Laura and Jonny's Super Stylish Sheffield Warehouse Wedding by S6 Photography

Happy Monday everyone, I do hope you had a wonderful weekend and that you are all rested and ready for the week ahead? My weekend was spent with a very rare night out for Nik and I. We went over to Matlock for my friends 20th wedding anniversary party! It was a fab night and great to catch up with so many old friends. We are starting the week off in style with this stunning wedding from my good friend Jon at S6 Photohraphy. It’s a wedding that is dear to me as the lovely couple Laura and Jonny have used all local suppliers, many of which are my friends and a lot are in house experts here on the blog. It’s an amazing wedding, set in a local warehouse so filled with cool decor, stunning flowers and it just looks amazing! It really does show Sheffield off in the best light with some of our top suppliers.

We wanted our wedding day to feel ‘like us’ and for everyone to have a great time, giving them little surprises along the way. Sheffield is so important to us and a big part of our story so we wanted elements of that to come through in the day itself.

Laura and Jonny were married on 9^th December 2017 the Ceremony was at 99 Mary Street, Sheffield, with the reception at Trafalgar Warehouse. ‘We got officially married the day before at Sheffield Town Hall with only our close family, then we took them to The Riverside in Kelham Island – the place that we met – for food and drinks. We’re both from Sheffield and love the city but when it comes to wedding venues, we knew that we wanted to steer clear of the more traditional venues Sheffield has to offer as they just didn’t feel like us. We loved the urban, industrial feel of Mary Street and Trafalgar and knew we could do something really special there, that reflected us as a couple. We kept it to 80 in the day and 100 for the evening. We sorted out the big stuff early on and then we left a lot of it until a few months before. We just didn’t want it to take over so we sorted a few bits at a time and didn’t let it get stressful.’

How they met
We met in 2004 at The Riverside in Sheffield when we were just 18. We stayed together for a few months but then went off to uni separately and did our own thing. Jonny will admit himself, he made sure we always stayed in touch over the years as he wanted us to get back together and we would meet up every now and then. In 2011, we were both living in Manchester and we finally decided to make a go of it and, because we’d known each other for years, launched straight in to a full-on relationship.

The proposal
When Jonny proposed, we were on holiday in Spain where we go every year with my family. We’d had some food and then went for a walk to this viewpoint where you can see all the way down to the coast from the mountains. Jonny was getting his phone out to take a photo and I was faffing about with my hair, but when I looked up, he was holding a box with an engagement ring instead of the phone. I just stared at it for a few seconds then burst in to tears, he got down on one knee, said some lovely things that neither of us can remember to this day, and I said yes through lots more tears. I had no idea and hadn’t suspected a thing so the boy did good!

How did you allocate your budget?
We set a budget and then put in some estimated costs on my super-cool spreadsheet. We pretty much stuck to that and just moved things around as some costs went up and some turned out to be cheaper than we expected. We put the majority of the budget in to the things that we knew would make a big difference, so our photographer, deciding that actually we really did want a videographer, catering, decorating the venue, alcohol…

How did you choose your photographer?
Jon from S6 Photography had been the photographer at our friend’s wedding a few years before and their photos were stunning, so when it came to getting engaged, Jon was probably the only thing that we knew was a must. We were undecided about whether we wanted a wedding video at first but then thought we would regret it if we didn’t, so got in touch with Zena at Fern and Compass and we’re so glad that we’ll have our wedding video to look back on because it goes by in a blur!

The dress
It took me ages to find a dress because I’ve never been one of those people that dreamt about their wedding day and knew exactly what type of dress I wanted. I’d been to Emily Bridal in Sheffield a couple of times and went for a third time to have a look – I knew I wanted something simple, classic but with a modern twist. After trying on a few dresses and not really getting anywhere, one of the girls said she had an idea. She brought in an Essence of Australia dress in a matte silk, I tried it on and it was exactly what I’d been looking for. It was so simple, but it was the simplicity that I fell in love with – and the pockets! I even did the whole crying thing because I knew that I’d found the dress.
Jenn Edwards & Co. did our hair and make-up and were so much fun to have around in the morning, helping us to get ready.

The suit and bridesmaids
Jonny’s suit was from ASOS and so were the bridesmaid dresses.

Theme or colour scheme
Our wedding website was black and white so that was the basis for the colour scheme that ran through our wedding stationary, signs etc. We then added some gold and some more wintery colours for a December wedding. We wanted to incorporate elements of Sheffield in to the wedding, from Sheffield gin bottles to hold the flowers, to Henderson’s relish on the table.

Flowers
I knew I wanted an unusual bouquet so went to Tracey at Campbell’s flowers with my ideas and she brought them to life, creating a stunning sprayed asparagus fern bouquet. For the rest of the wedding flowers we had greenery in Sheffield gin bottles, including some eucalyptus leaves from the eucalyptus tree in our garden.

Decoration
Decorating a warehouse is a bit of a daunting task but we had lots of festoon lights, candles and we decided on using white drapes to break up the space a bit and create a bit of impact. Inner City Weddings were such a huge help, sorting us out with suppliers and taking all our ideas and helping us to make it all happen. We dropped everything off the day before and they did all of the set up for us, bringing everything to life so that when we walked in on the day, it was incredible to finally see everything come together. Campbell’s flowers also created a wall mural for a photo backdrop for us.

Food
Our caterer was Andy Gabbitas from The Wortley Arms who created a menu for us that had a Sheffield feel to it. We had mini Yorkshire puddings with a French onion demitasse for the starter. Our main meal was pie with mash, mushy peas, gravy and of course, Henderson’s Relish. Then for dessert we had chocolate brownie with strawberries cream.
For our evening food, we had the Wing Kings. Olu put together chicken wings, mac n cheese, corn bread and fries for us served out of a street food van that we unveiled from behind a backdrop curtain later in the evening.

Wedding cake
Instead of wedding cake, we opted for the Wing King’s unbelievable strawberry cheesecake.

Entertainment
We managed to get the DJ who used to play at Republic nightclub in Sheffield when we were all at school – Lee ‘Da Truth’ Smith. Jonny also had a surprise lined up for me

Who supplied the stationery
One of the best men did our stationery based on the design of our wedding website

Special moments
Our wedding celebrant Louisa made our ceremony so personal and told the story of us as a couple perfectly. It was really important that our family and friends were a big part of the ceremony as they’re so important to us and we worked with Louisa to incorporate them in to the ceremony.

Advice for other couples
Remember who you’re doing it for and keep it about the two of you. When the day came, we both felt really calm as though it’s totally normal to be getting in a big white dress, or having all of these people you love in one place just for you, but – everyone will tell you – it goes so fast. Take moments out throughout the day just for the two of you. Our photographer, Jon at S6 Photography, was great at taking us off for a few minutes and giving us that time to take it all in and just look at each other and talk about how crazy it all is.

Biggest surprise
The biggest surprise came at the end of Jonny’s speech. He’d already had everyone laughing, then in tears and, at the end, he told everyone that he’d bought me a present each day in the lead up the wedding and had one final surprise for me. He then went on to say that he knows how much I love a gospel choir and it was something I’d mentioned on one of our first dates. Cue a girl with an insane voice coming out and singing hallelujah followed by a full-on gospel choir. He’d organised it in secret with Ellie at Inner City Weddings and I still can’t believe he did that for me. Everyone loved it, they got us all up singing and dancing with them – it was unforgettable.