You may need help planning your wedding as soon as you get engaged! There is a lot to think about and plan for your wedding day. Once you start searching for venues, themes and ideas it can be a lot to organise and quite overwhelming.

A Wedding Planner is there with you from the beginning of your Wedding planning journey, for all your organisation and booking needs! Contacting various suppliers, searching for your perfect venue and providing you with their expert knowledge. They are after all as passionate about your wedding as you are!

I hadn’t considered a planner until I became a wedding supplier myself. I have worked with a few and can see how valuable they are to the planning process! Your wedding is probably the largest/most important event you will plan and chances are you haven’t had the experience to make sure everything runs smoothly on the day itself.

Things start to get busier as the days count down, with more adding onto the long list of suppliers you’ve booked with. We left our stationary quite late which meant it was a bit of a rush to get everything sent out giving guests enough time to plan ahead – particularly important if you are getting married on a weekday! I remember the day before our wedding, as we were setting up at the venue we had planned to use a couple of rooms for entertainment, our own polaroid photo booth and roulette/black jack tables. To our surprise these rooms were not empty and ready for us to use, so had to be cleared last minute, just in enough time! Also I had a call from our stylist and florist who wasn’t able to provide the table centrepieces we had planned. These things happen unfortunately and is usually out of the control of the supplier, but unfortunately if planning the wedding yourself it’s another thing to worry about on top of everything else!

With a Planner, they could have dealt with all of the above, taking away any stress and worry to ensure an enjoyable, exciting build up to the wedding day! I can definitely see the benefits to booking a Planner and have worked with two in particular who I would recommend to any newly engaged couple.

Firstly we have Jellan from Noahbella Weddings, we celebrated our 1st business birthday’s with a few other wedding suppliers almost 2 years ago now and I have worked a couple of times with her since then. She has a great eye for detail and is able to style a venue beautifully to suit the wedding theme. For an Elopement we worked together on last December she had planned everything to perfection and kept a lot of the elements a surprise for the couple which I think made things extra special and a testament to the trust the couple had in Jellan’s choices.

Hannah from Hannah Rose Weddings is another fantastic Wedding Planner that I would highly recommend. She is super organised and has an impressive selection of local venues she can easily suggest. She specialises in luxury weddings both locally in Northamptonshire and further away in London. We worked together most recently on a summer styled shoot last year which was beautiful and well planned. There was a mood board, itinerary of the shoot and introductions to all the suppliers involved. We were even featured in the latest issue of Your East Midlands Wedding magazine!

Both suppliers I have suggested are based in Northamptonshire, but are happy to travel a bit further if required to do so.

I hope I’ve helped with the next part of your wedding planning journey, by giving an insight into my own experience of using/not using a wedding planner and the difference between working on a shoot with and without a planner.

To answer my earlier question – should you hire a Wedding Planner? Yes, definitely!

To continue from my last blog post, for newly engaged couples, I wanted to share my favourite Northamptonshire Wedding Venues with you all.

I’ve lived in Northamptonshire all my life so know the area incredibly well, some venues I will be listing below have been around since I can remember. Others are new (within the last two years), but definitely as good as any which has been trading longer.

Choosing your Wedding venue is the next step in your wedding planning process, as once you’ve found your venue and booked the date everything else follows. This does come with a few questions, in order to narrow down which venue you would like. I think these include,

– How many guests will we be having?
– What time of year would we like to get married?
– Do we want everything held in the same place (ceremony and reception)?
– Would we decorate the venue ourselves (or hire a styling company) to make it our own or keep it as it is?
– Location?

Once you have these figured out it will help narrow down the search to a select few venues. Hopefully with a style you are both happy with. By style I mean, Hotel, Barn, Stately Home, Castle, Outdoor or any other I’ve not thought of!

I’ve tried to think of a few different style venues to give you an idea of what is available. At the moment Wedding fairs are unfortunately not going ahead, however virtual ones might be. So you still get to have a glimpse of your dream venue before you book it!

These are in no particular order. Some of which I have photographed at previously and other I will be or wish to in the future! And one was mine and my husband’s wedding venue. Can you guess which one? Let me know in the comments!

Brampton Grange Wedding Venue, Northampton

Firstly I will begin with Brampton Grange. This is a barn style wedding venue with country house. It is so spacious, with plenty of outdoor areas as well. They have a traditional courtyard, romantic walled garden, tennis courts and even an outdoor swimming pool!

I organised and photographed a styled shoot here a couple of years ago. The above image comes from that and more can be seen here: Brampton Grange Wedding Venue

Kettering Park Hotel & Spa, Kettering

Next on my list is the 4 star Kettering Park Hotel & Spa. This venue has all you need in one place for your special day. With rooms for your ceremony and reception later on and rooms for your whole wedding party to stay in. For some this is a huge part of their venue, to have everything in the same place, without the need to travel further. They also have a beautifully landscaped garden with an Alfresco Garden Room which is a must see! I have recently been added to their list of preferred suppliers which is a wonderful feeling! I cannot wait to be at more wedding fairs here when they are able and also photograph some weddings here in 2021 and 2022!

Rockingham Castle, Rockingham

If you’re looking for a historic building where you can have your ceremony and wedding reception this is your venue. There is a church just out of this shot on the right if you are looking for a church ceremony. The castle itself is in fantastic condition, considering it is almost 1000 years old! This is definitely my favourite venue and I would love to photograph a wedding here! The grounds are just as beautiful, with a rose garden filled with different coloured roses which smell divine. This venue is exclusive to you on your wedding day as well, as are most of the venues in my list. It means you have the venue to yourselves, which gives your special day a more intimate feel.




Barton Hall, Barton Seagrave

Finally we have Barton Hall Hotel, which like all the above venues, is located in the picturesque county of Northamptonshire. This idyllic award wedding venue has a beautiful Grade 1 listed Orangery next to the hotel itself. It’s such a bright, light room, perfect for your ceremony. I cannot wait to photograph a wedding here later this year!

I hope you’ve enjoyed looking through my venue choices above.

Which is your favourite of the venues above?

If you need any help your wedding planning and need some advice, please get in touch. I’d love to help where I can!