Real Weddings: Jodie & Joe's Wedding at The Oriel St Asaph by Gill Jones Photography

Good morning my lovely readers. Today is a good day as it is my Birthday whoop! Its not a big birthday but as I always tell my parents every Birthday is equally as important. Bizarrely my little sister has the same birthday as me and today she celebrates her 21st Birthday - so Happy Birthday to her, I can't believe where all these years have gone!

I don't know if I have mentioned it before but I am actually Welsh and I am from St Asaph so I have very fond memories of going back there and exploring much of North Wales as I have grown up with my parents and sister. So I do get very excited when I see a Wedding from that neck of the woods.

Today's real wedding comes via Gill Jones Photography who I featured a few weeks back at another rather fabulous wedding. We have Jodie and Joe in the spotlight today for their Wedding at The Oriel.

So, sit back and pour yourself a good brew.

Enjoy,

Katie x

All images are courtesy of Gill Jones Photography, whey not look through more of her wonderful work here.

Jodie and Joe’s  wedding was wonderful, it was relaxed, warm, friendly, romantic and full of joy, it was a real family celebration. Their children Podrick and Nye along with their cousins and friends made full use of the country fair games and the weather allowed everyone to relax outside in the sunshine. I don’t usually post group shots but even they were relaxed, with Mums ‘connecting and belonging’ beautifully. One of my favourite moments had to be when Podrick gave his reading, his family were bursting with pride and there were lots of hugs from Mum.  Oh and I must mention Jodie’s dress,  it’s definitely in my top three for this year. Thanks as always to my super second shooter Olga.

The Planning Edition: Should I Invite Children to our Wedding?

Over my time as a wedding planner I have been frequently asked should I invite children to me wedding?
Unfortunately there is no right or wrong answer to this.

Here is how I suggest that you make a list - this list requires an open mind, honesty and compromise.

The first thing to do is to determine how many children and the ages they will be on your wedding day.

The next bit sounds harsh and you probably won't find this in many other peoples lists. How well behaved are they? Be honest between you both- it needs to go no further than this list.

Then make two guest lists - one with children and one without. See the difference. How significant is that number?

Who are the children - are they family / friends? Are they more on one side than another?

Do you have children yourself? Can you limit the children you invite to just family?

If there are a large number of young children then you may need to consider hiring some childminders or some form of entertainment. Which of course not only adds the cost of catering but also entertainment.

If there are a large number of babies then this will not impact your budget to heavily as they don't require food.

Is your reception safe for children to play? You would need to make all parents aware of things list stairs, water, roads, breakables and the like.

If you have a lot of children then you need to factor in their eating times - children need to eat often and earlier than us - can you make this work.

How do you think the parents would feel about you not inviting their children, would they have someone who could mind their children whilst they are at your wedding? Is your wedding close by so they could run home if needed? Consider each set of parents individually - see what your predictions are.

Then here comes the maths - work out the number of children and their cost - factor in their ages. Do some research as to child minders / creche / children entertainment and factor that in. Make two budget lists - with and without children.

This should now be forming a pattern and be drawing up an accurate costing - does this help you make your decision?

If you are still incredibly torn then the only other suggestion I have is to speak to a parent that you feel will listen to your concerns and see what their opinion is.

The people who tend to ask are those who don't have children themselves - as you would expect. So the question from their perspective is more like "how do I tell people their children are not invited"

There is no set line that I would recommend using. I would suggest staying firm and not making exceptions - you both need to be on the same page with this. If you ever feel like giving in then it will impact your budget and also it could cause great upset on the day when some are there and others aren't.


A huge factor to remember is that its your money and it is incredibly expensive to get married these days.
Most people will also be hugely grateful to be a part of your special day so will be over the moon at the invitation. Plus - who knows, some parents may even be grateful of the day off to enjoy themselves.

I hope this is helpful to you - let me know how you get on blissweddings@outlook.com

Love Katie. x

Real Weddings: Rachel & Tom's Wedding at Nunsmere Hall by Tobiah Tayo Photography

Hello and welcome back to my regular readers and a big wave to our new!

I am very excited about today's wedding. The Bride is the sister of one of my best friends and she is just stunning. She was also married at one of the most gorgeous venues - actually where me and Mr BW were thinking of for ours. There story is just wonderful and their photographs are amazing. I am sure you will enjoy looking through them.

Love and best wishes to them for a long and happy life together

Love Katie x

All images and the following words are courtesy of Tobiah Tayo Photography and all the wonder that is! More work and wedding wonderfulness can be found here

 This is the wedding story of Rachel & Thomas. They had met 12 years ago, fell in love, moved to Dubai with their respective careers and here they are. We met up with them at Nunsmere Hall before the wedding to chat about the day and meet for the first time. We instantly got on really well and we couldn’t wait for their wedding which was just days away!

Rachel works for Emirates and Tom works in wholesale for the high-end fashion label, Diesel.  As you can imagine their wedding day naturally featured an extremely well dressed bridal party and perfection in many other areas too.  They were both still easy going and a pleasure to be around, despite a few healthy nerves in the morning as can be expected!

Rachel and Tom were married local to their family in Bamford Chapel in Rochdale followed by their wedding reception at Nunsmere Hall in Cheshire, just 10 minutes from our home.

Our day started with Rachel and her bridesmaids getting ready at Nunsmere. Well, 3 of her bridesmaids were here but one was yet to arrive. The lovely Awatef was arriving from Paris but she hadn’t made her flight the night before! Thankfully she arrived with enough time to enjoy some champagne and to get ready.

Hair and make-up was done beautifully by the super-lovely and talented Reha Akhtar. Rachel’s dress was a stunning creation from Justin Alexander. She wore elaborate crystal drop earrings and an amazing pair of Badgley Mischka shoes to offset the dress.  Tom and his brother wore matching tailored suits and the bridesmaids blush-pink floor length dresses.

 We soon set off after photographing the details and the girls to meet up with Tom at the church. There were lots of guests arriving and lots of hugs. You could definitely see that Tom and Rachel are missed by their friends and family here in the UK and that everyone enjoyed celebrating their special day with them. Tom’s best men, his brothers, Oliver and William were keeping our groom calm and entertained before Rachel arrived.  A little later than planned, Rachel walked down the aisle towards Tom with her proud mum Geraldine.

The ceremony was lovely and featured music from a string quartet who played prior to, during and after the ceremony. After they had said their ‘I do’s, Tom and Rachel greeted their guests outside who soon formed at the gates to shower them with the largest amount of confetti we’ve ever seen! I’m sure they completely disappeared underneath it all for a few seconds! Time for a few quick photographs and then it was off to the wonderful Nunsmere Hall.

I think the sunshine had travelled with them from Dubai as it was certainly shining when we arrived at Nunsmere Hall! Perfect weather for cocktails and champagne overlooking the sunken garden at the back of the hotel.

After catching up with family and friends as well as enjoying their drinks and canapés we headed out to start the family photographs. There is so much to choose from at Nunsmere Hall and the line of trees near to the entrance provided some welcomed shade for us to shoot in and was close enough for everyone to get back to the reception.

Rachel and Tom had chosen elegant decorations for their table centrepieces and after guests were seated they enjoyed some amazing food (as did we!) followed by the speeches.

Rachel’s father had sadly passed away a few years ago but her sister stepped up and delivered an amazing speech. Tom’s heartfelt speech was followed by his brother Oliver’s very funny tales of their childhood and reminders that he will be visiting them for lots of all-expense-paid holidays in the near future!

After their first dance we nipped outside for a few more photographs. The darkness setting in wasn’t a problem at all, it was perfect! We always strive to do something a little different where possible. We used some studio lights, an oven mitt and a little smoke pellet to create some cool images before we headed off home.