jesus peiro for an elegant wedding at mottram hall

If we were to describe today’s gorgeous real wedding, we’d go for ‘classic with a twist’. Maybe it’s the Spanish design of bride Sarah’s Jesus Peiro gown, or perhaps the sherbet colour pop of her lemon and pink bouquet, but this is English elegance with an extra oomph.

Mottram Hall provided a timeless backdrop with exquisite gardens and the venue was dressed with candelabras and roses, roses and more roses.

But despite their fine surroundings and sophisticated styling, today’s couple knew how to get their party on – just take a look at those dance floor photos!

sarah says: We got engaged in May 2015 in our hotel room overlooking Lake Windermere. Tom got down on one knee as we were getting ready for dinner.

Our wedding date was fixed for 25^th March 2017 – we’d always wanted a spring wedding.

We decided to host our wedding at Mottram Hall for both the ceremony and the reception. Tom is local to Cheshire and the hotel is in such a wonderful setting. In fact, we knew as soon as we arrived to view it that it was ‘the one’. Tom is a keen golfer so the prospect of a pre-wedding game on the Friday was an added bonus!

Our theme was classic and elegant with plenty of roses to match the beauty of Mottram.

Colour-wise, we went with mostly pink. We picked the bridesmaids dresses first and everything else followed.

My dress was a Jesus Peiro in white lace with sleeves from The White Closet in Didsbury. I loved the intricate lace and always wanted a wedding dress with sleeves. The White Closet had lots of beautiful dresses but I couldn’t stop thinking about the Jesus Peiro, so I knew it was the one! Boutique Alterations in Bramhall did a great job making sure it fit perfectly.

Our three bridesmaids wore floral dresses from Coast.

The groomsmen and men of the family matched with Tom, who wore a navy blue suit purchased from Slaters. The blush pink ties matched the bridesmaids’ dresses perfectly thanks to Swagger & Swoon.

We stayed at Mottram the night before the wedding. I relaxed in the spa with the girls while Tom achieved his ambition of playing golf in the sunshine with 11 of his friends and family!

On the morning of the wedding, Sarah Meredith did our makeup and was fantastic – she made us feel so at ease.

Our photographer was Lee Brown. He was fantastic – his images were so natural, and we’ve already had guests asking for his details.

Flower-wise, we had a mixture of pink and lemon roses provided by Floristry of Eden. They even managed to incorporate my grandma’s wedding and engagements rings into my bouquet, which was a really special touch.

Floristry of Eden also dressed the room at the venue, which looked amazing, especially the candelabras. We ordered our table plan, menus and place settings from Etsy. They worked perfectly and the seller also designed our date jar sign and popcorn tags as a custom order.

Our favours were miniature spirits. They went down a treat as the best men included a toast in their speech.

We had a naked cake, lovingly made by the mother of the groom. It was delicious! Floristry of Eden decorated it with roses. We also had a ‘Propercorn‘ popcorn bar to enjoy with the reception drinks.

To start, our guests enjoyed celeriac and truffle soup followed by rib of beef and raspberry cheesecake. We had Chardonnay with the soup and Chilean Merlot with the beef. Peter Burrows was our toastmaster – he was so friendly and helpful and made our day run like clockwork.

In the evening, we had a barbecue and a cheese cake. The cheese cake was decorated with custom made bride and groom mice which matched our outfits right down to the bouquet colour and dress detail! They were possibly my favourite purchase for the wedding and will be making an appearance at every cheese party we host for the foreseeable future.

To get the party started we had a live band – Supersession. They were great and kept the dance floor full all night. We also had the pleasure of Didsbury String Quartet for our ceremony and reception drinks. Tom and I could hear them playing as we were having our photos taken in the gardens and it was just perfect in the sunshine. We were listening to their song previews online and came across their version of our first dance John Legend All of Me. It sounded beautiful and, luckily, they were free to play on our date.

As a little extra touch we had a date jar. Each guest had to write down a date idea for our first year of marriage.

After our big day, we would certainly recommend Mottram Hall to other couples – everything was so well organised. Nicole was great leading up to the day and Beth organised everything fantastically on the day. We didn’t have to worry about a thing.

My standout memory from the day will be great speeches from my dad, Tom and the best men – very touching but funny at the same time. We have so many great memories of the evening, too: being on the dance floor, Tom and I being lifted up on our friends’ shoulders and the human pyramid!

For our honeymoon we‘re travelling around Sri Lanka and Dubai. In fact, we’re sitting on the plane as we type this!

My advice to other Brides Up North and their partners would be to have some time off before the wedding if possible. I had the week off which meant I was free to sort any last-minute issues and final touches.

Also, lots of people said that we had to make sure to take time out together on the day as it all goes so quickly – we totally agree!