Did you ever see a more adorable pair? Just look at their loving gaze and you’ll see why I just love their nuptials.
WWW readers Toby and Kate tied the knot on the 30th December 2015 at Leeds Minster followed by a reception at The Leeds Club. Their city chic celebration had a warm festive feel with seasonal carols, a Christmas tree in the venue and nature inspired décor.
Kate wore a 1950s inspired frock called Liza by White Rose and teamed her ensemble with royal blue shoes from Rachel Simpson and a fabulous beehive. Toby looked very dapper in a dark navy suit and champagne bow tie which coordinated with the bridesmaids. Gorgeous.
Thanks to Will Fuller Photography for providing these really stunning images.
THE PROPOSAL | We decided last minute to go on short break to Iceland. It was something we had talked about for a long time, and to finally get there was realising a dream! Was the proposal such a surprise? Well, not exactly! Toby had in fact mentioned marriage two years previously, but I wanted to get on the property ladder first and didn’t feel it was the right time for a wedding. It got to the point that our friends thought we would never bother, but just before Iceland I started to drop a few hints! I think I would have been disappointed if Tobes hadn’t used the perfect opportunity to pop the question, but he absolutely smashed it. We were stood under the Northern Lights, and he got out the ring and said it would make him extremely happy if I accepted it. It was very us, and definitely worth the wait!
THE VISION | A day that encompassed all the things that we love, enjoy and mean a great deal to us with some vintage touches.
THE PLANNING PROCESS | Toby is such a laid back guy that he was more than happy to let me do most of the decision making. The one thing he did mention was that he wanted to have the service at Leeds Minster, where he was a Bass Scholar in the choir for 3 years. In Toby speak, this translates as having the service there meaning the world to him. Neither of us are from Leeds, but it is definitely Toby’s spiritual home from when he lived there. The only problem that arose from this was our own location; we currently live in Kent, where I am based with the Army. This meant that all our planning had to be factored around not being able to get to the venue easily, so we gave ourselves a year to plan everything and have all our meetings with the suppliers within the same week whenever we visited. It also influenced where we chose our reception venue; we needed somewhere in Leeds City Centre that had bags of character and would not require much work from ourselves ( and there, we struck lucky!).
THE VENUE | The service at Leeds Minster, the reception at The Leeds Club. The Leeds Club really was a lucky find. It is on a busy shopping street in Leeds City Centre, but feels so secluded once you’re inside. An old Victorian Gentleman’s club, it oozes character and class and even has listed toilets! It was perfect and I fell in love as soon as I walked inside. There is a lovely bar there which is separate from the dining room, so people could sit and chat without having to shout over the disco. Our food was delicious ( very important for me!) and the staff were also very helpful and professional throughout the whole process.
Myself and the bridesmaids got ready at the Quebec Hotel. It is absolutely amazing, and the stain glass window and spiral staircase had to feature on our photos!
THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Dress – Liza by White Rose.
Shoes – Kathryn Royal Blue Suede by Rachel Simpson. As my feet were on show I wanted something bold, and it may be the most I have ever spent on a pair of shoes but it really was worth every single penny. They were classy and so incredibly comfortable. I also bought some champagne lace ones in their sale for my bridesmaids, which were perfect.
Earrings – A pair of beautiful drop opal blue earrings by Silk Purse, Sow’s Ear on notonthehightstreet.com.
Bracelet – A lovely pearl one bought for me by my Nana.
Hairpiece – The one worn by my Nana on her wedding day 65 years ago.
Clutch bag for the evening – A steal on eBay! A blue one to match my shoes.
Gloves – Etsy.
FINDING THE DRESS | I wanted to get my dress in Kent so fittings would be easy. I had a very busy period with work which involved me travelling several times, and I realised that I had a very small window to find a dress and then leave plenty of time for it to be made! Time to call on the chief bridesmaid, Emily. We went to a local shop, and I knew that I wanted a 50’s style dress. I did try several styles and cuts in case I surprised myself, but I know what I like and what suits me (and lots of the dresses didn’t, much to the amusement of Emily!). In the end I found a classic 50’s cut dress, where the quality of the cut and fabric would do the talking and would allow me to put some bold accessories with it.
GROOM’S ATTIRE | Three Piece French Navy Suits on Hire from Moss Bros. This worked really well for us, as the groom party heralded from all corners of the UK and they could pick up and drop the suits at their nearest store. It took a while to find, but the ushers knitted champagne ties came all the way from America. Toby’s lovely champagne self tie bow tie (many youtube tutorials were watched!) also came from America and the blue polka dot pocket squares were from Etsy. Toby also wore some lovely brand new brogues, another eBay find! I bought a little gift for Toby to wear on the day, some Norwich City Football Club cufflinks!
THE READINGS & MUSIC | We are both professional musicians, so the music throughout the day meant a lot to us both. We are also very lucky to have many friends who are musicians and 10 of them, including my brother, played in a brass group for the service along with the organist. All the music was arranged by our lovely and talented friend, Ian, as a gift. We were very lucky to have members of the choir sing before and during the service too, including some lovely Christmas choral music. For us, the music really was incredibly special and had me and several guests blubbing!
Processional – Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral, Wagner.
Signing of the Register – Don’t Doubt Him Now, Leonard Balletine, played by the brass group and featured our friend Lewis on Cornet.
This Marriage, Eric Whitacre, sung by the Choir.
We also had God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman and Good King Wenceslas as our hymns.
Our first dance was Time After Time by Chet Baker, such a classy and beautiful song. A jazz guitarist from one of Toby’s groups played during the wedding breakfast and it really added to the whole atmosphere.
The Readings were, Corinthians 13 from the Bible, a classic but lovely reading.
On Marriage, by Kahlil Gibran, a beautiful text that we felt perfectly summed up our relationship, read by my brother.
BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My bridesmaids were my best friend Emily and Toby’s sister Olivia. They were the decision makers for our colour scheme in the end. They are both so different, Emily with a fair complexion and lovely ginger hair and tall against petite Liv with her olive skin, dark eyes and hair, that I thought it best to pick one cut and print and let them choose their colours. In the end I picked the Ophelia dress from Lindy Bop (one of my favourite websites!) and they chose champagne and blue. Teamed with champagne petticoats from the same website, their champagne shoes from Rachel Simpson and lovely hand knitted champagne shawls by my sister-in-law’s mum, they looked the belles of the ball!
THE FLOWERS | As a lover of wildlife and nature, I had always envisaged having a big bunch of wildflowers for my wedding. However, in the middle of winter, this was not really possible! I knew for certain that I wanted lots of Gypsophila and some Anemones with blue centres. Our florist, Sally, was absolutely incredible. I sat and chatted about what style I was aiming for on our day, and she produced something more beautiful than I could ever have imagined.
THE CAKE | We love our fruitcake, and Emily’s mum made ours. I wanted something simple that would be easy to transport and Emily took on the job of decorating it for us (and perfect it was, too!).
YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Will was perfect for our day. From start to finish he was so professional, and has such a calm influence on everything. He really has an eye for detail and we loved all the natural moments he captured throughout the day. We didn’t want many posed photos, and he achieved exactly what we wanted. I could not highly recommend him enough!
THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We did not need much décor as the venue was already beautiful with the addition of Christmas decorations. For our wedding cards, I used an old suitcase of my Nana and Grandad’s and hung photos of them on their wedding day as they could not make it, as well as Toby’s dad who sadly died 10 years ago. I also wore the wedding horseshoes given to my grandparents on their wedding day with all the original messages still written on them. It meant a lot to us to have a reminder of them all there.
For the table settings, I loved the idea of having mismatched old tea cups with Gypsophila in them and we decided to place them on stacked books for some height. All the books were from second hand or charity shops, and they were all about things we love; wildlife, baking, music, sports, favourite novels and some Beatrix Potter ones too!
Our table plan was a big chalkboard that I hand wrote everyone’s names on and our table names were all British birds, and the cards we used came from the lovely ilikebirds.com.
Our name holders were pine cones collected by my lovely mother in law and my nephew, sprayed with some gold tinted varnish.
THE HONEYMOON | We took a short but lovely 3 night stay in Whitby before heading straight back to work in the new year. We plan to save more and take a big holiday in a few years time and go travelling as our belated honeymoon.
MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Having all our friends and family from all walks of our lives in the same place, at the same time. Truly humbling.
A police car driving past as we had our photos done and congratulating us.
Walking through Leeds City Centre and everyone smiling at us.
ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Your wedding day is a celebration of your love for one another, and that is what it should be about. Enjoy every second, because it really does go so very quick!
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |
Photographer | Will Fuller Photography
Hair | Jo Brady Hair Design my lovely friend Jo)
Make up | Lauren Sally (the amazing Lauren who is just the best)
Flowers | Serendipity Floral Designs (Sally, she is awesome!)
Such a festive and happy celebration.
Many thanks to Toby and Kate for sharing their story with us here at WWW xo Lou