Lorna & Jon

This wedding may be in the city at The Baltic by the River Tyne but it looks like a delicate blush and gold country wedding with its fabulous blooms, dreamy dresses and gorgeous ombre cake. Lorna's couture Portifino Gemy Maalouf gown from Mirror Mirror Bridal is heavenly. Wait until you see the exquisite beaded detailing on the back. You are undoubtably going to swoon with delight. Then there's her fabulous Rachel Simpson shoes. Plus the giant balloons and tissue tassels carried by the Bride a Groom really add a fun element to the stunning portraits captured by RMW fave Sarah-Jane Ethan Photography. Did I mention the festoon lights and light up letters too? Come see. All of the details are just lovely.

The Dress

Lorna the Bride: I had seen the Portifino dress by Gemy Maalouf online about 2 years before my wedding (it was a long engagement!) and loved it. When I called Mirror Mirror initially and found out the price I decided that it was out of my league. I shopped around some other stores but didn’t find anything that overwhelmed me, so I knew that I needed to try on the Gemy Maalouf dress to get it out of my mind. When I tried it, I knew I had to have it- I had to put in a quick call to my fiance and he told me to go for it, if it was going to make me happy! In the end, my 98 year old granddad told me he wanted to pay for my dress, which was amazing and helped enormously.

The Grooms Fashion

Jon wanted to get a made to measure suit, so he went to Hackett in Covent Garden and picked out the colour, material and cut. It took around 6 weeks to be made. When he went to his first fitting, the lining of the suit was pillar box red, and not the sky blue that he had chosen. It was a bit stressful but Hackett changed the lining with no problems and it was ready the week before the wedding. They also gave him a complimentary tie which fitted in with the colour scheme perfectly. The groomsmen’s ties and pocket squares were made by a colleague of the groom, who in his spare time makes amazing ties and bow ties.

The Venue

We originally planned to get married in London, but the venues that we liked were so expensive we decided to look to the North East, which is where I’m from. Neither of us wanted a stately home wedding, but wanted something more modern and different which would be easy for guests travelling from London and staying in Newcastle. Mary Jane Jean-Mariam the planner at The Baltic was great, she replied to all of our emails promptly and it was great to have her as a point of contact, with us living so far away. She recommended the DJ who also provided the strings of lights in the ceremony/ evening reception room, and we used Coco Luminaire for the illuminated heart and ‘love’ letters. The day ran seamlessly, thanks to the staff at The Baltic. All of the guests have since commented on what a great day it was and how easy it all was- we had the ceremony in a room overlooking the river, went upstairs for the wedding breakfast and then back to the cafe for tea and coffee, before cocktails and dancing in the ceremony room.

Colour Scheme/Decor

I was really keen to get the bridesmaids dresses sorted out early on in the planning process, and the colour scheme flowed from there. The dresses were an unusual shade of coral/ terracotta, and looked great against all of the bridesmaids different skin tones. I thought that rose golds/ coppers and peachy shades would look lovely against the dresses. I got slightly overcome by the colour scheme in the end, picking out a pair of copper Birkenstocks to wear on honeymoon, and buying copper coloured gift bags to put thank you presents in, and shipping enormous copper filled confetti balloons with tassel tails all the way from America on Etsy: but I definitely think it was worth it!

Flowers

Amy at The Greenhouse Florist in York was recommended to me by a friend, as they went to school together. I loved all of her bouquets on her website, and apart from me giving her some general guidance on the colour and showing her a few pictures from Pintrest, let her have free reign. The flowers were absolutely stunning and I loved my bouquet with the unusual succulents.

The Wedding Party Fashion

I wanted the bridesmaids to be comfortable but feel glamourous, but also be able to wear their dresses again. One of the bridesmaids fell pregnant after I had bought her dress so there was a slight panic about wether she’d be able to fit into the dress- in the end we were able to pick up another dress in a bigger dress in the sale. The Reiss dress fitted the bill, and I bought all of the bridesmaids rose gold Estelle Barlett necklaces to wear on the day, as a thank you present. Jon’s 4 year old niece was our flower girl, and she wore a stunning sequined dress from Jigsaw which was cream and bronze, which she adored wearing. I also got her an Estelle Bartlett necklace to wear, so she really felt like one of the bridesmaids.

Ceremony

We had a Humanist ceremony, and it was very personal and special. Neither of us are religious and we wanted a ceremony that reflected who we are, more than a civil ceremony can. In having a Humanist ceremony it meant that we also got to do it again a few days later at the local registry office, when my 98 year old granddad could come and see me in my dress, which was really special. We had two readings, one from Disney’s Pocahontas, and one which I picked and Jon didn’t know about until the day. On the morning of the wedding I had bought Jon a copper coloured tie pin from Etsy, which was stamped on the reverse with the date of the wedding, along with a copy of the children’s book, ‘I Like You’ by Sandol Stoddard Warburg. My cousin read an edited version of the book: there was not a dry eye in the house!

Entertainment

DJ Ben from Bride & Groove provided a playlist for during the day, and early evening, before the party got into full swing. Ben had asked up to put together a list of 30 or so songs so he could build a playlist. Unfortunately we got carried away and put together about 7 hours worth of music. The DJ didn’t end up playing a lot of the songs we picked, and I was really disappointed as we had invested quite a lot of time picking out songs. If I did it again I would maybe have just plugged in our playlist! However, the songs that the DJ played were great and it was a really fun party- there was dancing until well after 1am!

Food

I have coeliac disease, but love cake, so finding a good gluten free cake was high priority. I found Maureen from Whitley Cakes online as she was local, and the cake she made was delicious. I had found a picture on Pinterest of an ombre buttercream frosted cake, and I gave Maureen a sample of the colour of the bridesmaids dress and she took it from there. The cake was red velvet, and absolutely delicious!

Photographer

Sarah-Jane Ethan was recommended to me by another photographer whose pictures I had seen online but who wasn’t available on our date. I’m so pleased the original photographer wasn’t free because Sarah-Jane’s photographs are absolutely amazing. She is such an easy person to have around on the day, there was no standing around for hours and hours of boring posed shots, and she seemed to catch loads of perfect moments throughout the day. Her photographs are so light and bright, and I think they really capture the fun that everyone was having.

Final Thoughts, Advice 7 DIY

Drawing on the talents of friends and families was a must for us, and meant that the day was really personal. The hair and makeup artists are all friends of ours, and it was lovely to get ready with familiar faces. The design of the stationery, which included a different symbol for my home town and one for Jon’s, and the printing of the stationery by Jon’s cousin, was perfect. We’ve framed one of our invites at home, we loved it so much! Pintrest is great- but it’s easy to get carried away. I found it helpful to look back at earlier pins and edit out pins as the scheme for the day developed. I found it particularly useful for flowers and the cake. Once the colour scheme was decided, I bought a bespoke stamp and embossing powder in copper, and embossed the favour envelopes, and name tags for the seating plan. I wish I had roped in some friends to help with this as it was time consuming and the embossing glitter got everywhere. It looked amazing on the day though, and I’m glad I followed the colour scheme through all the details, as they really pulled everything together- even though my other half thought I was barmy! I bought a lot of dried flower confetti online, which was expensive, and when it arrived to my mam’s house she decided it didn’t look like enough. She set about making her own which apparently is quite easy to do (she tells me)! I’m so pleased she did as the confetti pictures are some of my favourite from the day. She also made brown paper cones to hold the confetti and I embossed some stickers to hold the cones together with our names and the date in the copper colour.