Today’s real wedding comes from the beautiful Hayne House. A lovely soft pink and white wedding colour scheme to go with a lighthearted couple who wanted to keep things bright and fun. This playful couple met when the bride spotted an ad for a concert on Myspace (remember that?) by the band that the groom was in. After dating for a while, they bought their first home together. Mike surprised Louise with what she thought was a housewarming present, which turned out to be an adorably creative marriage proposal. He made a 3D paper cutout designed with personal elements that the couple love, Christmas, snow, cats and the words ‘Marry Me?’ When I looked up he was down on one knee with a gorgeous ring in his hand・ But for their wedding planning, they decided to go in a different direction from snow and Christmas altogether. The bride says, We’re both children at heart and we didn’t want anything too formal, so we ended up going for almost a ‘spring fair’ theme.・
Using an intimate ceremony venue to accommodate their small gathering gave them the opportunity to use draped fabric wall to ceiling and create their springtime fair theme by hanging pink bunting and balloons overhead. Plenty of natural light from the surrounding gardens bounced off the bright white fabric and gave an airiness to the wedding too! I love how sweet the pink florals are, especially using a single flower as chair cover tiebacks! Overall, the bride’s desire to keep everything from venue to theme to her personal styling “natural and radiant” was quite successful, don’t you think? And thanks to the stunning images from White Stag Wedding Photography you can get lost in all the lovely here.
How did you and Mike meet? and how did Mike propose?
We first met when Mike was in a band. I used to see him advertising it all over MySpace and I eventually went to a show, which I loved. We then didn’t see each other for probably a year or so and then bumped in to each other at the same University. We exchanged emails and started talking from there. Next week we celebrate 9 years of being together.
Mike proposed a month after we moved in to our first house. It was the 21st December 2015 and Mike cake home from work on a Monday night and rushed straight upstairs and then returned 10 minutes later with a wrapped present claiming it to be a ‘new house present’. When I opened it he had had a 3D paper cut out made that had been framed (I’ve put a photo below ). It consisted of everything we love, Christmas, snow, cats and the words Marry Me? When I looked up he was down on one knee with a gorgeous ring in his hand.
What sort of style did you envision for your wedding day?
Something very relaxed and fun. We’re both children at heart and we didn’t want anything too formal, so we ended up going for almost a ‘spring fair’ theme.
What was your favorite moment from the day?
Aside from the ceremony itself and the speeches (which were emotional and hilarious) I would have to say when Mike surprised me by reforming his old band and singing to me. When Mike had been going to see his best friend (and best man) every week, little did I know they had been practising three songs – ‘Our song’ (Death Cab for Cutie – I’ll follow you in to the dark), one of his original songs and an Ed Sheeran song (Photograph). It was a complete surprise to everyone and absolutely blew me away.
Please can you share wedding songs and readings that you used in your wedding? How did you choose?
I walked in to an instrumental version of Christina Perri – A Thousand Years, we chose this because we didn’t want anything with lyrics to take away from the moment and the music fit well with the emotions of the moment.
We walked back down the ailse to the ‘Can’t take my eyes off you’ by Franki Valli and the four seasons as it was fun and upbeat and we really couldn’t take our eyes off of each other.
During dinner we had songs from Disney films played as it really got people talking and trying to guess what film it was from. Out good came out to ‘Be our guest’ from Beauty and the Beast which everyone loved!
Our first dance was to ‘The Book of love’ by Peter Gabriel. We first heard the song on the season finale of Scrubs which we were both obsessed with. We have also met the main character – Zach Braff – twice, so the song has a lot of memories for us.
We didn’t use any specific readings during the ceremony, just the vows.
How did you choose your wedding venue and suppliers?
For the venue, we were looking for somewhere that had exclusive use, but we didn’t want anywhere that was huge as we were having a relatively small wedding (55 day, 85 evening) and didn’t want people to feel like they were rattling around. Hayne House is beautiful and ticked every box, gorgeous grounds, a beautiful setting overlooking the garden to get married and a marquee that had a sparkly ceiling and floor – what’s not to love?!
For our suppliers, we knew we wanted naturally light photos that would capture he fun and love from the day. Catherine & Andy from White Stag Wedding Photography were the one and only photographers we met – we knew from looking at their work that they would do exactly what we were looking for. Apart from our rings and memories, these will stay with us always and we knew that we needed s photographer who’s photos would look as beautiful in 40 years as they do today.
Flowers : We stumbled across the florist at a wedding fair, and it just so happened they were only 2 minutes down the road from our venue. We wanted something that was simple, yet striking and that was what Emily & Me did for us.
For the cake : all we knew was that we wanted something that could have us and our cat on, and that it had to taste amazing of course! I find Lyn from Lynnie Vanillie Cakes through a work friend and I was bowled over by how amazing her cakes looked and tasted. We had a tier of sponge, a tier of chocolate (which tasted like a chunky brownie!) and a tier of lemon. It was he best tasting cake I’ve ever had.
I’m quite a self conscious person, so I knew I needed to find someone to do my hair and make up that I could trust. I was looking for something natural, yet radiant. I stumbled across Carla on Instagram, having seen her absolutely transform a beautiful lady. My hairdresser (Claire from Trend) was recommended by a friend, having previously done her wedding. Carla and Claire knew exactly what looked good and I didn’t need to change a thing. They were my first and only choices, just like everything else!
Any tips that you can give to future brides?
My main piece of advice is don’t stress! I’m normally such a worrier, but I decided that whatever was going to happen was going to happen. Don’t get me wrong, I had lists everywhere that I would constantly update and tick off, but for the actual planning, nothing phased me. At the end of the day, you’re marrying the person you love, does it really matter if your colours don’t exactly match or that there could be rain forecast? Just go forth and enjoy the wedding planning – you’ll only do it once!
Photographers: White Stag Wedding Photography
Venue : Hayne House
Florist: Emily & Me
Cake: Lynnie Vanillie Cakes
MUA: Carla Brooks MUA
Hairdresser: Trend Hairdressers
