Where and when did you get engaged?
Martin wore a kilt and proposed to me one Saturday morning (my first Saturday off work in a long long time) just before we were about to move into the house we bought together in October 2009.
What was your wedding date and wedding venue?
Why did you choose your venue?
We chose Penrith for a halfway house between our two families in Yorkshire and Glasgow and we always loved driving past Brougham Castle on our travels to visit family. We always thought it would be lovely to have our wedding pictures taken at Brougham Castle when we tied the knot and would have loved to have had an outdoor ceremony at the castle if it had been allowed. Not forgetting the gorgeous scenery of Lake Ullswater to go in with the bargain. The North Lakes is virtually round the corner from Brougham Castle and just off the A66 and M6 junction so ideal for logistics for us. Inside the hotel is beautiful with lot’s of great open fire places and a lovely spa and the staff were so accommodating and flexible to meet our needs as we were quite specific about what we wanted from our wedding and they delivered absolutely everything and then some more.
Did you have a “theme”?
Our theme was based around our love of rock music as we got to a lot of live music gigs. The tables were named after genre’s of music such as the Classic Rock Table and The Metal Table, our cake was a replica limited edition Marshall Amp stack, our music was a live band, Our ring holder was a ribbon bound drum stick, and Martin and I even performed a couple of songs ourselves at the evening reception
What was your wedding colour scheme?
Our favourite colours Cadbury’s Purple and Black. We had Cadburys purple pin tuck taffeta table overlays with Black damask runners and beautiful white chair covers with double bows of Cadburys Purple and Black as suggested by Kristy.
Having looked for different suppliers over the internet (having the wedding away form home meant a lot of research to get the best of our time in Penrith before having meetings which meant we had decided who to use before we arranged to meet, although the snowy weather conditions scuppered a visit where we were meeting with Kristy, our photographer and the hair salon all in one day so that was an interesting day! The website looked very stylish and superior to the others we had viewed and demonstrated an ability to go a little extra to the usual white covers and a simple bow on the chair. Meeting Kristy was absolutely wonderful and she set up a mock table for us and it looked absolutely beautiful, she made additional suggestions to us and gave us the idea for having Cadburys mini chocolate’s for our favours to match our colour scheme. My initial instincts proved correct when choosing Simply Bows and Chair Covers early on from researching the websites.
What sort of dress did you choose and where from?
The dress was Honey from Berketex Bride, a strapless ivory A-line dress with a soft organza layer making it all floaty and with sequins and pearls and bugle bead detailing. I loved this on the website but tried on lot’s of other dresses elsewhere first and nothing stood out, until I eventually got into the Honey dress, should have gone with the initial instinct as I did with the photographer and with Simply Bows and Chair Covers! I absolutely loved my dress and so did Martin.
What did your bridesmaids wear?
I had 1 bridesmaid, my 11 year old niece Rebecca, although her dress was from Suelisse in Hamilton near Glasgow so her mum and Gran had to help with dress fittings for me. Her dress was a Cadbury’s Purple down to the floor with drawstring back and sequins and bugle beads around the top edging. She looked so lovely and grown up on the day.
Who was your photographer?
What “special touches” did you add to your day?
There were so many that to us they were special touches because they were things that meant something to us and were exactly what we wanted for our day, nothing was a compromise to please anybody else. Martin wore a kilt being Scottish and so did both Dads, our best man and usher, which was great. We wanted the day to be relaxing and fun and casual where everybody could be themselves and enjoy the day rather than feeling uptight and uncomfortable so our meal was steak pie and our evening buffet was sausage and bacon rolls with chips – loved by all. For the welcome drinks we had huge buckets of ice with Budweiser bottles in and glasses of red or white wine – a drink everyone will enjoy. For the toast we gave everybody a voucher to pick their own drink from the bar so as not forcing beer drinkers to drink a glass of champagne but allowing the champagne drinkers the option to have that. We created playlists of background music for pre ceremony and drinks reception which were all our favourite songs which mean something to us. Our rock music theme with the replica Marshall Amp stack cake (a limited edition black and purple cake to match our colour scheme), the ring holder drum stick, the live band and the tables named after music genre’s was really personal to us. One table was the Funk table which is actually an album name by my favourite artist Glenn Hughes formerly of Deep Purple, so my favourite artist was represented in the colour scheme and one of the table names. The live band were friends of mine who I have been watching live for 11 years and are personal friends so the songs they played were songs that I have rocked along to for years, as well as some mainstream songs to allow everyone to get up and have a dance.
What was your favourite part of the day?
There are so many, when I arrived back form having my hair and make up done I found Martin had arranged a present in my room with a lovely card he had made himself addressed to his wife – which made me sob, then I opened the present and it was pictures form our engagement shoot – one of the two of us laughing with a verse written over from Corinthians – one of my favourites, which we couldn’t have in the ceremony as we had a civil ceremony – I cried buckets and the make up was compromised but it was so lovely! Walking down the aisle was a very strange experience – the moment Martin turned around – the whole room disappeared and it was just him and I getting closer to each other staring into each others eyes and it was such a joyful, emotional thing. Again I cried buckets. I had a hilarious moment on the dance floor which is something only my friends and I will get but the band were playing The Wall by Pink Floyd and during the intro mixed in the tune Popcorn to which my friends and I were dancing the Robot Square Dance, a dance that features in a music video for a song called Robototron for a band we all like and go to see , an unplanned thing that just happened and I was in stitches at this.
Where did you go on honeymoon?
We planned an amazing route with lot’s of activities to do a fly drive around the West Coast of the USA but in the end before we booked everything we realised we were probably going to be pretty tired and in need of a relaxing holiday and so we booked a 2 week all inclusive holiday to Cuba – where we only had 2 days that we didn’t do anything and spent our time Scuba Diving, Horse Riding, Fishing, Driving Jeeps, Swimming With Dolphins, Snorkling and just having so much fun.
What would be your top tip for another bride to be?
Don’t get stressed, be very organised and know what you want and make sure you communicate the exact details to everybody who is having a part in the day so that they know what is expected of them and where to be at what time. Make sure your day is about you and your husband and not about compromising to please others, your taste may not suit everybody and knowing just the right things to blend in or make a larger feature is a skill to ensure that you are having your day for you but that everybody gets chance to have fun and enjoy the day. I spent the entire reception on the dance floor with all of my friends and family having fun with me!
