Prepare to be inspired by this laid-back, autumnal wedding at The Venue Bowers Mill in Halifax. Imagine burnt orange decor, handpicked wild pinecones, vintage candle sticks, and pumpkins – all perfectly capturing the season’s colours and vibes. Captured beautifully by our talented Unique Rebels Union photographer, Lucy Alexandra Photography, this wedding is packed with cool ideas for couples planning an autumn celebration who want their big day to truly stand out.
Rebecca & Shaun…
How did you meet?
Our daughters have been best friends since nursery school, we became friends during the girls play dates. One day Shaun asked me if I’d like to go for coffee without the children and things just blossomed from there really
How did you get engaged?
Shaun was supposed to be going on a weekend away with friends and I’d booked a cottage in the Lake District for me and our pug Maggie. Unfortunately one of his friends came down with Covid so I let him gatecrash my weekend.
We were supposed to be heading to Windermere for the day, where Shaun had planned to propose, but I’d lost my car keys! Hours of searching later we found them inside my walking boots. Not wanting to waste the day we found a little beach called Roan head not far from the cottage, and that’s where he popped the question, not a soul around besides us and the dog, in the most beautiful place, it really was perfect.
Was there an overall theme to your day?
We wanted to go for an alternative autumnal theme, we had lots of burnt orange decor, pumpkins, lots of hand picked wild pinecones and leaves, rustic wooden stands, vintage candle sticks, lots of gorgeous fabric used for layering and adding soft touches, all put together by our amazing stylist Emily Kay
How long were you wedding planning for the big day?
Around 18 months. Once we’d selected Bowers Mill as our venue it really helped the rest of the planning to flow. The team there are brilliant at keeping things on track and really lightened our load by liaising with all of our suppliers.
Who was your wedding photographer and why did you chose them?
We found Lucy Alexandra Photography on Instagram and fell in love with her straight away.
Your outfits! Tell us more about them! Was there any special details, accessories or reasons behind your choices?
I absolutely loved my bouquet and headpiece from blooming dels, I feel like they really pulled together our alternative autumnal theme.
Tell us about your wedding flowers…
I bought my bouquet from Blooming dels, Adele does the most beautiful faux dried flowers, I loved the idea of using faux dried flowers, as I not only get a beautiful bouquet on my wedding day but then I get to keep them as a memory to treasure forever, my bouquet was a beautiful autumnal bunch, with lots of warm tones and touches of orange and pampas grass running through it.
Let’s talk food! What style of food did you go for and why?
The starters were Spiced butternut squash soup with Coriander creme fraiche and Ham hock terrine with pineapple pickle and Sourdough croute.
A choice of Pan roasted chicken breast, caramelised onion and mushroom fricassee, chive mash and buttered greens or Braised beef brisket, whole roasted carrot, garlic and rosemary potatoes, savoy cabbage, Yorkshire pudding and red wine jus were served as the mains.
Desserts were chocolate brownie with caramel popcorn and vanilla ice cream or Glazed lemon and passionfruit tart with coconut ice cream and raspberry powder.
Cake! Who created your wedding cake and what theme did you go for?
The wonderful Zoe’s Cake House created our beautiful cake. We had lemon drizzle, Victoria sponge and our favourite, carrot cake.
How did you entertain your guests throughout the day?
We surprised our guests with singing waiters. This was a huge hit and got everyone dancing.
Looking back, what was the stand out moments of your day?
The surprise wedding band!
Shaun’s best man, Simon, is the singer for Last Orders indie & rock covers band and as a surprise for me he’d asked Simon to sing our first dance with help from one of their guitarists, Adam. It was the most beautiful surprise ever, however it didn’t end there.
After a short break the guys decided to play one more acoustic song, Yellow by Coldplay. At the first chorus the once acoustic set boomed to life and the curtains flung back to reveal the entire band who proceeded to have us all dancing our socks off well into the night!
A plan formulated in the pub over a few pints became the biggest, most magical surprise of the whole day. I had absolutely no idea, I’d even walked past their set up on my way to walk down the aisle!
We watch the reveal video over and over and even now I get teary eyed.
Do you have any advice for couples currently planning their wedding, for either the planning or the lead-up?
Always remember it’s your day, it’s so easy to fall into the trap of people pleasing when planning a wedding when really what matters most is that you two say ‘I do’ the rest, it’s just extras. You’ll never get that day again so do what suits you both as a couple, don’t worry about what others will think, they love you, they’ll love your day!
And make sure to schedule time for just you two, the day goes so fast and everyone wants to catch up. We allocated ourselves 10 minutes alone after the ceremony while everyone was outside with our photographer setting up for photos to just talk, take in being married and look at the beautiful room our stylist, Emily Kay had put together for us before any of the guests were seated.
Thank you for sharing your day with us Rebecca and Shaun! If you would like to check out Lucy Alexandra Photography’s work, you can do so HERE
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