Real Wedding – Dunedin Country House – Emma & David
Real Wedding - Dunedin Country House - Emma & David
Another blog today by a previous bride who was married at Dunedin Country House and it was a delight to be their East Yorkshire wedding photographer. I’ll let Emma tell her story of her wedding to David.
When looking at venues for our wedding shortly after our engagement, one stood out to us; Dunedin Country House, East Yorkshire just a few villages away from us. It is a small-scale country house with pretty gardens, perfect for photos, that could hold the ceremony, reception and evening too. It’s also exclusive for you on the day, just what we wanted. After we attended a wedding open day there, we found out that if we held our day in February, outside of the ‘wedding season’, it would also be within our small budget!
Booking our date, the 11th February, was exciting, as we never thought we could afford such a stunning venue, but also reality set in and we had a wedding to plan!
One thing about our wedding was really important, we didn’t want it to be a ‘typical’ wedding. We wanted some unique aspects to our day that were very ‘us’!
My dress, a classic lace A-line finished off with a fluffy mauve bolero and a mauve belt with some sparkle, along with a mauve birdcage veil fitted our venue perfectly. Once my dress was decided upon it helped me with the theme for our day. Timeless and elegant but with touches of us.
Most aspects of our day related to family. My mum helped with lots of handmade touches. My sisters were my bridesmaids. It was a small family wedding. Many of the ‘little touches’ were in honour of my grandparents, who sadly are no longer with us, and would be missed on our day. I made sure there was a chair in the ceremony dedicated to them, with a yellow rose, my Nanna’s favourite, and a model bus, the bus my grandad drove, placed on top of the chair. I also wore ‘ashes into glass’ jewellery, which had the ashes of my grandad in, as my ‘something blue’.
My dad, who was very handy at making things for our wedding (including the invites, menu cards and table numbers to name just a few!) made us a Blue Bus photobooth, where you could stand behind it as the driver and/or passenger. This was great fun on the day!
The main tribute to my nanna, again made by my dad, was ‘Astoria’ bingo cards, which was the place my nanna had loved playing bingo at. We didn’t want any speeches, so we decided we would play bingo instead, with some bingo themed prizes for the winners. This was fab and I loved how everyone was involved.
My grandparents also loved having ‘chippy tea’, so as a nod to that our starter was ‘Pattie Butties’ – mini patties, tartare sauce and bread rolls! Very ‘Hull’ but very us!
Picking the other main aspects for the wedding like flowers, cake and photographer went smoothly too.
I decided against flowers, as they are a big expense and although look gorgeous, everyone has them! For my bouquet I wanted a ‘pearl’ bouquet, a circle of pearls surrounded by mauve ribbon and unsurprisingly, because this wasn’t available anywhere, my dad actually made it for me! It was stunning and exactly what I imagined! He also created ‘paper flower’ bouquets for my bridesmaids in mauve and navy, which again were beautiful and unique. Instead of having flower centerpieces on our tables we had silver ‘vintage-looking’ 3-tier cake stands which gave an elegant look to the tables but also housed our dessert cupcakes and handmade truffles for the guests on each table. It did save a lot of money by not having flowers and they weren’t missed.
For our cake I chose a local small business, Sugarbowl run by Amy. She had made a cake for family previously. Her flavours were delicious and we decided on a three-tier cake, lemon, vanilla and chocolate, covered in ivory fondant with ivory polka dots. Classic and elegant. However, as my husband David loves anything ‘superhero’ I wanted to add in a hint of his personality. I ended up deciding on a ‘Hulk Fist’ punching through the cake, at the back, so from the front you can’t see it but if the cake is placed in front of a mirror, the surprise is at the back! My husband loved this surprise bit of ‘him’ on the day.
For our photographer we were we were recommended Abraham of Abraham Photography, Hull wedding photographer, as he was a family friend. He was was easy to chat to, open to our ideas along with his own, making sure to note what photos were particularly important to us.
On the day he brought an assistant and they were friendly and easy to get along with. They took all of the photos we wanted taking but were careful to not be in the way. On the day, we had planned lots of photos outside, however due to bad weather we had to take most of the photos inside. This didn’t faze Abraham and he found the right room inside our venue so we still could have lovely photos.
However, the weather wasn’t going to stop Abraham from getting some photos in the gardens, as long as I could brave the weather in my dress, they certainly would! His assistant held an umbrella over us until each shot was set up and Abraham was more than happy to kneel in a puddle if it meant getting the perfect shot! These shots ended up being some of our favourite photos.
After choosing the right photographer, because your photos are the only physical memories you have after your day; the unique and personal aspects are what made it so special. They were the most memorable parts of our day.
Thank you so much Emma, I’m delighted you could write about the experience of your wedding day and it was a joy to be able to capture those precious memories of your special wedding day.
If you are getting married at Dunedin or Hull or East Yorkshire, please do get in touch. I m also a North Yorkshire wedding photographer and would love to chat about your photography for your wedding day.
