18

Mar

2014

Lucy and Stuart’s ‘Personalised Vintage’ New Years Eve Farm Wedding. By S6 Photography

We are back to the normal schedule today after yesterday’s exciting news of A Boho Life’s launch. It was a great day and the response I got from everyone was amazing, so thank you to everyone who popped by to take a read of the Blog. Today I have a fabulous New Year’s Eve wedding for you set on a farm. The bride really went to town on all the DIY, handmade details, with a theme of ‘Personalised Vintage’. You can see that so many hours were spent by Lucy the bride making the day perfect, and she looks amazing in her Claire Pettibone dress. The whole day is stunning and is captured perfectly by my good friend Jon From S6 Photography.

Personalised for us and the guests, D.I.Y, unique, with tons of attention to detail, just magical and the best day of our lives which we shared with our amazing family and friends. Can we do it again?

2 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

3 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

Lucy and Stuart were married on New Year’s Eve at Dore Church and Brosterfield Farm near Eyam, Derbyshire. ‘Stu is from Wolves originally and so has no ties to any church here and Dore Church is the only church in Sheffield to which I have some sort of link. As a child I attended Sunday school there with my cousins and my aunty used to take me to services on occasions. She still does some services there and was a great help organising the service. To me it made perfect sense to marry in the only church we have some ties with. We were lucky enough to have Vicar Katie Tupling marry us who is so relaxed, down to earth, chatty and welcoming that she really put us at ease. I could also sense her passion in what she believed and was saying which meant a great deal, she did a great job. When looking for a reception venue, we really wanted somewhere different to the norm. We also didn’t want to have the reception in a venue that had already been used by friends or family. We found the farm on the internet and knew it was perfect within minutes of visiting – more so as it wasn’t an actual ‘wedding venue’ but was instead a space in which we could create what we wanted. The views were stunning too and in my mind I had photos being taken on a cold but dry winter’s day overlooking the Peaks. Luckily, we were blessed with the weather! Penny at the farm was above and beyond helpful. She couldn’t do enough for us, including ringing around her neighbours and adjacent villages to find further accommodation for guests, bringing food baskets to the cottages and even trekking out in to the field on the day to congratulate us and have a look at my dress! We had approximately 100 guests in the day and 170 in total at night. We got engaged in October 2012, so just over a year of planning. I was also in the middle of changing my career too. I would not suggest doing a PGCE whilst planning a wedding simultaneously! It did mean though that I made more robust decisions as I had less time to ponder over things!’

4 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

5 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

How they met
We met over five years ago at a house party in Birmingham. My friend from Uni was living in a shared house with other ‘young professionals’ and every year they had a Halloween Party. Her housemate Steve was Stu’s boss at the time and had invited him. My friend told me that there was going to be some ‘boys’ arriving and that, “Stu is quite fit if you’re in to the whole dark hair, blue eyes, cardigan thing”. When we actually met, I was dressed as a sheep with my guts hanging out (slaughtered lamb) and he was a ghoul covered in face paint. I didn’t actually see his face until the next day! Within three months Stu had moved to London to live with me and the rest is history.

The proposal
Stu booked us a trip to Thailand – somewhere he had been and loved when he was travelling and somewhere I had always wanted to go. We had obviously discussed marriage and proposals and I had a feeling it was imminent but when he passed through airport security without even a beep I convinced myself he didn’t have a ring on him! I called my best friend to tell her so, ha! As it happens, he did have a ring and proposed in the hotel room on the second night. I’d just got out of the shower and as I walked in to the room, he was down on one knee. My response was, “Shall we order a brew?” before I’d even said yes and irrespective of the fact that he had presumptuously order champagne. It’s a good job I said yes! That evening we went out for a beautiful dinner on the sea front and then went clubbing. I have vague memories of flashing my ring at door staff and telling them we’d just got engaged. Stu lost his shoes (fact). I gave a rose to a street dog (fact). Just a standard night really. It was great fun. My ring was a little big but perfect.

6 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

7 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

8 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

9 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

10 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

How did you allocate your budget?
We decided that the photos, food and venue were three things we couldn’t scrimp on: Food to keep the guests happy on a winter’s day, photos as they are the memories and venue – as it’s the venue! As we made the wedding from scratch ourselves we sourced the marquee and heating and generators ourselves too. That was Stu’s job though – it’s definitely a ‘blue’ job. I did all the nice, girly but very time-consuming other stuff!

Why did you choose your photographer?
We knew what we wanted in a photographer – someone who caught magical moments and not stuffy, ‘mantelpiece’ shots. I asked around and Jon from S6 had done my friend’s wedding. I took one look at Jon’s website and was immediately impressed by his natural but artistic shots. Within a few minutes of meeting Jon, we knew he was the right man for the job – relaxed, chilled out, passionate about photography and easy to get along with. I knew I’d feel at ease with Jon which is pretty important when you’re going to be spending up to 12 hours with your photographer!

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12 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

13 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

14 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

15 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

The dress
My dress is Viola by Claire Pettibone. It was flown in from the USA. It was the first dress I saw online and the first I tried on. I tried on several more afterwards but nothing compared. I fell in love with the back of it. Amie B from Amie B’s just off Ecclesall Road, Sheffield did a super job of making it fit me like a glove which was initially tricky as C. P dresses generally have little to no support. Amie even ordered bra cups from the Strictly Come Dancing wardrobe team to ensure everything would ‘be where it should be’. She was brilliant.
My shoes! THE shoes. I’m not a fan of satin, wedding shoes and always had the intention of choosing shoes that I could wear again. I mentioned to my mum that I would love Leboutins, she had no idea what I was talking about but was keen to learn. I told her that they had red soles and that celebrities wore them. She said, “You can feel like a celebrity too on your day princess” and offered to buy them as my birthday present. We went to Manchester shopping for the day and bought them from Harvey Nichols. Super memories of a great day with my mum. We had to be careful of the colour as my dress changed colour depending on what light it was in. As it happened, the glitter matched perfectly with the sequin detail on my dress.
My coat is a vintage fur that my aunty sourced for me. She owns Langton’s Antiques Emporium, Sheffield and also provided many of the books for the tables.
I’m not really a fan of diamanté grips and so had real gypsophila pinned in to my hair, as did the bridesmaids. My earrings were pearls, Stu has always said he liked pearl earrings and so chose them for him.
I had my hair done by my friend called Giselle from Toni & Guy, I’ve known her for years and my make-up was by Katie Daley who is INCREDIBLE, she used to work for MAC and is now freelance.

The suit and bridesmaids
Stu bought his suit and entire outfit and shoes from Hugo Boss. Stu is never one to spend on himself but I convinced him he should and he really looked the part, in my humble opinion! We weren’t keen on hiring suits and so we bought the boy’s too. We were also not keen on satin cravats and so we hunted out fabric we liked and had all the skinny ties and bowties made by my friend’s mum.
The bridesmaids had Maids to Measure dresses. I’m not a great fan of many colours and once again, had to be careful as the colour of my dress was so hard to match with. I decided on too two shades of grey – charcoal and dove and two varying styles of dress, one of which was recently worn by Katherine Jenkins at her sister’s wedding (apparently!). I had five adult bridesmaids and decided to let them choose their own style of shoes and hairstyle, they are adults with their own sense of style after all!
I wanted the little bridesmaids to look cute and be comfortable. I found some grey, fluffy, petticoat skirts and fell in love with them. I then found faux fur shrugs for them and bought long sleeved t-shirts with sequins. I bought their knee-high socks with ribbons online and then found their patent red boots. I didn’t think that satin shoes for the little girls would be wise with it being winter plus I’m not that keen on them and so decided to go with the red boots to match my soles. They came with black laces which I replaced with thick red ribbon to add extra girly-ness. The little girls also had real gypsophila in their hair.
The bought the little page boy’s outfits online and wanted them to still look like children which is why I went for trousers and braces rather than suits. I chose the high top trainers rather than shoes and replaced them with red ones to match my soles. I also gave them red socks to wear. They had on the handmade bow ties.
All the children carried signs which I made that said ‘Here… Comes… The Bride’. I didn’t see the point in giving the children flowers that they’d ultimately launch, lose or use as a weapon. I did, however, ask the florist to stick small flowers on to the corners of them to make them a little more aesthetically pleasing.

16 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

17 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

18 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

19 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

20 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

Theme or colour scheme
I’d say the theme was ‘personalised/vintage’. I put a lot of effort in to the small details which I feel made it special for us. The guests had tissues in church with ‘For your tears of joy, Mr & Mrs. Potts’ written on and the date. I made all of the place, name settings with a personalised message for each guest, I made a ‘Love Story’ sign that told the significant dates of our relationship, I made a ‘Dancing feet’ sign and provided guests with slippers to dance to. Rather than a standard place setting board, I bought a set of ladders from my auntie’s shop and framed the table plans in old frames and stood them on the steps. I made a children’s table and decorated it with helium filled balloons, toys and had hand written their names on the cloth.
Our favours were a nod to my dad who died when I was 10. We decided to give a donation to The British Heart Foundation on behalf of each guest and we got them a pin each. We made the small cards that they were pinned on to. We managed to track down a bus that my dad would have worked on in the past as a mechanic and had this to transport the guests from the church to the venue. As my dad passed away, I was finding it tricky to decide who should walk me down the aisle. I had an idea and was over the moon when the Vicar agreed it. My stepdad walked me in to the church and then passed me on to my brother on the aisle, who then passed me on to my next brother and finally I met my mum. I was passed like a baton and it took a bit of logistical planning but it worked for us!
We served tea, cake and dripping bread cakes in the church hall after the service before people set off to the venue. My uncles LOVE bread and dripping and had joked about having them and so I decided to go for it. The tea and cake was to keep everyone warm whilst we had pictures taken and several people said it was a nice touch.
I decorated the tables with old books and jars and vases I collected from here and there. I didn’t want each table to look exactly the same and wanted a vintage twist. Rather than a post box, I borrowed old suitcases from my aunties and had those piled up for people to put cards/ gifts in. Rather than a guest book, I made a canvas on which I’d written a quote from my brother’s band, Kartica, and people signed around it.

Flowers
I love flowers and wasn’t sure what I wanted at first. I met with Lauretta from Paeony and she sorted me out. My bouquet was just wanted I wanted – vintage but elegant. I then attached my mum & dad’s wedding rings to it. The bridesmaids had plain gypsophila balls which I loved, all of which were wrapped in grey ribbons and looked vintage. We wanted something different from the roses with a diamante pin in for the men and Lauretta created button holes that were oblong shaped, the idea being that the flowers looked as though they were growing out of the pockets.
The flowers on the tables was plain gyp in all the different vases. I also tied some to the chairs along with wooden hearts.

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22 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

23 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

24 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

25 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

26 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

Food
Guests had home made cakes and breadcakes at the church with tea and upon arrival at the marquee had hot cider. We had to find caterers separately and Stu was big on sourcing the food from local traders and putting money back in to the local community. Joanne from The Chequers Inn, Frogatt was brilliant. It was obvious from first meeting her that she was organised, experienced and genuinely cared about our wedding and guests. We wanted a wholesome, hearty, warm meal and that is what Joanne and her team provided. We ate a caramelised onion and goat’s cheese tart, steak pie with mash, peas and gravy and sticky toffee pudding with cream for dessert. The team did exceptionally well serving the food for 100 guests, piping hot in the middle of a field and the waiting staff were superbly professional. Many of the guests commented on how lovely the food was and in particular those guests with dietary requirements who are ‘normally’ faced with a less than average alternative. Joanne provided then with the same meal just tweaked slightly to suit them.
Later in to the evening we provided a hog roast, also served by Joanne and her team which, although I didn’t eat any of it, was devoured and enjoyed by all.

Wedding cake
The cake was made by my amazing friend Lisa. We knew that we wanted something other than the standard tiered cake and I had an idea for a huge cube. I wanted it to look rustic and so it was covered in roughly-applied buttercream. Inside it had seven layers of cake, alternating between vanilla to chocolate and held together with chocolate buttercream. It had taken 36 eggs but was worth it! Lisa is very talented and made grey flowers out of sugar that I placed on the top corner. I loved it, it was simple but effective. I then decorated around the cake with real gypsophila.

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28 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

29 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

30 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

31 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

Entertainment
Spirits High Entertainment, he was brilliant. Many guests said they had a great time boogying the night away. When we sent out the invites we asked the guests to list their top 3 songs of all time and from this we created a play list, ensuring that everyone had a song played at some point that they loved. It seemed to work well.

Buy or DIY your Stationery?
I did everything myself, from the save the dates with dried lavender on them, to the invites, to the setting up of the marquee, EVERYTHING.

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33 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

34 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

35 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

36 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

Handmade or personal touches
• Save the dates
• Invites
• Table plan – ladders
• Table decs
• Marquee (It was literally a shell and I wanted to cry!)
• The tissues
• The dancing feet board
• The cases for the cards
• The love story board
• The chair decs (one bunch of flowers per table on one chair, one wooden heart)
• Place cards with personalised messages
• Favours
• The cakes/ dripping
• The ties/ bowties
• The ribbons on the boots
• The ‘Here comes the bride’ signs

37 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

38 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

39 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

40 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

41 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

42 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

Special moments or highlights
The church service was amazing, we loved it. We loved the party during the evening. We loved having all of our family and friends in one place.
We particularly enjoyed having our meal for two as just us two – it gave us chance to take a look around at what we had created. We replaced the top table with a table for us 2. Everyone else sat on large tables of 10.

Biggest surprise
How many compliments we got about our day.
Not too much was a surprise to me other than that, Stu however was shocked by the children carrying the ‘Here comes the bride’ signs and my sparkly shoes!

Advice for other couples
Do what you want – you only do it once and it’ll be worth it!

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44 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

45 New Years Eve Farm Wedding By S6 Photography

 

Supplier Shout Outs:

 

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Comments

    Lauretta

    What a fabulous feature Kelly x

    So enjoyed making these beautiful flowers with Lucy and Stuart. Lucy knew exactly what she wanted and was a joy to work with x

    Reply
    julie Potts

    It was a very special day , and it was a pleasure to be part of it, well done stu and lucy x x

    Reply
    Sandra Doszczeczko

    I read this with pride. Lucy and Stu planned their unique New Year’s Eve personalised vintage wedding down to the finest detail which was reflected on their truly stunning day! They put all their thoughts and energy into selecting the venue, photographer,florist,caterers,etc., to fit the theme who, in turn, did a fabulous job! The photographs are superb and the flowers were simply beautiful! Huge thanks to Lucy and Stu and everyone else involved in the wedding for such a lovely memorable day! Xx

    Reply

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