only agreed to fly in for him but in the end he ended up calming me down the whole time! I love how flexible our pop up venue was and that it allowed us to be totally creative and park our plane at the bottom of the aisle!