Alex and Andrew’s ‘Darling Buds of May meets Antiques Roadshow’ Tipi Wedding by Toast of Leeds

It’s a busy week ahead at Boho HQ so to get the week off with a bang I have this totally awesome wedding from Shelly at Toast of Leeds. I just love everything about this wedding, EVERYTHING! the Tipi, the brides beautiful vintage dress, the decorations, the flowers, the scarecrows but most of all the amazing seating plan, which is totally in keeping with their rustic, country theme. I just love all the DIY details and the huge amount of effort that has gone into making this wedding as personal as it is. Shelly has done an amazing job at capturing this wedding, and I am so excited to be able to share it with you today.

The lovely couple are Alex and Andrew who were married on 7th July. The ceremony was at St Lawrence Church, Kirby Sigston, Nr Northallerton with the reception in the field behind Alex’s parents farmhouse in Kirby Sigston, Nr Northallerton. They had 80 guests for the day, with an extra 20 or so for the evening, it took 9 months to plan.

‘A Yorkshire inspired village fete/ country themed knees-up…think Darling Buds of May meets Antiques Roadshow with a guest a guest appearance from Worzel Gummidge but in tepee. The day was about having fun whilst keeping it personal with the occasional nod to our Yorkshire lineage and love of all that is rustic.’

How they met
We met when we worked together at Virgin Megastore in Leeds whilst at university and we’ve been together for 8 years

The proposal
We were on holiday in Santorini last year and Andy proposed whilst we were watching the sunset.

How did you choose your photographer
We knew that we wanted relaxed, informal and fun photo’s of our wedding so we looked at various blogs and Toast of Leeds offered exactly what we were looking for.

The dress
My dress was from Vintage Wedding Dress Company, Shoes from Aldo, Necklace from Alex Monroe

The suit and bridesmaids
Suit was bespoke from Moss Bros. Tie from Kooples. Tie Clip from Pink, Shoes were Ask the Missus from Office. Bridesmaids dress were from French Connection, Sashes from Monsoon
Shoes from Marks & Spencer

Theme
As we are both from North Yorkshire we wanted to pay homage to our Yorkshire roots, which we did through our Yorkshire themed sharing platters and a Yorkshire inspired post dinner raffle rather than favours. The reception was held at my parents’ farmhouse in a small hamlet just outside Northallerton, which was a perfect setting for a country themed wedding. My Dad is an antiques fanatic so he was able to source farming props from the local auctions to help dress the site and create the right aesthetic. We had Cath Kidston bunting and serviettes so we decided that the colour theme would be pastel shades.

Food
Starter: Yorkshire sharing platter
Main course: Lemon and thyme chicken supreme, pancetta and shallot ballentine, stem broccoli and glazed baby carrots. Or…Wild mushroom and leek strudel, asparagus and pea risotto red pepper dressing and parmesan crisps
Dessert: Baked vanilla cheesecake, plum confit, Chantilly cream and pistachio biscuit
Evening meal: Hog Roast, Vegetarian Chilli, Cheese and biscuits

Entertainment
The Pavillion String Quartet from York played for us in church and at the reception whilst people were eating. After dinner we had a raffle to give away some Yorkshire produce, which led into the evening’s music entertainment provided by DJ’s (Andy & Rory) from Leeds who played Blues/Funk & Soul into the early hours.

Flowers
Cool water roses, sweet avalanche roses (pale pink blousy rose), cream lisianthus, nigella blue, white astrantia, lime green hypericum berries and eucalyptus.

Dcoration
We had Cath Kidston bunting to decorate the tents and wild flowers in jugs in the centre of each table along with candles in terracotta pots. We also had a lot of fresh flowers around the tent and hay bales with blankets on.

Special moments
The DJ’s and the music they played really made a refreshing change from a generic wedding disco and had guests of all ages up dancing.

Biggest surprise
I think the biggest surprise was that my parents made two scarecrows of me and Andy that stood in the entrance of the tepee!

Personal touches
We made a few things for the wedding ourselves;
• Mum made all the serviettes from Cath Kidston fabric
• We made the place names using luggage tags and stamps
• Andy made the candles for the tables using old terracotta plant pots that he found
• Dad made the wooden sharing platters used for the starters
• Me and my sister made the table plan using plants that we bought from a local garden centre. We planted these in old terracotta pots and then wrote all the guests names on slate plant markers and displayed these in a plant pot that represented the table they were sat at. We then put luggage tags on the plant pots with the table number stamped on. We displayed all the pots on an old table and stuffed potato sacks and put these under the table.
• Baby Jupiter provided the bar and DJ equipment and decorated these area using various bits found around the farm
• The table number were made using logs that we cut in half and mounted black card with the table number on
• My dad also sourced a number of items from a local auction, including old milk churns, watering cans, a water pump and crates
• We had wild flowers delivered to the house and displayed these in jugs ourselves for the centre of each table
• My dad prepared a Yorkshire inspired post dinner raffle which we did instead of favours

Advice
You can’t control the weather so don’t let it ruin your day! We had constant rain for a whole week before the wedding which threatened to flood the tepee and turn the field into a mud bath- we just did all we could to stop it ruining the day, we ordered plenty of straw for the field and told guests to bring their wellies along and it all ended up adding to theme of the day.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Toast of Leeds: www.toastofleeds.co.uk
• Papakata:
• Hog & Apple, York: http://thehogandapple.co.uk
• Baby Jupiter, Leeds: http://babyjupiter.co.uk
• Boris & Doris: www.borisanddoris.co.uk
• Swirly Sweet, York: www.swirlysweet.co.uk
• Vintage Wedding Dress Company: www.thevintageweddingdresscompany.com

For more info on Shelly’s work go to:
www.toastofleeds.co.uk
http://toastofleeds.com
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0113 3560157

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