Angie and Andrew’s Local, Home Grown DIY Wedding. By Samantha Ward

I have a lovely wedding for you today that focuses on local sourced suppliers and home grown talent. This DIY wedding comes courtesy of Samantha Ward Photography and is set in the Pennine Hills and takes in the local countryside. Angie and Andrew worked to a budget and decided the most important aspect of the day was that everything was sourced locally, from the food to the beer to the outfits. They held the reception in the local pub garden and brought in friends and family to help out. The thing I love most about the whole day is Andrew’s outfit, a ‘Made in Burnley’ T-shirt and blazer, no shirt and tie (much to his mother’s annoyance!) A lovely wedding for a lovely couple.

‘A day full of all of our favourite things, favourite people, and so full of love we thought we would burst’

Angie and Andrew were married on the 25th of May at Blackshaw Head Chapel with a marquee reception at Blackshaw Head pub. ‘We both love our village in the Pennine hills and are passionate about supporting local businesses, so keeping it all on our doorstep was really the only choice! We had 90 day guests and 150 in the evening. We got the big things (venue and chapel) booked about a year in advance, then I really got down to planning details 6-8 months in advance.’

How they met
We met on the internet (guardian soul mates) in March 2009 – for our first date Andrew asked me if I wanted to take a moorland walk to Top Withens (the inspiration for Wuthering Heights), but even though he’d spent his life walking the moors, we got lost, and cold and windblown – it was pretty much love by the end of the walk!

The proposal
I cried for about an hour, he started to get worried it was a bad sign!! We’d gone away in our old VW camper (Bertie, who was also our wedding car), we were parked in Keilder Forest laying on the bed waiting for the rain to stop, full of bacon and egg sandwiches, when the sun came out and he asked me – I had absolutely no idea, and was too delighted for words.

How did you spend your budget?
Our core objective was to spend as much of our money locally and with independents; beyond that, we just went with the flow – our original budget went out the window pretty quickly, we knew the essence of what we wanted to create, I researched, presented Andrew with options and then we pared it back from there! The marquee, furniture, crockery & mobile toilets took about half the budget, the food about a 25% then the rest was clothes, rings etc.

How did you choose your photographer?
I searched the net for photographers that had a reportage feel who seemed to have done weddings like the one we envisaged for ourselves (no boned dresses or killer heels!) and that’s how we found the lovely Sam – we met for tea and cake in Haworth and she totally got us and it was sorted.

The dress
I worked with Makepiece of Hebden Bridge who design gorgeous woollen creations knitted from wool from their sheep in the fields near where we live, eco & local! It was a gossamer thin cream long cardigan with a single clasp at the bust. I found a 1920’s tortoiseshell belt buckle and asked them to use that as the clasp. For the slip underneath, I found the perfect thing in an Oxfam shop in Bradford, where I also found the sequin covered clutch bag. The necklace was one I had already from Hulquist. The shoes were sequin covered Rajasthani dancing slippers that I found on the internet.

The suit
Andrew’s suit was on special offer in Burton’s (!!), and his famous T shirt (his poor mum hated it!) was off the internet from a small company called DJ Tees.

Theme or colour scheme
The feel was natural and relaxed; Bertie is blue, so we went with blue

Flowers
Simple, meadow flowers in jam jars & vintage glass with ribbons. My bouquet was twisted willow, peonies, berries and small white and cream flowers – so perfect, I cried!

Decoration
Bunting in soft florals, ivy & raffia garlands, brass chandeliers

Food
We had a fantastic hog-roast from a local company called The Travelling Pig, as well as salads, quiches, bread and all the usual sides on the table from a local small caterers who are committed to using local produce from our fabulous market

Wedding Cake
Made by a local cake maker called Barbara Hyde – it was 4 square cakes iced with the ‘LOVE’ sculpture which I saw in New York and thought was fab. She is one of the producers from the local food co-operative we’ve created in the village to help small local producers have a flexible way to sell their yummy food! We also got our beer from a local micro brewer (Bridestones) and the liqueur for the champagne cocktails from a local wine maker (Luddenden Valley Wines) who also sell through the co-op.

Entertainment
In the church my friends from the community choir sang a Croatian love song and a gospel song (My Little Cup Runneth Over – so true!), Andrew’s friends played a trombone & trumpet duet for me to walk down the aisle to, and then for the evening we had a fantastic, crazy band called Skiband which a friend of mine plays in

Buy or DIY your Stationery?
Invites & RSVPs I did online with razzle.com

Personal or handmade touches
• We collected vintage and retro china in blues and greens from friends & junk shops for the tea and coffee
• I made the place names from parcel labels, stuck on a heart shaped button and stamped with our names and date, ‘live laugh love’ & a leaping hare – we have hares in the field by our house, we love them! Then I used VW camper ribbon and tied the cutlery together with them
• I trimmed the seating plan with lace and hung it around the neck of a mannequin like a little french apron
• I made kilner jars of pickles to go with the pies that we had as our evening food
• I cut paper hearts out of coloured paper, strung them with ribbons and invited people to write us messages and hang them on a ‘love tree’ made from twisted willow
• We worked with a local jewellery designer, who specialises in using recycled gold, for our wedding rings; I used my grandmothers ring and a childhood signet ring; the jeweller used the garnets from my grandmothers ring in a beautiful organic design
• We designed our own service, basing our vows on a humanist service, with some elements of a Methodist service – the minister of our village chapel was fantastic, she just loved the service and had no issue at all about the fact that we’d not wanted to use ‘God’ in the service – as far as she was concerned ‘you’re glowing with his love, we don’t need to talk about him all the time!’

Special moments or highlights
First of all, waking up to glorious sunshine and blue skies after a terrible storm that nearly scuppered everything the day before! But the main special thing was how intimate the service was; Andrew has a stammer, so we’d agreed to say the vows slowly so he could use his breathing technique and it was just spellbinding; we held hands, faced each other and said the words without breaking eye contact and it was such an amazing experience for everyone, so full of love, not a dry eye in the house!

Biggest surprise
How furious Andrew’s mum was about him wearing a T shirt that said ‘product of Burnley’ instead of a shirt and tie! When he came down the aisle, she declared she’d raised him better than that and he was a disgrace! The congregation gasped, but Andrew just opened his jacket, did a twirl and got a round of applause, everyone fell about laughing, it really broke the tension – poor Brenda, she’s a traditionalist, but we really aren’t; she’s getting over the shock of it slowly!!

Advice for other couples
Make the day all about you, make it a reflection of who you are, not what you think other people might want, and plan it together, so you both feel invested. Andrew tempered some of my more girly touches and I tempered some of his more blokey ideas, between us it was completely us; for the day, plan everything down to the last detail, then brief someone else to manage it all for you so you can have fun! My friend managed the day for me, it was fantastic to know I could trust her to do exactly what I wanted, without me having to get involved – I wrote a 6 page blow by blow briefing, there was no need for me to do anything!

Supplier Shout Outs:

• Dress: www.makepiece.com
• Florist: www.fleurdelysflorist.com
• Jewellery: www.stephenroperjewellery.com
• Food: www.thetravellingpig.com
• Drink: www.bridestonesbrewing.co.uk
• Local Co-op: www.greatrockcoop.co.uk

For more information on Samantha’s work go to:

www.samanthawardphotography.co.uk
www.samanthawardphotography.co.uk/blog
[email protected]
FACEBOOK
@samclayton_