It’s holiday season here on the blog, and as the editorial team take a short break, we’ll be leaving you with a reduced blogging schedule so that you still get your daily dose of wedding lovely. Usual service will recommence on Monday 9th January 2017 but in the meantime watch out for recaps of some of our favourite Real Weddings from 2016.
Drop in every day for the very prettiest, most unique wedding inspiration and – if you are a Brides Up North bride – to see if your real wedding was one of our top picks.
Today’s real wedding has to be one of my very favourite of the year, not only because it features one gorgeous dress and some incredibly dreamy flowers, but also for the couple’s unique choice of venue.
Following a church ceremony, Kath and Tim held their reception at Abbeydale Picture House – a 1920s cinema in the cool Antiques Quarter area of Sheffield. Being from the city myself this is a venue that I love and so I’m thrilled to see it being given a new lease of life in the form of an alternative wedding venue.
Everything about this wedding is a true reflection of the bride and groom, which means it all comes together so effortlessly for a relaxed yet stylish occasion. Oh and if you’re wondering why the flowers in this wedding are so a-maz-ing Kath is a florist – and a very talented one at that!
With images by Ruth Atkinson Photography.
kath says:
We got engaged on 12th September 2015. Tim set up an amazing treasure hunt all around Sheffield by posting photos with clues on Instagram! I had to solve little riddles and puzzles that he had hidden at each stage that led me to significant places we had been to. The final clue led me to Burbage Edge in the Peak District where we had had some special picnics together and as I walked to the “spot”, Tim was there with his guitar! He sang me a song he had written and then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.We got married on Saturday 14th May 2016. We chose this date because I have my own floristry business and there were very few days left when we could actually get married as I was getting booked up with so many other brides’ weddings!
We had our wedding service at St Thomas Philadelphia in Sheffield, where we attend. Our reception was held at the Abbeydale Picture House – a 1920s cinema – we used the whole of the auditorium for an afternoon tea reception.
We didn’t have a particular theme – we just did things that we liked. Therefore, our overall ‘theme’ ended up being similar to my flower shop – relaxed, vintage and homemade with lots of flowers, a few small trees at the front of the church and quirky details that we added to the day as we went along.
Being a florist I have come across most colour schemes for weddings, so it was very hard to pick! I’ve seen so many different colour combinations work so well. In the end, I went with what I loved and the colours that I always seemed to be drawn back to. I picked a really natural scheme for my own bouquet using just whites, greens with subtle pinks and then for the bridesmaids’ and venue flowers I used blush pinks and white with pops of peach.
I wore the Juniper dress by Maggie Sottero, which my mum actually picked out for me on our first wedding dress trip! I knew instantly when I tried it on that it was the perfect dress for me. It was very elegant and quite simple with a vintage feel to it and lots of gorgeous beading and detail at the top. I wanted something that felt really comfortable and still felt like “me”, but was also really special!
Tim wore a slim-fit navy blue three-piece suit that he bought from Moss Bros. He wore a dusky pink tie which complemented the colour scheme – we eventually found this from Next. He also wore his favourite smart brown shoes from River Island. The groomsmen all wore the same suit as Tim.
I wanted all of my bridesmaids to feel lovely and comfortable and so got them to pick their own dresses – we didn’t want it be really formal, so all the dresses were slightly different in style and colour.
On the morning of the wedding Laura, from Craft, took care of mine and my bridesmaids’ makeup. She was amazing and created a lovely, natural look for the day. I felt like me, but just that extra bit special! Kelsey, from Wigs & Warpaint in Sheffield, then created my wedding hair, which was a lovely messy side up do with a boho plait across the front – I took lots of spare flowers to the salon with me and she played about and added in spray roses to complete the look.
We didn’t hire any wedding transport to get me to the church, instead a family friend drove me there in his car with a homemade white bow tied on the front.
Ruth Atkinson was our wedding photographer and we can’t recommend her enough! She totally understood our vision for the style of photos we were wanting: from the natural shots, to the beautiful and quirky details of the day, to the gorgeous sunset pictures in the Peaks – she got it all! She captured our day so beautifully and we felt so comfortable with her from start to finish. Ruth is warm and personable. She had a very calming influence on me before I went down to the church and was just an overall joy to have at our day.
I carried a bouquet full of David Austin garden roses in cream, white &and blush pink, ivory peonies, astilbe, larkspur, ivory spray roses, white scabias and lots of wild foliage and grasses – it smelt divine! I own a flower shop in Sheffield called of the wild, and it was a dream come true to create my own wedding flowers! Customers kept asking me if I would do my own flowers thinking it could add extra stress/ pressure! However, it was such a wonderful thing to create them and I enjoyed every minute and I’m sure my flower supplier enjoyed seeing my reaction when the flowers arrived. I shrieked when he came through the door carrying the buckets.
As the Abbeydale Picture House is such an amazing building we didn’t need to add too much extra decor and so kept it quite minimal. We used vintage bottles with single stems of peonies and roses dotted on the tables, tin cans sprayed copper with olive branch foliage and roses, vintage swan vases filled with flowers, white bunting strung up in the entrance and other little details such as rustic crates to hold our cards and gifts. There is also great festoon lighting in the Picture House which added to the atmosphere.
As we had a lot of people come to the reception we thought creating favours would have been tricky/ very expensive, and so instead we said that guests could take the flowers away at the end of the day as a little gift.
A close family friend, Michelle, created our wonderful wedding cake and cupcakes. We went for a tasting evening where we consumed a lot of cake! We wanted a simple cake with amazing flavours and pretty detail to it and so went for a three-tier cake of chocolate fudge, vanilla pound and a pecan and maple flavoured tier. The cake had handmade iced flowers and the middle section had a lace effect icing overlay. It was finished off with a big pink bow that complemented the bridesmaid dresses. Michelle owns a cake making business called Just A Mish Mash, but generously gave us our cake as a gift!
We had an afternoon tea for our reception meal and chose PJ Taste, who are based in Sheffield, to supply it. They provided three different sandwiches, mini Yorkshire puddings, scones with clotted cream and jam and chocolate brownies. They displayed all of this on vintage cake stands which added to our day. My mum also collected more than 200 vintage teacups, saucers, side plates and sugar bowls which we used on the day – she may have to start her own vintage china hire service now! We also had 200 gourmet donuts created by Lauren from Eve Kitchen – these are the most incredible donuts you will ever try and went down a treat with our guests! They were a definite highlight for everyone who tasted them!
When it came to the entertainment, we hired a local band called Nicola Farnon Trio, who play amazing live jazz music. Nicola leads the band on a double bass! It was the perfect musical background to our special day.
As our venue was rather unique we did include a few special touches to make the best use of it. For example, during the speeches guests were invited to sit in the original cinema seats and they had popcorn from the old cinema popcorn machines, which came in traditional stripy bags! I also created a surprise video for Tim which was played on the cinema screen during the speeches which told the story of how we met! Ben Hodges created this amazing video for us.
We loved the whole atmosphere of having the reception in an old cinema. We were the first to hold a wedding reception in the building and would definitely recommend it as a venue. We had 240 guests, so it is a great space to hold so many people! The building has so much character and history that it really doesn’t need much added in terms of decor and was definitely a talking point of our day!
Looking back I have so many favourite bits – the whole day felt like a wonderful family celebration that was full of joy and love. I loved the service – Tim’s dad actually married us! The speeches at the reception were lovely. And the thing that capped it off for me was that we were fortunate enough to have the dreamiest lighting for our Peak District photo shoot after the reception. It honestly couldn’t have been better!
Following the wedding we went to Cornwall for ten days on honeymoon. It was a perfect and relaxing week full of Cornish cream teas, bikes rides along the camel trail, stunning coastal walks and mooching about in pretty Padstow!
My top tip to other Brides Up North would be that you don’t have to overcomplicate things. We had the perfect day but we didn’t go over the top with everything. We tried to use people that we knew or local suppliers. Also, it’s ok to be yourselves – Tim and I knew that we didn’t want to conform to what a wedding ‘should’ look like. As we had an afternoon tea, we actually ended the reception at 7pm because we wanted to have a special meal together in the evening together as just us!
