Welcome to Hannah & James' wedding! We're doing things a little bit differently here today, we've gathered a few of the key people who made everything happen the way Hannah & James dreamed of, so that you can get an inside look on how we all work together and make dreams a reality on your wedding day. But first, a little bit of backstory from us...
Hannah & James planned the vast majority of their wedding day from their new home in Australia. They envisioned an informal day with lots of flowers with natural, relaxed wedding photography with the lovely corn fields at The Priory, and it sounded right up our street!
After one fleeting visit from them on a return home back to Leeds a few months before the wedding, we caught up with them both getting ready in The Priory's lovely onsite cottages. Vicki Farr was getting Hannah ready with makeup and hair, whilst Leafy Couture were preparing the whole barn and marquee with their stunning flower arrangements. Being the relaxed, farm venue that The Priory is, they had no problem with all the dogs that were present on the day, even allowing an honourary bridesmaid dog down the aisle... and we certainly love a good wedding dog!!
After Pimms and canapés by Taste Cuisine, we took in those gorgeous, sun-drenched corn fields for some relaxed wedding portraits of our happy couple.
From Phoebe at Priory Cottages, Wedding Venue
It was a pleasure having lovely Hannah & James here at Priory Cottages. Their friends and family created such a warming atmosphere from start until finish, it really was a magical day. As the day begun we ensured both Hannah and James were 100% happy and relaxed before the day started to commence. Our main role as wedding co-coordinators is to make sure everything happens as and when it should both in front and behind the scenes. Throughout the day we orchestrate everyone from the caterers (Taste Cuisine), to photography, registrars, hair and makeup and anything else that needs doing.
On the morning, Taste Cuisine arrived here at the cottages bright and early to check through the tables they had set up the day previously ensuring they were set out perfectly so James and Lianne were able to get some great marquee shots. Meanwhile, we went to check Hannah felt relaxed and went through with her the details of how everything was coming together in the barn and marquee. We made sure that all the bridal party had Leafy Couture's beautiful flowers, delivering buttonholes to the gents so they could complete their outfits for the day.
Another big part of what we do is keeping guests (and specifically the groom) from seeing the bride before she walks down the aisle. We made sure all the guests were ushered in and sat down for the ceremony before Hannah's big reveal to her family and friends.
As the day moved on, we worked consistently behind the scenes to make sure we gave Hannah & James the relaxed day they had dreamed of. From orchestrating the cake cutting, keeping everything on time when it needs to be and gathering guests to the dancefloor for the first dance, we like to keep it seamless and allow Hannah & James to enjoy their day as though it all happens naturally.
From Sarah at Leafy Couture, Florist
The look for Hannah and James's wedding flowers were an elegant mixture with a very seasonal feel. The tones were a beautiful muted mix of pale pinks, peaches, lilacs, soft greens and greys. The textures were a combination of David Austin roses, Sweet Avalanche roses, Sarah Bernhardt peonies, scabious, green belle, dusty miller and camomile. Hannah is fortunate to be a close friend of the Austin Family and so all the gorgeous David Austin roses, the Rolls Royce of the flower world, were a wedding gift. For Florists its a dream to work with these super scented beautiful roses. The nature of them is that they have many petals and varieties such as the patience ( the cream one) smell incredible. The Juliet rose which is the peach one we used is a very fashionable rose at the moment.
The ceremony was dressed with our blossom trees and pretty clear bottles and the brides own mercury vases filled with beautiful single heads and mini posies to match the theme. The Priory has loads of little alcoves that look pretty dressed with bottles.
The tables for the wedding breakfast were dressed with a combination of sizes of mercury vase and clear bottles that contained arrangements to match the theme. The vases were too supplied by the bride. Having more than one size of arrangement and having a little grouping adds interest to the table-scape.
The cake was finished with a small posy of flowers to match the theme and wired groupings, we loved the finished effect.
From Victoria Farr, Make Up Artist
Make Up is a very personal thing, so for Hannah finding my details from Leafy Couture’s website as a personal recommendation from Sarah was very beneficial to her. Corresponding with Hannah from the other side of the world did not cause any issues as we regularly made contact via email and social media. We did not get the opportunity to meet until the week before the wedding and during that meeting, we discussed Hannah’s style of wedding gown, her likes and dislikes and also her vision of how she would like to look on the day. Bringing into account the floral crown arrangement by Sarah and how this would impact her wedding day ‘look’. Hannah wanted a very relaxed and natural look to her styling, not only to look like herself but feel beautiful and her own features enhanced.
Living in Australia, Hannah loved plaits and the natural beachy wave which worked perfectly with the floral crown as this played a large part in the styling ideas, therefore, keeping the make up soft and pretty and hair relaxed and not a structured up do. Hannah had some suggestions for her make up and during her trial, we came up with a soft bronze smokey eye with enhancement on her own lashes by using a few individual lashes. Hannah’s skin was beautiful and I am huge believer in providing cover where needed instead of applying a mask and Hannah agreed. I applied highlighter to enhance her cheek bones and a pinky blush to apples of the cheeks, having the eyes as our main focus, a soft nude lip gloss looked great to finish the look.
On the wedding day, I also provided my services to the styling of the bridesmaids hair and we had a flower to pop into the hair too, which was a beautiful David Austin Rose.
James & Lianne Wedding Photography are recommended suppliers at The Priory. If you're looking for a Priory Cottages Wedding Photographer, drop us a line, we'd love to chat!
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