Leanne & John’s Bold and Colourful Leeds Wedding. By Toast of Leeds

I am truly, truly in love with today’s wedding. Mammoth smiles, swishy skirts, dancing, double-decker buses, an absolutely gorgeous couple and all in the city of Leeds, a cracking place to party (from personal hen experience) and the perfect destination for Leanne and John’s bold, colourful, full-on wedding. With photography by Toast Photography you can’t help but smile as you look through this real wedding post – what a way to start your Wednesday!

‘I do not think there will ever be a time when I feel as surrounded by love as that day. Having all of your nearest and dearest in one place, full of happiness, is unforgettable.’

Leanne and John were married on 17th May at Adel Church, with a reception for 110 guests at the Met Hotel, Leeds. “Adel Church is one of the most beautiful churches we’d ever seen, and one of the most complete Norman churches in this region. We practically begged the Reverend as we are just outside of their parish! We considered many venues for our reception but The Met Hotel won as it had the size, the style and the 24 hour bar.”

How they met
We’ve been together for 6 years. We met at an Iggy & The Stooges gig at Harewood House. I was wearing one shoe – the other was in the mosh pit

The proposal
On Boxing Day 2012 at home. My mother distracted me with shopping in Leeds while John set the whole house perfectly, he answered the door on our return suited and booted and had written the proposal on a chalkboard in case he couldn’t get the words out (nearly happened!). The champagne was in the fridge and he’d stacked 3 45’s to play…our song The Small Faces – Afterglow; Lou Reed – Perfect Day and Elvis – The Wonder of You. He knelt down and asked me and I said yes and I was sobbing so much I couldn’t see the giant ruby ring. It was perfect!

Why did you choose your photographer?
I’d done a lot of research on photographers and knew we wanted one with a quirky edge who would like an urban twist. I was recommended Toast so I contacted Shelly and the rest is history. She’s the best out there in our opinion

The dress and accessories
Candy Anthony dress, veil, underskirt and belt. I got my heart-shaped bag off eBay for £25 and the shoes by some Italian designer I’d never heard of, bought from Macy’s in San Francisco. I loved the colour and the shine!

The suit and bridesmaids
John’s suit was handmade to measure by Sean at the 60s Suit Co. There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between Leeds and Kent!
The bridesmaids dresses are Tatyana in the USA and purchased from Bettylicious. They accommodated us with a size exchange way beyond their policy terms, for which we were very grateful!

The theme
I wanted lots of colour. I chose red as the accent colour for my outfit and John chose blue for his suit so it evolved into a red, white and blue theme for outfits with lots of colour elsewhere with the flowers and lights

The flowers
We did DIY flowers and I wanted big, bold and colourful. The gerberas stole the show but were amongst ranunculus, tulips, anemone, lisianthus etc

The decoration
Again we wanted colourful. We employed a lighting guy for some psychedelic coloured lights and he installed big inflatables from the ceilings to bounce the lights off. We had a disco ball, paper lanterns and honeycomb balls hung in clusters. The tables were filled with flowers.

The food
It was a buffet provided by the Met. We chose Lamb kofta kebabs, roast vegetable skewers, pies, chicken wings, pizza. Lots of stodge for drunken bellies

The entertainment
The fantastic Simon from Discowed.

Personal or handmade touches
All of the flowers including our bouquets were done by my bridesmaid Joanna. The night before the wedding was spent arranging vases and stringing up the honeycomb balls & lanterns. Instead of a guest book we’d also bought lots of vintage style postcards which we strung up between the pillars and left pens for guests to write their Mr & Mrs wishes

Special moments
– 3 generations of maternal family and my bridesmaid Joanna getting ready and drinking prosecco
– Waiting to enter the church with my dad. The energy was electrifying and emotional
– John and I ducking into a pub for a swift half with Shelly after the photographs. Surreal!
– The first dance…how long you wait to share your first dance! A very special moment when the song means a lot to you both
– The speeches. Especially given that I only found out my dad was planning a speech the day before and my sister sprung hers on us after my dad had finished his on the day. John had been nervous as hell but he was brilliant

Advice to other couples
On a practical note give a best man type of guest a list of all the items you expected to be delivered by suppliers, to check off with the venue. We had an old Royal Mail post box for cards which didn’t make it to the room until very late as it was in a suitcase behind reception and a giant celebration pork pie which was left in a fridge. Not deal breakers but when you’ve gone to the effort of organising and paying for them they should be there.
Otherwise, in terms of planning, if something seriously isn’t going right and it feels like a lot of hassle to do this or have that you may have to just bite the bullet and change tack or forget about it. I wanted little drinks favours bottles of homemade limoncello with the little Leanne and John logo stickers on but it became a really serious effort so it was binned. Some things are not meant to be!

Biggest surprise
My sister/bridesmaid Erin surprising us with a speech which was a poem she’d written. And nobody knew about it. You could hear a pin drop through her perfect delivery, it was ace!

Supplier Shout Outs:

• Toast Photography and the wonderful Shelly. Awesome from start to finish and gave us what we wanted and more. There was a lot of love going her way that day from our guests.  Top drawer!  www.toastofleeds.co.uk
• Simon from Discowed – consummate professional who gave us a fantastic soundtrack to the evening.  He knows his game.  www.discowed.com
• Designed by Duo. Emily designed our invitations with a logo and cartoon style Leanne & John. We printed it in A3 and put it on an easel by the entrance.  That girl’s got vision and executes it brilliantly!  www.designedbyduo.co.uk
• 60’s Suit Co. Sean created exactly what John was looking for. (And he nearly stole the show from the bride!)
• Candy Anthony. Leanne’s dress and accessories. Perfect company for a midcentury bride’s dress.
• Red Bus Days. We hired 2 red London Routemasters to transport our guests from the hotel to the church and back. Those 4 guys were proper gents and did a great job www.redbusdays.com
• Emma Worrall for makeup. Of MAC and Illamasqua heritage.  Retro makeup and precision flicks. Email [email protected]
• Donna Makes Cakes. Created exactly what we wanted and it presented just perfect. www.donnamakescakes.co.uk
• Wilsons Butchers. Giant celebration pork pie cake which we’re still eating a week later. Voted Britain’s best butcher 2013! www.wilsonsbutchers.co.uk
• Royal Mail post box supply by ‘Peter Balint (Barnsley Signs)’ on Facebook

For more information on Shelly’s work please go to:

www.toastofleeds.co.uk
toastofleeds.com/blog
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@toastofleeds