Rachael and Andrew were high school sweethearts. “We were friends for a little while and eventually got together when we were 15,” says Rachael. “It was all very high school; a kiss at a house party, a mutual friend asking if I would say yes if he asked me to be his girlfriend!” After eight years together, Andrew whisked Rachael away to York for the night. “We stayed in a room at the Principal York,” shares the bride. “After a delicious meal at The Rattle Owl, we walked back through the hotel’s gardens and Andrew told me that he had another surprise for me. When I turned around, he was down on one knee with the most beautiful engagement ring. There were fairylights in the trees and it started to rain a little. It was all very romantic. Of course I burst into tears and he had to wait for me to calm down to say yes! He had designed the ring himself with the help of our family friend, who is a goldsmith.” SETTING THE SCENE “We have a lot of family, so we needed a venue that had a large capacity with lots of rooms so people could stay before and after the wedding,” explains Rachael. “Also on our wish list was somewhere with lots of natural light that would work well with our colour scheme. We had looked at one or two other venues and decided to pop along to a wedding fair at the Beamish Hall Hotel. As soon as we walked into the stunning Winter Gardens Room, we stopped and looked at each other; we just knew! We chose gold charger plates and midnight blue chair drapes to tie in with our colour scheme. We also had a gold and glass postbox for our cards and mirrored trays for our confetti pouches. We ordered confetti to match our colour scheme and filled the pouches ourselves. They had Mr. and Mrs. Herridge printed on them in gold with our wedding date.” For their favours, the happy couple gave their guests macarons from Bessy’s Sweet Bakes. “We love a sweet treat, so we chose macarons that matched our colour scheme,” recalls Rachael. “We also had vegan biscuits and for the children, we made little activity books. “When it came to our table plan, we knew we wanted something that would be a little bit quirky but also fit the style of the wedding,” adds the bride. “We found Amanda Michelle Design & Stationery, who creates wedding stationery with hand-drawn illustrations. We chose locations from our favourite TV shows and films as table names, and Amanda created a table plan in the style of a road map.” The centrepieces were different heights and tied in beautifully with the room’s décor. “On half of the tables, we had tall gold stands with white floral arrangements and lots of foliage, with midnight blue chiffon and gold tealights underneath,” remembers Rachael. “On the other half, we had gold and glass lanterns with foliage, tealights and midnight blue tapered candles in gold holders. We wanted our flowers to be simple and elegant. I had a bouquet of white and cream flowers, including peonies, with lots of green foliage and a handful of blue thistles. The bouquet was hand-tied with a midnight blue ribbon. As part of our ceremony flowers, we also had a gold arch decorated with white flowers. We were able to use this as a backdrop for our photo booth after the ceremony.” The cake was one of the first things that the couple booked. “We met Jacqueline from Jacqueline’s Cake Company at a local wedding fair and when we tasted her white chocolate and raspberry cake, Andrew insisted we couldn’t book anyone else,” reveals the bride. “We had a lot of guests at our wedding, so we opted for four tiers, each with a different flavour: white chocolate and raspberry, chocolate, lemon and blueberry, and mocha. The cake was decorated with fondant icing in blue, white and gold to tie in with our colour scheme, and we added simple fresh flowers to finish it off. “For our food, we had canapés and pimms or prosecco for after the ceremony,” continues Rachael. “We then had a traditional three-course wedding breakfast, followed by coffee and chocolates. Guests were able to choose from three different choices for each course before the wedding, and of course there were vegan options too. Everyone commented on how fantastic the food was. In the evening, we had hot sandwiches and chips and cut the cake so people could enjoy that too.” 33 REAL WEDDINGS
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