Middleton Lodge Wedding Photographer – Beccy and Craig

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When and where did you get engaged?

We got engaged on Saturday 13th December 2014, only 4 months after we starting going out (we have known each other for nearly 4 years though!) and Craig proposed at Beccy’s parent’s house, in their dining room! We live in Cheshire but Craig is from Teesside originally. His Mum & Dad had come to stay with us for the weekend and had brought the engagement ring with them, which he’d bought from Whittakers in Yarm but didn’t have a way of collecting without Beccy knowing. He had been thinking about all the different ways to propose & hadn’t decided on the best approach so when we got to Beccy’s parents for a joint-family meal Craig managed to get Beccy’s Mum on her own to show her the ring & told her he wasn’t sure when he was going to do it. She told him it didn’t matter where or when because she knew Beccy would say yes. The parents were all so beside themselves with excitement, Craig thought then was as good a time as any… and beside which, both sets of parents may have spontaneously combusted at any point otherwise!! 😉

We started looking for venues as soon as we got engaged and were initially thinking somewhere in the middle, between Cheshire & Teesside, like the Lake District, but we didn’t really find anywhere we loved. We saw Middleton Lodge on hitched.co.uk and we fell in love immediately, they had an open day on 1st Feb and so we went along, not having made any other appointments for venues, and upon first sight we just knew it was the one – it was perfect!

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What would be your most memorable part of your Big Day?

To be honest, we think that the whole day was just amazing and memorable, but if we had to pick any moment it would be saying “I do”. The ceremony itself was intimate and really special. We were both incredibly emotional and we had 3 wonderful readings from friends and family which helped to make it really personal.

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We didn’t really have a theme as such – our inspiration stemmed from the venue but also Beccy’s dress, although Craig didn’t know that of course! As the dress wasn’t white or ivory, it was classed as blush but it was a very, very pale peachy pink. As a result, Beccy thought that grey would work best for the chief bridesmaid and decided we would aim for a vintage glamorous feel. We chose to have lots of silver/mercury glass to contain the flowers and we sprayed a lot of glass to look like mercury glass and dotted these around Middleton Lodge. We had silver candelabras and silver candlesticks with pearls draped over them. Our wedding stationery was ivory & grey with a pearl embellishment, as Beccy had lots of pearls on her dress. A lot of ideas Beccy had came from trawling Pinterest and that’s where she found inspiration for the DIY mercury glass, fortune tellers as ice breakers at the meal along with the sparkler favours.

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All of our suppliers were absolutely fantastic; we couldn’t have asked for more and would highly recommend all of them.

We had the following:

Lucy Greenhill – There are not enough words to say how fantastic Lucy is, we now class her as a friend! We found the search for the photographer the hardest; we must have looked at about 20 before we saw Lucy’s pictures on Facebook. She was the photographer for a friend’s wedding who Beccy used to work with. She’s based in Cheshire and Hereford but had been to Middleton Lodge once before. She is bubbly, energetic, organised and has such a way with the light! She was able to whip all of our guests into shape & organise the portraits to happen super quick but she just gelled so well with everyone, all our guests loved her!

7th Heaven – This is a Wedding dress shop based in Congleton, Cheshire & Beccy is very lucky to be able to call the owner Helen Allen her friend. It’s the most beautiful shop, Helen, her Mum Brenda & all the team are just fabulous and make the whole experience so special.

Gemma Lucas – Beccy has known Gem for a while, she first did Beccy’s make up when she attended a wedding fayre to model dresses for Helen, and she is just fantastic – best makeup artist ever & just lovely!

Victoria White – Gemma Lucas recommended Vicky to Beccy although she’d never used her before, and she was kind enough to travel all the way up to Middleton Lodge to do Beccy’s hair even though she is based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, in Staffordshire. She was lovely, really efficient and knew exactly what Beccy wanted, even when she changed her mind quite a bit between the trial and wedding day!!

Lucy MacNicoll – Lucy is a preferred supplier for Middleton Lodge but Beccy had seen her website and instantly fell in love. We were so excited when she then won Florist of the Year at the Wedding Industry Awards for the whole of the UK. Lucy installed a flower & ribbon curtain around the top of the stairs amongst a whole load of other amazing flowers!

High Row Music Events – We met Matthew Lennox at the Middleton Lodge open day/wedding fayre and had heard the choir he sings in do “This Marriage” this is what we chose for Beccy to walk down the stairs/aisle with as it was so different – it was amazing, gave us goose pimples and has us in tears every time we hear it now! He also arranged for “Strings Attached” to perform for our drinks reception, they were absolutely incredible!

Wedding & Events – Jayne from Wedding & Events is just lovely, she made the marquee where we had our wedding breakfast look phenomenal with a Pink, White and Matt Silver lantern and pom pom installation, and it really brought the place to life.

Party Pics Photo Booths – Beccy’s Mum & Dad paid for us to have letters in lights for the cellar bar, we had “B & C” and it looked amazing!

Munch – We had Munch as our band for the evening reception & they were incredible, they were more than happy for Craig to join in & perform a couple of songs himself which was absolutely brilliant!­