A Colourful Vintage Wedding at Sledmere House

Oh how we love this wedding! April and James’ Sledmere House wedding features birds of prey, a tea length vintage style wedding dress, polka dot bridesmaid dresses, pom poms, pizza, burgers, ice cream, heart shaped sunglasses, fox cake toppers, hook a duck, a bouncy castle disco… oh, and flamingos!

Warning: this is NOT your average wedding — this is much cooler!

Just look at these amazing pictures of this incredible wedding, by Craig of Mr & Mrs.

Colourful Vintage Fun

“We didn’t have a theme in mind at all, it was just a case of if we liked something or thought it would be fun to include it would get bought or hired! Generally the more colourful or kitsch the better! I suppose you could say the wedding theme was ‘Colourful Vintage Fun’. We just wanted a very personal day which was going to be relaxed and enjoyable for our family and friends (and us!). We’re not super formal people, so a traditional wedding with all the formalities just wouldn’t have been right for us.”

Vintage Style Wedding Dress

“My dress was Baroness Pearl by Kitty and Dulcie, a tea length vintage style dress with a fitted bodice and 3/4 length sleeves. It had a bright red bow around the waist and the most amazing full tulle skirt. It cost £345, which frankly was a bargain, even with the dressmaker fitting costs. I must admit, after I bought it I couldn’t wait to get home to try it on, so I tried it on for the first time in the toilet at work! My first priority was making sure I could dance in it, so I had a little boogie before I took it off and returned to my desk!

“The bridesmaid dresses were ‘Penny’ from Dolly and Dotty. I loved the bright colours and fun polka dots, and thought they looked great with the style of wedding dress I’d picked. At £28 they were such a bargain, and so flattering — I think the girls loved wearing them! I paired them with a petticoat too so the skirts had a bit of extra oomph.”

Sledmere House Wedding Ceremony

“The wedding ceremony was in the Library at Sledmere House, which was beautiful and had views over the grounds. We wanted the ceremony to be romantic and intimate, and we felt the opulent house was a great setting for this in contrast to the informal barn setting for the fun reception we had planned.

“We had an owl display during the drinks reception, which people loved! That was a pretty last minute decision, but I’m so glad we booked it. We also had a photo booth and a disco dome (which is essentially a bouncy castle disco) complete with it’s own playlist which we created, and glow sticks. It was so much fun!”

Wedding Styling

“As a day job I am actually a self employed wedding planner so I did the styling myself. I used a mixture of items I already own and additional items from eBay (paper pom poms and fairy/festoon lights), hobbycraft (a few decorative bits) etc. The drapes on the ceiling I put up myself using scaffolding, which was a bit unnerving! Even though the barn was vast, I managed to decorate it myself in the week leading up to the wedding (with a little help from family and friends!). A few of the larger items I hired, such as the easels, lights, typewriters and deckchairs. All the furniture was hired in, as were the toilets and audio visual equipment — it really was a full scale operation as the barn is a dry hire venue.”

Bright and Colourful Wedding Flowers

“The flowers were bright and colourful. I let my florist have free creativity over the flowers; I totally trust her and by letting her interpret my fairly loose brief I ended up with something I loved! Sunflowers are one of my favourite flowers, and there were peonies in there too, which were gorgeous.”

Pizza, Ice Cream and Gourmet Burgers

“For our wedding breakfast we had pizza, salads and antipasti from a street food cart. It was amazing and our guests loved it! It meant people could eat as much as they wanted at their own pace, and could mingle. We then had ice cream from a vintage ice cream van for dessert. In the evening we had gourmet burgers and fries to give people the energy to keep on dancing, and amazing cocktails too, which were so delicious!

“Our cake was made by a local baker from the neighbouring village to where I grew up. It was a naked wedding cake covered in flowers and fruit. There was chocolate cake on the bottom tier, carrot cake on the next, and the top two tiers were lemon drizzle. Our three favourite flavours — yummy!”

Memories

“There are so many things I loved about our Sledmere House wedding. My gorgeous bridesmaids made me an adorable scrapbook with memories in, which made me cry! Also seeing everyone raving away in the disco dome with their glow sticks was brilliant! Another favourite moment was just after the ceremony when we took five minutes alone to take it all in. No family, no photographer, just us; that was really nice.”