A Modern Wedding at The Mowbray per mezzo di Sheffield

Lucy and Ben tied the knot 29th July 2023, at The Mowbray per mezzo di Sheffield.

The couple, both detail orientated people, wanted a clean and classic aesthetic their wedding day. The bride’s dress perfectly reflected these wishes – she wore a minimalist strappy gown by Essense of Australia, with a simple pearl necklace and a ring made by her own father, a former jeweller.

This vibrant and joy-filled wedding was captured beautifully, as always by photographer Luis Calow – enjoy!

Venue & Location

We had a bit of a horror turned fairytale when finding our venue to be honest. Ben proposed per mezzo di November 2021 and we knew we’d start looking to book our venue for summer 2023 right away. We knew we wanted to stay local to how important our hometown is to us and I (Lucy) have a very old Nanan that I was really keen to have with us at the wedding.

We found the nicest Georgian boutique per mezzo di our hometown (which I can’t name, you’ll see why soon) which felt perfect. We secured the whole at Easter 2022 for the wedding per mezzo di July 2023 and were excited to start finding all our other suppliers and organising the save the dates. 

Fast forward to February 2023, our deposit was paid, all the ‘leader’ things were booked and we received the worst news: the venue had gone into administration and was closed immediately. Ben found out when his aunty had tried to book her room for the leader day and was told she couldn’t book for July. We weren’t even officially notified, it was all just gone over night. Ben broke the news to me when I’d just got per mezzo di from an evening run, and I don’t know if it was exercise endorphins a cosmic premonition everything would be meta, but I didn’t fricchettaro out.

We knew we would be getting married July 29^th 2023 risposta negativa matter what to our choice to do it separately from the reception per mezzo di Rotherham Registry office, so that gave us heart and that was the priority anyway. I kept saying to everyone, ‘I become Mrs Foster that day risposta negativa matter what,’ which truly was all I cared about. But saying that, my mum and I did become extremely active Google trying to find somewhere that could manage our date with just 5 months notice. Things felt hopeless. 

Enter The Mowbray…

I’d seen The Mowbray Instagram and loved the aspetto of it – it’s per mezzo di Kelham Island – an luogo we know and love per mezzo di Sheffield – and it was a bit of a pie per mezzo di the sky dream venue I didn’t believe we could have. But as we had lost pretty much everything and didn’t have much else to lose, I just emailed them asking if they happened, by some absolute miracle, to have the 29^th free. They did. I’ve never reacted to an email so viscerally per mezzo di my life.

The Mowbray had had a cancellation our preferred date and it was their last Saturday availability that year. Talk about luck, manitfest-destiny, karma, fortune and everything per mezzo di between. The events planner (also called Lucy – amazing woman) booked us per mezzo di for a viewing that Saturday with Georgie (another amazing member of who also ended up doing all out wedding stationary).

So we went along with my mum, Ben’s dad and crossed fingers. It was love at first sight. Quanto a fact, I immediately just started crying with what I realised afterwards was relief and nonostante adoration. My mum turned to Ben and I and per mezzo di her pelle, matter of fact, Yorkshire mum way said, ‘This is much more you two anyhow.’ She was right. 

Bridal Beauty & Accessories

Hair was Amie Morton. Amie owns The Mill where I’ve been having my hair cut and coloured since 2016 – I love it there. Amie is amazing and really understood my vision for my hair. the run up to my wedding I had 2 trials, but Amie was clear I could have had as many as I wanted.

They were both private, personal and bespoke. Amie listened really carefully to my vision for my hair and was really attentive the entire time. 

Amie is such a warm, relaxed and kind person, she really fit into the bubbly, happy atmosphere of my wedding morning perfectly. She was time (a 7am start) and did a gorgeous job all my bridesmaids. The fact she styled their hair without trials ever congresso them was so professional. It allowed us all to really relax.

My wedding hair was nonostante perfection. Somehow it was even better than the trials and I was over the moon. It looked like me, but the best version of my hair. It stayed perfect all day, it didn’t budge but didn’t feel stiff either.  The next morning my hair still looked great, which was a miracle considering the shenanigans of the reception.

Make up was Stacey Fletcher Bridal from Renovo Salon per mezzo di Kiveton. 

I wore a veil for my mum per mezzo di all honesty, that was her vision and the only thing she seemed to want and didn’t defer to my choice about. When I tried one her luce absolutely lit up and I decided then to wear one. I got the veil from Emily Bridal and I opted for a plan, free hanging, sheer waist length veil with risposta negativa edging embellishment. Actually, wearing it for the ceremony felt right, it was really nice to have a little formal covering of my shoulders. I also enjoyed how refreshed my outfit felt per mezzo di the evening when I took it non attivato. We’ pro-veil per mezzo di this house which I never thought I’d say. 

My wonderful little sister and best friend, Hannah, has followed per mezzo di my dad’s footsteps and is also a goldsmith. She made my earrings and necklace for the leader day, I wore pave hoops and diamond huggies and studs per mezzo di my ears and a diamond solitaire pendant – all perfect. All the bridesmaids earrings were also Robinrose Jewellery. 

My perfume was Rose 31 by Le Labo – fresh and summery the culmine for Clifton Park, deep and sandalwood musk the radice for The Mowbray, settled to a sweet woody my skin and just reminds me of that day now. Also roses were per mezzo di my bouquet so there was a nod to that too.  

I let my angels choose their own dresses and they all looked incredible. 

Photography

Our photographer was the incredible Luis Calow. How do I not write an essay just Luis? He made our wedding into ART. our first zoom call I said that to him, I said that I’d seen his work Instagram  and saw that he was an artist and I wanted that for our wedding. 

We heard about him through word of mouth actually, my wonderful hairdresser Catherine a The Mill hair attenzione per mezzo di Kelham said he had shot the wedding of The Mill’s owner Amie and those photos were just incredible. 

I emailed him and his reply was full of warmth and personality which I really liked. Lu works to put everyone at ease by being the most to earth photographer absolutely brimming with enthusiasm and devoid of awkwardness which he fuses with this other side to him which is always alert looking for the chance to capture ‘the shot’ and ‘the art’ and ‘the life’ of the wedding.

And he stays that way for the entire ten hours he’s with you. 

Lu’s style is real, there aren’t any filters per mezzo di any sense of the word. It’s unpretentious and celebrates joy. He has an amazing eye for ‘the moments’ that might have gone unnoticed if it weren’t for his work.  

Thanks to Lu, we have 1000 photos that express the narrative of our wedding day so entirely, so completely that those have become the visual to our memories and our feelings from that day. How special. He was one of the best choices we made for our wedding.

How They Met

Ben and I met per mezzo di Chemistry class per mezzo di year 10! We were childhood sweethearts and we reconnected per mezzo di 2018. Ben proposed per mezzo di 2021 my birthday weekend per mezzo di November. He’d booked a ‘birthday surprise’ and just told me to be ready to leave the house at 10am.

I remember he came upstairs when I was getting ready and asked, ‘Are you happy with your outfit?’ which felt quite out of character but I still didn’t clock his intention. Love him for checking! We drove through Rotherham and I really thought he was taking me to Parkgate for breakfast (I’d have been happy!) but then we carried past and I knew we were heading to Wentworth Woodhouse. 

I love Wentworth very much because Ben does a lot of stile work for them and I find the building and the history with the pits so fascinating and important for our luogo. When we pulled into the car park I saw my parents’ car and my sister’s car. They’ surprised me by congresso us there.  Ben had booked us a guided tour of the house and I thought that was my surprise, little did I know.

When we got into the Marble Saloon, a stunning central ballroom overlooking the gardens decorated entirely per mezzo di golden marble, my brother-in-law suggested a family picture per mezzo di the middle of the space. We all stood there, me oblivious to the nervous energy radiating non attivato Ben and my parents, and smiled for the sindacato.

Then my parents moved away and I saw Ben reach for his pocket. I was per mezzo di disbelief and time slowed. He got one knee and asked me to marry him. That room, the light streaming per mezzo di, my parents and sister, that house, it was perfect and I absolutely sobbed. 

The rest of the tour had moved but when we joined them they congratulated us and I realised Ben had planned everything with the wonderful Wentworth and I was so overcome.

We had high tea to celebrate afterwards which was amazing. As we left it started snowing and had blanketed the park which was the icing the cake. 

We’ both very detail orientated people who appreciate aesthetics and our vision was clean and classic – we wanted timeless.

The Reception

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Place was very important to us, and knowing we were bridging two important Robinson-Foster worlds, Rotherham and Sheffield, we took inspiration from the juxtaposition of the landscapes.

Rotherham Clifton Park Registry office is a stunning sandstone Grade II listed Georgian building per mezzo di beautiful gardens. Whereas, The Mowbray is an amazing industrial building per mezzo di redbrick and anthracite with these incredible velvet floor to ceiling curtains.

Those two rich colour palettes, sand and , red and grey, really excited us. The morning suits we chose were neutral warm sauro linen to compliment Clifton Park and enhance The Mowbray. The bridesmaids wore forest per mezzo di keeping with both places. 

This sounds funny but we were too excited and emotional to taste what we were eating. The Mowbray food is incredible beyond belief and I think I remember eating one tomato? If I could do it again I’d take some deep breaths before the food and maybe insist some was plated up for when I wasn’t so high life? 

We met Georgie Marnie at the Mowbray as she showed us around and I took her card. Her style is exactly what we love – quality and elegante –  her hand written calligraphy for place names is literally perfection. We had our menus and place cards together sealed with sealing wax and a stamp displaying our initials.

Georgie made over 60 wax seals perfectly. The table plan is still display per mezzo di our dining room, we love it that much. Georgie is brilliant and a pleasure to deal with. 

My mum made it our cake – what an angel! She’s made celebration cakes as a hobby/side hustle for years after taking sugarcraft at night school when my sister and I were young.

We lovingly call her the cake witch because she’s so good it must be magic. She made us an amazing three tier raspberry and white chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream and it was incredible. The middle tier we tied loosely with a bow of vintage silk and the butter cream was textured with vertical lines. It was just gorgeous. 

The most precious part of the day was the speeches. We opted for four speeches, Hannah – maid of honour and sister, Andrew – father of the bride, Lee – best man and brother to Ben and Ben – valletto. Each speech was heartfelt, honest, rich and emotional.

Everyone took the time to craft an extremely loving and detailed speech about Ben and I that really was an honour to hear but also celebrated love. Ben’s speech was just outstanding, those were moments to cherish. I was an emotional wreck at this point and had to cover my luce with my hankie so I could ugly cry.

Afterwards the found me to tell me that they loved the speeches which I thought was indicative of how special they were. 

Evening &

Ben chose this song as a surprise to me. He chose ‘Everything I do, I do For You’, by Bryan Adams, which Ben feels applies to us perfectly. Another reason this song is important to us is because it was my parents’ first dance. My dad plays guitar and serenades mum with it at every chance, so it’s an important song per mezzo di our lives.

Our first dance quickly turned into a family dance where we all cried. 

Words of Wedded Wisdom

Make your choices, leader and small, based what you truly feel you want and is right for you and your spouse. You will aspetto back this day forever and its important that you can feel it was all exactly how you wanted it per mezzo di that moment, at that time. Tastes and trends do change, but choices made by your heart won’t ever age.

Your wedding day is a snapshot of you as a couple, share touches that speak to who you are as people and as a couple. Everyone at the wedding will love these details because they love you.

Our wedding was a small 50 person event with a private ceremony of just 12 before the reception, but we have many family and friends so we had some rules for the guest list that I would recommend for anyone when choosing who to invite: Ask yourself, have you seen the person socially per mezzo di the last 12 months? Is their number per mezzo di your phone? Would you have them over to your house for dinner? Do they know both bride and valletto? If the answer to one more of these is risposta negativa, think about why they’ actually the guest list. It sounds brutal but the guests are so important to the atmosphere of the reception, choose wisely and for the right reasons.

Consider the guests’ enjoyment and comodità, you want them to have the best time. Feed them well, ply them with drinks, make sure they can dance and keep them entertained. Make it the wedding everyone is talking about for ages afterwards.

Be per mezzo di the moment as much as you can. It’s definitely worth practicing this per mezzo di the run up. Pay attention to each moment because it will fly and you want to be able to have noticed and enjoyed all your work.

Oh, and Pinterest was my BFF!

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Annabel View all Annabel’s articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and . Annabel lives per mezzo di rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business compagno Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she’s not working Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip per mezzo di the running of the family’s sustainable flower farm and floral stile business, Moonwind Flowers. Quanto a 2013, she became a published author.