Pretty & Elegant Blue Flower Filled Wedding - Whimsical Wonderland...

Pretty & Elegant Blue Flower Filled Wedding - Whimsical Wonderland...

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If you love flowers get your pinning fingers at the ready. Blousy fluffy blooms were decorated throughout today's super pretty celebration.

WWW readers Mark and Emma tied the knot on the 2 nd August 2014 at Eshott Hall in Northumberland. They envisioned a relaxed old fashioned feel to their day where their guests could relax beside them.

I've already mentioned the blooms so onto the candles, book stacks, rustic sign, flip flops and message in a bottle guest book. All such fun and memorable ideas, which really injected personality into this wedding.

Emma looked sensational in Modeca by Enzoani, a lace fishtail number with blooms in her hair and lip heels. The maids donned navy frocks and Mark had his dapper suit custom made. Lovely.

Huge thanks today goes to Helen Russell for sharing these wonderful images.

THE PROPOSAL | Disney World - Orlando Florida! On a holiday to Florida Mark whisked me away one evening for a private boat ride around Magic Kingdom in Disney World (Just Mark and I and our skipper on the boat) with champagne. After around an hour the boat stopped outside the Cinderella Castle to watch the fireworks... I was too busy watching the fireworks to even notice Mark had gotten down on one knee and was proposing!!! Even the skipper didn't notice! It was so perfect and I definitely wasn't expecting it as we've never been the 'lovey dovey' types!!! I of course immediately said yes and straight away text my friends saying "GUESS WHO HAS FINALLY PUT A RING ON IT!" - we had been together 6 years!

THE VISION | We wanted something with quite a relaxed and vintage feel. We really wanted to find somewhere exclusive so we could relax with our family and friends.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | I love planning! I immediately got magazine subscriptions, went to every wedding fayre and had spread sheet upon spreadsheet to make sure everything was perfect! I loved the planning! Mark helped with the decision making though... most of it anyway!

THE VENUE | Eshott Hall. We knew we wanted somewhere with exclusive use so we could relax for the weekend, and when we saw Eshott we knew it was perfect! It was big enough to hold our guest list of 75 for the day time and 110 for the evening, but it was also so special that we could have all of the rooms such as a library, drawing room, cottages in the grounds and pretty much treat the place like our house for the weekend! It was very neutral and pretty too so it was pretty much a blank canvas.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress was a Modeca by Enzoani (Oriel) fishtail style in Ivory. It was heavily laced and then I added a small beaded belt and my late great-grandmother's pearl earrings. Because the dress was so detailed - it didn't need much with it. My shoes were Vivienne Westwood Melissa pearl "jelly shoes" with bright red lips on. The bridesmaid had matching in blue! I also wore my late grandmother's cameo broach on the tie of my flowers. This was special to me so I knew I had to incorporate it somehow - and it went with the vintage feel of the day. I had my hair and make-up done by Lisa Jones, who I must say made us all look absolutely fantastic! I didn't want to wash my face or hair afterwards!!! She had 7 of us to do and left us with time to spare to relax before the ceremony - she was awesome!

FINDING THE DRESS | The first one I tried on!!! I had read previously when researching dresses that you shouldn't take too many people with you to the dress fitting. However I had 7! My bridesmaids, aunty, mum and mum-in-law (to be!). We had an absolute blast! We made such a special day out of it, and they had so much fun with me trying on veils, shoes etc. I didn't feel swamped by opinions - as when I knew, I knew! I made sure I tried on a dress in every possible style (I even tried on a huge Cinderella dress - which I loved - but I don't think I would have fit through the door!) But the Enzoani fishtail was perfect for me and just what I wanted - however Davina (McCall) pretty much became my best friend before the wedding as her fitness DVDs got me in great shape for the dress!

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Mark made his suit a surprise to me, just like me and my dress! He had a 3 piece navy suit custom made by Jules B and got to choose everything, down to embroidery on the inside on the collar, to button shape! He had always wanted to do this - however Mark has always had quite wacky tastes (he was a tartan trouser, Mohawk sporting punk when I met him!), so he made sure his Mum went with him, to make sure he didn't go overboard!!! Mark knew my shoes had red lips on them, so when he found a pair of red lips cufflinks - they were perfect and he had to buy them!

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Our readings were done by our friend (and my head bridesmaid) Aimee and my aunty Wendy. They treated these as a surprise and emailed the registrar themselves so we didn't know what they would be reading. Aimee had written a poem about Mark and I and how we met etc. this was lovely and we actually keep saying we need to get this framed as a memento of the day! My aunty Wendy read an Edward Monkton poem about two dinosaurs falling in love! It was so unique and was very emotional too - even though it was about dinosaurs! We had a guitarist play during and after the ceremony and I walked down the aisle (Well... stairs!) to Songbird by Eva Cassidy, and Mark and I exited to Your Song by Elton John (which was also our first dance).

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I had 4 bridesmaids (2 best friends and my 2 cousins). They wore navy blue chiffon one shoulder dresses with the matching shoes to me! Each of the bridesmaids took on a different job which was fab! Aimee my head bridesmaid was in charge of hen do planning (an 18 girl trip to Ibiza!) and everything a head bridesmaid should do! Rachel used her creative skills to help with decorating invites and hundreds of jars we scattered around the venue. Hannah is a chef and therefore she made jams for the favours (chilli jam for the male guests and blueberry for female.) and Sophie was... chief partier! She was there to make sure everyone was having a great time!!!

THE FLOWERS | When I saw images of Helen from Bels Flower's creations, I knew I had to have her. She managed to create an amazing relaxed style with 'fluffy' flowers (as I kept calling them!). We had mainly hydrangea's in baby blue and ivory and ivory roses in the bouquets, with a few peachy tones in the flowers in the venue. She also works closely with The Finishing Touch Company so was able to create brilliant venue flowers with them. On the tables we had a variety of decorations, such as birdcages on some tables, mason jars on others, and books on others (being an English teacher - this was very apt!). We wanted it to not be too structured and they created just this. The flowers were one of the most beautiful features of the day! They were so abundant, without being too much!

THE CAKE | The cake was something I wasn't really too bothered about at first (I would have gone without!) This was more Mark's area! We just couldn't decide what we wanted as we didn't want anything too crazy (we had seen cakes with lights, ferris wheels, cake pops - you name it - we looked at it!). Then we found Isabelle from The Designer Cake Company at a wedding fayre and knew we wanted her immediately! Her cakes are beautiful and so cleanly cut. We were offered a tasting at her house which is a lovely touch and chose 3 different flavours (one for each layer - the black forest won me over). But there was one more thing... cake toppers! Isabelle tends to be quite simplistic, so when we asked for two penguins as toppers - she wasn't sure at first! However once done, they looked fantastic! We even had the man penguin with a little Mohawk and skull on his back to represent Mark when I first met him! One tip - make sure you save yourself some cake - as it goes very quickly!!! Mark and I quickly nabbed some and saved it for the room!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | We knew we wanted a relaxed and vintage style, so when we saw some of Helen Russell's on blogs and in magazines, we knew we had to have her! She was very personal and even just walking into her house before our pre-wedding photo shoot - we knew we had chosen correctly - her style was exactly what we wanted. On the day she was just fantastic! Even down to helping the lads sort out their flowers! Everyone on the day knew she was amazing as our guests never felt they had to pose, and yet she caught the most beautiful shots of our day, popping up everywhere and managing to catch all of the best bits! Helen also works closely with a lot of our suppliers - such as Lisa Jones who did our hair and make-up, so knew how to catch all of their best stuff and it was great seeing them all so comfortable and relaxed around each other.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | I loved sorting out all of the little extras - me and pinterest were best friends by the wedding! The décor was mainly sorted by Bels and the finishing touch company - however little extras we wanted were dotted around the venue too. Mark and I found a great idea called "Message in a Bottle", whereby we got 5 empty wine bottles and hung a label around each corresponding to a particular wedding anniversary (we chose 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20). Then guests wrote messages on paper and placed in whichever bottle they wanted us to read it. On these anniversaries we will smash open the bottle and read the messages our guests gave us! Maybe some long lasting advice or ideas for date nights! Our first anniversary is coming up, so we will get to open the first one soon!

We also wanted something to tell guests about the day's events, without having lots of "order of service" style cards made which can be expensive. Mark's brother, Paul, is very artistic so we bought some planks of wood and gave Paul our order of the day which he beautifully sprayed onto the wood. We then placed this on an easel in the entrance hall of Eshott so everyone could see what was going on and when. We now have this as a gorgeous keepsake and are planning on making a feature out of it in our garden!

Flip Flops! I really didn't want guests (Especially female!) to be sitting down during the evening reception as we had an awesome band and we wanted a party atmosphere! So I bought cheap primark flip flops in a variety of sizes and colours and placed them in a basket by the dance floor - all but 1 pair were used by the end of the night! Definitely worth the money!!!

THE HONEYMOON | We always go on quite busy and active holidays - so decided to change this up for our honeymoon to make it something even more memorable. So we went to the most relaxing place in the entire world: the Maldives for 2 weeks. We stayed on an island called Kuramathi in an overwater villa, and it was just superb! Because we already have our own house and everything we need for this, we asked for contributions for this from our guests though the Kuoni gift-list.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | One of our favourite moments of the day was just before the wedding breakfast. Our wedding coordinator at Eshott whisked us away to the drawing room as everyone else was congregating in the ballroom before dinner. She had put aside some canapés for us and had these ready with two drinks. They then shut the door and just left Mark and I for around 15 minutes to just take it all in before the day continued! It was lovely just having a few moments to talk just us and actually get to taste some of the canapés we had spent so long choosing!

My dad and I chose not to have a traditional father - daughter dance. However it was getting quite late at the evening reception and I realised I hadn't really seen him all night as we were both so busy entertaining evening guests! I made sure I found him and had a little dance before the evening was over - I was so glad I did this!

The weather!!! I had been obsessed with the weather weeks before the wedding as we had planned to get married outside in Eshott's secret garden. So when it was pretty much a definite that it was going to rain I was devastated, we definitely couldn't get married outside, but we had also booked an ice cream cart! Luckily we had another plan to get married underneath Eshott's beautiful stained glass window as it did indeed rain the entire morning! However when we were signing the register, the registrar whispered to Mark and I "so shall I tell the guests to make their way outside?" I literally yelped, as I didn't realise that the sun had come out! From the moment we stepped outside literally until the time of the wedding breakfast, the sun came out and beamed down on us! It then rained all through the wedding breakfast, but that didn't matter, as we were inside! So all of my worrying was for nothing- and the ice-cream went down a treat!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Don't worry about the weather! There is absolutely nothing you can do about it! Just remind yourself of why you are there - this is a once in a lifetime day - everyone is there to see you two, not the weather! You will have a fantastic day with or without sun.

Enjoy the planning time! Make days out of buying the dress, accessories, going to wedding fayre's etc. again, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so try not to stress and just enjoy every minute!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Venue | Eshott Hall

Photography | Helen Russell

Dress and Bridesmaid Dresses | Kathryn Trueman Bridal

Hair and Make-up | Lisa Jones

Flowers | Bels Flowers

Cake | The Designer Cake Company

Mark's suit | Jules B

Bride and Bridesmaid Shoes | Vivienne Westwood

Room décor | The Finishing Touch Company

Chair pads and sash | Simply Bows and Chair Covers

Groomsmen suits and shoes | Burton

Band and guitarist | Livewire

Invitations | STN Stationery

Photo Booth | Snaparazzi

Ice Cream Cart | Archer's Jesmond

Honeymoon | Hays Travel Jesmond

A truly gorgeous day.

Mark and Emma thank you both so much for sharing your story today xo Lou

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