Not long until Santa comes to town now! But before he delivers presents from your nearest and dearest, we’re bringing you two delightful real weddings as our gift to you.
To kick things off this morning we’re heading to a farm in Sheffield for the stunning wedding of Charlotte and Adam.
We absolutely love the creativity that has been used by this couple to transform a bare shell of a barn into a
romantic & unique
wedding venue, complete botanical charm. Truly inspiring!With images by Bethany Clarke Photography.
charlotte says:
We got engaged in Verona, Italy, the home of Romeo and Juliet, about a year before the wedding. Adam proposed on the balcony before sunset, then we drank a hell of a lot of prosecco to celebrate!Our wedding was on 1st August 2015. We planned it hoping for a sunny day. We got a bit of a mixed bag, but the sun came out for our photos.
We got married at Whirlow Hall Farm in Sheffield, near the peak district and were the first people to have our ceremony there as well as our reception. We chose the venue, as once we had rented the barn we were pretty much free to do whatever we wanted and we really wanted that kind of freedom.
We didn’t have a theme as such, but I really wanted to have as much greenery as possible. We were very lucky to have the help of a family friend who is an avid gardener and who helped us to create the leafy decoration, as well as, mine and my bridesmaids’ bouquets. This was great as it meant we didn’t have to fork out for florist flowers.
The colour scheme ended up being white and green. We covered as much as possible in leafy greenery and the bridesmaid dresses had a green, tropical print. I think it turned out quite pretty.
The dress I chose was quite a simple design by Kate Halfpenny, a London designer who has a vintage feel without being too costume-like or contrived. The staff at the boutique where I purchased the dress were brilliant in helping me find the right style and were happy to accommodate making a few tweaks to the design to make it my dream dress. The fabrics were beautiful and I felt that I was getting a high-quality make and service for a good price, something that I feel is lacking from so many bridal boutiques.
Adam wore a Paul Smith linen suit. It was pale grey, which suited the summery and informal feel of the wedding. The groomsmen wore shades of grey so that they were tonally matching, and they all wore a matching floral tie to add a bit of colour.
I have a bit of a fear of bridesmaid dresses; I think that the vast majority of them are quite foul. So to avoid some satiny-gathered nightmare, I decided to go for a different tactic. I started browsing on ASOS and came across some tropical print, chiffon maxi dresses that were on sale. I instantly loved them and they were reduced to £20 each, so it was a no-brainer.
Our photographer was Bethany Clarke. I came across Bethany when looking at a bridal blog, she had a really pretty sort of candid style, that seemed to capture the feel of the wedding and got lots of shots of guests. We knew that was what we were after and were pleased to find that she was reasonably priced as well.
On the day Bethany was great. Efficient and discreet and the photos we got back were just stunning. We would definitely recommend her!
I had a small and understated almost posy-like bouquet of green ivy, blue/grey succulents and white flowers, and the bridesmaids had mini versions to match. The venue was then decorated with lots of green, leafy arrangements and structures.
The venue didn’t have its own furniture, so we hired ours from YouCanHire. We went with rustic wooden trestle tables in long banquet-style rows with white-washed spindle chairs to make it look pretty.
For our favours we designed a graphic to print onto tote bags. We rolled them up for the table setting, so everyone thought they were napkins. The print read “bagged myself a good ‘un”.
Our wedding cake was a plain cake bought from Marks & Spencer that my maid of honour very kindly helped to decorate. We decorated the cake with rough-style frosting and fresh flowers and topped if with a Lego bride and zombie-groom. The overall cost of doing it this way was about £80 and it fed 120 guests!
Whirlow Hall Farm offered to do our food and were more than accommodating to meet our needs. In the end we went with pies and mash followed by ice-creams and a hog-roast in the evening. All the food was from the farm, so we could be happy that we were serving responsibly farmed, good quality produce.
For the entertainment we hired a DJ, but also had a few friends play some records. We wanted to make sure there was ample dancing time!
I would recommend Whirlow Hall Farm as a venue to others, as you have a lot of freedom to create the exact wedding you want! I would also recommend their catering – it’s excellent.
My favourite part of the day was dancing. All the formalities and photographs were out of the way!
For our honeymoon we went to Kerala in South India a little later in the year, in November. It was one of the most beautiful and relaxing places I’ve ever visited. The food was incredible, it was packed with loads of interesting wildlife and the people were so friendly.
My top tip for other Brides Up North would be to have a pack of Rennies on hand in the morning for nervy bellies!
