Lauren and Luke's Soft and romantic summer barn Wedding at bunny hill

Mr + Mrs Norman

Wedding Date: 10th July 2021 | Bunny Hill Weddings | Guests: 72

Instagram: @laurenkatenorman | Photos: Charlotte White Wedding

Lauren and Luke wed in a romantic summer barn wedding in Yorkshire with a soft colour palette of bridal whites and blush. The bride wore a beautiful pronovias bardot gown paired with a gorgeous pair of sparkling Jimmy Choos. Their wedding featured woodland couples portaits, a flower arch inspired by Millie Mackintosh and a zip line (yes there is a photo of the bride having a go - scroll down!). Lauren tells us all about their special day and offers some amazing advice for future brides to be.

• Something Old: My garter – My mum bought and used the garter for my christening as a baby where I wore it around my head as a headband! I was a pretty bald baby so mum thought it made me look more like a girl haha! 
• Something New: My beautiful Pronovias Dress from Dotty Bridal & my stunning Jimmy Choos
• Something Borrowed: My mums lucky 6 pence & a small angel she keeps in her purse. The angel is sentimental as she got it when my grandparents were in a car accident to help watch over them all at such a difficult time. She wanted it to bring me luck and love on our big day. I kept both of these things in my bag.
• Something Blue: A small blue ribbon tied to my garter

Favourite wedding supplier: I’m not sure I can pick just one! They were all incredible! If I have to I would choose our MUA, Ellise Ferguson. She was so incredible, she had 6 girls to make up the morning of our wedding, she even did touch ups on a few other family members after we were finished. She wouldn’t stop until each of us were totally happy with our looks. I don’t often wear a lot of makeup and she understood this perfectly, she made me feel so stunning, talked me through all the products she used and tried numerous looks in trials with me. I wish she could do my makeup every day!

Wedding must-have: Live music & a fantastic photographer/videographer! 

 

What was your favourite wedding purchase? 

Apart from my beautiful dress?? Our Seating plan frame, I found an image of a frame like this on Pinterest and searched high and low for one similar. I couldn’t find one anywhere, my mum was a star and found a metal worker who agreed to create this for us and he matched it perfectly! When I first saw it I just loved it! He also made our centre piece stands and floral hoop!

What was the most emotional moment of the day? 

When I put my dress on and looked at myself in the mirror for the first time holding my flowers, fully ready. I took a huge breath and teared up. I’m not an emotional person usually and don’t cry a lot but this moment really got me. It was the first moment I feel I truly realised it was my wedding day which sounds crazy after such a lead up and planning but this was the moment. Not long after when we were getting ready to walk down the aisle outside, my dad took my arm and held my hand so tight and I was trying to hold back the tears, I suddenly realized this was it, we were getting married! My dad took my arm and held my hand and told me to breath and remember to walk slowly, told me I was ok and to just keep hold of him. He talked me through what he was going to do when we got to the end of the aisle, I honestly don’t think I even responded when he said it, I think I just nodded trying not to cry and trying to breathe! I was so suddenly frozen with so many different emotions all hitting me at once, I don’t think I let myself feel nervous or emotional until this point and it just all came at once! He could obviously tell I was suddenly very nervous, I felt like I couldn’t breathe, trying to hold back tears and the nerves it was so intense. I feel like you can see this in my face in the pictures of me walking down the aisle. Not only was this one of the most emotional moments of the day it was one of my favourites, I felt like we were both so loved, everybody was there for us and wanted us to have the most amazing day, it was the most incredible feeling. 

How did you choose your venue? 

We found Bunny Hill on a Google search along with a few others, we visited one other venue before Bunny Hill and as soon as we visited Bunny Hill we cancelled the rest of our venue appointments! As soon as we got there I think we both knew it was the right place. The grounds are stunning, the barn is beautiful, the accommodation is perfect, it was the perfect middle ground for us. We didn’t want anything too ‘fancy’ but we also didn’t want anything too simple or rustic, this was the perfect mix for us. 

Tell us about the ceremony...

We had a simple ceremony with a registrar in the Garden Room at Bunny Hill. It was a beautiful setting with large bifold doors opening into the courtyard. We didn’t have any readings, we wanted to keep it short and sweet – we were both so nervous I don’t think we could have stood up there any longer! 

Music

Bridal Entrance: A thousand years – Christina Perri

Ceremony Songs: We had an incredible acoustic singer from Jonny Ross Music – Michael Bird.

Bridal Exit: This will be (an everlasting love) – Natalie Cole

First Dance: Always Remember Us This Way – Lady Gaga

Best wedding splurge: The live music. We booked all our live music through Jonny Ross and had an acoustic singer at our drink’s reception, live band in the evening and a DJ with saxophone, it was amazing! I highly recommend The Rolling Keys and Michael Bird. 

Tell us about your Honeymoon...

Our honeymoon was cancelled due to Covid. This was a couple of months before our wedding. We were supposed to be going to Kenya on Safari staying at the stunning Governors Camp – Il Moran and then to the Shangri-la in Mauritius. It was a holiday of a life time. We were gutted when we couldn’t go but we knew it was coming. We managed to rearrange and we now have this booked for July next year where we will celebrate our first wedding anniversary on Safari in the Massai Mara! We decided we still wanted to get away so we did manage to book a last minute ‘mini-moon’ to Antigua as this was on the green travel list. We had a lovely 10 nights away but we cannot wait to go on our proper honeymoon!

Tell us all about the dress…

My dress shop was incredible, I previously went to one other shop and I was so disappointed with my experience there, I didn’t feel like a bride in any of the dresses, I didn’t feel excited and didn’t feel how I thought I would when I tried my first wedding dress on. The second shop I visited was the amazing Dotty Bridal in Holmfirth. The girls that work here are the nicest and most genuine people you will ever meet, they make every moment feel special and will do anything to help you find that dream dress. The shop is beautiful, they have cocktails, sweet treats, stunning décor, rails and rails of stunning dresses, what more could you want! I went dress shopping during the pandemic in summer 2020, I was only allowed 3 guests with me which was a shame as I originally hoped for all of my bridesmaids to be there as well but we had the best day none the less. I was joined by my mum, sister and auntie.

The dress was nothing like I imagined. I thought I would go strapless and did like the off the shoulder look but I imagined it to be bright white and lace. I have always loved a bit of sparkle and when I saw my dress in the shop on a mannequin, I was instantly drawn to it! I tried my dress on first as Alex the store assistant knew I was drawn to this one as soon as I walked in, my eyes lit up as soon as I tried it on. I kept twirling and looking at myself in the mirror, I didn’t want to take it off. Convinced I can’t possibly choose the first dress I tried on I tried on 3 or 4 others but went back to my first choice every time. It came down to 2 dresses, the one I chose and the one I always thought I would get, I realized my options were, play it safe with what I know, or go for the one I love that’s a little bit different. I am so happy I went with my heart and not my head! I would be lying if I didn’t say I doubted my decision all the way up until I saw my dress again but as soon as I put it back on I knew I made the right choice, I felt like a princess! My dress was Hopkins by Pronovias. 

What was the worst wedding planning moment?

When we were still in lockdown in January 2021. It was the year of our wedding and we should be feeling excited, I was filled with dread. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen and we didn’t think we would still be in this situation by then.  

What was your wedding budget – and did you stick to it?  

No! We found it really hard to set a budget not knowing exactly what stuff cost but we spent a lot more money than we imagined! If you ask me it was worth it, if you ask Luke we could have probably cut down somewhere! Haha!

Top money saving tip: DIY as much as you can! Call in friends and family to help!

Tell us about your wedding theme...

Blush, white, gold metals and lots of greenery and florals. I went pinterest board mad and just anything and everything blush with lots of flowers popped right out at me so I knew I wanted this. I also loved the classic all white look but knew I had to incorporate the soft blush tones into our day as well. I wanted to go very flower heavy, I kept saying ‘secret garden vibes!’ I didn’t want our day to be too ‘boho’ style but I did want it to be soft, romantic and simply stunning and it was just that. 

Did you make any wedding DIYs?

Yes! So many! We made a target game based on the American game – cornhole. We made these with ply wood, sticky back vinyl and the machine I would recommend for all crafty brides – my Cricut! I also made all of our signage using vinyl stickers I made including our welcome sign, seating chart, table numbers and the name places. We really struggled with favours so we ended up making these ourselves as well, we bought small sweet jars from Home Bargains for 79p each and bulk bought our favourite pic ‘n’ mix sweets, we spent the week before our wedding filling the jars and we had so much fun doing it! This was a nice personal touch for us because we both have a sweet tooth and filling these with our favourites was a nod to that. 

Tell us about the cake...

The Flamingo Bakery supplied our cake, we met Emily at a wedding fair in 2019 and we loved her cake! We were lucky to attend a few wedding fairs before Covid hit so we tried A LOT of cake but Emily’s was the best by far! We wanted a simple but beautiful design, we went for white with touches of our blush and gold colour scheme. The flavours were white chocolate & raspberry, lemon and the classic Victoria sponge. My favourite memory of the cake was seeing it for the first time when I walked into our venue before the ceremony, we were walking through the reception room to head to the ceremony and as I walked in I saw it and my exact words were ‘wow, look at our cake!’ I had never seen a cake look so perfect in a setting. We ate our wedding cake on the plane to Antigua for our mini-moon the following day! 

Favourite celebrity wedding: Millie Mackintosh’s flower arch was stunning! I feel like this was the first time I decided I wanted one. 

Advice for future brides…

Breathe. Let yourself feel the emotion, when you wake up feeling a bit sick and headachy don’t assume you ate something funny last night! This is nerves whether you believe it or not, I have learnt that from experience! Live in the moment for every second of your day, people told me to soak it all up because it goes so fast and they were not wrong! I couldn’t believe how quickly it all went by. We have some incredible photos from our day and I had a few requests for what these should look like but I gave our photographer free reign with what she felt would look best and I am so happy I did, I put all of my trust in her to capture our day perfectly and she did just that – your photographers and suppliers do this every week, trust them and don’t try to control every fine detail. Sneak off and have small moments with your new Husband, we were lucky to have a few of these, straight after the ceremony we went inside our reception room whilst our guests were leaving the ceremony and we had chance to speak about our mornings, how nervous we both were and just take a minute to breathe and admire our venue. 

Is there anything you wish you'd done differently? 

I wish I wouldn’t have worried as much about trying to make time to speak to everybody. I missed a lot of our live music doing this and looking back I wish I just got on the dance floor and enjoyed it. 

Did you have have anything unusual at your wedding?  

A zip line? That’s unusual right!? All of our guests loved it and I have a fantastic picture of me whizzing down it in my dress! 

Funniest wedding photograph: That’s a tough one, it has to be my dad spilling a whole tray of drinks after so carefully carrying it down from the bar!

Tell us about your first dance...

We winged it and it probably looked awful! Neither of us are the best dancers but me trying to get Luke to move his feet after a few rums was a whole new task! The whole thing was basically us both swaying! Although I did manage to get him to spin me at one point!

Photographer: Charlotte White Wedding

Venue: Bunny Hill Weddings

Flowers: Vanessa Kemeny

Cake:  Flamingo Bakery

Décor: Mount Pleasant Event Styling

MUA: Ellise Ferguson

Hair: Laura Bell

Dress: Dotty Bridal

Shoes: Jimmy Choo

Bridesmaids dresses: Ted Baker

Suits: Hawes & Curtis

Wedding Rings: Berry’s Jewelers

Band: The Rolling Keys

Photobooth: Booth Revolution

From Brides, With Love xo