Molly & Colin (or Colly & Molin if you’ve had a bit too much fresh air) wanted a relaxed, fun wedding that reflected them and their relationship and their quirky Askham Hall Wedding did that and then some. From Molly’s gorgeous elegant dress with a twist (IT HAD POCKETS PEOPLE) to the bit where we all laughed our heads off when they got photobombed by some horny piglets, it was a day full of absolute joy. And the staff at Askham Hall certainly went above and beyond to make sure everything felt effortlessly perfect. I’ll let our happy couple tell you the full story.

VENUE:
We both decided we wanted to get married in Cumbria (where Molly is from) as we love it there. So, as we knew we’d have a lot of friends and family travelling from down south (where we both now live and where Colin’s from) we ideally wanted somewhere that we could kind of ‘take-over’ for the weekend but as a house and home rather than a hotel. Askham Hall was perfect – with the beautiful house and surroundings (including pigs) and the owner saying “we want this to feel like your home for the weekend” – it absolutely did. All of the staff were truly wonderful and on the big day, gave us space but had everything sorted so we didn’t need to worry. What we also loved about Askham was the range of rooms it offered. You had so many options and all were beautiful. We were keen for a barn wedding but weren’t sure about being in the barn all day. Lucky for us, the weather was wonderful and we could move around. Being able to move from the lawn to the barn was one of our favourite things. I never thought we’d actually be able to get married outside but the weather was fab and we could make use of all the grounds – ending up in the barn as we’d hoped. We even got to use the pool the day before!!

OUTFITS:
Colin and his boys wore suits from Slaters (they.are.amazing). Colin teamed his with Church’s shoes and we let the others wear their own. The girls wore dresses from Debenhams with their own shoes again plus we bought them Kate Spade bracelets as thank you gifts. Molly wore an Ellis Bridal design from Sapphire in Wooburn Green. It had pockets. Multiple people put their hands into said pockets on the day. Dresses with pockets should be more commonplace. Everybody loved it! Shoes were from French Sole. In terms of jewellery, earrings were Kendra Scott and bracelet was Monica Vinarder. Oh and a veil borrowed from one of my lovely bridesmaids.

STYLING:
Hair was done by Rosie Leighton from Nirvana Beauty & Hair Studio in Carlisle and Lauren from Lauren Amy Make-up made us all look absolutely radiant.

FLOWERS:
Laura Tuer from Greenwheat Flowers & Fika, Penrith did our flowers. We asked for lots of green with a hint of blue and white. We love ferns (they remind us of the lakes and happy times) so asked for ferns to be a big part of the day – we had wreaths made of fern and then actual fern plants in pots to line the aisle which also worked as table centrepieces too! We then just added some wild flowers in small jars. The buttonholes were greenery with thistles. They looked fab.

CAKE:
We didn’t have a traditional cake but instead had a tower of cheese from Askham. Mmmm cheese.

PERSONAL TOUCHES:
We did a lot of the stationary and signage ourselves. We both know-ish how to use Photoshop etc… and have a printers next to our house so it was relatively simple. We wanted to combine the name card with the menu choices – so made sense for us to do it. Our favourite thing about it all was the table signs. They were all based on myths and legends from Cumbria and even featured King Arthur! We used several books to get the stories we liked and then wrote short versions of them on the back of the table name card – we thought they’d work for conversation starters if anyone was struggling! The favours were antique style key-shaped bottle openers with little tags saying “Love is key” (soppy!) and we got them from Esty.

MUSIC:
We had a ‘folky’ band playing over the drinks reception – they do lovely & chilled covers of music from the Beatles to Florence and the Machine. We loved the atmosphere they set just after the nuptials and it was fun to spot people singing under their breath (not enough wine in them to sing out loud but that changed later)!
For our first dance, we had Wham! Wake Me Up Before You Go Go. We’re not the best dancers and are a bit silly so wanted something up-beat and fun. We both love George Michael/Wham! too so it felt natural to have that song! We then had an awesome cover band from Merseyside who again did a great song range from Paul Simon to The Weekend so everyone could get involved. The dance floor always seemed pretty full when they were playing and we still get complimented on them 😊

CATERING:
Askham Hall have great chefs and their own veg and herb gardens so we used them. We had some yummy lasagne, fish and duck. All very tasty! We also had pizza from their pizza oven for the evening meal – perfect!

TOP TIPS:
Probably a bit cliched but don’t do something that is seen as a must or traditional if it doesn’t personally work for you. We didn’t have a cake and therefore didn’t have a cake-cutting moment as it just didn’t seem necessary for us (I am also really clumsy so it probs would have ended badly)!

FAVOURITE MEMORY OF THE DAY
Ah this is so hard! We honestly had the best time ALL day and felt incredibly lucky. One of our favourite memories though, is my eldest brother singing my dad and me down the aisle (Coldplay – Kingdom Come) and then singing Colin and me back up the aisle after we’d married (Hall and Oates – You Make My Dreams Come True). He did beautiful acoustic versions of them and he just made the ceremony so special for us. We felt very lucky to have such a talented brother/brother-in-law!