Events Manager Hannah and Copywriter Tom married on 20th April 2025 at Holesfoott, a beautiful country estate near Penrith in Cumbria, bringing together English and Chinese traditions in a wedding that reflected both their backgrounds with warmth, intention and personality.
From a joyful outdoor Chinese tea ceremony to custom-made wedding attire rich in symbolism, every part of the day honoured family, heritage and the place they both love most, the Lake District.
Nestled within woodland on the edge of the Lake District, Holesfoot offers couples the freedom to create a relaxed wedding over the whole weekend, surrounded by beautiful gardens, elegant interiors and peaceful countryside. It was the perfect setting for Hannah and
Tom’s multicultural celebration, beautifully documented by Love My Dress recommended supplier and photographer Sorci Ledyukova, whose thoughtful documentary approach captured every detail of this wonderful and super fun personal day.
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Holesfoot
Our wedding venue was Holesfoot in Cumbria. The Lake District is our favourite place in the UK and Tom grew up not far from the area we chose to marry.
It was important to me that my Chinese heritage was recognised on the day too. Typically, we would have two ceremonies to honour the different cultures, but we wanted to create our own hybrid version.
We had a Chinese Tea Ceremony, outside, so that people could witness and enjoy it. We had cushions made with typical Chinese baroque patterns with the colours of the wedding. I was given a lot of jewellery at the tea ceremony; gold bracelets, bangles and rings were given to me to wear throughout the wedding.
The Ceremony
My parents danced down the ceremony aisle with me, to the sound of Beyonce’s ‘Cuff It’.
Our ceremony was lead by a celebrant from the local authority in Cumbria Westmoreland.
The wedding was a Chinese wedding. So we had a lot of symbolism in there. We had door knocking games where the groom has to win his love of the bride. We had the traditional chinese tea ceremony where the elders of the family provide well wishes to the married couple.
We did have readings at our wedding, but it was two poems that our friends created for us.
The Lake District is also one of my favourite places. So we wanted to ensure that the backdrop location was in that area. But add lots of Chinese into it. Red is a lucky colour in Chinese culture. It signifies luck and celebration. Tom wanted to complement it with his favourite colour which was blue.
Tom’s wedding ring was from Forge & Lumber – he wanted an interesting design rather than a simple band. My ring was from Austen & Blake. Having a ring with lab-grown diamonds was important to me and Austen and Blake had a great choice.
We met at uni and had been together since our first year at university in 2011. We only got engaged in 2023.
The Reception
We had dried which were supplied by Tom’s mum, who is super talented.
I had a fresh bouquet of flowers from Wild Ivy Penrith as it’s lucky for the bride to have fresh flowers
No one knew what we had planned for our first dance or what we were up to – I wanted to showcase what we had choreographed to everyone so we danced to a mixed medley of songs, including ‘If My Friends Can See Me Mow’, by Cy Coleman, ‘Hey! Pachuco!’ by the Royal Crown Revue, ‘Texas Holdem’ Beyonce, ‘Get Loud’ by Jo lo and ‘Yeah’ by Usher.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
To trust your gut and do things for you – do not do it for others. It’s so easy to be swept up in traditions and
I wish we’d had more time to relax! The day was quite full on and it was back to back.
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