Here’s how real wedding blogs work behind the scenes: a wedding submission comes in. I love it, I reach out to the couple, they fill out a quick interview and the photographer sends me images. And then we wait for a gap in my editorial calendar. Sometimes it’s a few weeks before I publish a real wedding. On the day, I dive back in, scrolling through the images… and today, literally beaming because I LOVE THIS WEDDING. Reading through the words our couples write: the glowing reviews for their wedding suppliers. It’s all a bit overwhelming: people’s kindness in telling me how incredible their wedding photographer and venue were on the day. How much they loved their other suppliers. And I read all of this while looking at the wedding photos and it blows me away.

Today, even more than usual because Alistair and Gary’s images and words are utterly brilliant – they adored Holesfoot as a wedding venue, they’ve written the best review for my English Wedding member and Lake District wedding photographer Jaye-Peg Photography. And the photos of their wedding day are magical, full of warmth and love and joy.

Jaye was absolutely wonderful! We spent quite a while looking at potential photographers, and whilst everyone has beautiful pictures on their websites where everything looks perfect, Jaye was one of the only ones who used photos of people that didn’t look like models – her photos made people who aren’t in their 20s (we’re not!) and who visit the gym a few times a week (we don’t!) look amazing. Her pictures were of real people, and they looked amazing.

So we went to a local wedding fair and met her, and she was funny, down to earth and really relaxed – better still, Gary doesn’t like being photographed, and she immediately put him at ease. That’s when knew she’d be great.

She kept in contact in the run up to our wedding and on the day arrived REALLY early to do venue shots. We had an absolute ball with getting ready photos – we almost forgot to go see the registrar we were having so much fun!

During the ceremony she seemed to vanish into the background and then she was wonderful with all our guests. Every single one of them commented on how great she was. The photos themselves were perfect – a few formal ones and lots of relaxed pictures which we absolutely love. She really understood the essence of what we wanted and the photos feel like the day. She went above and beyond for us and we couldn’t be happier.

Laying on the jetty for photos – it was so random and fun, and the photos were amazing and really unique.

We had been together for 15 years and 3 days when we got married, and we’re both men, so walking down the aisle felt a bit weird. So instead, we got into position at the top of the aisle and had our guests walk in up the aisle and join us instead.

Exclusive use Lake District wedding venue Holesfoot:  we hired the venue for the weekend with all the accommodation and it was perfect – absolutely exquisite! The houses were equipped with everything we could need, massive beds, outrageously beautiful bathrooms and loads of space to chill and enjoy ourselves. The grounds were stunning, there’s acres of space (literally) and a range of distinct areas from the Italian garden to the little lake and the walled garden.

The Barn that hosted our wedding reception was so dynamic, and despite being a barn, just as fancy as the rest of the venue. The staff – oh my god, the staff! From the owner to the bar manager and bar staff, to the cleaners, they were so friendly, so helpful and enthusiastic. Nothing was too much trouble – they even let us drop some things off a day early when we realised we’d got too much stuff for our van!

We booked over 2 years in advance, and they kept in touch all the way through. The venue was the most important decision for our wedding and Holesfoot nailed it.

The Fellside Flower Company & Holesfoot

We had a real mix with flowers – we grew some ourselves (Alistair likes to garden), got some from Holesfoot (our venue) and some from the Fellside Flower Company, who also did our buttonholes and thank you flowers for our mums. Fellside were really friendly and so incredibly helpful – we had been to their flower farm and looked around the year before and Emma was really happy to talk plants and concepts for the wedding. She shared recommendations and ideas and gave us so much confidence in our flowers even though they all were subject to very temperamental Cumbrian weather. She dropped the flowers off exactly when she said she would, and the range was brilliant, the colours perfect and the detail in our buttonholes was amazing. She gave us some really clear and useful advance and I was delighted with everything.

Holesfoot also provided us with a bucket of lowers and Liv literally walked round the cut flower garden with me and let me pick exactly what I wanted – it was amazing! She gave me really long stems too, and probably deprived herself of a lot of buds for us. she had exactly the plants I had failed to grow myself, so made sure the flower arrangements were exactly what I had wanted.

Helena Brown Cakes – we tried lots of sample wedding cakes and Helena’s was the best – moist but not too dense, full of flavour but not overpowering. We booked her before we finished the sample pack. She was really thorough before the wedding, checking what we wanted and giving us all sorts of options and practical advice. She helped us feel informed, but not overwhelmed. Her cake was magnificent! Honestly it’s the greatest cake I’ve ever seen, and tasted! We wanted a waterfall of flowers as the only cake decoration, and we thought it would be nice, but Helena spent hours using our cut flowers to make it beyond beautiful. The time she put into everything was just exceptional, and through it all she was so friendly and cheerful. I couldn’t thank her enough for everything she did.

We both wore House of Cavani suits, but in different colours. I wore a burgundy suit, and Alistair’s was dark navy. They were both from Goodfellows Menswear.

Westmorland and Furness Registrars were so friendly, so calm and so patient. They took the time to make sure we were both relaxed and ready before starting, chatting to us about our interests to put us at ease – which meant a long chat on how to get good honeymoon flights with Gary. They were amazing.

Gill Wadeson Violin– we had Gill play the violin for us, before, during and after our ceremony. She learned 3 new songs just for us, and played them with such feeling – it was magical. She thought through when each one was going to be played, and adapted them to fit with the feeling we were going for. As well as playing live, she recorded backing music herself to add to the more lively songs. After the ceremony she spent 2 hours playing for our guests while we had photos done and the drinks reception. Her range was amazing and her stamina was astronomical. We would recommend her to anyone and everyone!