Shelley and Peter's Denton Hall Wedding | Denton Hall Ilkley Wedding Photography

Shelley and Peter’s Denton Hall Wedding | Denton Hall Ilkley Wedding Photography | Denton Hall Weddings

We were recently lucky enough to photograph the wedding of Shelley and Peter at the lovely Denton Hall near Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Bridal preparations took place at Denton Hall along with the wedding celebrations, the actual wedding ceremony was held at the delightful St Helen’s Church in the village literally at the top of the drive. In their own words, Shelley and Peter tell us about the build up and their wedding day at Denton Hall…..

The Proposal

“It was August bank holiday weekend 2018 during a visit to Peter’s family on the Isle of Man. On Sunday afternoon we went to my favourite place on the island, We walked to a quiet secluded spot on the edge of a cliff, where Peter proposed. After saying yes, we celebrated with a cup of tea in the late afternoon sun!

The Wedding Venue – Denton Hall near Ilkley West Yorkshire

“We visited several different wedding venues, Denton Hall ticked all the boxes – a great location, the lovely church close by, plenty of on-site accommodation, fantastic views, a professional team at Box Tree events and it’s in Yorkshire”

Saying yes to the Wedding Dress

“Following many hours trawling the internet and several visits to various bridal shops, I finally found the dress online. Unfortunately, no bridal shops in Yorkshire stocked this particular dress but Brides to Be in Queensbury, Bradford stocked the designer (True Bride). Brides to Be were extremely helpful and ordered the dress as well as doing a fantastic job on the alterations.”

Wedding Flowers, Bouquets and Floral Arrangements

“Natasha Coustol provided all of the flowers for the venue, church, bouquets and buttonholes. The flowers were in keeping with the Yorkshire/Manx theme. The Yorkshire Rose for my wedding bouquet and Peter’s buttonhole, and the colours of the Manx tartan for the Bridesmaids bouquets, table decorations & church flowers.

Natasha was very helpful from the initial meeting right through to the day itself, and was able to accommodate all of their ideas as well as providing advice on the types of flowers to use.”

The groom and Groomsmens suits

“The suits for the boys were from a small boutique in Rawdon, Bridal Apparel. In the early stages of wedding planning there was a lot of focus, attention and time spent by the ladies visiting suppliers of wedding dresses to find the right dress. Being a guy Peter was pretty relaxed about the suits, apparently too relaxed, but he knew from the start that Morning Suits were the suit of choice.”

“Shelley arranged an appointment for her and one of the bridesmaids to see the range of dresses available. As Bridal Apparel also had grooms wear I seized the opportunity to prod Peter into action and suggested he came along too, to see the options for the guys.”

“As soon as we arrived at Bridal Apparel, Peter saw Navy Morning Suit, with a “Champagne” tie. After measurements and trying on various options, the navy suit was an instant winner. The process of ordering the suits, having all the guys measured, picking up the suits and returning the suits was really easy and well managed by Bridal Apparel.”

Theme of the wedding:

“Being from Yorkshire and Peter being from the Isle of Man, the “theme” of the wedding was to incorporate elements from both Yorkshire and the Isle of Man into the day – flowers, music, colours etc. But, most importantly we both wanted the wedding to be relaxed and fun!

“The Yorkshire/Manx theme was incorporated through various aspects of the wedding. The stationery included the white roses of Yorkshire lying on a ribbon on Manx tartan, the bridesmaids dresses were sky blue – taken from the Manx Tartan & Yorkshire flag, the bridesmaids flowers were the colours of the Manx tartan, and the bride’s bouquet matched the stationery – a bouquet of white “Yorkshire roses” wrapped together by Manx tartan.”

“Other details included the table names being the corners on the Isle of Man TT Course, the table plan being based on the leaderboard from the Isle of Man TT Races, and the gifts for the bridal party including items from both Yorkshire and the Isle of Man. Although this sounds like a lot of Manx related items being included, Peter is always quick to point out that Yorkshire won when it came to deciding where to hold the wedding!”

Personal Touches

As well as the Yorkshire/Manx theme, Shelley and Peter wanted the wedding to be relaxed and fun. With this in mind, they hired a magician (Matthew Cope) to entertain the guests during the drinks reception and before the wedding breakfast. Matthew’s tricks and humour were a success with all the guests, in particular the children who all walked away with a balloon animal. During the evening reception, they hired a photobooth, did a confetti throw during the cake cutting and a sparkler tunnel where all the guests had a sparkler, this was a lot of fun as all the guests could get involved.

Throughout the day, a photo slideshow of Shelley and Peter growing up was playing – baby photos to engagement! This was a simple idea but was hugely popular.

The First Dance

The First Dance song The One by Kodaline. Besides being a song both Shelley and Peter enjoy, anyone who listens to the lyrics will understand why they felt it made a perfect choice for a first dance – although their advice would be to pick a more up tempo version, “dancing” to such a slow song was tricky.

Standout and memorable moments of your wedding day

Peter

“Sitting at the front of the church waiting for Shelley to arrive and shortly afterwards Shelley arriving and walking up the aisle to the altar. It was a moment of calmness in a fun and action packed day

“Catching up with family a friends, some of whom we had not seen for a long time and many of which had travelled a long way to be at the wedding.”

“The colour and excitement of the “sparkler tunnel photograph”. Standing waiting to walk down the tunnel seeing all our guests smiling, laughing, waving sparklers and creating a corridor of light for us to walk through.

Shelley

“The door opening at the back of the church and suddenly seeing all our guests smiling faces as I began the walk up the aisle. The ceremony as a whole was joyous – including hearing the guests getting to grips with hymn singing.”

“Peter’s speech; building up to the speech I was nervous because I knew how important it was to Peter to deliver it well. The speech blew me away with the delivery, the words and the humour were all fantastic.”

“To begin the evening celebrations, Peter and I walked down Denton Hall’s spiral staircase which was lined by all the guests, before reaching the bottom and cutting the cake under a shower of confetti. This along with the sparkler tunnel photograph were fun to do, for both us and for the guests to get involved in.”

Any advice for other bride and grooms?

“Enjoy the build up, the planning and preparation for the day. The day does go by quickly, and it is important to enjoy the whole experience of the wedding.”

“A more practical tip for those planning weddings is to read blogs such as these and view images from various weddings including different venues to identify wedding venues you may not have thought of, or little details from weddings which can be incorporated into yours.

Our Favourite wedding photographs

We have two real favourite wedding photographs, the first is outside St Helens Church. The Guests had  thrown confetti, and it's  just after we were married, full of colour, with all our friends and family celebrating behind us and the second is the two of us at the lamppost. As this reminds us of our first date and it's such a peaceful moment with just the two of us.