I love quirky wedding venues and this one is a goodie. Today’s very pretty affair comes from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park – the open, airy spaces of the venue and the lush, green surrounding countryside make the perfect backdrop for Lou and Al’s wedding. Plus the cool sculptures and art work were instant entertainment for the guests.
Lou is Bride who definitely created the wedding she and Al wanted – this wedding isn’t full of fussy details, there’s no traditional gown, no favours and the cake is a giant Krispy Kreme tower!
I’ll leave you with Lou and RMW regular Christian Ward.
Totally Unique
Lou The Bride: Hello! We are Lou and Al. I (Lou) am from North Wales originally and Al is a Sheffield boy born and bred. We now live in Cheshire. We got married on the 30th June 2012 at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Yorkshire. As well as being a favourite place of ours to visit, it is an amazing space and is a totally unique place to get married.
Short Was The Way To Go
My dress was by Candy Anthony, I knew I always wanted a short dress and had seen a picture of a similar one online which lead us to the photographers we chose! I still thought I should check out other styles so one of my bridesmaids came dress shopping with me – we soon concluded that I looked like a child dressing up with some of the more sophisticated styles and short was the was way to go.
A Cracking Pair Of Shoes
I wore a vintage inspired Jo Barnes head band. I found hair accessories difficult as wanted something vintage that was faded and sparkly but couldn’t find anything quite right – until I found Jo. My shoes were Jimmy Choo’s Luna in metallic gold and silver. The leather is so soft it meant I could dance all night with no issues. The best thing about a short dress is you can justify indulging in a cracking pair of shoes.
Loose Curls And Sixties Lashes
Hair and make-up was done by the lovely Charlotte Dobson, we went for loose curls and sixties lashes.
Muted Pinks And Greens
The flowers were done by Sheffield based Swallows and Damsons. They were muted pinks and greens of freesias, peonies, roses and eucalyptus. For the table and ceremony room decorations I collected cut glass bud vases from charity shops.
Extra Pooooof
The groomsmen wore their own suits – no colour scheme and no theme. Bridesmaid’s outfits were muted pink lace dresses from Warehouse – we added a grey net skirt underneath for extra pooooof and the shoes were from Zara.
The grooms outfit was a black bespoke suit from Richard Smith, Deansgate Manchester. Shoes were Paul Smith and had purple heels.
Lovely To Deal With
We came across Christian and Erica searching online and loved their shots. When we met them we loved their approach (it actually felt like they were guests) they captured everything we had asked for and were generally lovely to deal with.
Saving It For Later
Al has a serious well documented donut addiction so it was a really easy decision for our cake. We opted for a Krispy Kreme donut tower decorated with fresh strawberries and icing sugar… which was a total hit. I had numerous texts off our friends and family the next day saying that they had found squashed Krispy Kremes in their handbags.
We had a brilliant band called The Big Beat who played indie tunes all night long. Our highlight of the evening was Fleetwood Macs ‘The Chain’ – in honour of Al and Uncle Nicks endless Grand Prix marathon sessions (always accompanied by a box of 12 Krispy Kremes.)
Music was important part of our day…. But we dreaded the first dance. I’m no shrinking violet but I literally woke up in cold sweats about it. We decided to play the Beatles ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ but encouraged everyone get up and dance with us. The music we chose for the ceremony was much more special to us and included tunes from Athlete, Ray Lamontagne, the Jam and Rifles. We walked out of the ceremony to the Stone Roses ‘She Bangs The Drum.’
You Look Amazing
We didn’t have any favours, but we did hand out white pencils intended to sign our wedding postcards which were engraved in gold with ‘you look amazing.’
The best thing about using the Yorkshire Sculpture Park for a venue is that it has paintings and sculptures everywhere you look. From the restaurant where we had the wedding breakfast there were also sheep dotted views that stretch out over the West Yorkshire countryside for as far as you can see. We also had a full end-to-end rainbow that came out during the wedding breakfast!
The ceremony was a blank canvas so we decorated this with loads of white paper lanterns that hung from the ceiling, and used tuille and vintage lace for table coverings and door covers.
Make It Personal
Take the time to think about readings that are personal to you as they will be much more memorable. We had two readings, one was an adaptation of the Lovely Dinosaur by Edward Monkton and the other was a piece from a Rob Ryan Painting that we had bought from YSP when we were first together.
If there’s anything you don’t want to do that breaks from tradition, don’t do it – it’s your day! Use trusted suppliers – they make it easy for you to relax and enjoy the day. And finally, do a food and wine tasting so you can enjoy the food in advance! I didn’t eat one thing on the day as I was so excited!
Click here & view all images from this wedding
Dress – Candy Anthony
Shoes – Jimmy Choo
Headband – Jo Barnes
Hair and Make-up – Charlotte Dobson (charlottedobson@yahoo.co.uk)
Bridesmaids – Warehouse and Zara
Groom – Richard Smith suit with Paul Smith shoes
Florist – Swallows and Damsons
Cake – Krispy Kreme
Band – The Big Beat
Venue – Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Photography – Christian Ward
Squashed Krispy Kremes in their bags the following day?? I think we can all relate to that.
The combination of muted pinks and greens in the flowers is just enough pretty don’t you think? I love the simplicity of this wedding.
And how fabulous are the Choo’s with the short dress?
Lots of love,
Fern x