We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.
Today we are introducing the beautiful wedding of Laura and Greg captured by the fantastically talented Lissa Alexandra and held at the very unique Danby Castle.
Laura Costelloe and and Greg Morgan now Mr & Mrs Morgan originally from Halifax in West Yorkshire now live in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia opted for a Summer wedding at Danby Castle and this is their gorgeous story…
They met
We met through a friend one birthday night out, and instantly clicked, but for some reason even though we exchanged numbers and constantly bumped into each other, no one made the first move for over 3 years. I was working in a bar towards the end of the 3 years and eventually told my boss – “You know what, when that teacher guy next comes in (I still didn’t know his name at this stage – very embarrassing) I’m going to march straight over and tell him we’re dating”. My boss called my bluff when he said “You know he’s already in right?!” After trying to back out, I eventually marched over and told him we were dating, he looked at me like a weirdo but laughed and agreed and after that we were inseparable.
The engagement was on Valentines Day, we said we’d walk the dog before going out, and he decided to take me to our secret hidden spot overlooking our town. When he got down on one knee and showed me the ring it was a handmade silver replica of the toy ring he’d given me as a promise he’d made the valentines day the year before when we had no money! No one has an engagement ring like mine, who needs diamonds?!
We kept researching online ‘unique venues’ and kept finding hotel after hotel which neither of us wanted. Eventually one of the lists pulled up Danby Castle with its crumbling walls, its little barn and its personality stood out a mile.
Every photo we saw from the weddings at Danby Castle looked completely individual and the brides seemed so happy compared to some of the hotels’ more elegant and serious brides. When we saw the campervans and camping options with dogs allowed, it was a complete no brainer. We only ever saw this venue, we never arranged to see another.
We wanted our wedding to be quite personal whilst making everyone feel as included as possible so we had a sort of homemade, tea party feel where everything was made by someone at the wedding or was based on a story that people will know.
The look and feel was like a boutique jumble sale with a mixture of antique books, homemade decorations and natural untouched elements, so for example the centre pieces were old books, placed on pieces of wood with pearls wrapped around them and a story in the middle of the table explaining why we’d named the table that.
All of the main aspects – food, cars, accommodation were then chosen purely on their fun aspect, we had the VW campervan for the bridal parties, the favours were hangover kits, we had sweetie tables, fish & chip vans and ice cream vans with lawn games and photo treasure hunts for the children. We brought in photo booths for the adults, and camped in luxury glamping tents after the wedding.
We wanted people to have a good time with us and get involved with everything and not feel like they had to be on show all day.
To this day the most common compliment people give us about the wedding was that wherever they looked on the day and whenever they see photos they instantly know it was our day, the wedding feel captured us very well.
The Dress…
We were living in Australia in between booking the venue and getting married so I had one week to find my dress with my Mum whilst back in the UK, otherwise I’d be searching online by myself. I’d seen a few Alfred Angelo modern vintage dresses and found a shop nearby was selling some. I walked into our first shop, saw the first dress and it was the one! We tried on heaps more in other shops but I came back to this one.
It was a dress with a vintage feel but it was quite young and playful too so it meant I could be really relaxed and didn’t have to concentrate on how I needed to stand.
The bridesmaid dresses were hardest to choose, and close to the wedding I still hadn’t seen anything I liked. At the last minute whilst looking for something else I found a lady on Etsy.com who was handmaking lace dresses and I fell in love with them.
I dressed all the bridesmaids in cream, in a shorter version of my dress because I thought it made us all look like we were together, instead of me standing out being the only one in white!
The groomsmen had one clear rule, whichever shop they chose had to be willing to make a matching suit for our dog, Meatloaf. One of my favourite photos from the wedding is Meatloaf having his dog beer with the other groomsmen all in their matching suits!
I can thoroughly recommend any of the suppliers we used! Danby Castle were amazing from start to finish and couldn’t do enough to help me even from the other side of the world! They have so many props and accessories for you to use, and if they don’t have it they’re happy to tell you a local supplier with exactly what you want! From start to finish they just wanted to help us have our special day in any way they could. And on the day everything was so easy and relaxed thanks to the care of these guys.
Lissa Alexandra was our photographer and everything she takes makes you feel nostalgic and romantic, she was amazing throughout the process.
Greenwoods provided the suits for the groom’s team, including Meatloaf the Basset Hound’s waistcoat, shirt and tie. The Halifax branch staff were happy to dress the dog and it was important that friends in the Isle of Wight, West Yorkshire and Northumberland could all get to a branch to arrange fitting and pick up – this was easy through Greenwoods and we were happy with their options.
We used Glampit for the tents, who set up the tents and cleaned up everything for you the day afterwards and provided all the extras we asked for like stoves and picnic baskets. The tents were perfect and warm and so nicely decorated with lamps and rugs and fairy lights.
The campervan was from All Cool Camper Hire and they couldn’t have made things nicer for us. They did heaps of extra trips picking people up from the middle of nowhere and even provided champagne whilst driving us to a remote location for a quick photoshoot.
Our cake was made entirely of cheese from the Yorkshire Cheese Company, we just picked it up on the way to Danby Castle and was perfect as a wedding cake alternative.
We basically just got to deal with a huge bunch of happy positive people during the entire planning process!
Credits:
Danby Castle
Lissa Alexandra Photography
Greenwoods
All Cool Camperhire
Glampit