Sarah Ashton and Bobby Van Wyk

Photographers
We had two – Paul Eddom and Keith Meadley from VIPS and they did a wonderful job. They kept us relaxed on the day and produced beautiful pictures – we have always been fans of their work and we would highly recommend them to anyone.

Where did you meet
We have mutual friends who we know through a business networking group. We met more than six years ago and this was a time where we really needed support from each other and grew close. I’m very grateful we met as we became not only husband and wife, but best friends.

What attracted you to him
His good looks attracted me to him first, but then as I got to know him, I found that he was a rarity – a good looking guy who was not arrogant, but he was kind, caring, funny and genuine, everything a woman likes. We have so much in common and he knows how to make me smile.

Where did he propose
It was at our home late at night. We’d just spent all evening at a fashion show meeting at the Mansion House in York and we were sat on the floor quickly wrapping some birthday presents before bed. Bobby suddenly got up and said, “Sarah, stand up”. I was confused but I still did it and then he got down on one knee, it was a complete surprise as we hadn’t spoken about it at all, but I was really happy and right then I realised that I’d never want to be with anyone else.

The dress
It was designed and made by me and my friend/colleague at work. I own Thimbelina of York Designer Dressmakers where we design and make lots of individual bridal gowns along with many other kinds of clothing. Vera, who works for me, helped to make it, and my mum would also join us after she had finished work. I am so grateful to both of them as it had to be made out of hours due to it being our busy bridal period and I loved it so very much. My dress was made from silk dupion, soft tulle, embroidered tulle and it was hand-embellished with diamante. I bought the fabric from Fletchers Fabrics in Clifton Moor, York.

He wore
The men hired pale grey Oxford tails suits with ivory waistcoats from Mia Sposa, York, and I made them rouched ties and hankies out of the bridesmaids’ dresses fabric to match. They looked really, really good, especially Bobby.

Bridesmaids
I had five bridesmaids, my beautiful stepdaughter and four of my friends. They all helped so much with the wedding, both leading up and on the day itself, each with their own talents. They also wore dresses designed and made by Thimbelina of York out of a red liquid satin. They had the same full length bias-cut dress but with different style tops to show their own unique personalities.

Flowers
They were realistic artificial flowers by Anne Baker at Silk Floral Art. At first, we decided to have silk flowers due to my hayfever and then we soon realised that there were many more advantages, especially when we were able to see if our idea of mixing red roses with South African flowers worked before deciding to use them (as Bobby is from South Africa). I was also able to see my bouquets well before the day and Anne could make any adjustments to make sure that they were right beforehand. They were so realistic that everyone was very shocked to hear that they weren’t real. We were also able to buy one of our table vases to have in our home, a nice touch and a reminder of the day.

Transport
We had a silver Bentley Arnage from Executive Cars in Scarborough for the bridal party. For the rest of the guests we arranged a Pullman bus to transport them from the hotel to the church and back which meant that they didn’t need to worry about parking in York city centre. It worked really well and helped the day to be even more relaxing. Fairfield Manor were extremely helpful throughout and didn’t mind everyone parking in their car park all day.

Table décor and favours
We had stunning tall vases with really colourful flowers and LED lights around the stem that really twinkled during the evening. The favours were South African wooden lucky elephants and place names and cupcakes for everyone that were made by my bridesmaid, Sarah. Our wedding cake was really amazing, it was made by the Sugarmonkey Cake Company. We discussed roughly what we wanted and then said that they could be creative with it so that it would fit in with the rest of the décor and Sarah did a fantastic job, it was perfect. The three tiers were different types of cakes to cater for our guests’ individual tastes.

Entertainment
We had two kinds of evening entertainment – DJ Pete, who was recommended by Fairfield Manor, and a live band called The Beat Collective. They were both really good and managed to get all of our guests up dancing all night long. Our first dance was Eva Cassidy’s Songbird because the words are beautiful and we wanted a nice relaxing song.

Honeymoon
We flew to Protarus in Cyprus for a week. It was our first holiday together so it was extra special, we had the time of our lives, the best week ever. We were wearing outfits that were made by our friend; therefore we received lots of honeymoon upgrades and that was exciting.