Homemade Autumn Wedding By York Place Studios

I have another gorgeous wedding for you today courtesy of the incredibly talented Dominique and Liam from York Place Studios. The wedding takes place near Scarborough and takes on an autumn theme as it is set in September. With lots of rich colours of orange, red and rust and a host of autumn themed decorations this wedding is super pretty. The couple carried out lots fo DIY projects which kept the whole thing very personal. My favourite aspect has to be Victoria’s dress though, a gorgeous Etsy find that suits her perfectly!

‘A family and friends orientated day, we wanted as many people involved as possible; where the outside and everything earthy was key. Celebration of our love, happiness and togetherness.’

Victoria and Ben were married on the 6th September, and both ceremony and reception were held at Ox Pasture Hall Hotel, nr Scarborough. ‘We wanted an autumn outside wedding when the leaves were browns and orange and this was a venue that provided two outside options that could legally have the ceremony held. We had 84 guests during the day 110 in the evening. It took about 18 months to plan from start to finish, in fits and starts of bursts of activity to fit in around work and life!’

How they met
We have been dating since September 2007. We met through work when I was working on a health initiative for adult learning difficulties and Ben on a community fundraising charity – we met bulb planting at a local community centre, he gave me some planted sunflower seeds and the rest is history!

The proposal
We went camping in Madagascar for 3 weeks for my 30th birthday, Ben carried the ring in a sock all the way round the holiday (even stayed calm when our bin bag of clothes we had left on a bus went missing – it had the ring in it!) he waited till the very last night when we were staying at a beach resort. He waiting till I woke up from an afternoon nap and then took me down the beach and proposed as the sun was setting – a day never to be forgotten

How did you allocate your budget?
We prioritised the key things that were important to us; super special photographs that will last a life time, live music was a must for us and that we could invite everyone that we wanted there and feed them amazing food.

Why did you choose your photographer?
We saw a lot of photographers and narrowed it down to 2 – we were overwhelmed by how friendly and how amazing York Place Studio’s pictures were and we loved that they were a brother and sister pair, and they shared our vision of not staged pictures but more narrative of the day.

The dress
My dress was bought on Etsy and was a vintage dress which came from America, in a jiffy bag, my mum was horrified! – as soon as I saw it I knew that was the one for me – it was to die for! My shoes were from Rachel Simpson ‘mimi’ and I felt like a princess with them altogether. Accessories were from ebay from a variety of sellers to suit the vintage feel I was looking for. My beautiful veil was handmade by Imogen’s Imagination in Sheffield and was just perfect. My hair and make up were done by the fabulous Victoria Farr, she captured the vintage feel that I was looking for – it was so different for me but I was so pleased with everything she did – I felt like a princess.

The suit and bridesmaids
The suit was Vinnene Westwood, waistcoat and shoes from Paul Smith
The bridesmaids dresses were handmade by Ruth Jackson and independent clothes maker in the local village were my mum lives, colours and material were chosen from a large material shop in Bradford.

Theme or colour scheme
We are a very outdoorsy couple and our favourite time of year is autumn when the colours are just fantastic so a ‘fall theme’ was we wanted but mostly as much as possible natural and homemade.

Flowers
To go with the autumnal theme I had orange calla lilies, lots of red berries and greenery and orange roses, the flower arrangements were a mixture of pussy willow, moss, Chinese orange lanterns and wheat – a truly outdoors autumnal theme.

Decoration
We had very natural decorations on the table, including pine cones as name places, wheat on the cutlery and silk maple leaves on the table. My sister made 150m of autumn coloured bunting which pulled the whole room together along with all the amazing flowers. We had very natural hessian chair covers which blended everything together.

Food
Having lovely food was a main priority for us and we didn’t want to just give our guests one option so we sent out menu choices with the invitations and the choices were: cod goujons, goat cheese tart, ham terrine; for main either, lamb shank, vegetable curry or seabass and for dessert either sticky toffee pudding or strawberry and lemon curd tart with ice cream. At 10pm we had roast pork sandwiches and stuffing and the cake of cheese with crackers, pickles and fruit.

Wedding cake
We had a ‘cake of cheese’ with loads of homemade chutney and crackers. The cake was from the Cheese Shed – we took what was left over the day after onto the beach and had cheese and crackers on the beach with sandcastle building. Alongside this we had bumble bee and ladybird cupcakes made by Charlotte at The Cherry Blossom Bakery – they even had flying bumble bees coming out of them!

Entertainment
During the ceremony, drinks and sit down meal, we had Harry Mears playing the saxophone, he was truly fantastic and made the day so super special. The evening entertainment was a Leeds band – Capital Soul, who played a variety of old and new and got everyone on the dance floor.

Buy or DIY your Stationery?
A lovely lady in my mums village made the stationary, I found a picture of what I wanted: maple leaves on a branch in oranges, browns and yellows and she did the rest, the theme ran through the whole wedding with us having tree names in latin as table names; she did everything.

Personal or handmade touches
• We had a handmade ring box with our initials and wedding date etched into the piece of wood which now sits on our dressing table.
• We bought a polaroid camera and guest book so everyone could take their own picture and leave us a message and we were so pleased that nearly everyone did this for us, so we have some very comical pictures to add to the official ones.
• We had a ‘table master’ on each table who was given a bag full of props, a special top hat, some games, gifts and tasks for the guests – we wanted everyone to feel part of the day.
• We included some Scarborough rock which had our names and wedding date through it attached to an invitation to the beach the next day for everyone.
• We had favours which were biodegradable seeds for bees which had been personalised with our details

Special moments or highlights
There were so many special moments and highlights, but I think for us the surprise of the photographers taking us up to the local woods to have some shots done was fantastic – we got some wonderful pictures! Having both our grandmothers be our witnesses at the ceremony meant a lot to us both, but mainly having everyone we could possibly wish for in one room at the same time was a wish come true.

Biggest surprise
How fast it went – people did warn me but it was over in a flash!!

Advice for other couples
Give yourself plenty of time to plan, have top 3 key things that are important to you because things will go wrong but as long as those 3 are covered everything else will really not matter in the long run (even if it feels like the end of the world at the time!). At some point during the day, have half an hour together to just be, it will go so quick take the time together to just reflect on the day – it will go so so quick!

Supplier Shout Outs:

We couldn’t of asked for a better service from York Place, BlossEm and Victoria Farr – they made the whole day just exactly what we wished for – their services went beyond our expectations and wouldn’t think twice about recommending them – they were all fantastic!