REAL WEDDING SAMANTHA & CHRISTIAN
This styling journey began on a cold morning, in a cosy hotel in York. Middletons is a sanctuary of 17th century buildings within York city walls. An architectural gem, Middletons is steeped in history, set around a pretty courtyard garden. The abundance of original features alongside recent refurbishments makes it the perfect venue choice for intimate weddings. This is the real wedding styling journey of Samantha and Christian with Perfect Venue Dressing Yorkshire.
Our bride to be, Samantha and I, drink tea as we begin to talk about the styling requirements for her and Christian’s forthcoming wedding. The design brief is simple – autumnal with thoughts of an informal, relaxed family celebration and minimal fuss! A warm and inviting combination of burnt orange, deep burgundy, ivory and a dash of navy blue, a perfect palette for this September 2022 wedding. Samantha and Christian chose Middletons for their wedding venue as they had fallen in love with the quirky features and understated elegance of the rooms within.
The Sun Lounge in particular, supported the couple’s vision for a simple, rustic themed ceremony. It has a natural stone floor, bare brick walls, wooden beams, glass roof and not forgetting the original well and water pump. Samantha and I agreed that the Sun Lounge, as a ceremony room was already practically perfect style wise. It needed very little dressing to complete their look – pretty chiavari chairs with ivory chair drapes to line the aisle alongside glass hurricane lanterns filled with luscious green moss and chunky church candles. A copper wedding arch draped with ivory voile to complete the ceremony styling. Simple, rustic, neutral and uncomplicated. This left the autumnal colour explosion for the bridal party bouquets and the wedding breakfast celebrations in the Conservatory.
Our discussion moved along to the wedding breakfast and reception styling, where it emerged how passionate Samantha was to be “hands on” involved in the styling of her wedding. She was keen to include (and make!) some of her own items to add to the styling in the conservatory. I always encourage my clients to include their own items or ideas, however small. It is the perfect way to reflect the personalities of the couple, which helps to make the wedding unique. Samantha was excited to know that she had the opportunity to include something of her own making into her wedding styling. Although at that particular moment in time, neither of us was quite sure what that “something” would be!
As our consultation came to an end. We agreed the next step would be for us to share photos of styling ideas we each had, before making the final choices for centrepiece designs and room layout for the wedding breakfast.
What happened next was a flurry of exchanged styling inspirations, rustic, autumnal, mismatched. All gorgeous and on point but somehow something was missing…
And then something magical happened! That wonderful moment, when everything suddenly starts to take shape. On this occasion, it was down to a single photo of a dainty glass teapot filled with lots of fluffy reindeer moss.
As soon as the bride to be saw the glass teapot, she knew it had to be included in her styling! Everything else then fell perfectly into place. What we had been looking for had been there all along, hidden in plain sight! This was not a single style of centrepiece but a whole host of individual, coordinating and mismatched pieces. Encompassing rich autumnal colours, a rustic theme and quirkiness – the elusive missing element was to finally be found in Wonderland! At last Samantha and Christian’s wedding theme had a name, “Rustic Alice”! A beautiful, eclectic collection of individual and unique styling. An assortment of lanterns and vases, log slices and luscious moss. Accessories of teapots, toadstools, ivy and even deer antlers and dried orange slices!
The conservatory was set for afternoon tea, unconventional with sharing platter tables and desserts served in birdcages. There was of course lots of tea for everyone, a tea party in every sense and another subtle nod to Wonderland. Even the wedding cake had a “Rustic Alice” makeover!
The wedding favours were teacups and teapots filled with the favourite sweets of the bride and groom. Another perfect, quirky, individual styling journey – just what I love!
See more from Kirsty at Perfect Venue Dressing Yorkshire here
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Image of couple from JBN Photography
