With images by Dorchester Ledbetter Photography.
Helen says: We got engaged in Summer 2011 in Las Vegas in an amazing restaurant overlooking the Bellagio fountains. It was a complete surprise.
When we got married we had been together for 15 years as we got together at High School. We finally said “I do” on Friday 16th August 2013 at The Mansion.
We chose the venue for the beautiful interiors, the stunning views of the park and because we both grew up nearby. From the first time we went inside The Mansion we knew we wanted to get married there.
My dress was from Berketex Bride in Leeds. It was an ivory strapless gown with lots of subtle detailing and a slight hint of pink in the lace. It needed no alterations and fit perfectly on the day.
I wore customised converse on my feet. They had my married name on and were covered in crystals.
My seven year old nieces wore ivory dresses from Debenhams with floral appliqué. Our one adult bridesmaid (my wing woman) wore a floral print dress from Phase Eight. The groomsmen wore suits from Yorkshire Menswear and matching socks from Paul Smith.
We had Jill Ryder to sing and play guitar at the ceremony, drinks reception and wedding meal. She really made the day with her fantastic acoustic music. We saw her play at a friend’s wedding and knew we had to have her on our special day.
In the evening we had a brilliant band called Vibetown who got everyone dancing.
My bouquet was made from white hydrangeas with green leaves. Our bridesmaid Emma had a matching bouquet. We then had table flowers to match in glass cube vases. I have always loved white flowers and we wanted a clean, simple yet elegant look.
Our photographer was Martin from Dorchester Ledbetter Photography. We were so impressed with the quality of the photos and had a hard time choosing pictures for our album. Martin had such a good knowledge of our venue and suggested all the best places to get a good shot. He even stayed for the evening reception and we got some great pictures on the dance floor!
Our on the day stationery was by Pink Sherbet. We chose butterfly place cards, which sat on the glasses and frosted candle holders lit the room in the evening.
We hired an ivory post box with our names on it for guests to place their cards in.
We chose a blush pink and ivory three tier cake with fondant flowers from Bored to Tiers in Morley. The bottom and middle tiers were vanilla sponge and then middle tier was red velvet with white chocolate ganache.
I have lots of amazing memories from the day – walking into the room and seeing everyone’s smiling faces; walking up the aisle as a married couple then onto the terrace for some pink fizz; the speeches, which were brilliant and funny and hen everyone hit the dance floor to a Michael Jackson medley by our amazing band, Vibetown.
We just loved sharing such a perfect day with our family and friends. Everyone kept saying what a brilliant day it was.
For our honeymoon we went to Koh Phangan and Koh Samui in Thailand then onto Singapore.
My top tip would be to relax and enjoy the day. Get the main things booked as early as possible (venue, photographer, registrar) as these get booked up then take your time with all the other aspects. Book people that you trust and then you can relax and let them do their job on the day. We really trusted our venue team and photographer and felt able to enjoy every moment.
Enjoy the planning process, ours was exciting not stressful.
Congratulations Helen & David!
