Hannah and Philip's Modern Wedding at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

Happy Monday everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I am currently in Cornwall having a lovely time with my family, we got here on Saturday and have another few days to enjoy. We are starting off the week with this fabulous Modern wedding that took place at The Hepworth in Wakefield. It’s a wonderful venue for a wedding, full of wonderful lines and shapes that are just perfect for a modern loving couple. The day has gorgeous accents of yellow, blue and teal that really make the wedding decor pop. Big thanks to Matt Parry Photography for these gorgeous images, as always he has captured the day in his own unique way, so candid and full of emotion.

‘Matched our personalities, had little touches along the day which reflected our likes’

Modern Wedding at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

Hannah and Philip were married on 25th July 2015 at St Mary the Virgin, Elland, West Yorkshire (Ceremony) and The Hepworth, Wakefield (Reception). ‘The church where we got married is the church Hannah has been going to since she was a child, and was the church where her parents got married 35 years ago. Whilst we live in London and have done for 10 years it is a special place and where her family still worship. Being part of the built environment and both with a keen interest in buildings and architecture, the Hepworth was a perfect setting for our reception. We had the best of both worlds, a Grade II Listed building steeped in history and family memories and a modern art gallery and building we both love. Guest wise we had 70 for the ceremony and wedding breakfast, with an additional 20 for the evening reception. Planning took exactly one year to the day of getting engaged. 

Modern Wedding at The Hepworth letters By Matt Parry Photography

How they met
We met through Hannah’s sister Rachel who went to University with Phil.  We have been together for eight years since the end of University.

The Proposal
We are both keen cyclists.  After watching the start of the Tour de France set off in Hannah’s home town, we cycled to Paris two weeks later to see the finish.  After a 100 mile day cycling into Paris, Phil proposed at the Eiffel Tower (in our lycra!) at sunset.

Modern Wedding bride wearing veil at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

How did you allocate your budget
Once we had decided on Yorkshire as the place, and did some research, we set out a budget knowing where we would like to splurge and where we would like to save.  Where possible we wanted to do as many of the decorations handmade and involve as many people from our family and friends in the day.

Where did you splurge and where did you save
We splurged on the photographer – we wanted to ensure we had the correct person capturing our day.  Although we did a lot of the decorations ourselves, this also added up. We saved on the wine for the quality we had by buying it from Majestics in Calais.

Modern church Wedding at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

Modern Wedding brides arrival at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

Modern Wedding getting married at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

How did you choose your photographer
Following booking the ceremony and reception venue, our photographer was the next item on the to do list.  We both knew the style of photographer we would like, someone to tell the story of our day and just take some awesome photographs with the setting of the Hepworth.   After some research on wedding blogs and a skype call, we knew Matt was the one we wanted to capture our day.  With less than a year to the wedding we were lucky he was still available.

Modern Wedding red bus at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

The Dress
My dress was by Rembo Styling bought at Blackburn Bridal Couture in Blackheath. My veil was by Blackburn Bridal Couture. My jewellery by Jenny Packham.  My shoes were by Rainbow Club – I bought them in John Lewis and sent them off to be dyed yellow.

The Suit and Bridesmaids
The mens suits were by TM Lewin with ties from Kin John Lewis. The bridesmaids wore dresses from Hobbs

Modern Wedding bride and groom at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

Theme or Colour Scheme
We had a colour theme of teal blue and yellow.

Flowers
A mixture of Echivera Succulents with Roses, Ranuncles, Crispedia, Tanacetum and loose foliage. These were in the bridal bouquet, the bridesmaids bouquets, and went through to the flowers in the church and the centrepieces at the reception. We also had two bay trees outside the church planted with Echivera. The groom’s buttonhole was a Mini Echivera and Crispedia. The other male buttonholes were Crispedia and Tanacetum wrapped with twine

Decoration
Flowers were a big part of decorating the church and reception.  Rachel’s pots she made were a key part of the table decorations and complimented the centre pieces wonderfully. We did our own DIY photobooth with frame, painted boards for behind the bar.  We also hired uplighters for the reception as well as large H&P lights for the dance floor. We also spray painted H’s and P’s for the tables.

Modern Wedding reception setting at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

Food
Starter – Salad of smoked chicken with pine nuts and crunchy croutons, served with crispy ham and a parmesan dressing.
Main – Roasted cod loin with cherry tomatoes and basil dressing served with lyonnaise potatoes & pancetta.
Vegetarian – Gnocchi served with Yorkshire blue and broccoli in a parmesan basket, finished with sunblush tomato.
Trio of dessert- winter berry cheesecake, caramelised lemon tart & chocolate torte.

Wedding Cake
We had a two tier sponge cake, one lemon and the other raspberry. They were hexagonal in shape and covered in rough icing.  On top we had fresh flowers to match Hannah’s bouquet.  We wanted something simple, clean lines and went with the setting of the reception.  For the evening reception, Phil’s mum had made fruit cakes to go with the three tiers of cheeses.

Entertainment
An eighteen piece jazz band (Little Big Band) kicked off our evening reception. We also had Swing Dance Leeds do a half hour class to get people warmed up for the dance floor.

Modern Wedding details at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

Modern Wedding table number at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

Modern Wedding cake at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

The Stationery
Stanley’s Library – Abby did an amazing job on our stationary.  The invitations, order of services, menus, table numbers and the table plan were just spot on in terms of the theme and content.

Personal or Handmade Touches
My sister is a trained ceramists and had made all the vases we used as place settings each potted with succulents and plants.  These also became our favours for guests to take away as a memento of our day. It was such a personal touch. Eight months on and our plants are still living and I get so much joy seeing it in our house.

Modern Wedding bridal party at The Hepworth By Matt Parry Photography

Special Moments
There were so many moments and it’s hard to take it all in on the day from the beautiful flowers, to seeing the route master bus turn up at the venue filled with all your guests.  Looking back at the photographs a couple of months later and you realise what an amazing day it was. A day filled with your family and closest friends making memories to last a lifetime.

Advice to other couples
Write down at the start the key things you want from your day and ensure that you stick to them. There are so many wedding blogs and magazines that it can become a bit overwhelming, especially the closer you get to the day. I found that I started to question whether we had made the right decisions for things, but on the day I knew we had.

Biggest surprise
The day went to plan, although we organised it from London!  When we left the church there was a rain shower for about five minutes, the rest of the day was beautiful weather.