Sarah & Zack

As I look outside my window it's currently grey and drizzly, but my mood (as will yours) has definitely been lifted whilst putting together this pastel pretty country wedding at Middleton Lodge in Yorkshire. Sarah & Jack are an adorable couple with a small budget but have managed to pull off the most incredible celebration. Starting with the sweetest outdoor ceremony and culminating in a gorgeous marquee reception. The sea of floral arrangements are delicious, including eucalyptus and peach, blush & lilac roses by List members Wedding and Events Floral Design, which I have a feeling may get pinned within an inch of their lives, not to mention those bouquets. There's lots of love for Sarah's Jenny Packham gown too, which she cleverly sourced from Preloved to save some pennies. And don't her Bridesmaids look heavenly in blue Coast gowns? I love the delicate lace cap sleeves and V back. Plus that half up, half down do with fresh flowers is something else. I won't keep you any longer as I'm sure you're dying to take a look at all the gorgeousness captured by Sarah-Jane Ethan Photography now...

{Pin The Moodboard}

The Proposal

Sarah the Bride: On a holiday to Mallorca with our family and little boy, Zack proposed at night on the beach. He hadn’t plucked up the courage to tell his parents of his plans to propose, so after failed attempts at him asking them if we could have some alone time on our walk, we set off with toddler in tow. Seizing the moment, Zack asked me to marry him - to which I said “of course!” without realising he was actually proposing. He was so nervous that when he went to get the ring out of his pocket, he dropped it in the sand! He got down on one knee and we had the most special moment I will always remember.. Until we realised we’d left Joel (our son) sat watching obliviously in his pushchair! Two years later we tied the knot in Richmond.

The Dress

Choosing my wedding dress was (naturally) the first thing on my list of priorities. From getting engaged I think I only managed around a week before I had already started pouring over images of wedding dresses on Pinterest! Jenny Packham had always been my favourite wedding dress designer, but was quickly written off due to our tight budget. However, one night searching on Preloved I found my perfect Jenny Packham dress second hand for less than half the price in my size (despite only being 5ft0!) With looking so young, my worst fear was looking like I was going to prom, but the dress wasn’t too big or fussy on my tiny frame unlike many dresses that had drowned my height - simple yet elegant and sparkly with a hint of 20’s style which I adored and made me feel extra glamorous!

The Suits

Zack The Groom: From the beginning, I knew the type of suit I wanted to get. We wanted a tight fitting skinny navy suit in a tuxedo style. After searching in quite a few shops, we ended up settling upon an inexpensive (cha-ching!) suit from Next which fit perfectly - a hard feat as it had to suit the skinny-jean loving groomsmen and both our fathers. From there, we got silver ties to tie in with the bridesmaid dresses (no pun intended). We also got Joel (our son) a miniature version of my suit and tie, as well as some cute navy suede brogues from Zara to match my style.

The Venue

Sarah the Bride: After initially dismissing Middleton Lodge as being presumptively out of our budget we ended up going there for a Brides Up North wedding fair and were wowed by how different it was to other nearby venues! We loved that they were so flexible - from having your ceremony outside, to having use of both the main house and the gorgeous marquee, to a vast range of food options, and being the only wedding with the whole place to yourself for the day and overnight with beautiful Georgian bedrooms for your guests to stay in. They also had really adaptable pricing which meant that it ended up being within our budget after all! My favourite aspect of getting married at Middleton Lodge (other than the amazing scenery!) was Anna, our wedding coordinator. She was brilliant and guided us every step of the way and gave us so many ideas, with attention to detail to things we never would have even thought of! Anna made our wedding day so smooth and easy and really felt like a friend by the time we left.

The Flowers & Styling

Jane from Wedding & Events Floral Design was amazing! She was really personal, helping us to create something that was perfect for us and the venue. It was so reassuring to us that she had worked so closely with Middleton Lodge as their recommended supplier and knew exactly what would work to create our vision. We started with a colour scheme of soft pinks, peaches and white, styling with luxe metallic accents and adding in greenery with eucalyptus leaves. I totally trusted Jane to run with her creativity, so from there she added in hints of lilac to tie in with the bridesmaid dresses and ties and created an amazing foliage runner with candles across the top table which we loved! My favourite aspect of the floristry was the addition of my favourite flowers into the bouquets - David Austin roses!

The Ceremony

We were very lucky to end up with a beautiful sunny wedding outdoors in the gardens at Middleton Lodge, despite the weather forecast suggesting it would be otherwise. We had an intimate civil ceremony with favourite poems read by our close family, followed by a blessing from our church Pastor. A really special part of our ceremony was the music performed by our close friends who lead in the church worship team. It was amazing to have all our favourite people celebrating around us and taking part in the ceremony to make it so memorable and unique to us.

Photography

Our wedding photography was one of our favourite aspects of the wedding. We really couldn't have chosen anyone better to capture our wedding than Sarah-Jane Ethan! SJ is so bubbly and infectious with her laughter, and really put everyone at ease on the day. I love that every photograph is filled with happiness and smiles and that she really catches people in their natural state rather than posed photographs. SJ went totally above and beyond, taking extra photos of us with our family and friends and sending us amazing thank you cards to gift to our guests! She really felt more like a friend than a supplier to us! We’re so so in love with all of our photos and will always cherish them.

Entertainment

As Zack is a drummer and I sing, we were both quite fussy when it came to choosing our wedding band and found it really difficult to find a band that both of us loved. However, Zack and his dad Andrew knew a really amazing drummer called Alex Cromarty through Andrew’s bespoke drum company (Liberty Drums). He was part of a band called The Stax, and after one gig at The Barn That Rocks we were totally in love with the band! I’d been to so many weddings where hardly anyone danced, but our dance floor was packed the whole night and I really put it down to The Stax amazing energy! We even had guests trying to book them after the wedding for their own weddings! Zack The Groom: Whilst we were off getting our photos taken on our wedding day, we had hired a magician that we had met at one of Middleton Lodge’s open days to entertain the guests. When we saw Jonathan demonstrate his tricks, we were amazed and immediately hired him to perform at our wedding. He made everyone laugh and we’ve got some pretty amazing photos of people in looks of complete disbelief, including quite a few of Sarah!