A Beautiful Winter Wedding at Le Petit Château

Today I’m delighted to share Lauren and Dylan’s beautiful winter wedding at Le Petit Château. This quirky wedding venue in Northumberland has a stunning Belle Époque inspired French Chapel ceremony room with the most incredible marble fireplace, which gave Lauren and Dylan an enchanting setting in which to exchange their vows. Le Petit Château also has an impressive water fountain with fire rim around it, creating a great spot for some night time photographs.

I love the couple’s choice of styling, which worked so well with the venue and time of year. For their wedding breakfast, rustic, bare wooden tables provided a lovely contrast to glass chargers with silver rim detail, while table arrangements of flowers and foliage on top of ruffled linen added texture to the look.

I also love that they included their dog, Sansa, in their day, with Lauren saying she made their day even more special. Sansa obviously had a great time too, involving herself in the ceremony and joining Lauren and Dylan on the dance floor for their first dance!

This really is such a beautiful wedding, and it has been captured so perfectly by Lindsey and her assistant, Greta, of Forget Me Knot Images…

Best Friends

“Dylan and I met in secondary school. We were best friends at first and then started dating. He proposed on Christmas Eve Eve, under my favourite tree in our city. We had already done ‘our’ Christmas day and gifts, as we like to do it before we visit family and don’t have too much time to ourselves.

“We decided to go out for dinner and Dylan suggested a diversion to warm up with some cocktails. As we were taking the detour we happened to go past my favourite tree that, at that time of year, is filled with twinkly lights next to a light display. He asked me for a kiss and as I turned around he was on one knee and popped the question.”

Looked Amazing

“I wore a vintage style lace and beaded mermaid style wedding dress with capped sleeves, made by True Bride. It was the first dress I tried on and no others even came close to it. It was more unusual than most wedding dresses, and as I have short hair it looked amazing as it had lots of detail up top.

“My bridesmaid wore a blush pink sleeveless gown. Although fitted it had a lot of subtle details in the cut and design so was very flattering. The beaded design under the chest really set it apart.

“The groomsmen wore wool blend three-piece suits with a subtle check pattern, from Ben Sherman, paired with burgundy ties to match the theme. They also had pocket watches, with Dylan’s a gift from my Granddad.”

Classic Styling

“Growing up we were both quite alternative and into punk and Gothic styles, so we decided to bring a little bit of this into our day while still trying to use some vintage/classic styling.

“The venue, Le Petit Château, didn’t need much decoration; we did most of it ourselves, along with the help of our florist, Hollie. Dylan designed and made all our invitations, hand-carving each one individually. He’s a graphic designer and we thought this would be a lovely touch. He also designed and adhered our table plan on a mirror that we borrowed from his mum’s living room. We made the place names ourselves to go with the local honey from our friend Lee and his dad at Cumbria Honey, which we also used as our favours.”

Quite Gothic

“Our flowers were amazing. Hollie from Fleur Couture is very similar to us so it was a great to bounce ideas off her. The venue itself is quite Gothic so the three of us came up with some amazing thoughts.

“We had dark foliage with blush pink flowers throughout. The fireplace at Le Petit Château is so fabulous we didn’t want to take away from it too much, so we had a low hanging, flowing centrepiece which also paired as our main table and cake table decoration when split. My bouquet was a small but loose arrangement with amnesia roses, mauve astrantia, dusty pink astilbe and my favourite part, succulents. It was absolutely stunning. My bridesmaid had a smaller version of mine.

“My mum made our wedding cake, a three-tiered naked cake flavoured with freeze dried raspberries and a white chocolate buttercream topped with flowers. We also had a mini Gluten-Free version for our coeliac guests.”

Stole the Show

“We found Lindsey at Forget Me Knot Images by trawling Instagram until we found someone who’s style suited our taste. We met with her at her home where she welcomed our dog, Sansa, and we made plans for the day over a glass of wine.

“Our favourite picture has to be the one where Dylan and I are signing the register with Sansa up next to us, though choosing a favourite is hard as they were all amazing. Lindsey and Greta were phenomenal.

“There are so many unforgettable moments from the day, but one of the most memorable was when Sansa joined us for our first dance. She completely stole the show by lying on her back and showing the world her tummy. She also made quite a scene during our vows by making sure her voice could be heard as much as ours.”

“If you have dogs, allow and trust them to be a part of your wedding; they are your family and they make it even more special. Enjoy every moment, from the planning to the day itself. It’s easy to get stressed and overwhelmed by little things, but on the day the only important thing is that you’re marrying the love of your life surrounded by loved ones. Let’s be honest, it’s too expensive not to enjoy!

“Also, don’t be set on a specific day. We managed to get an unbelievable deal at Le Petit Château by choosing one of their remaining days of the year, and that was our biggest saving.”