Real Wedding || Nick & Stacey

I've been pinching a few times times of the past couple of days since Nick and Stacey's wedding arrived in my Dropbox from the uber amazing Tony Fanning. 

I'm an Anglesey resident; and there are of course a few venue's on the Island that are just obvious wedding venue choices that you would recommend any couple crossing the border to have their wedding here. I'll hold my hands up and say that today's venue would never have crossed my mind, to be honest I didn't even know they held wedding's receptions there. 

Nick and Stacey's wedding reception was at The Tavern on the Bay  in Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey back in May of this year. It's the 1st "Real Wedding" I've shared since deciding to re-launch the blog and it was totally worth the wait.

How did you meet?

We met at work 11 years prior to getting married; I was 16 and Nick 20. After Nick asking me out on numerous occasions we finally went out on our first date to Nando’s and the Cinema just 6 years later! Who
would have known then we would continue to get married a further 5 years later.

Tell us about the proposal...

Nick proposed at the beginning of our week long holiday in Anglesey back in June 2014. It was a glorious sunny afternoon and we were on a coastal walk from Traeth Bychan to Moelfre – one we do often. On our walk back to the caravan I was took by surprise when Nick ran off only to find him returning to me and getting down on one knee (apparently he was checking no-one was around!!) After finally saying yes and being presented with a gorgeous platinum engagement ring I felt faint and had to sit down on the rock next to me. Little did I know Nick had also pre-arranged a meal for us later that evening at Dylan’s in Menai Bridge with champagne on arrival. We decided to tell close family of the news the same day and we enjoyed the special moment just between us before telling our friends a couple of days later. Engagement holidays Rock!!

And your gorgeous Dress...

I didn’t have long to find a dress as most shops need at least 6 months to order them in – with this in mind I booked in a few appointments for as soon as possible. I always envisioned myself in a fish tail wedding dress but when I tried on all different styles I was overwhelmed by how much choice there was! Nick mentioned to me a couple of times before I went to the appointments to buy something tight so with this in my mind I bought ‘Bella’ by ‘Intuzuri’ from a bridal shop near my home town of Stockport called Timeless Bride. I had the dress completely customised to my taste by having the Bardot sleeves removed, making the neckline into a sweetheart shape and also adding an ivory belt. As I had quite a few alterations made to the dress it wasn’t until my final dress fitting that I knew I picked the right dress as it was everything I wanted and all my accessories made it even more perfect.

What about the Grooms suit and Bridesmaid dresses?

We had 3 bridesmaids and wanted them all to feel comfortable in their dresses so it took a while to find ones that suited all of them. We bought them from Coast and they were Oyster in colour and looked almost Grecian. All the bridesmaids loved them and we took them to a local dress maker to have them altered in length and steamed. 

Nick wanted to buy dinner suits for him and the groomsmen and really wasn’t keen on the idea of wearing tails, it wasn’t until we went into a local shop where he was persuaded by a member of staff to try on a tail suit that he changed his mind, I thought they looked more suitable too for a church wedding. The suits were hired from ‘Groom’ in Wilmslow and they were all Dark Grey, Nick stood out from the other groomsmen as he wore an ivory waistcoat and ivory cravat which matched my dress.

Why did you choose your venue?

Whilst on our ‘engagement’ holiday we ate at our favourite local Gastro Pub ‘The Tavern on the Bay’ and noticed they were advertising the venue for private functions including wedding receptions, we enquired there and then and I think we knew straight away it was where we wanted to have our reception. The views at The Tavern are outstanding and with it being in a place we both love and having getting engaged there it felt like the perfect place to share with our friends and family with it having such sentimental value to us. We looked at other wedding venues nearer to home over the next 2 months but nothing quite compared. On our next visit to Anglesey we went back and booked the venue for our reception just 8 months later. We always visit Beaumaris when in Anglesey as we enjoy walking around the quaint town and always find time to go into ‘Red Boat Ice Cream Parlour’ so we decided to book St Mary & St Nicholas Church to be married in with it being in another area we love - we also had ice creams on arrival for our guests from Red Boat which added to the seaside touch.

Why did you choose your Photographer?

We did a lot of our wedding research online due to us not living that close to Anglesey. We found Tony Fanning Photography and arranged to meet up with him when we were next there; we love the journalistic approach he uses on wedding photography. We also found our Videographer online, Lee Price Productions, and when looking at their profile we knew they would be perfect. Considering there was a lot of rain on our wedding day we are thrilled with the photo’s we received from Tony and the video we received from Lee & Gemma. They captured the day perfectly and are moments that we’ll always treasure.

How would you describe the theme/ style of your wedding?

When first looking at colour schemes for our wedding neither of us had a set colour in mind. We therefore decided on pastels/whites to create a vintage/rustic theme.

Lots of people asked us what our ‘theme’ was and throughout the planning process we didn’t really have one. I took ideas from Pinterest and combined them into what I would probably describe as ‘pretty’. Everything was just that with a little bit of modern and vintage tied in depending on where in the venue it was positioned. 

I love flowers and therefore wanted to ensure there were lots of fresh flowers around the venue. With help from family and friends we collected jam jars for the table centre pieces and these were decorated with ribbon/twine. Bird cages featured a lot throughout the wedding as we had them on our place cards, on the cake and they were used on some tables as centre pieces filled with lots of gorgeous flowers. 

One thing I especially loved at the venue was the light up ‘LOVE’ letters we hired from ‘The Word Is Love’ who are based in Manchester – they looked lovely in both the daylight and in the evening. 

We hired Awyr Glas Celebrations to help decorate our venue and they also made our wooden vintage signs and table plan, I would highly recommend them. Stacey was brilliant and understood everything we wanted; she even came back in the evening to set up the photo booth!

What was your favourite part of the day?

For us, the Best Singing Waiters was our favourite part of the day. Having been to a few weddings before we wanted to do something different and make sure everyone had a really enjoyable day – they didn’t disappoint. They worked with us to help make a playlist we thought would be suitable for all ages - everyone was up dancing having a good time. Only us, the staff, photographer and videographer knew we booked them to so it was lovely to see the surprise on our guests faces when Tom and Richard came out dancing on the tables singing Take That - Greatest Day. 

A close second favourite part of the day for me personally was seeing the flowers. I was composed all morning when getting ready until the bouquets and button holes were delivered to my hotel room. I got really emotional as they were exactly how I envisioned them – I didn’t want to put my bouquet down all day! We used a florist based in Stockport called ‘Flowers by Strawberry Fields’, Libbi knew exactly what I wanted and everything from the button holes to the flower arch way at the church were beautiful – we had a lot of complements off our guests.

What was the best wedding planning advice you were given and do you have any tips for our future Bride & Grooms?

The best advice we were given was to have a few minutes to ourselves during the day. Luckily, when the weather cleared up in the evening we were able to escape to the nearby beach just the two of us (and a few people to capture it!) It was a beautiful evening and it was lovely to just stop for a little while and take it all in. The best tip we can give to any future bride and grooms is to definitely book a videographer, we didn’t have this in our budget but they were worth every penny and were definitely worth the extra cost.

Where did you Honeymoon?

We honeymooned in the Maldives for 8 nights on a small island which was 25 minutes away by speedboat from Male airport called Centara Ras Fushi and then went on to stay in Abu Dhabi for 5 nights at the St Regis hotel situated on Saadiyat island. Both places were amazing and we have some amazing memories we will never forget.