Dreams do come true: The wedding of Paul and Eleanor Blenkinsop

The wedding of Paul and Eleanor Blenkinsop at Llanasa Parish Church in North Wales followed by a reception in tipis at Bryngwyn Farm, Axton

Photography: Helen Venables

We wanted something unique, honest and relevant for our big day. Something that represented who we are and identified our relationship and our families. We didn’t originally have a theme, but when people asked us we said ‘us’. Everything that we did was to reflect our personalities and the things we liked. Which made it great fun to plan.

We got married in Llanasa Church, where my grandfather is buried. I’m the third generation to be brought up at Bryngwyn Farm. It’s a place that has a really special hold over both of us and there was no hesitation that we wanted to have our reception there. However, the idea of traditional marquee wedding really did not appeal. As soon as we found Event in a Tent’s tipis we knew we’d found the perfect solution as they were original, unique, fitted in with the look of the farm and suited our personalities.

We worked with Design Your Day who helped us deliver really unique wedding stationery. Paul is a pilot, with a lifelong obsession with planes so on their suggestion we adopted the concept of ‘travel’ as our theme. The wedding invites were printed on luggage labels, with personalised photomontage postcards as RSVPs. We also used a small plane motif within the design which was then incorporated into the rest of the wedding stationery. We bound the invites and RSVP cards with specially designed ‘All You Need Is Love’ cotton ribbon. This tag line also had wider connotations for us given that we met in Liverpool and love The Beatles, so we incorporated it into other parts of the day. We also included the luggage tags within our table plan.

Originally we had planned to use friends’ cars as wedding transport. However, unbeknown to me, Paul arranged for a horse and carriage. This was a childhood dream and a complete surprise. I arranged for an aerobatic display at the reception, which was incredible. Everyone was in complete awe and we later heard that it brought traffic to a standstill over ten miles away.

THE DETAILS

Photography: Helen Venables, helenvenables.co.uk

Venue: Event in a Tent, 01978 853559, event-in-a-tent.com

Dress: Cheshire Brides, Frodsham, 01928 739796, cheshirebrides.co.uk

Groom: Swarbricks, 0161 643 4040, swarbricks.co.uk

Planner: Fabulous Day, 07985 829590, fabulousday.co.uk/fabulous-day

Stationery: Design Your Day

Flowers: David Wayman, 0161 839 4849, davidwayman.co.uk

Photobooth: Picture Blast, pictureblast.co.uk

Videographer: Lemongrove Productions, lemongroveproductions.com

Entertainment: Under the Covers, 0161 980 6234, underthecoversband.co.uk

To see more of Paul and Eleanor’s wedding images see our online gallery or the 2013 issue of Cheshire and Lancashire BRIDE