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Cressbrook Hall Wedding Photography
My real wedding series is just a set of 20 or so questions I sent to a few couples, the questions are more wedding based than photography based but I hope they will give you an insight into how brides think back on there wedding.
NAMES: Dan and Amanda Webster
WEDDING_DATE: 26/10/2012
Where did you meet? We met at Rother Valley park, where Dan was working as a waterskiing instructor. My friend was dating his friend and we met via them.
Where did he propose? Dan took me to New York as a birthday present, to see Wicked on Broadway… or so I thought. Once we had checked into the hotel, we went to the Empire State Building. We had fast track tickets which got us past most of the queues. Once at the top we took some photo’s of the views which were breathtaking. Dan then revealed the beautiful engagement ring and got down on one knee. I was that gobsmacked at first I could not say a word!! Eventually once I had regained my voice and said YES, he put the ring on my finger. we looked up and everyone had stopped to watch. We were congratulated by applause from the public. We then celebrated with champagne cocktails in the bar below.
Where did you get married? Our venue was Cressbrook Hall in Derbyshire. I love old buildings and on our travels together have been to many stunning places. The reason for choosing Cressbrook was firstly for the setting. It sits on the side of a valley overlooking the river Wye and the surrounding scenery is stunning. The second reason was the venue was immaculate. It is not a traditional commercial property and the upkeep was second to none. We had looked at other places that were more expensive and not half as nice. The third was it just felt right and we felt right at home. Some stately homes can feel a bit aloof. Cressbrook was a stunning place but was homely also. The Staff were also great especially Bobby, the owner.
Where was your reception? We had the wedding and reception together at Cressbrook. For the above reasons. It was great to have everything in one place.
Who was your caterer?
The catering was taken care of by the staff at Cressbrook, and may I say they did a wonderful job. The food was cooked to perfection. We had parsnip and apple soup to start, traditional chicken dinner for main, and blackberry and apple crumble for dessert. All was prepared fresh. I saw the farmer deliver the fruit for the crumble on the morning of the wedding and I have never seen blackberries so big!!
Tell us about your wedding rings. Our rings came from Aspire jewellers in Birmingham. My wedding ring is yellow gold and is made to fit around my engagement ring which is a single diamond marquise cut again with yellow gold band. I am quite traditional in my taste but the marquise cut is a bit different. Dans ring is made from titanium. Dan is not fond of yellow gold and wanted a ring that would be hard wearing.
Tell us about your cake. Marks and Spencer did our cake, and we had it cut up for the evening. We just went for sponge all the way through. I did not get to try any but Dan devoured the top tier back in our room later!! We went for traditional white 4 tier cake, and our florist decorated the cake with cream roses.
Who supplied your flowers, what did you have? Our florist has a shop in our village and is a family friend. I had burnt orange calla lilies with cream roses, and some ivy for good luck. It was a trailing bouquet, and the calla lilies matched my bridesmaid dresses perfectly.
Who designed your dress and where did it come from? My dress came from the Bridal House in Leeds. I grabbed a bargain and went for an ex sample dress. It was the dress of my dreams though!!
What shoes did you wear? My shoes came from the Rainbow collection at John Lewis, couldn’t decide between two pairs, so I got both.
Who did your make-up? My hair was done by a really close family friend, she is also my hairdresser. And one of my best friends did my make up. And I would definitely recommend either of them. They did a super job!!
Did you have cars? if so what and who supplied them? As everything was at the same venue we had no need to hire cars, but I did get the use of a really nice BMW aka Dan’s company car.
What was your first dance to and why? Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls was our first dance. I love that song and have watched City of Angels so many times I can recite it backwards almost. That is where I first heard it and went straight to buy the soundtrack. Dan is also a fan of the song too luckily!
How long were you in planning your wedding? We spent 1 1/2 years planning the wedding. Mainly because I had decided I wanted to get married in October. I love that time of year when the tree leaves are on the turn and everything is so colourful
Were you on budget? No lol.. I think we were about £600 over.
What advice would you give a couple planning their wedding? Be clear about what you want. Us brides have probably been picturing this for a long time. Try to keep it as simple as possible and don’t get bogged down with things that don’t really matter. Spend your budget on the things you keep, your man, your ring, the pictures.
From the groom’s point of view, give your bride what she wants, she deserves it and equally importantly it is your day, you’re only going to do it once and it’s expensive so do it your way.
Amanda, what was your most memorable wedding moment? There are so many memories to take from the day. The proud look on my Mum’s and Dad’s face, how unbelievably nervous I was, Dan’s speech, how wonderful everyone looked. But mostly how proud I was to be Mrs Webster!!
Dan, what was your most memorable wedding moment? The whole day went so fast it’s difficult to pick a clear moment. However I will never forget the first time I saw Amanda, it’s hard to imagine and even more difficult to describe the feeling of seeing someone you have known for 10 years but seeing them for the first time. That moment was one moment of clarity on an amazing day. Thankfully for all the other moments of which there are many, we had Neal there to capture them for us.