A Harry Potter themed Simply Bows and Chair Covers Real Wedding

 What are your first names?

“The Dandy” Robin and “The Resplendent” Rachael

 

 

 

Where and when did you get engaged?

We got engaged in Paris in May 2010, in the park by foot of the Eifel tower. I kept Robin waiting – somewhat worryingly but unintentionally – for several silent minutes before saying “yes”!

 

What was your wedding date?

17^th May 2013

 

Where did you get married?

The beautiful Langley Castle, near Hexham in Northumberland.

 

 Why did you choose your venue?

The look and feel of the place was amazing, it’s an actual castle that was built in 1350 and we were instantly captivated. The surrounding grounds were beautiful as well and there were even peacocks roaming freely (a big selling point to me as I am animal obsessed) which along with the suits of armour and swords (a big selling point to Game of Thrones obsessed Rob) decorating the interior of the castle really sold it to us.

 

 Did you have a “theme”?

It took us awhile to come up with a theme as we weren’t interested in any of the typical themes suggested in most wedding magazine. In the end we created something that could only be described as ‘quirky’. We had Harry Potter themed tables and ‘flowers’, a Harry Potter meets Steampunk cake and owls!

 

What was your wedding colour scheme?

We didn’t just pick a single colour; we had a range of purples and also colours from ivory, parchment and latte, bronze and gold.

 

Why did you choose Simply Bows and Chair Covers and what were they like to work with?

We met at a few wedding fairs and on at a visit to Langley we also saw Kristy setting up and were impressed with the result. We went to speak to her and she was lovely and instantly got what we were looking for.

 

What sort of dress did you choose and where from?

I never had a style of dress in mind so just went dress shopping willing to try anything on. I fell in love with a gorgeous dress made by San Patrick, which I found in The White Tulip Wedding Company in Prudhoe. The dress had a slightly unusual vintage styled beading. It was originally strapless which I wasn’t too keen on, so my seamstress created some thick straps that complimented it perfectly.

 

What did your bridesmaids wear?

I had my sister as a bridesmaid and from the start I knew that I would let her make the choice of bridesmaid dress. I wanted her to be comfortable for the entire day and wanted to get her something that she would like to wear again. She asked for our colour scheme and found a lovely dress in purple to complement the colour scheme that she looked beautiful in!

 

Who was your photographer?

We had 2tone Photography who were amazing and help us so much on the day. They really made us feel comfortable and didn’t seem fazed by some of the strange details we had for the wedding.

 

 What “special touches” did you add to your day?

We had a Harris Hawk deliver our rings and followed this up with a falconry and owl display to entertain the guests prior to the wedding breakfast. We also had an absolutely mad and incredible wedding cake designed by the brilliant Kelly Anne Cakes which is about the most amazing edible structure we’ve ever seen (words cannot do it justice!) it even included a working clock and pendulum. For favours we made donations to the Newcastle Cat and Dog Shelter and created cards to go with the badges we received as part of the donation, this is where we rescued our two cats from and it was our way of including them in the big day. We made a lot for the day, including hand stamped luggage tags for the place names, and a sweet table (complete with Harry Potter themed sweets). All the flowers for the tables and the bridal bouquet and bridesmaid bouquet were made from Harry Potter book pages – a total of approximately 150 flowers which were made up from 750 individually handmade petals! It was a lot of work but worth it in the end, our guests loved them and took them home as a keepsake and I have started to create my own business making these for other brides.

 

What was your favourite part of the day?

All of it, it was just an incredible day. We both really enjoyed the actual ceremony which was strange as it was the part we were both really nervous about. The only thing is we would like to do it again just to enjoy it knowing everything will be ok and without the rushing around!

 

 Where did you go on honeymoon?

We spent a week in Cyprus, near Limassol so we had a mixture of relaxing in the sun by the pool to going on 4x4 visit of the north west of the island, led by a rather crazy Greek Cypriot named Zeus – we even got ‘remarried’ by the baths of Aphrodite, though it seemed the ‘vows’ were rather biased towards Rob! Our original idea had been Florida but when working out finances it proved too expensive, so we asked for money for our wedding gift and we will be going for our anniversary in a year or two.

 

What would be your top tip for another bride to be?

Enjoy it! The day and the run up goes far too quickly. Think about providing a nice day for your guests but ultimately do what you and your partner want to do. Try not to stress out too much and accept that if anything goes wrong then it isn’t the end of the world, all that matters is that you have each other and are about to start a wonderful life together – everything else is just a bonus!