Only Shelley

I tied the knot this year! My husband and I chose a city centre wedding right in the heart of Leeds. Looking back, I couldn’t be happier with the decision we made and how our day came togehter. City weddings have an energy of thier own, but what made our day truly special was tailoring it to reflect us as a couple.

For those who are in the midst of planning thier own big day, here are the ways we tailored our day to be a reflection of us:

Staying together the night before

I know for many the tradition is maintained to spend the night before the wedding apart, we chose to stay together. The night before the wedding we had an intimate meal with both our immediate families, and for us it then felt right to return to the same place afterwards. Knowing we were both waking up in the same room in the morning also meant I could prepare small detials to make the morning more special, such as laying out our fragrance sets and flowers for the morning. It was also hugely comforting to be together in that period of pre-wedding nerves.

An intimate ceremony with only immediate family

When we were planning our wedding, one of our non negotiables we both agreed on was that we would have a small, intimate ceremony with only our immediate family. We had seven guests for our ceremony at the registry office and it was perfect. We loved the idea of having our wider friends and family ready and waiting at our reception venue for us to make a surprise entrance. I loved having that separate segment of the day reserved for our nearest and dearest.

No bridesmaids or groomsmen

I chose not to have any bridesmaids, and my husband chose not to have any groomsmen. We wanted to keep our ceremony small and simple, so neither of us felt the want. I got ready in the morning with the three women in my immediate family who were also there for the ceremony, and my husband did the same with the men – and it was perfect.

Walking from our ceremony venue to our reception venue

The best part of having both the ceremony and the reception in the city centre was having the opportunity to walk through town. We walked from Leeds Civic Hall to our reception at Nothern Monk refectory and had a photo shoot on the way, capturing places full of memories of our relationship over the years. We’d seen our photographer do this with other couples and were obsessed with how great they looked. Credit to Louise Barry Photography – she’s amazing and we couldn’t reccomend her enough!

A non convenitonal venue

Our reception venue was The Chapter Hall at Northern Monk Refectory in Leeds. My husband and I have always been beer lovers, and this suited us to a T. We first discovered the refectory when I was gifted a beer tour there, and we loved it instantly. As soon as we began planning our wedding we knew we wanted to view there, and it turne dout to be the first and only venue we viewed. There was no point entertaining the idea of anywhere else when we knew this was perfect for us! The space is relaxed, industrial and shapeable to how you’d like your day to be. Our wedding coordinator Liz at Northern Monk was fantastic -she totally understood our vision and helped us bring it to life.

DIY flowers and decorations

We DIY’d our flowers and decorations for the day. Not only to save on cost, but we had ideas in mind and wanted to bring them to life ourselves. For our flowers, we collected cans of all of our favourite Yorkshire beers to use as vases, along with larger beer kegs for our top table arrangements. Two days before the wedding my husband and I went round every supermarket in our local area selecting the colours we wanted, and we spent hours into the evening later that day making our own arrangements. The memory of making our flower arrangements together with so much excitement of the upcoming wedding is something I will cherish forever and never forget.

For our cards postbox, we used an empty beer barrel and added a post box slot on the top for guests to post their cards, along with decorating it with some faux beer hops and flowers.

For our guestbook, alongside a traditional book we had a Northern Monk football style shirt for our guests to sign and the aim for us to then frame the shirt. It was a small touch but a great nod to our love of football.

A one-course wedding breakfast

For our main meal we had Pieminister pies served with mash and pies – very fitting for a brewery wedding if I do say so myself. We had nibbles on arrival for our guests and a savoury wedding cake and pizzas for the evening, so we felt there was already plenty for the day without doing a 3 course wedding breakfast. I’m glad we made this decision and it was a helpful way to keep one of the costs lower.

A savoury wedding cake

One idea we had in mind from the early stages of our planning was that we wanted a cheese and pork pie wedding cake. We went with Colurful Catering for ours and they were fantastic – you can tailor your cake to what cheeses you want and to how many guests you’re serving. We had three layers of cheese and a pork pie as our base, and also had a grazing board with crackers, fruits, and chutneys. Our guests loved this and it went down a treat! We had a beautiful sweet cake too, but a cheese and pork pie cake was a must have for us.

It is true when they say your wedding day passes by in a flash, but I can’t think of anything that I’d change about our day. It was perfect and so us! I love that every couples wedding is different and tailored to them.

What do you think to any of these ideas?

Shelley x