A perfect, perfect day

Jonathan and Rachel Hale

Where: Ceremony at All Saints Church, Thornton Hough followed by reception at Thornton Manor

Photography: James Arnold Photography

I have thought about my wedding day since I was a little girl, but when it came to the crunch of planning it, I had no idea what I actually wanted!

I trawled through websites and magazines however, I realised I didn’t necessarily want a theme. I just wanted a day that would be special to us. So I picked out anything random that I liked.

You get so carried away with the planning, but looking back at the wedding now, the best part of the day was walking into the church and seeing the man I love waiting at the end of the aisle.

For our table plan, we had asked Dragonfly to create an old Radio Times listing with 80s children’s TV programmes as we find that when our friends get together this topic of conversation seems to crop up. We thought it would be an amusing ice breaker at the tables. At primary school we had both drawn pictures of ourselves and Dragonfly managed to scan the images and use them on all our stationery.

For favours I gave a donation to cancer research in memory of an aunt. They send you cancer research pins that you give guests explaining about the donation.

Jonathan’s speech was hilarious. I thought the groom’s speech was supposed to be super romantic and soppy, however I laughed throughout.

My brother is a musician and as a surprise he and my mother had organised a girls contemporary choir for us. My bridesmaids had also organised some photos of us as children in school around the Manor which was a lovely surprise. For the ladies in the evening I put a large basket full of different sized flip flops so people could dance and not worry about their feet hurting.

THE DETAILS

Photography: James Arnold Photography, 01829 760481, jamesarnoldphotography.co.uk

Venue: Thornton Manor, Thornton Hough, Wirral, 0151 353 1155, thorntonmanor.co.uk

Dress: Ritva Westenius, ritvawestenius.com

Stationery: Dragonfly Couture Stationery, Thornton Hough, 0151 336 4436, dragonflycouturestationery.com

Cake: Jennifer O’ Neill, 0151 336 6220, jenniferoneillcakes.co.uk

Flowers: Earth, Heswell, 0151 342 9858, earthflowers.co.uk

Videographer: Nico Russell, Wirral, nicorussel.com

To see more of Jonathan and Rachel’s wedding photos see our online gallery or the 2013 issue of Cheshire and Lancashire BRIDE