Lisa & Tom: Pastels and Black Tie at Thicket Priory

Not content with just one day of celebrations, these two made the most of the summer holidays and stretched the fun across four days. A whole wedding weekend with their nearest and dearest? What a vibe—and honestly, why the heck not?!

While the overall wedding theme was achingly chic black tie, we love how they brought in bold pastel florals and bridesmaids dressed in the dreamiest baby blue. But enough from me—let’s hand things over to Lisa and Tom to talk us through all the stylish details…

We looked at several venues throughout the North of England. Thicket Priory felt right—an old classical building with a modern interior. The quality of the venue is second to none. All the rooms take your breath away, the gardens are beautiful, the bar is classic, and the food is excellent.

Having our families and both wedding parties able to stay with us on Friday was massive for us, too. Tom had a round of golf on Thursday with friends, and then we all met up in the village pub. We then had a BBQ on Friday at Thicket, Saturday was the wedding day, and a celebration in York at Thor’s Tipi on Sunday’s bank holiday. It meant we didn’t feel pressured to rush around everyone trying to speak to them on Saturday, as we had plenty of time to catch up on either side of the wedding.

I came across a dress designed by Eva Lendall, a US brand, so I wasn’t sure if I could try it on, but I found a small boutique wedding shop called Elizabeth Kate Bridal that had the dress in stock. I tried and loved the dress, but I kept an open mind and tried other dresses by other designers and more of the Eva Lendall collection. That’s when I tried on my wedding dress, Samanta, and knew it was the one. It was a princess bandeau-type dress with removable puff sleeves and a giant bow tied around the back. It was perfect!! I kept my shoes simple; I had white block heels with a tie knot front – very comfy. For jewellery, I had gold pearl drop earrings from Dior. My evening outfit was a short, fun, flowy dress that I could move around and dance in, which came from Showpo in Australia.

Sonia Schofield did makeup and hair, and I went for a soft glam with a smoked brown eye. I didn’t go for hair accessories or a veil as I felt the back of my dress was too pretty to cover.

Bridesmaid dress shopping was hell. This was the least fun part about the wedding! Dressing seven women is very hard, and finding the baby blue colour I wanted was even more challenging! I didn’t get the dresses until 2- 3 months before the wedding. By a miracle, Six Stories brand released their new collection with the perfect baby blue. I let the bridesmaids pick the style, and they all luckily liked the same one: a maxi dress with bow tie straps. They all look stunning in them, and it was worth the stress!

Laura from Mint & Moose was our florist. We picked mixed pastel-coloured flowers, which we completely left in Laura’s hands. In consultations, we looked at a few different styles and said we wanted to include roses and snapdragons, but we let Laura create the rest. We didn’t see the flowers until the day; they were perfect!

We had black tie as the dress code but encouraged some colour. Tom wore an off-white dinner jacket, softening the black-tie style and matching the pastel theme.

Purple Chilli catering was just brilliant. The food was top-quality, and the variety of food we had over the three days was perfect.

Celine was a referral from our friends at 21 Degrees Weddings, who did the Videography for the day. She told us a few months after we spoke that she was returning to South Africa. She was adamant she had someone else in mind to shoot the day, and she would take care of the editing, and that we were in safe hands. They communicated brilliantly with us throughout the day, as did the team at 21 Degrees. Neither of us felt comfortable in front of a camera, but they helped us relax and took great shots. We loosened up in the evening when we went out for 20 minutes of golden hour pictures!

Tom: Seeing Lisa at the top of the aisle for the first time in her dress!

Lisa: …it was seeing Tom waiting at the bottom!

We were both taken aback by how overwhelming the ceremony was. Feelings you knew you would have but had no idea how they would make you feel. Becca gave us moments throughout the day to take everything in. That moment after we came out, the ceremony in the Jefferson Room will never be forgotten.

Plan ahead. We had a relatively stress-free lead-up to the wedding because we were organised early. It’s a two-person job, but each task doesn’t need to be split 50/50. On the day just enjoy it and trust the organising you’ve done to get to this point, and the team at Thicket Priory will take care of the rest. Spend some time together on the day. We initially thought we didn’t want too much time off taking pictures because we wanted to be with everyone, but this gave us a perfect opportunity to be with each other.