Hourglass Essense of Australia Wedding Dress for a Sophisticated Wedding at Combermere Abbey, Cheshire

Beautiful bride alert! Laura looks absolutely stunning in her hourglass Essense of Australia Wedding Dress, it fits her like a glove. The sweetheart neckline, lace bodice and embellished waist detail are truly exquisite. And lucky for us, Carla Blain Photography has captured it from every angle so you can truly appreciate its beauty. The location for this sophisticated wedding was the lovely Combermere Abbey in Cheshire. Both timeless and classic and filled with the dreamiest light. If you want to rock your bridal gown like Laura, then you should definitely check out our guide to choosing your wedding dress post.

Hourglass Essense of Australia Wedding Dress

Kate & Jon: My veil was made by Louise from Victoria Anthony Dressmakers using lace supplied by Essense of Australia to match my dress. I had the most amazing headpiece made by Anna Smallwood. I sent lots of pictures to Anna and she created exactly what I wanted down to the smallest detail. The broach I used on my wedding bouquet belonged to my nan who couldn’t be there on the day.

Tweed Grooms Suit

John specifically wanted a herringboned tweed suit which sounds easier than it was to find! After a lengthy search, John finally found one that met his approval at Maria Modes.

Combermere Abbey Wedding Venue

After looking at countless venues, all of which we both couldn’t agree on we found Combermere Abbey. All the staff at Combermere were incredible not only on the day but throughout the whole wedding planning stage. Diane was fantastic, nothing was too much trouble and our day would have not been possible without her. Diane answered question after question whilst suggesting ideas the make our day more enjoyable. Diane also helped us to set up the day before the wedding, helping to build all the items we had made and even taking the price tags off the photo frame we used for table names that we had missed!

Wedding Flowers

Our flowers were from Red Door Design in Crewe. Lisa was very helpful and after our initial meeting she created us our own wedding board, so we could see how the colours, flowers, and how the bridesmaid flowers would tie in with my bridal flowers. Lisa offered alternative choices as I had originally wanted peonies, but it was too early in the season for peonies.

Natural Bridal Hair & Makeup

The hair was by Vicky M Hair and the makeup was by, Maxine Smith. Maxine and Vicky were amazing on the day with the whole wedding party, they worked brilliantly together. They even managed to please my mother which must be a first! I wanted natural hair and makeup on the day and to still look like me on our wedding photos, Maxine and Vicky did a brilliant job of achieving this.

DIY Wedding Décor

Although I don’t admit it very often, I am very lucky that John is able to make or create almost anything, this allowed us to create personal touches throughout our wedding. John made everything from the table plan out of copper piping, which we later used as our photo booth to the wooden frame for the photo booth to the copper sprayed hula hoop we used as our welcome sign.

Wedding Food

Pickled Walnut was recommended to us by the venue, we wanted simple food that we liked which was pie & mash! Picked Walnut delivered everything we asked for and the food was delicious. Our guests all commented on our choice of menu and how much they enjoyed the food.

Wedding Cake

Our cake was made by ‘Brenda the cake lady’ This lady was a pleasure to meet with, she came to our home and matched the colours of our cake to the bridesmaid’s dresses. The cake tasted and looked amazing.

Wedding Entertainment

We had a band and a DJ for our reception, we chose to have both as we wanted to ensure our guests danced the night away in-between the band performing. Alan from Sounds Alive did a brilliant job of working with the band Hudson. Hudson took requested from our guests all night and ensured our guests were on the dance floor all night!

Wedding Photographer

We chose Carla Blain to capture our day, we loved Carla’s unique and quirky style. We didn’t want our photos to be ‘staged’ we wanted to capture natural photos of ourselves and our guests enjoying the day. Carla captured over 1,500 photos of our day but made sure that none of these photos interrupted our day or took us away from our guests. Carla was brilliant throughout our day and we are literally spoilt for choice when choosing our photos for our wedding albums.

Wedding Stationery

We chose Alison Boote for our wedding stationery, we used a picture of our puppy Leonard on our invited with the caption ‘my humans are getting married’ Alison was lovely and designed the most perfect invited and stationery for our day.