The exquisite wedding of Juliet and Thomas provides a perfect insight in how to achieve a chic and classy wedding with contemporary edge, but one that has timeless quality too.
Sticking to a neutral colour palette of nudes, muted tones and white, the styling is simple yet effective with the Fig House and its walled gardens at Middleton Lodge in North Yorkshire, providing an exceptionally beautiful backdrop to the celebrations.
Romantic roses and delicate trailing foliage complement and enhance the beauty further, with the décor theme consistent in every detail, right through to the fig, fruit and flower adorned sweet and savoury cakes.
The style bar is also set high in terms of the bridal party attire here, with the bride, groomsmen, bridesmaid and mother-of-the-bride, seriously on point with their sartorial choices.
With images by Peter Hugo Photography
PROPOSAL
Juliet says: We got engaged in Cape Verde. Tom booked us a romantic horse-riding trip. We galloped along the beach and up the sand dunes and at the top he asked me to marry him. There was a picnic set up to watch the sun set with a bottle of prosecco.
SETTING
We set the date for 17th August 2019. We wanted a Saturday in the summer – we were very lucky as it rained all week leading up to the wedding but was beautifully sunny on our big day!
We chose The Fig House, part of the Middleton Lodge Estate in North Yorkshire, as our venue. This was the first one we viewed and actually wasn’t fully built/finished when we went to see it, but we both got ‘the feeling’ that it was the right one. We viewed a couple more, but nothing could compare to that one – it was a bit of a risk, but it really payed off.
THEME
We didn’t have theme as such, we just wanted to keep it up to date and elegant. We want to be able to look back in 50 years and still think everything looked amazing.
Colour-wise we went for nudes, neutrals and white – again colours that wouldn’t date and always look classy.
DRESS
I got my dress from The Wedding Dress Company in Corbridge. I picked an ivory fitted gown by Enzoani with a long train, dropped back and a bit of sparkle. It was actually the ladies from the shop that picked it out and when I put it on, I knew it was the one.
I also wore a long double veil to match the dress, and my shoes were Valentino Rockstuds in a metallic bronze colour – shoes were an important part to my outfit as I love nice shoes!
GROOMSMEN
Tom wore a Mark Darcy, TED – tan tweed herringbone check three-piece suit from Master Debonair with Grenson shoes. His tie and handkerchief were also Mark Darcy and matched the material on the inside of the suit jacket. Tom also wore his grandad’s gold cufflinks with his initials inscribed on.
The groomsmen all wore the same as Tom, however they had different ties and handkerchiefs, all by Mark Darcy at Master Debonair.
BRIDESMAIDS
My bridesmaids all wore floor-length dresses from TFNC in pale mauve.
BEAUTY
I actually did my own makeup on the day – and I did my mum’s makeup as well! Melissa Norman Makeup did my bridesmaids makeup.
Hair by Faith took care of mine and my mum’s hair, and bridesmaids all got theirs put up by Nicole Linfoot.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Pete Hugo was our photographer. I actually went to school with Pete for 12 years. When we saw his work, it was exactly the style we wanted – nothing too posed, just capturing the real magic and emotion of the day. I recommend him to everyone getting married – you’d think I was on commission – three of my friends have actually booked him for their weddings. I would recommend him to anyone as he fits in so well you don’t even notice he’s there. Lots of our guests and the venue commented how un-obtrusive and friendly he was. Our venue has actually added him to their list of recommended suppliers!
VIDEOGRAPHY
Andrew Green at Tyne Digital filmed our day. We would recommend him for exactly the same reasons as Pete. We were blown away with the end video, it was just like re-living the day again, plus all the moments we’d forgotten.
STYLING
I had a big bouquet made up of many different types of Roses and foliage – the bridesmaids carried a smaller version of my bouquet. The groom and groomsmen had Roses for their buttonholes – Tom’s had a thistle on for my mum and Scottish side of the family. They were by Eliza Blooms.
In terms of styling, we then had very similar flowers to the ones in my bouquet in a big top table decoration.
I handmade a hanging garland for the ceremony room and we got a neon sign from Coco Luminaire that said ‘you make my dreams come true’ – it looked fab in the venue!
FAVOURS
We handmade our favours – pick and mix jars with white/pink sweets and some love hearts with our names and wedding date on. We attached a little handmade label to each one saying, ‘love is sweet have a treat’ and our names on.
CAKE
We went for a cheese cake and a sweet cake. Our cheese cake was by The Cheese and Wine Shop in Darlington, we had a five-tier cake one being a pork pie, the other four were a nettle wrapped Cornish Yarg, Camembert, smoked cheddar and a doorstop goats cheese on top. It was all decorated beautifully with figs and grapes to match in with our decor and two little mice on top holding a J and a T.
Our sweet cake was made by The Cake Boutique, it was two-tier naked drip cake with Victoria sponge and banana peanut butter as the two flavours. Again, she decorated it with figs and berries and flowers – using the ones I had in my bouquet to match everything in.
Both went down a treat!
DINING
We went for a buffet style wedding breakfast with meat platters. Dessert was an apple crumble with ginger ice cream.
We didn’t want a sit-down meal as we wanted to keep everything very informal and relaxed and we didn’t want a seating plan either.
We kept wines light and summery choosing a house white and rose for the tables and prosecco for toast drinks.
ENTERTAINMENT
We had a Scottish ceilidh band by Dusk ‘Til Dawn on the night – a nod to my Scottish side of the family. I think it was one of the best decisions we made it was so much fun, everyone joined in and said how much they loved it. After that they did a disco where we boogied to some cheesy classics.
SPECIAL TOUCH
We had some pink and purple smoke bombs for our photographs, which looked amazing!
BEST BIT
Obviously saying our vows in front of our family and friends. My mum walked me down the aisle so that was a very special moment for me. Walking back up the aisle once we were married and out the doors to everyone throwing confetti was amazing, it was a ‘we’ve actually done it’ moment!
HONEYMOON
We haven’t been on our honeymoon yet – we unfortunately had to cancel due to me being ill, however we are planning to book Barbados for two weeks as soon as we can!
ADVICE
Planning – don’t stress! Everyone commented how chilled we were but it’s the best way to be. To help with the plans, we went to some Brides Up North wedding fairs! I also read copies of UNVEILED Magazine and followed Brides up North’s Instagram for inspiration.
On the day savour every moment, take lots of ‘mental’ photographs, take a moment just the two of you to take it all in it really does go so fast.
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