Kate Lewis Design: Real Life Wedding! Mr & Mrs Jenkins-Knight

Real Life Wedding

Mr & Mrs Jenkins-Knight - Friday 13th July 2012

Mr & Mrs Jenkins-Knight © Richard Moore Photography

The Bride & Groom Introductions:

Bride: Helen Jenkins

Groom: Gareth Knight

Gareth and I are both the last in the line of our respective families and so the decision about changing my name was difficult. The ‘Jenkins’ was a strong part of my identity which I was reluctant to change. Gareth understood this, and also how important it was for our new family (whenever it might come along) to share the same name. So in the end both of us double barrelled our names to become the Jenkins-Knight’s. I know double barrelling names isn’t for everyone, but we love ours and our new nickname – the JK’s!

The Proposal:

The proposal – 5 years ago!

I had always wanted a blue diamond for my engagement ring and so Gareth was left to try and find one! He had a really modest budget (as he was working part time and studying for his degree), but he found one in October 2004. Being worried I wouldn’t like the ring; he showed me a picture shortly after he bought it. I loved it straight away and I couldn’t wait to get engaged! But he made me wait; 4 months to be precise! Christmas and New Year came and went and still no proposal. Then on the 2^nd of February 2007 Gareth took me to visit our favourite place – the Eden Project in Cornwall. I had a feeling he’d ask me, but I didn’t say anything! Walking around the biomes was lovely as it was a pretty chilly day outside, but still no question. As we started to walk towards the exit Gareth pulled me aside (he must have thought it’s now or never) and there in front of a giant tractor tire in the cold rain and without getting down on one knee Gareth ask me to marry him!

The blue diamond engagement ring - with the new wedding rings! © Richard Moore Photography

The wedding date:

As with everything to do with our wedding (and us in general really) – this wasn’t conventional. Friday 13^th July 2012. We started going out on April fool’s day, so getting married on Friday 13^th didn’t seem too bad. My Grandma’s wedding anniversary is the 10^th July so it was close to that date as well.

The Wedding Plans:

Wedding planning – what can I say, I didn’t enjoy it! We weren’t able to start planning our wedding for a long while, as we couldn’t afford to get married whilst Gareth was at university. After he finished we moved, started new jobs and bought a house within the space of 6 months so we had a lot to think about. Wedding planning started when we booked the venue, in March 2011. We didn’t really have a vision for our wedding day; it evolved as we went along. There were some things that we really wanted though: our friends and family to be there; a relaxed day; a true celebration; colour. Whenever we arranged anything for the wedding we kept this in mind.

The Wedding Venue(s):

The venue – We decided early on that because most of our guests had to travel we would have the wedding and reception all in the same place. We married at Kenwick Park; a golf club and hotel just outside Louth. We choose Kenwick Park for a number of reasons including:

1. Friendly staff

2. Professionalism of staff (they frequently do 80 weddings a year)

3. Close to our home (half an hour)

4. You could get married outside in the new pavilion

Decorating the venue was a challenge, but we wanted to keep things pretty simple. We had chair covers and a beautiful lit backdrop for the meal and my mum (with a little help from me) made bunting and table centres. We also covered some prints the hotel had with photographs of Gareth and me taken throughout our relationship.

The staff at Kenwick Park were brilliant and couldn’t have been more helpful. The venue more than met our expectations and our guests loved that we married outside.

The Guests:

Deciding how to invite to your wedding is possible one of the hardest tasks, especially when you’re on a budget. Gareth and I started with a wish list of everyone we’d like there. From our budget we knew roughly how many people we could afford and then altered the guest list to reflect this. We always knew we wanted to keep the wedding and reception small, with more people invited to the evening and in the end we invited over 50 quests to our day and reception. As it turned out only 41 adults and two babies attended.

Our invitations were perfect! We spent many many months trawling the internet and wedding fairs looking for an invitation that would truly match what we had in mind for our big day. One evening I stumbled across Kate Lewis Design's website after another long night of Googling. I showed Gareth and we both knew the invites were perfect and really represented what we had in mind for our big day.

Our invites were Kate’s Appliqué Cake design. No real alterations were needed as they were brilliant and very well received. Friends and family loved them, and knew how well they fitted us (as I do a lot of crafting). I also used the invites as a starting point for other designs on the wedding day. I sourced the fabric for our bunting to match the invites and asked my aunt (who made our cake) to match the design in the cake decoration. I also made mini bunting for the cake in the same fabric as the rest of the bunting.

The Dress (& all the trimmings):

The dress – oh dear, it wasn’t easy. Gareth had said all along he’d like to see me in a short dress, and in the end I had one! But getting there wasn’t easy! My first dress shopping experience was quickly popping into a bridal shop before picking Gareth up from work! I’d seen a short dress in the window I loved (JustinAlexander 8465) and although I didn’t ask to try it on the shop assistant thought I should so I did. I really fell in love with it, but I didn’t have my friends with me. Coincidentally I’d arrange to go dress shopping the day after with 3 of my very good friends, so I planned to take them to see it. I tried on 22 dress that day and eventually they decided they liked a beautiful long dress by a designer whose name escapes me. I took my mum to see the long dress and the short dress. My mum liked the long one and so I bought it. However I couldn’t get the idea of a short dress out of my mind and having tried the long dress on again (which didn’t fit because I’d lost weight) I went back to see the first dress. In the end I bought a dress very similar to it in the sale as I just didn’t feel the long one was me anymore.

In the end everyone seemed to love the dress I’d chosen – even my mum.

The Grooms Suit:

Gareth rented his grey three piece suit from the same shop as I bought my dress. I didn’t really want him to rent his suit, but he wanted him and his best men to match. We’d spoken about the type of suit he’d have and we always knew it would be a simple grey suit. He did have the final say on which suit he’d have though. Gareth did have a different shirt though. I’d searched for a long time for a patterned shirt to match the flowers in the wedding but really struggled to find anything. On a trip to McArthur Glen in York we found it. A pink flowered shirt in Paul Smith. I loved it. He had wobbles about it the day before, but is now very glad he wore it!

The Bridesmaids:

I started with one bridesmaid (my sister) but with 6 months to go I decided I needed another! I’m not greedy but my sister lives 2 hours away and wasn’t really able to help with the wedding planning. Luckily for me my friend Sammy agreed to be my bridesmaid and she was brilliant. She supported me all the way and arranged my brilliant hen do (also at Kenwick Park)! Sammy and I met at work, but we also swim regularly together and she is just lovely!

The Bridal Party:

The bridal party was relatively small. Obviously there is my sister and Sammy the bridesmaids. Then Gareth had two best men. His oldest friend from school David Hayes, and his friend from university Matthew Barraclough. Gareth’s little brother Kieron was his usher and then there are all our parents.

The Flowers:

I was keen to use flowers to decorate our venue. We had jam jars, vases and tea cups all filled with flowers around the venue. Sam at STEM florist Grimsby did our flowers. We had alliums, dahlias, and roses as well as honeysuckle. I love the look of alliums (big purple pompom type flowers) and the smell of honeysuckle. The roses seemed to fit our developing ‘theme’ and dahlias were my Granddad’s favourite. My Granddad is no longer with us, and due to family politics I couldn’t say anything during the wedding, so instead this was my nod to him. After the wedding I gave my bouquet to my Grandma to place near my Granddad in the crematorium.

The Cake:

The cake – is probably my favourite element of our wedding. It looked beautiful and tasted amazing! So much so that my Husband (who used to hate fruit cake) now won’t stop eating it!

We had a 3 tier cake, all of fruit as my Aunt (who made the cake) had to transport it from London! Logistically the cake was a challenge. I wanted a cake topper – so I had to estimate what would look right (without looking lost/ too big for the cake). I also wanted the cake to match our invites so I sent my Aunt samples of fabric.

The cake topper was very special. I had this very clear idea of a teapot mouse (Alice in Wonderland) to sit on top of my cake, but I couldn’t find anything like it. Then one day whilst looking for something completely different on Etsy I found Kirsten of Quernus Crafts I loved her gorgeous mice and so I emailed a request. After I managed to source the tiny teapot and cup and saucer, Kirsten did the rest. I was over the moon when they arrived. I was totally in love. The mice now have pride of place on my mantlepiece!

The Photos:

Our photographer was Richard Moore of www.richardmoorephotography.co.uk and was the second thing we arranged after booking our venue. The photographs were really important to us and we wanted them to be lovely. We met Richard at a local wedding fair and loved his work. He was lovely to speak to and we knew he would do a great job. After we’d decided to book him, my mum told us that he was her photography teacher. Decision made, and we’re so glad because we thing he did a lovely job.

The First Dance:

Our first dance was Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. The song is one we both loved from seeing the band live twice!

The Best Part of the Day:

Aside from marrying my Husband, the best part of the day for me was walking down the stairs at Kenwick Park to see my Dad and bridesmaids waiting for me and walking into our reception to Pirates of the Caribbean played by the wonderful string quartet (the Hayes Ensemble)

The Funniest Moment:

Embarrassingly it was probably me arriving at the bridal suit at Kenwick Park to get ready and stuffing a sandwich (current tea cake with cheese on – you can’t beat it) in my mouth whilst trying to have my make-up done!

The Most Emotional Part of the Day:

All of it! But probably seeing my dad shed a tear when he saw me walk down the stairs.

The Honeymoon:

We had a ‘minimoon’ in the Lake District. We left on Tuesday and had four nights away. We stayed in the stunning Rothay Garden hotel for two nights and then on to the Lodore Falls hotel for another two nights. We visited Hill Top farm (where Beatrix Potter lived) and saw her original black and white drawings at the gallery in Hawkshead. We also walked around Tarn Hows and up Cat Bells. It was lovely to get away from it all! We’re now planning a real honeymoon next year, but don’t know where yet and a lot will depend on money!

Any other best bits you have to share:

Getting married outside was really important to me, and the weather forecasts on the run up to the wedding wasn’t looking good. In fact the MET office had issued a yellow warning for rain! As it turned out the clouds lifted shortly after the ceremony finished and we had beautiful blue skies! In the evening we had a little bit of drizzle but it didn’t matter by then!

Credit where credit's due:

Photographer - Richard Moore Photography

Venue - Kenwick Park

Stationery - Kate Lewis Design

Flowers - STEM

Cake Topper - Quernus Crafts

I absolutely LOVE the JK's wedding day! Every little detail is just perfect and everyone looks so happy on every photo (and I've seen lots of fabulous photos). I'm humbled that Helen decided to use my invitation as a base for the rest of her wedding details, the bunting and the detailing on the cake looks stunning! And don't get me started on the cuteness of the mouse cake topper by Quernus Crafts!!! Just adorable!

I'd like to say a massive THANK YOU to Helen for letting me show off her Wedding to you all! I hope you've loved it as much as I have!

Would love to hear your comments & thoughts.........

Love Kate x

1 comment:

Vermont Wedding Locations24 August 2012 at 04:08
Really like the dress of the brides maid,very cute and colorful.
Congratulations and best wishes to the newly wed. God Bless :)

I would love to know your thoughts on this blog post! (But please do not advertise your own product or company it really is just bad manners!!)
Love Kate x

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Thursday, 30 August 2012

Real Life Wedding! Mr & Mrs Jenkins-Knight

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