After tying the knot across the pond in Las Vegas, Toni and James decided that it was time to celebrate with family and friends back in the UK. And, boy, did they do it in style.
Their big day was all about the party vibes, combining their wedding not only with New Year’s Eve celebrations, but James’ birthday too.
Their plush black, white and gold theme was an inspired choice, complete with a nod, or three, to their new life in America. And as Toni reveals, the couple really did turn a few bridal traditions right on their head.
With images by Joe Stenson
toni says:
After two years together James moved to San Diego in California. When he was offered a permanent job, we had to decide whether to leave our family and friends and start a new life together in the US, and that meant taking the plunge and getting married quicker than anticipated. So we did! It all happened within the space of three months; engagement, and a wedding in Vegas with just three friends.James proposed when I was visiting him in Huntington Beach, Orange County, on 18th February 2013. We hired a little boat to cruise around Balboa Island in Newport Beach and then returned to Huntington Beach to watch the sunset. He encouraged me to go for a walk on the beach and we ended up sitting on the Number 1 Lifeguard Tower Stand. My 30th birthday was only a couple of weeks away and so he started telling me that he wanted to get me something I would love, keep and wear all the time. And then he held out my ring!
Our original wedding was on 5th April 2013 in Las Vegas, but that’s not how I imagined my wedding would be. So two years on we started planning a wedding celebration that we could share with our family and friends in the UK.
We wanted the emphasis to be on throwing an amazing party, and that’s why we chose New Year’s Eve, 2015. Not only did we think that NYE would add an extra element of excitement for our guests, but it’s also James’ birthday! I also liked the thought of having a winter wedding, which meant we weren’t relying on the weather.
It was tricky finding a venue in Leeds that would be available on NYE, serve past midnight and hold 150 guests. After researching several venues, I had a dream that featured The Faversham, Leeds – I woke up and knew it would be the perfect venue. The great thing about The Faversham is that it’s not only a beautiful building set in the grounds of Leeds University, but you have exclusive use of the venue too.
We wanted our wedding to be unique, with quirky touches that were personal to us. We wanted a glam yet simple style with a party vibe. The theme was centered on NYE/time, with an element of USA v UK.
We didn’t want anything traditional so we had James’ sister do the service and my maid-of-honor do the father-of-the-bride speech. The readings were chosen by our friends and not heard by either James or me until the ceremony. We replaced hymns with Elton John’s Are You Ready for Love, which everyone sang together after the service. Our first dance was to the first karaoke song we sang together – Salt & Pepper’s Push It (not your average first dance song!)
I wanted classic colours, which would be timeless, with an element of glam, which is why we chose black, white and gold.
I found it really hard to find a dress in Southern California and didn’t have my bridesmaids or mum with me to help. Despite loving the big classic Audrey Hepburn style dresses, I knew something traditional would look out of place since we were already married. When I came across the Karen Willis Holmes collection at a Love and Lace Bridal Boutique in Orange County, I knew I’d found my dress. I chose the Anya gown, a sequined fitted dress with spaghetti straps and a small fluid train. It was perfect for a black-tie NYE wedding and felt very Hollywood glam!
Finding shoes was just as hard but I settled on the BCBGeneration Dariah silver embellished caged heels.
I kept my accessories simple as I didn’t want to take anything away from the dress. I wore some vintage style earrings that I found on ASOS, a beautiful diamante hair comb from Zara, and a diamante cage bracelet which my maid of honour bought me from Debenhams. At the last minute, I borrowed a friend’s white fur shrug, which she had just married in a few days earlier.
When we decided on having our wedding on NYE we knew it was a great excuse for guests to get glammed up. We thought it would be perfect to have a black-tie dress code, which led to James choosing a slim-fitting black Hugo Boss tuxedo, with a white slim fitted tuxedo shirt, black bow tie and black patent shoes.
My three best friends were bridesmaids. I let them choose their own dresses. We settled on black dresses, because who doesn’t look good in black? This also helped create the simple classic look I wanted. My maid of honour bought a floor-length, strapless ASOS dress. One of my bridesmaids, who had only given birth two weeks prior, bought a floaty, above-the-knee dress from Debenhams, and my other bridesmaid bought a chiffon floor-length dress from Ghost.
My niece was my flower girl and she wore a pretty little black dress with a gold cardigan.
Our best man wore a black tuxedo, which he chose to accessorise with a white silk scarf. We chose not to go down the traditional route of having groomsmen but James’ best friends and my dad and brother all wore black tuxedos anyway.
My dad arranged for the bridal party to travel to the venue in two Range Rovers Sports from his workplace.
Our Vegas wedding photos were very staged so we knew we wanted a photographer with a more relaxed style and one who wouldn’t interrupt the flow of the day by constantly pulling people out for photos. We booked Joe Stenson, a Leeds photographer with a more documentary approach. It was great that he made use of The Faversham’s surroundings – we got some lovely photos in the grounds of Leeds University – it created a more modern, urban vibe.
I wanted to keep the flowers simple. The bridesmaids and my flower girl had a gypsophila bouquet with gold ribbon and black pins. I added black and white anemones to the gypsophila for my bouquet, tied together with black ribbon and gold pins. The flowers were provided by the wonderful Daisy Chain in Roundhay, Leeds.
We used a lot of fairy lights to transform the blank canvas of The Faversham in to something more magical. We had them wrapped around beams, on the window-sills and beaded ones on the tables.
We also hung different sized black, white and gold pom-poms and lanterns from the ceiling both in the main room and the conservatory. This helped highlight our colour scheme and tie everything together. We also had lots of black and white helium balloons with black and gold ribbon.
We created a pretty backdrop for the ceremony and wedding breakfast – we used white voile curtains and hung clock faces and flower entwined hoops.
We also used little milk bottles, which my mum decorated with gold and black ribbon, to hold little stems of gypsophila for the tables and windowsills. Daisy Chain delivered this in bulk and we arranged them ourselves. They also provided little gypsophila clusters as pew ends to add a little more decoration for the ceremony.
The tables were covered with black tablecloths and gold runners. We had mini clocks that acted as additional table numbers, with the hands pointing to the number of the table.
We printed polaroid-sized photos of us, our family and friends and had them stuck on the picture blocks on the exposed brick wall in the venue, with the idea of ‘once upon a time…’.
We also used black and gold banners to add to the NYE feel – ‘Til Death Do Us Party’ was attached just above the stage and we had ‘Cheers’ and ‘Happy New Year’. We added balloons for the same effect.
For our favours, we chose mini black bottles of Cava – who doesn’t love bubbles? I thought they fitted perfectly with the idea of NYE and celebration, but also served as a great name tag holder.
I also found some fab confetti bags on Pinterest – a clear bag filled with gold stars and hearts, with labels reading ‘when the clock strikes twelve toss the confetti and make a wish’. So my mum replicated them herself, which became additional favours.
We didn’t want to do a traditional wedding cake. We wanted something that was easy for people to grab as-and-when they wanted it, which is why we opted for black, white and metallic cupcakes and a small cake designed as a clock. My bridesmaid’s wonderful mum made these as a wedding gift.
We chose our wedding food purely on what we enjoy eating and what was winter appropriate. Canapés were served while we had our photos taken in the grounds of Leeds University. Our wedding breakfast consisted of chicken liver parfait with fig chutney, wood sorrel butter and crusty bread for starter; daube of beef cheek cooked in red wine and Seville orange, braised koffman cabbage, Chantenay carrots, rosemary salted new potatoes, horseradish and braising liquor for our main; and Lebanese doughnuts with salted caramel sauce and treacle ice cream to finish.
We wanted our evening food to have an American theme so we chose mini sliders: balsamic and caraway slow roasted pulled pork sliders; homemade slaw on brioche bun; chicken/beef burger sliders; all served with sweet potato fries.
We upped our wine budget at the last minute to make sure no one was short of drinks! It was actually James’ mum who chose our wine. We settled on Rugged Ridge Merlot, Cullian View Chenin Blanc, and Cava for the drinks reception and toasts.
Entertainment-wise, we knew we wanted a live soul funk band that would get everyone dancing all night, which is why we chose the six-piece band The Jive Doctors. They also acted as the DJ until the early hours.
I love photo-booths but to hire one on NYE was expensive, so we created our own. We hung a gold foil curtain from one of the walls and had a large gold frame for people to use, along with lots of props. There were several selfie sticks and we also created signs asking people to hashtag their photos with #HughesNYEWedding.
I wanted to create a guest book that was different and fitted with our theme, so we had lots of California and London postcards for people to write on. I also bought a US style mailbox for guests to ‘post’ them in when completed. I have since binded the postcards together to form a little book. For our card box we painted a wooden crate black, with ‘Hughes, est. 5.4.13, re-est. 31.12.16’.
We also added to the USA v UK theme by adding a Union Jack and Stars and Stripes flag at the entryway of the venue. In addition we had a picture of the Queen on the ladies’ bathroom and a picture of Obama on the men’s! We also set up the traditional American game of beer pong in the lounge room.
What better way to celebrate NYE than with a load of hats, glasses, and other NYE paraphernalia! Guests were able to grab something from a black and gold collection – I loved seeing everyone on the dance floor in their chosen item! To add to the NYE feel, we had sparklers, as well as jars of party poppers and blowers. We also bought themed sweets, with American Hershey’s kisses with a little sign that said ‘kisses for midnight’, as well as American flag traffic lollies, candy watches and gold foil-wrapped chocolate hearts.
Another personal touch was creating our own cocktail – the “Hughes Hullabaloo” which we advertised in a photo frame on the bar. All our signs were designed in a Gatsby style by a friend, to add to the Hollywood glam vibe.
Our “T&J” illuminated lights were from Add Vintage, who I would definitely recommend. I found them to be affordable and great quality. We also used Blue Sky Event Hire Solutions for our tables, chiavari chairs and linens. They provided great customer service and flexibility.
A friend put me in touch with Only by Knight, who designed our clock seating plan. They were great at turning my ideas in to reality last minute and at an affordable price.
A great recommendation for professional makeup is Laura Mercier. I had a wedding makeup trial at the Laura Mercier in Hoopers, in Harrogate, and providing I spent £100 on makeup they would come and do my makeup on my wedding day for free – what a bargain.
I used Charlotte Boyle from Gloss Hair in Knaresborough, for our hair – what a trooper she was. She broke her ankle over Christmas and yet didn’t cancel or send someone else to do my hair.
If you’re looking for a venue that is multi-functional, a blank canvas, the perfect set-up for a party, and accessible then The Faversham is perfect. It was ideal for our winter wedding but also has lots of outside space, which would make it just as awesome in the summer.
Looking back, the dancing has to be our favourite part of the day, especially when surrounded by all our family and friends. The band was amazing, and as midnight approached they did the countdown and played Auld Lang Syne – it was so lovely looking around to see everyone hugging, kissing and singing! Everyone singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to James as part of the best man’s speech was another highlight.
We’ve yet to go on honeymoon. Flying back to the UK a couple of times every year hasn’t been cheap and because we live by the beach in sunny Southern California there hasn’t been a desperate need for a honeymoon.
My top tip for other Brides Up North would be – when planning your wedding, stick to your guns with vendors and suppliers. Also, make sure that you’ve thought about the timing of your photos. When booking a venue make sure you factor in set-up time, especially if you’re setting the venue up yourselves. Everything takes longer than what you expect. Finally, just accept that there will be hiccups but the best thing to do is laugh about it because they will all add to your story.
the big picture
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