Abbie & Liam’s Real Life Wedding Blog
What was the proposal like?
Liam proposed on my 30th birthday at home with our two girls Arabella & Ettie who helped Liam lay out the rose petals in the shape of a love heart on the floor. They didn’t find out until that morning that Liam was going to ask me to marry him and when they found out they were super excited to be involved. I always told Liam I’d love for our girls to be involved in the proposal so he had took that on board (he must actually listen to me sometimes) but I totally wasn’t expecting it! Straight after we began to facetime all of our friends and family to inform them of our news. Everyone had been waiting a while as we had been together for 15 years!
How was the planning, what made you choose The Coniston?
We began looking not long after we got engaged. We initially looked local to us, but we just didn’t seem to find anything we loved. We live in Cumbria so around us there are a lot of barns and it wasn’t what we wanted for our big day! We came across The Coniston Hotel on Instagram so we had a look and then booked a viewing. As soon as we arrived at the Coniston hotel we just instantly fell in love. Katie took us out and showed us the grounds of the Coniston hotel which were just absolutely stunning. All of the staff were so welcoming and we just knew this was our venue for our big day! We got a really good feel so we booked there and then!
How did you choose the photographer?
The photographer... Hayley Baxter. When we were shown the albums at the Coniston hotel we noticed that most of them were by Hayley and her work just looked amazing. She captured the grounds perfectly along with the bride and groom. We instantly contacted Hayley to see if she was available and luckily she was. We just knew she would be amazing to capture all the special moments of our day and she definitely did that!
The dress
I wanted to start off with a small wedding dress shop as I had no idea what I wanted and I didn’t want to be overwhelmed. I went to a small boutique with my Mum and sister to begin with and tried on a range of dresses. I then went to a bigger shop but still didn’t love any of them. I came away feeling deflated thinking I wasn’t going to love a dress and I would just have to settle for one. Third time lucky, I booked a local boutique to me which was relatively new to our area, I had seen the dresses on instagram they were beautiful. The shop was Belleleuer in Ulverston and Jenny the owner was amazing. I described the style of dress I had liked in other shops and she helped me pick out some dresses out. The first dress, I liked but didn't love. Jenny had a new dress that had arrived in store that day and suggested I tried it. I absolutely loved the style but I loved the fabric of the first dress. This was when Jenny said the brand can be mix/match so I was able to get the dream style with the fabric i wanted (win, win!). I was also adamant I wanted detachable sleeves that went over my shoulder for the ceremony but that I was able to remove later on. Luckily the fabric I chose for the dress also did sleeves to match. This just made the whole dress and it looked incredible!
What did the bridesmaids and the groomsmen wear?
The colour scheme was sage green and white...
Our bridesmaids were all in sage green with our two flower girls in white dresses.
Liam knew what colour suit he wanted from the start so he had a beige/stone coloured suit paired with black trousers. The grooms party all wore the same suits from Mr Mister in Barrow. The design of the suits were Marc Darcy. I loved how smart they all looked!
What did you want from your day?
We wanted to include our loved ones that weren’t with us anymore so we made a memory table with a pictures of them all with candles so we still felt their presense on our special day. My best friend Charlotte died 15 years ago of leukaemia so I wanted to make sure she was with me walking down the aisle so we pinned her ashes to my bouquet along with a picture of her and my late Nanna who passed away in march. It was important to me that I felt they were involved and close by me throughout the day.
The ceremony was amazing. We really wanted to get married outside looking onto the lake but thanks to the good old english weather this wasn’t possible as it rained the day before. We hadn’t seen the inside room set up for a ceremony so I was apprehensive about how it would look, however, it was stunning and I would say even better once the room was turned around for the wedding breakfast! As soon as I heard our wedding singer Jenna start singing and seeing the flower girls and bridesmaids walking down the aisle my heart was racing (as was Liam's but maybe because we were running late he thought I’d changed my mind).
My Dad walked me down the aisle which was so special to have that moment with him, although, I think he was more nervous than me!
We wanted the day to be chilled but fun. We wanted everyone to feel relaxed but also have fun and let their hair down. I would say one memorable moment must have been when 2 friends of ours decided they wanted to put on a bit of a show and MC for our guests (it went down a treat and got everyone on the dancefloor!)
One of your favourite small moments of the day?
We explored the grounds for our photographs after the ceremony and a highlight for us was getting into one of the boats and having a row out into the beautiful lake and just having a moment to ourselves whilst our photographer and videographer captured this for us.
