Over to Robyn from The Kedleston Country House…
Emma & David, the gorgeous couple you’ll be seeing throughout this blog met online 11 years ago. Their engagement story sounds like it’s come straight from the pages of a Jane Austen book, truly beautiful, set in St Pauls Cathedral on Emma’s birthday, chosen especially by David as it’s featured in Emma’s favourite film – Mary Poppins. They walked up to the whispering gallery, part of the cathedral designed so that you can talk to each other through the walls from opposite sides of the room. At other sides of the gallery, through the walls, David asked Emma to look into her handbag where he’d hidden a birthday present for her, he told her to open it and inside was a Links of London charm of an engagement ring. As she walked back to meet him he was down on one knee. As if this story couldn’t get any better, when Emma said yes the organs began playing – although this was unplanned, we’ll give David credit and pretend it was!
As a wedding planner I’m always excited to meet new couples, find out how they got engaged (subtle hints to my partner are imminent after every meeting) and what plans and wonderful idea’s they have for their wedding. As we’re a venue who doesn’t offer packages it’s important to me to find out as much as possible about each couple so that I can tailor a wedding to suit their needs and wants. I think that’s the best way to do it! No two weddings are the same and that’s how we treat ours, all entirely unique to each wonderful couple who walk through our doors.
Emma & David’s wedding boasted lots of personal touches, we designed their own unique menu in a one-on-one meeting with the head chef which consisted of curing salmon with Kedleston’s own distilled gin, roasting chicken with Derby Brewing Company ale and baking up an all-time favourite of sticky toffee pudding with local Bluebells dairy farm ice-cream. We even created unique wedding labels to go onto our own brew beer bottles as keep sakes for the guests.
The Kedleston ooze’s relaxed luxury, which was exactly what Emma & David wanted, vintage wooden tables and miss-matched chairs, not a chair cover or white table cloth in sight! We really felt their wedding matched the Kedleston’s style, the tables were adorned in bunches of gypsophila and pillar candles, paired with their personalised pastel blue and grey bottles of ale all which really complimented the already subtle hues of green and grey throughout the building.
Emma & David chose Mammad from Twig & Vine Photography to capture their wedding, Mammad’s style is so relaxed and natural, he doesn’t tell you where to stand or shout “cheese”, instead, he takes a step back and captures real moments of you and your guests showing genuine unforced emotions.
The flowers were a real centre piece for this wedding, Emma chose to keep the arrangements quite simple and loved the white and green combination. After a bit of research she picked out a few flowers she loved in particular, things like the white anemone, ranunculus and plenty of beautiful greenery with the trailing ribbons. The bridesmaids bouquets were the same as hers just a slightly smaller version, for the gent’s button holes she chose the same flowers to help tie everything in altogether.
The bride’s dress was the Verina by Maggie Sotterro from Emma Phillips Bridal Studio who are based in Wales, she randomly stumbled across it at a wedding show at the NEC, tried it on and had to buy it! The groomsmen’s suits were Youngs, they wanted to go for something very simple and classic so went for the navy tails with white ties. Their beautiful bridesmaids wore the one shoulder embellished dresses which were actually from ASOS and the quality was amazing.
Venue The Kedleston Country House Hotel
Photography Twig & Vine Photography
Flowers The Conservatory Florist
Cake Emma’s Cakes
Hair Salon 40
Make Up Harriet’s Skincare, Nails & Beauty
Dress Maggie Sotterro at Emma Phillips Bridal
Groomsmen’s Attire Youngs