Eliza & Richard’s Hampton Manor Wedding

Eliza & Richard married at Hampton Manor near Birmingham and it really was the perfect choice for their quirky, Modern Vintage and super stylish day. The sartorial choices are second-to-none whilst being budget-friendly, the florals are delicious and there’s also a couple of furry-friends for you to coo over.

Enjoy!

Eliza says…

We chose Hampton Manor because it was quirky, stylish and centrally located with excellent road, rail and air links.

Stylistically I’d say overall we embraced a fusion of 1920s with the Glasgow School. I’m originally from Glasgow and wanted hints of Charles Rennie Macintosh’s influence in the design of the flowers and our wedding ‘thrones’ (which we each bought for the other and which now sit in our home, being used every day). I was also mindful of the influence of the season and wanted to incorporate Spring blossom as symbolic of our new start together, so we had lots of cherry blossom sprigs dressing the garden and reception room. We hired event stylists, AVA. Amanda and Amy are just fantastically talented and wonderful to work with.

Our flowers were truly outstandingly beautiful. Again they were chosen with a Macintosh influence, particularly the use of fritillaria in the bouquets. We tried to keep a personal touch (as well as a cost saving) by making our own favours and cake… Richard’s famous fudge, individually wrapped and enclosed in little bird cages were our pretty table favours along with some wild flower seeds… for the bees! We had three different types of cake made by myself and two friends. I tried to copy our wedding invitation design on mine. It was rather ‘rustic’! I think I was most pleased with how the homemade veil looked on the day, it made me feel well, very bridal!

We had an array of entertainment for our guests on the day – Bea’s Boothes, Ocean Arda, a jazz band and Musical Roots, a ceilidh band.

I bought two dresses for the day; one for the ceremony and one for the night-time dancing – both of them eBay bargains. The main dress was an Eliza Jane Howell (Lucille) column dress in blush which I was ecstatic to win for a fraction of its original price. It was very comfortable and gave me the exact vintage look I was going for when paired with a homemade veil and Rachel Simpson shoes (also from eBay). The second dress was a more glitzy number which was altered for dancing and paired with an Eliza Jane Howell Romanov headpiece in nude for the evening reception.

As for the Groom – Age UK!! Richard saw his DJ in our local branch the week before the wedding and bought it for £10 — including bow tie! He also hired a kilt and bought a tweed jacket and waistcoat for the nighttime ceilidh from Moss Bros.

When it came to capturing the day I knew I didn’t want the traditional and formal so I googled ‘unconventional photographer’ and stumbled upon Jonny Barratt’s website. I fell in love immediately with how he captured people and emotions and knew instantly we wanted him documented our day.

From one couple to another…

There’s lots of ways to save money and the environment by sourcing things second hand. We also found going for a low season time of year yielded us a good wedding package in a luxury venue.

I don’t think there is one particular moment that stood out for either of us on the day. Instead, there’s a whole collage of feelings and impressions and memories. It was a truly wonderful day for each of us and our photographs have captured them all.

What we wanted, more than anything, was for our day to be light and fun and that nothing, other than the vows, was to be taken too seriously. We both had a blast and loved every minute of it.

What now?

Well I suppose in our lives together now we will be looking at developing new interests and skill sets with a move towards semi-retirement in a few years. As we age together I hope we continue to grow in different but complimentary ways with our various careers and interests and keep our relationship fresh. In the meantime there are our dogs and nine year old son, Theo, grown up children and grandchildren to keep us busy!