Silverholme Wedding.

” Thomas, we want to say a massive thank you for doing a brilliant job on our wedding day. We had a fantastic day and you went above and beyond to ensure we got great photographs, we absolutely love them! ” Amy & Mike

Amy is a primary school teacher and met Mike when he was a sports coach who came in to teach her class on Wednesday afternoons. In Amy’s words, ” Wednesday afternoons soon became the highlight of my teaching week! “ After four years together Mike proposed on the shores of Lake Coniston, complete with picnic, beautiful ring and tickets to see Ed Sheeran (Amy’s favourite singer) in Majorca, followed by a weeks holiday!

They got married at Rusland Church and then moved on to their stunning Silverholme wedding venue, on the shores of Lake Windermere for their reception. “We live in Cumbria, Mike is from the area but I’m from Sunderland. My dad joked that if we were to marry in the Lake District then he wanted to see either a mountain or a lake – Silverholme covered both these criteria! We chose the reception venue once we’d decided that we wanted a small, intimate wedding where our family and friends could stay and celebrate the wedding for a full ‘wedding weekend’. We opted for St Paul’s Church in Rusland as it is a very simple and small country church in a beautiful location and is only a short drive from the reception venue.”

They took inspiration for their wedding from The Great Gatsby.“ We both love the style of clothes from The Great Gatsby, 1920s and 30s era and the glamorous extravagance described in the book. We also love deserts and have a real sweet tooth so the idea of afternoon tea at the Ritz inspired our style of menu and reception celebrations.”

It was a truly lovely Silverhome Wedding, from the people, to all the little details and even the weather! Thanks so much Amy & Michael for having me along for your special day.

We met up here a year earlier for some Silverholme wedding planning and photographs.

Amy’s class made a lovely card for her and some of them even came to the church see their favourite teacher getting married.

Amy presented Mike on the morning with a Victorian silver pocket watch as a surprise wedding day gift. ” I had it inscribed on the inside with our initials and wedding date and the words ‘ I surrender up my heart and swap it for yours’ which is a line from our favourite song (and first dance) ‘ Lego House’ by Ed Sheeran.”

” Gemma Louise Smith did both my hair and make-up on the day. She was fantastic, she was so calm throughout the morning and really listened to what I wanted and created a gorgeous 1920’s pin curl style up do.”

Amy chose the gorgeous ‘ Ruby’ gown by Jenny Packham purchased from Mia Bridal in Carlisle. “ I love the styling of Jenny Packham’s wedding dresses. I love that they are not your typical wedding dress and feel more like an evening gown / red carpet dress. ‘ Ruby’ made me feel a million dollars. I loved the 1920s style drop waist and embellishments and the mixture of a silk satin top with a silk chiffon skirt. The top of the dress was very fitted and figure hugging while the skirt was so floaty and moved beautifully as I walked or danced. It was just a dream to wear! “

“ Due to the styling of the dress, I didn’t want a typical veil. So the lovely Sarah from Mia Bridal helped me design a simple net birdcage with a 1920s style sparkly slide on one side. I wanted shoes that I felt secure and comfortable in, so I was looking for something with a buckle around the ankle. The ones I chose were from the Début collection in Debenhams and were a simple sling back platform stiletto in a vintage champagne colour.”

” I decided I wanted the bridesmaids to enter the church first one at a time and then enter with my Dad. I wanted to build up to the moment we went in and have a couple of minutes with my dad to prepare ourselves. The song we chose was ‘ Canon in D Major’ by Pachelbel. We loved this classical style of music and the way the music builds up to the bride’s entrance.”

“ Although being at church is the most significant part of the day, we didn’t realise beforehand how much we would enjoy the wedding service. It was beautiful and filled with emotion.”

During the ceremony there were two readings. ” One of our ushers, Neil, read a religious reading: ‘ A poem between two lovers ’ – The Song of Solomon 2 v 10 – 13 and 8 v 6 – 7  My sister Lara chose a non – religious reading. It was a song by Bruce Springsteen, who is a bit of a family favourite and which was also played at my Grandad’s funeral.”

“If I Should Fall Behind” – Bruce Springsteen

We said we’d walk together come what may

That come the twilight should we lose our way

If as we’re walking a hand should slip free

I’ll wait for you

And should I fall behind

Wait for me . . .

Silverholme Wedding Venue.” The vintage crockery really helped decorate the plain marquee. I collected this leading up to the wedding, I found lots in charity shops and at car boot sales and many were donated by friends and family. On each table, jam jars were decorated with twine and lace and filled with spring flowers. We also created pew ends for church using square jam jars decorated in the same way. We also added lanterns and created large tissue paper pompoms to hang from the ceiling of the marquee and small tissue paper pompoms to use as napkin rings.

We gave our guests the vintage crockery as wedding favours. As we were having an Easter wedding, a small organza bag filled with mini eggs was placed inside the tea cups.

We didn’t want a traditional iced wedding cake and wanted to continue our afternoon tea theme. We went for a ‘naked’ wedding cake made up of strawberry and lemon Victorian sponge cake layers covered with lots of fresh fruit. The cake was made by Karen Akers who is a former parent from my school. She is a fantastic baker and her cakes always win the school fair baking competitions! She was a little daunted by the idea of creating her first ever wedding cake but she did a wonderful job and created a really individual and unique cake which received so many lovely comments on the day.”

” I really loved the idea of the girls all looking a little bit different and individual while still being easily recognisable as the bridesmaids. I therefore wanted the girls to wear the same colour dress but in different styles. After some research we found a designer on Etsy, Coralie Beatrix , who creates floor length wrap dresses that can be worn in lots of different style combinations.”

” To fit in with the 1920’s theme we wanted a Jazz/Cocktail reception for when we arrived back from church so we hired a local Jazz band ‘ Trickle Charge’ to welcome the guests to Silverholme Manor. They also played during our afternoon tea which provided a lovely atmosphere for the day.”

Everything coordinated beautifully, even Mike’s socks!

First dance to ‘ Lego House’ by Ed Sheeran.

” I had some teacups and saucers spare so I added some glitter to the insides to create sparkly tea light holders for the evening reception.”

In the evening ‘ Ulpha 590 ’ , another local band, were brilliant. They played rock/pop music well into the night, as well as learning our first song and other favourites for us.”

Amy – ” If you can book your venue, friends and family for a whole weekend of celebrations then definitely have a wedding weekend. The day before the wedding was lovely, we had lots of hands to help with the preparation of the marquee and we all shared a meal together at the house. The day after the wedding many of the guests returned to Silverholme, and Mike surprised me with an Easter Fête complete with food, drink and garden games. As a wedding day goes so fast, and we have friends and family from all over the UK, we loved the fact everyone could come together and really relax and enjoy the weekend. Also, enjoy the planning and preparation process. It was something Mike and I did together and it was all the personalised touches that we think made our wedding extra special. There is a fantastic app called ‘ WedPics’ which your guests can download and use to share their photos from the day. It is free and so easy to use and we ended up being sent over 700 photos from our friends and family which was brilliant. The only thing I would have done differently would be to have more sleep the night before the wedding. However, the mixture of nerves and excitement made it too difficult! ”

Silverholme Wedding:

Venue – Silverholme

Bride’s Dress – Jenny Packham

Bridesmaid’s Dresses – Coralie Beatrix

Catering – Karen Rhodes

Cake – Karen Akers

Jazz Band – Trickle Charge

Band – Ulpha590

Photography – Beecham Photography

To chat about your Silverholme wedding photography, please get in touch via our contact page or by email thomas@beechamphotography.com or call 01539 729217