Classically Beautiful White & Grey Botanical Cathedral Wedding

WWW readers Meghan and Oliver described their York Minster wedding to me as a “wintry, elegant, majestic, fairytale” and you know what it was all of those things and so much more. They chose to marry on a beautiful winters day, the 23rd February 2019 and after a spectacular ceremony in the cathedral they held their reception at The Principal York Hotel in picturesque York.

I really love how their day combined classic yet modern elements, with the traditional venues being decorated wonderfully with simple modern touches. Think neon sign backdrop, greenery hoop and wooden laser cut sign. They also had gorgeous fresh flowers, a decadent ruffle and glitter cake plus cute personalised matchboxes. Last but certainly not least they both looked stunning. Meghan had the dream bridal look thanks to her blush lace gown and glitter Louboutin heels, while Oliver donned a very smart suit and grey tie.

Do take your time to pore over these remarkable captures by the wonderful Amy Lou Photography, thanks so much Amy for sharing them with us.

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The Proposal

We got engaged in Paris on New Years Day 2018. We had been to Disneyland the night before to see in the New Year and after a long lie in and relatively chilled out day we were walking around the city looking at all of the epic Christmas decorations that still adorned a lot of the buildings. We were walking down Avenue Montaigne when Oliver suggested we go to the Eiffel Tower, which we did and when the tower lit up on the hour Oliver proposed and obviously got a yes!

The Vision

We both wanted quite a traditional wedding with a classic white/grey botanical theme and modern touches and felt the venues we chose really reflected this.

The Planning Process

I’d spent a lot of time on instagram, pinterest and wedding blogs before we even got engaged so we already had a good idea of what we wanted and which suppliers were good to use in York so planning really wasn’t as bad as we were expecting it to be…although it was such a lovely feeling to mark off the last box on the to-do list and have our weekends back again!

Beauty

Megan (Hair by Megan Boyne) did the hair for me and my bridesmaids, she really listened to what I wanted and did such an excellent job, I hadn’t been 100% sure on what I wanted so found the trial really helpful too. There’s a reason she gets booked up so quickly!

Shannon (Shannon’s Dressing Room) did our make-up, it was her first ever wedding but you would never have known, she did an amazing job, everyone looked beautiful and Shannon completely put everyone at ease.

I’d also got eyelashes extensions the day before the wedding too by Emily (Luxe Hair and Makeup) which made getting ready so much quicker and they lasted the entirety of my honeymoon too.

Bridesmaids

I chose my sister to be my maid of honour and had my three best friends from university as my bridesmaids, it was touch-and-go if one of them would make it to the wedding as she was 38 weeks pregnant at the time of the wedding but she made it and was such a trooper!

I expected dress shopping to be a difficult task as all of the girls are different shapes/heights so started looking for dresses early on. I found the dresses on Quiz in the sale in all the sizes I needed, ordered them on a whim with low expectations but they were literally perfect and flattering on everyone.

Your Outfits & Accessories

I wore a Hayley Paige dress bought from Chloe Jane Bridalwear. I definitely thought I was going to be the kind of bride who goes to several shops trying on everything and definitely didn’t think I wouldn’t wear white but as soon as I saw the dress I knew it was ‘the one’. I wore it with a cathedral length veil with scattered crystals towards the bottom and glittery pink Louboutin’s.

Oliver wore a tailored suit from Moss Bros but almost left this until the last minute, he knew he wanted to wear green so we went to Leeds and decided we weren’t going home until he had ordered something! He also chose some Paul Smith shoes to wear with it and and we asked his groomsmen to wear co-ordinating suits too.

The Venue

We both love York where we met and live and couldn’t think of a more perfect place to get married than York Minster. As it’s a cathedral it wasn’t guaranteed that this would even a possibility so it was an absolute dream when everything was confirmed.

We held our reception at The Principal Hotel as the décor really went with our wintry colour scheme and the Oak Room where we held the reception had really lovely wood panelling throughout so didn’t need too much doing to it.

The Readings & Music

We knew we wanted a choir to sing throughout our service so we booked the Ebor Singers. I walked down the aisle to Eternal Source of Light Divine which sounded amazing in the Minster.

We had two readings, one from each best man. We had a passage from ‘Everything I know about love’ by Dolly Alderton and a bible reading from Colossians.

Our first dance was Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac. We have really different music tastes and didn’t want anything too slow or too long or too soppy so this was the only song we could agree on.

Your Photographer

We chose Amy (Amy Lou Photography) to photograph our wedding, we met her a few weeks before the wedding and she completely put us at ease, she took the best photos to document our day and nothing looked overly posed! She did such a good job my sister has chosen her to photograph her wedding next year as well.

The Flowers

Once Upon a Thyme did the flowers for our wedding and we were really pleased with them. My bouquet contained white and pink garden roses, ranunculus, anemones and eucalyptus and my bridesmaids carried smaller versions of it.

The Cake

The cake was one thing we were both really excited about and we couldn’t have been happier with our cake from Where the Ribbon Ends, it was so beautiful and tasted amazing. Each tier was a different flavour and I especially loved that the top layer matched my dress perfectly too and Gayle who made it was so lovely.

The Details & Décor

The venues we chose were lovely by themselves so we didn’t need to do too much but we had a lot of floral décor and hired a neon light for a backdrop for our top table (from Elizabeth James Events). We also had wooden names for our place names, a donut wall. For favours Oliver’s mum arranged little organza bags of sugared almonds that fit with our colour scheme and we made personalised boxes of matches for our guests too.

The Honeymoon

The day after the day after the wedding we went to New York, we went shopping, saw Frozen, Anastasia and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag on Broadway, ate SO much food and just generally enjoyed our first week of married life.

Memorable Moments

• Seeing each other for the first time.
• Getting out of the car outside York Minster to be met with the biggest crowd! I later found a video of the moment on instagram too which was lovely.

Advice For Other Couples

Sounds cliché but enjoy every minute of it, even the planning as it goes by so quickly and make sure you take time to spend time with each other on the actual day.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Just incredible, the ceremony in particular looked breathtaking.

Meghan and Oliver thank you ever so much for sharing your super special wedding story with us xo Lou