Tags: Yorkshire

Planned to perfection

11 Feb 2013

Javier Rees and Alexandra Armstrong-Rees

Where: Coverham Church followed by a reception at Tupgill Park

Photography: Ryan Browne

Image gallery

We live in Madrid but held our wedding in Yorkshire so we relied a lot on our wedding planner, Sue White, to help us organise and co-ordinate everyone. She did an amazing job, sharing great contacts and was with me every step of the way. I used to fly over to Yorkshire one weekend a month to meet up with Sue and meet the suppliers. The wedding definitely wouldn’t have been the same without her!

On the morning of the wedding I was very excited but also focussed on everything running smoothly, probably from my previous experience as an event organiser. I got up around 8am and hair and make-up started for me, my eight bridesmaids, and both mums from 9am.

I’d looked for a large romantic wedding dress to suit a country style wedding, but one with a few modern and unique touches to suit my style. We went for a colour scheme of cream and green. I wanted to keep it quite minimalist, tasteful and elegant.

The ceremony was held in Coverham Church where members of my family are buried. We had a full church and the vicar even learnt a few Spanish phrases to address the Spanish and Ecuadorian guests. We had Harrogate Choir singing our hymns and my brother and Javier’s sister both did a reading. Then it was back to our family estate for our reception. Family pictures were taken on the lawn and pictures of myself and Javier inside our new house.

As we entered the marquee dancing, the song ‘Inner Smile’ by Texas was playing. Our Spanish guests held with Spanish tradition waving their serviettes in the air as we headed towards the top table before enjoying a typically three course Yorkshire meal followed by a Spanish digestive drink at the end called pacharan.

In his speech my father was grateful to the architect who had finished our new house in time for the wedding. The best man ended his by singing ‘Celebration’ by Kool and the Gang, passing the mic around the room!

After our first dance we had an amazing live band playing which got all our guests, from different parts of the world on the dancefloor then a DJ took over, playing until 4am, the dancing only broken by a hog roast at midnight!

THE DETAILS

Photographer: Ryan Browne Photography, 01226 786617, ryan-browne.co.uk

Venue: Mahood Marquees, mahoodmarquees.com

Dress: Pronovias, pronovias.co.uk

Groom: Harrogate Suit Hire, 01423 870006, harrogatesuithire.co.uk

Wedding planner: The White Wedding Company, 01423 779784, whiteweddingcompany.com

Make-up: Naomi Stone, admin@naomistone.com

Hair: Nicola Hulatt Richards, nicolarichardshair.co.uk

Catering: Michael Kernall Catering, 01423 547488, kernallcatering.com

Stationery: Noble Fine Art, noblefineart.co.uk

Video: Forever Film, foreverfilm.co.uk

Venue dresser: Where Angels Play, 07946 583118, wherangelsplay.co.uk, The White Wedding Company, 01423 779784, whiteweddingcompany.com