Rosie and Matt married on 12th July 2025 at Brinkburn Priory in Northumberland, choosing an informal, relaxed approach with a garden party feel and pastel colours running through the day.
Rosie wore a silk Divine Atelier dress from The Aisle bridal boutique in Skipton. She chose this gown for its lightness and ease of movement in the middle of July – a wise choice as the sun shone brightly all day long. Her bridesmaids wore an array of pastel shades in lilac, pink, yellow, green and blue, which carried through into the flowers and onto the tables.
This beautifully relaxed day was planned by LKD Events and captured by North East based wedding photographer and Love My Dress recommended vendor, Helen Russell, who travels across the UK and overseas for destination weddings. We’ve long loved Helen’s work, it’s natural and light, and she has a way of capturing people as they are and the energy that runs through a day like this.
After the ceremony, everything moved into a reception with simple tables, candles and garden flowers, along with personal details including table numbers made from black and white photographs of their sweet dog, Mabel. Flowers were kept loose, with plenty of gypsophila and soft, seasonal whites running throughout.
Looking for suppliers?
You’ll find only the best, most talented suppliers and exclusive hire venues in our directory.
We wanted an informal, relaxed garden party style day and opted for a mix of summer pastel colored bridesmaid dresses and country garden flowers on the tables and in the church.
The Ceremony
My dad walked me down he aisle. We hired the amazing Collectives Gospel Choir to sing pre, during and post ceremony in the priory, and at the drink’s reception.
The priory/church is so big that the acoustics were just unbelievable, I think everyone had goosebumps when they arrived to the sound of their amazing voices.
They made the day so, so special. They sang Dua Lipa’s ‘Electricity’ when I arrived at the ceremony – one of mine and Matt’s favourite songs.
The Reverend Canon Dr Philip Bourne officiated our ceremony. We exchanged traditional vows and had two readings – Matt’s sister Charlotte read Corinthians Chapter 13, and our friend, and one of my bridesmaids, Fran, did a reading called Soulmates.
Our wedding rings were from Browns Family Jewellers in Harrogate – the service we had from Megan was fantastic.
Our favourite part of the day was the ceremony, Brinkburn Priory is so unique. The priory itself is so grand and has such a special atmosphere. I also loved waking up in the morning with all the girls and my parents, getting reading and the photos before the ceremony.
We opted for a content creator to help capture our day and we’ve both said that this was one of the best things we did. Leya from At First Sight was just amazing.
We couldn’t believe the footage she managed to capture on a phone, and we really didn’t even notice her being there throughout the day. We had our first look of the footage the next day, which was so special.
How They Met
Matt and I met at HG3 Fitness (a CrossFit gym owned by our friend Pete, one of Matt’s groomsmen) back in 2015/16. We formed a big group of friends there and it was a big part of our social lives, not just a gym. Matt and I trained together most nights at 5pm with our friends Nath, Pete and Blaymire after work/Uni and became good friends before there was a romantic connection.
We all used to go on nights out in Harrogate drinking into the early hours. We spent many a night in Porco Rosso, The Last Post and Foundry Project and would regularly meet back up on a Sunday for breakfast or a Sunday roast.
The Reception
I wanted to keep décor very simple and elegant. I bought loads of hurricane vases and cream candles from Ikea and placed these on all the tables, along with simple gold dinner candle holders. For tables numbers I had a different black and white photo of our gorgeous dog Mabel printed and placed in a gold frame, for a personal touch.
I chose a florist that was local to me in Harrogate. Lou at 4 Seasons is an independent florist who creates all her weekly bouquets and event florals from her home studio in Knaresborough. My bouquet was a simple handtied of white roses, gypsophila, eucalyptus and other season white flowers such as lisianthus and veronica. My bridesmaids all had a posy of gypsophila, buttonholes were made up of a white rose, sprig of gypsophila and eucalyptus. I also had a gypsophila dog collar made for dog Mabel who came along to the wedding too!
I designed all the stationery myself, and we did invites online only. For all the signage, menus, place cards and table plans I used another local Harrogate company called One Nine Signs. Paul, who owns the business is brilliant, so friendly and really helped me out with working out printing sizes. Everything was perfect.
For tables, church and other decorative florals I asked a friend’s mum, who grows beautiful country garden style flowers at home in her own garden, if she would like to supply our wedding flowers.
Pauline and her very handy husband made large wooden boxes from railway sleepers to house beautiful white flowers of all varieties, we had two boxes at the front of the church and one at the entrance. Pauline also provided us with buckets of cut flowers to create the posy vases we had on all the tables, and around the venue.
Our cake was made by a local Harrogate cake maker who I had used before, called Charlie at HG1Bakes. We didn’t want a traditional wedding cake, or anything too big. We opted for a vintage style heart cake, finished in cream buttercream ruffles with ‘The Wood’ hand piped on the cake. We went with a classic vanilla flavour, with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream. It was delicious.
Our first dance was to Inner Smile by Texas. Our DJ was a local guy from Harrogate called Grant, who was recommended by friends and family. He brought all the right vibes to our evening party.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Don’t worry about the big grand gestures, I think the smaller details are what people notice and what you will remember. I loved using local suppliers that I had previous experience of using myself. It made it feel more personal, and I loved having parts of the wedding from suppliers back in Harrogate.
Make sure you spend time with your partner – the day went SO SO SO fast!! Take the time to be with your friends and don’t get dragged around the whole day.
Save this wedding to your favourites
Create a user account save all your favourite content to your own personal dashboard
Register here, it will only take a few moments – you’ll then be able to save all your favourite Love My Dress content, including real weddings, shop items, ceremony readings, inspirational editorials and recommended supplier / vendor and venue listings. Enjoy!
