Owston Hall wedding - Jen and Matt

Today’s post takes me back to another fabulous Owston Hall wedding. It is always a pleasure to be there and it’s such a great venue to hold a wedding. Also I’m only few minutes away rom this fabulous venue. Being a Doncaster wedding photographer makes this place very accessible for me. This time it was a November wedding full of autumnal colours and warmth. Maybe the fact that it was this part of the year somehow made the day feel more relaxed and chilled out, although I have a feeling that is more to do with Jen & Matt’s planning!

Owston Hall Wedding – Jen and Matt

Jen and Matt met in York on a night out, and had a first date at Nandos which was the first time Matt had been. Matt proposed in Cuba in 2017. ‘I’d even taken receipt of my ring from the postman and he told me it was cufflinks for his dad!’ – said Jen.

‘I was SO lucky’ – says Jen.  ‘My sister’s Mother in Law, Mary owned a bridal shop in York, and she was retiring. So she asked me if I wanted a dress. Weirdly before we got engaged. So I had to call Matt and say, this is weird and I know we aren’t getting married but Mary’s offered me a free wedding dress. What do you think? Matt told me to go for it (apparently we could ebay it or use it as halloween dress up) – but unbeknown to me, he’d ordered my engagement ring. So I went off with my mum and sister to Mary’s shop trying on dresses when I wasn’t even engaged. The dress was a Benjamin Roberts. I loved the simplicity of it.’

‘The most important thing that it was important for us to have our friends and family present and have a relaxing, fun day. We were fortunate that we have handy friends and family who made all of the table decorations. In terms of the colours – I ok’d a pink with the bridesmaids and they were happy so the men just had to go along with it!’ .

says Jen

Jen spent the night before the wedding at home with two of her bridesmaids and Matt was at Owston Hall with the best men. Jen went to her friends salon (Steph at Blush) as they have a bridal part where they all had drinks and nibbles and their hair done. Matt had a couple of beers at the bar! All very relaxed. Jens uncle drove her to church – he did the same for Jenn’s sister Kate so it’s now a family tradition. Jen looked stunning in her Benjamin Roberts wedding gown!

Owston Church Wedding – same place different time

The ceremony took place at Owston Church, which happens to be the same church that Jen’s grandparents got married in too – a very special ceremony in front of close friends and family. Here is a same place different time wedding photo of Jen with her dad under the lamp at the gate outside All Saints. Jen’s nan had her wedding photography taken 55 years earlier.

‘My dear Nan married my Grandad here and so it was so important to me (Jen) that I got married here. Nan was sick on the day, but knew we got married at ‘her’ church. Owston Hall is pretty – we chose to have the reception here purely as it was next door to the church. We had guests coming from far and wide and so we wanted everything to be easy and in one place.’ – says the bride.

They didn’t decorate the church. Firstly because it was beautiful and secondly because it was Remembrance Sunday the next day and the church had been decorated with poppies. They felt it would be wrong to try and cover up the poppies given what they stand for.

Jen and Matt wanted a religious and a contemporary reading. Mel and Jo picked these out as their input into the ceremony. They’ve know Jen for 26 years so they knew what she’d like. Hymns they picked because they thought them popular and remembered them from school.

After the ‘I dos’ they left the church to ‘All you need is love’ by the Beatles which really is so true!

Owston Hall Wedding

A beautiful sunny November day welcomed Jen & Matt’s guests to South Yorkshire – a fine day for a wedding! After the ceremony the newlyweds led their guests to Owston Hall, one of the finest Doncaster wedding venues, for drinks and canapes.  It was a lovely day and the sunshine made it feel very summery. We completed all of the family and group photographs outside Owston Hall as planned on the wedding day timeline of time allowing the guests to relax and enjoy the afternoon.

The guests were called to the dining room all set out in its splendour. Jen went for DIY decorations for the reception and stuck with the pink theme. She had candle jars made by Mel and sweet trees with Lindt balls on each table made by her dad’s partner Gill and daughter Amy which replaced favours and table decorations. Place names were wooden laser cut outs organised by Kate, Jen’s sister. Balloons around the room, were organised and blown up by the groomsmen.

Matt’s mum Pauline made our wedding cake. We asked for something simple and she delivered, it was beautiful! They danced to Tom O’Dell’s ‘Grow old with me’. ‘Just the words are exactly us’ said Jen.

Jen says their favourite moment of the day was coming down the aisle and seeing each other at the end and everyone that came.

As a piece of advice for all brides and grooms to be, Jen says to take a few minutes to yourselves and stand back, watch everyone and absorb it all in as the day flies by.

Here are a few photos from that day…

All Saints in Owston

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