Today’s pretty handmade wedding is all about love, laughter, friends and family (all the most important things, right?).
Not wanting to detract from the real reasons of marriage, bride Annie and groom Peter decided to keep their big day simple by avoiding a set theme. They still made the Sheffield setting for their wedding look
incredibly pretty
though with the fine efforts of their nearest and dearest.Kind and talented relatives and friends helped Annie and Peter with everything from the gorgeous flowers and cake through to the décor and transport. A fabulous effort and huge kudos to all involved!
With images by Ever Thine Photography.
annie says:
We got engaged on November the 15th 2014, in my parents’ living room! Peter had spoken to my dad and asked him for his permission to marry me earlier that day, however we had friends round for dinner so Peter had to wait for them to leave before he could ask me. After they’d left he asked me to go for a walk with him, which I point blank refused to do – it was nearly 10pm, dark and raining! I instead insisted we watched an episode of The Office but as it started Peter said he really needed to talk to me. I got stroppy about having to stop The Office to talk to him…but as he got down on one knee on the floor in front of me I burst out crying and thought it was all a joke. Half way through Peter’s kind and sincere speech about how much he loved me, my mum opened the door and walked into the living room – as soon as she realised what was going on, she quickly left, apologising profusely! It took me a while to compose myself and remember to say yes in answer to Peter’s proposal.We got married on the 29th of August 2015. We would’ve liked to have got married sooner but I was finishing my midwifery training in Oxford, and Peter was working in Hull, so it wasn’t practical.
We got married at Christ Church Fulwood, in Sheffield. It’s the church I grew up going to so it was important to us to get married there. Our reception venue was Lomas Hall (Stannington Village Hall). We knew from the start we would need a big space, and Lomas worked well as it was close enough to the church, and had plenty of room.
We didn’t really have a theme but it was important to us to ensure the day was not all about us and instead pointed people towards the real meaning of, and reason for marriage – as Christians we believe that God created marriage to be a picture of the relationship between God and his people.
A colour scheme of navy and white came from the bridesmaids’ and groomsmen’s attire.
My dress was very light and floaty – I didn’t want a dress that I had to worry about stepping on when I walked, or had to carry to avoid stepping on. It was from a wedding dress warehouse in Leeds that sells sample dresses and stock from boutiques that close down, so they’re a bit cheaper. When I chose it, I just loved the brushed silk skirt which was so soft and floaty. It was originally strapless and I knew from the start I didn’t want a strapless dress so I had it altered by seamstress Penny Beal – she was amazing and practically re-made the whole dress! She made me a lace top to attach over the strapless dress which worked amazingly well and was so pretty.
Peter wore tails, which originally belonged to his grandfather and then father, and now him. He knew from the start he wanted himself and his groomsmen to wear tails.
My bridesmaids wore simple navy dresses from Next that I just stumbled across in the sale! They wore whatever shoes they wanted, and each chose a different statement necklace to wear, which I loved.
The groomsmen wore their own tails, or hired them from various places. We then gave them navy blue and white polka dot ties to wear.
For our wedding transport we borrowed a Land Rover Defender from some friends at church, who very kindly let us use it all day. From the start I knew I wanted a Land Rover to be part of the day, as I grew up in southern Africa and whilst there I drove a Land Rover.
Lucy Aspray, of Ever Thine Photography took beautiful photos of our day. She was so easy to get along with and fitted in so well and the photos from the wedding are so beautiful, capturing moments we would’ve missed without her being there. We are so grateful to her and would highly recommend her!
My bouquet was made by Kath at Of The Wild, in Sheffield. I have loved her style since she opened and having her make my bouquet was probably one of the easiest decisions about the day! I wanted a wild flower-type bouquet, tied with brown string and I really loved what Kath came up with. It included lisianthus, roses, thistles and lots of eucalyptus.
Two days before the wedding my mum and I went (very early!) to the flower market to get all the flowers for the bridesmaids’ bouquets and to decorate the church. I wanted fairly neutral colours – mostly greens, whites and greys. Eucalyptus is one of my favourite plants and smells so we had lots of that, as well as lisianthus, cream and blue thistles, cream roses, rosemary and heather, and lots of foliage. We got all the eucalyptus and lots of the herbs and foliage from my granny’s garden, and from other kind friends. Mum and I, one of my bridesmaids, and some lovely ladies from our church helped us make the bridesmaids’ bouquets and church flowers – which were all presented in wellies!
We also made big marquee letters saying ‘P & A’ out of cardboard, papier mache and white paint…they took ages to do but looked really good on the stage at the reception. The table names (beautifully written on slates by my brother) were all stations along the train line between Oxford and Hull, because it was a route Peter and I travelled often to see each other. I wanted to decorate the village hall where we had the reception with bunting, but not the traditional triangle-shaped kind, so I made meters and meters of bunting using brown garden string and doilies folded in half, and it worked really well.
The flowers at the reception were sweetpeas grown on our allotment or by my husband’s parents, which we put on all the tables in little jars we’d collected. They looked and smelled beautiful!
My amazing (and patient) mum made nearly 200 jars of jam to give out as favours – using whatever fruit came off our allotment during the build up to the wedding! Everyone loved them and the jars looked so pretty on the tables. The lids were covered with African fabric. They were so colourful and fun!
Our wonderful friend Sian agreed to make our wedding cake, and what she came up with was a million times more beautiful than what we’d expected, and so much bigger! I had asked her to make a small but pretty naked cake, decorated with flowers and fruit, but she made an absolute masterpiece of a cake, with different flavoured layers and amazing flowers and fruit everywhere. It was her first effort at a wedding cake and possibly her last…it was definitely a labour of love!
For our wedding meal we had a great barbeque provided by a company called Piggin’ Fantastic – we’d had their hog roasts before and other people had used them for weddings so they came highly recommended. The food was so delicious and there was lots of it.
We didn’t have much in the way of entertainment as the wedding finished at around 8pm – perfect timing and highly recommended as we were exhausted and people had to travel back home around the country.
We would absolutely recommend Lomas Hall to other wedding couples – it’s so flexible and the space is great. They also have a field attached which is for public use, but meant our cousins could run around and let off some steam! There’s good parking and kitchen facilities too.
Peter and mine’s favourite part of the day was the wedding service. It was so special to have so many of our friends and family around us.
Following the wedding we spent the first part of our honeymoon in a cottage in Shropshire, which was beautiful! It was a really quiet retreat, which was ideal. I had my graduation in Oxford on the Friday after the wedding, and then we spent another few days in a little thatched cottage near Cirencester, which again was quiet and peaceful.
My top tip to other Brides Up North would be – don’t be afraid of not having an evening reception if you don’t really want one! Lots of people asked us why we weren’t having a big party in the evening but we knew we’d be tired and lots of our friends and family had travelled a long way to be with us so we didn’t want them to have to drive home too late.
