CHIMNEY HOUSE WEDDING
Ahhhh Claire and David. It feels like 5 minutes ago I was eating pizza and drinking beer at Crate Brewery in Hackney Wick after their wedding shoot a few years back. Sometimes you meet people and you just know they’re going to stick around in your life for longer than initially planned. I’ve been good friends with them ever since that first meeting and even now I take regular trips to see them in San Francisco where they’re now based.
Winter Wedding at Weston Park Bandstand
Claire, being a goth at heart, wanted a moody wintery victorian bandstand wedding. Claire is one of the first brides I’ve ever known to be disappointed that her wedding day was blazingly sunny with the most vivid blue skies. Her guests were very relieved though! The site of the autumnal leaves against the muted tones of the bandstand made the most incredible backdrop to the ceremony.
Unplugged Wedding
Claire and David, being very ahead of the curve for the time, requested an ´unplugged´ wedding ceremony. It was a revelation for me. To see all their guests engaged with huge smiles on their faces during the ceremony was something I will never forget. Instead of clutching their phones trying to capture the perfect instagram moment they laughed and cried and sipped their hot chocolate which was served from a little van next to the bandstand.
Wedding Reception at The Chimney House in Sheffield
After the ceremony guests headed to The Chimney House. This relaxed red brick warehouse venue situated on Sheffield’s historic waterway on Kelham Island and is a total visual treat. The iconic chimney and warehouse buildings are some of my favourite backdrops I’ve ever shot at a wedding. Claire and David followed the reception with an ´after party´ at The Broadfield Ale House, a pub run by good friends of theirs.
Here’s Claire’s take on the day…
PHOTOGRAPHY
For us, the food and photography were the things we spent most money on; I've seen too many awful wedding photographs to take the risk cutting corners. We saw Lee's work online and immediately clicked with his laid back style of shooting, we met for an engagement shoot and got on brilliantly with Lee. He was very easy to spend time with, and really professional, taking on board that we didn’t want lots of family portraits and overly posed photographs. He slotted into our day and felt like part of the party. Our photographs captured the day perfectly, and I'm so pleased we have them to look back on.
VENUES
As soon as we got engaged we knew we had to have our reception at the Chimney House in Sheffield - it is an incredible space and feels really laid back which we both liked. Kirsteen coordinated our day and was incredible, she made planning everything really easy and stress-free. We then really struggled to find a place for the ceremony, but finally settled on the bandstand in Weston Park - we both went to university in Sheffield and had spent summers in the park so thought it was a great idea, however our wedding was in November! The venue had never done a wedding so late in the year due to the likelihood of bad weather, but reluctantly let us book. Everybody thought we were mad but we were VERY lucky with the weather; on the day it was warm(ish), bright and sunny. We followed our reception at the Chimney house with an ´after party´ at a pub run by our very good friend Miles, The Broadfield Ale House.
DRESS
I didn’t want to spend a fortune on a dress I would never wear again, and hated the thought of being fussed over in a bridal shop. Originally I ordered a vintage dress on Etsy but had a change of heart fairly last minute and ordered the Ghost dress online without trying it on! I make most of my fashion choices this way so just went with what I know and it paid off. My shoes were from Topshop - I needed something with a block heel so I didn’t sink into the (muddy, winter) grass. My rings were from Catbird in New York and my necklace from Alex Monroe, I have worn the necklace every day for the last 5 years so didn’t want to change that for my wedding day.
FLOWERS
All of our flowers were by the lovely Anna at Swallows and Damsons - her work is stunning and I wouldn’t have used anybody else. We decided to have a huge wreath made for our ceremony to use as a backdrop, and our friend made the scroll with our names and date in.
DECOR
the venues we used had so many original details and features, so we didn’t really add much other than flowers and candles - the thought of a ´colour theme´ was really offputting to us (anything with crystals or chair covers is my worst nightmare) so we just went with things we liked and hoped it all tied together! Our friends designed the menu, beer bottle label (we brewed our own ale as our favour), and the hand written sign at our ceremony.
