A Wilden Bride Dress for a PapaKåta Tipi Wedding in York

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Let’s turn back the clocks to last summer, lovelies, for the most charming wedding of Lucinda and Adam. Just wait until you see the beautiful blooms and the bride’s bespoke dress! Lucinda works as marketing manager at Team London Bridge and Adam is technical director at Basil Fry & Co.

With Lucinda hailing from beautiful Yorkshire, the couple tied the knot on the 25th of June 2016 at Merchant Taylor’s Hall, a quintessential ‘Medieval York’ 14th-century building with big old oak beams. Everyone then headed to the family run farm site Skipbridge Country Weddings on the outskirts of York for the couple’s outdoor celebrations, complete with llamas, a whisky shack, and tipis from local company PapaKåta – a firm favourite of us here at Love My Dress headquarters with their big range of outdoor tent and tipi options and a member of our handy Little Book for Brides bridal resource.

“Although we both live in London, my heart belongs to Yorkshire – and Adam loved York from his first visit – so the location discussion was an easy one. With Adam being from Hastings, we thought an anchor and a Yorkshire rose design (‘seaside meets countryside’) for the stationery was a nice idea, but beyond that we didn’t really set out to have a specific theme or style. Our choices mainly stemmed from our hopes for the day to be fun and relaxed with our favourite people, lots of music and plenty of good food and drink. The colours just emerged as we went along and we ended up with lots of copper tones, and greeny-blues.”

Photography by Georgina Piper

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I’m completely in love with Lucinda’s divine dress – a bespoke creation by the uber-talented Charlotte Wilden of Wilden Bride. I too had a custom-made dress and totally resonate with the benefits, as Lucinda explains.

“My mum and I had an evening together trying on a record number of dresses at a boutique, which were all lovely, but I didn’t feel like any of them were very ‘me’. I had a look online for a dressmaker and Charlotte’s dresses really stood out. We met a few times over a year or so, developing ideas for an Elie Saab / Temperley inspired dream party dress with lots of embroidery and sequins. I loved the ethereal details in the design and that it had a bit of sparkle without being OTT – and that it was comfortable for dancing!”

“Adam and I met through our mutual friend Hannah in a bar in Peckham when we were 24. He offered me a forkful of his mushroom risotto and we had a few tequilas (very romantic). Adam unexpectedly proposed the day before our 2nd anniversary at the top of Gianicolo Hill in Rome and we got married just over 2 years later.”

Lucinda donned a pair of Charlotte Olympia high heels for the ceremony and Charlotte Mills for the reception – a lovely pair of block heels that were a sensible choice to enable walking on grass at the venue. Have you discovered this young designer, who is a part of our ever-growing Little Book for Brides community? View the listing here to read more of her story.

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Catherine Elizabeth did a gorgeous job with Lucinda’s pretty hairstyle, adorned with a sparkly hair vine from Liberty in Love  and her make-up, with a striking shade of pink lipstick that popped. The stunning bride added a spritz of a favourite scent, ‘Chance’ by Chanel, and a few delicate and heartfelt jewellery pieces.

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“My Zoe & Morgan necklace was a present from Adam on the morning of the wedding – it’s actually called the ‘Lucinda’ necklace. The pearl bracelet, and a delicate silver Tiffany bracelet, were both gifts from my mum and dad. And I wore my mum’s moonstone ring from the 70’s which was my something ‘old’ and my something ‘borrowed’.”

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Each bridesmaid had a style of dress in blue they either chose themselves or I sketched for them, made by Thimbelina in York – we were dotted around the North and South at the time so it was nice excuse for us all to get together for the fittings (and a few drinks!).”

“We gave all the girls a rose gold bracelet with an anchor charm on the day and they all wore their own bits and pieces too. Their shoes were their own choice but they all went for gold sandals in the end.”

The wee little flower girl Betty, who is bridesmaid Hannah’s daughter, wore a pretty dress from Very – and Adam’s nephew Ollie wore his own navy suit to match Adam’s.

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The ceremony hall was a lovely medieval building with lots of character, so just required the addition of a few lanterns and big jars of wild flowers to line the aisle. Lucinda painted a sign for the entrance and bought some baskets from Amazon to fill with dried petals for the confetti throwing.

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The creative bride designed the stationery (invites, RSVP postcards, menus, order of the day, table plans, tables names and place cards) herself.

“Graphic design is part of my job and something I enjoy, so it didn’t make sense to ask anyone else! I took inspiration from designs featured in Fiona Leahy’s dinner settings for our invites and menus (she has a great wedding book too), and for the place cards, we spray-painted some plastic animals from ebay in gold – for no other reason than the fact that I like animals!”

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The handsome groom chose a suit from Dress2Kill and the groomsmen wore their own stylish suits. All of the fellas sported rose and anchor cufflinks made by the maid of honour out of her own illustrations, plus teal handkerchiefs from John Lewis, duck-egg blue ties from T.M. Lewin and polka-dot socks. Adam also gave all of his party a rose gold hip flask.

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Lovers of music, the couple incorporated a number of musical elements in their day, including the string quartet during the ceremony, Cornelius Corkery Trio during the reception, their friend Kirsty Spence sang for the first dance, and a DJ via Club Class Entertainment allowed them to make their own playlist for dancing into the night.

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I’m in utter awe of the flowers, by Fiona of Fiona Hogg Floral Designs, who crafted beautiful colourful bouquets scented with fragrant blooms.

“As a child I remember mum driving us by Fiona’s shop when we went to visit family friends in Dunnington, and it was the first place I thought of for flowers. I had wild ‘undone’ flowers in mind with eucalyptus and jasmine. I chatted to a florist at a friend’s wedding once and she pointed out how bride’s often don’t think about the bouquets’ smell – it was nice to have a calming scent to breathe in on the day!”

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The Egmont Quartet played ‘Landslide’ by Fleetwood Mac for the walk with my dad down the aisle, then ‘Crazy in Love’ by Beyonce when signing the register and we walked back down the aisle to ‘I was made for loving you’ by Kiss. We had a civil ceremony with modern vows. We knew I’d be insanely nervous and that both of us would be really emotional, so thought keeping it simple was the best option.”

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“Two of our friends did readings which they picked themselves. My bridesmaid El read ‘A Lovely Love Story’ by Edward Monkton. She’d heard the reading for the first time at her Mum’s wedding and it was also very apt for us. My mum shouted “Oh no!” after the line “Now the Dinosaur and the Lovely Other Dinosaur are old” which made everyone laugh!”

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The couple included a very special reading in their ceremony, which was a poem adapted by one of Adam’s closest friends, Rob, called ‘This Anchor’ by Loyd. C Taylor.

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“We liked the themes of companionship and being each other’s anchor. It had been a very difficult time leading up to the wedding as we lost Adam’s lovely Mum, Louise. The idea of weathering good times and bad together rang particularly true.

This Anchor’ by Loyd. C Taylor

This anchor shall hold in adversity,
When all else does threaten to give way;
This anchor keeps my vessel from drifting,
Never letting my ship run astray.

This anchor holds though angry seas batter,
When dangerous waves threaten to take hold;
This anchor holds in the lonely night hours,
When darkness renders my spirit less bold.

This anchor holds with vigil over me,
Scans water lest my ship drift away;
This anchor is trustworthy and faithful,
Making less anxious my passageway.

This anchor holds fast though life is fleeting,
When death’s icy hands grasps for me once more;
This anchor will never let me falter,
Till my ship moors on that sacred shore.

This anchor shall hold in the void eternal,
When the elements melt with fervent heat;
This anchor will calm and quiet my spirit,
Shoring me on with grace complete.

This anchor holding me is my sweet love.
My ship is in her arrant control;
She is my one hope… she is my comfort…
She is surely anchor of my soul.

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“It turned out Adam actually had been listening all along when I occasionally talk at him about jewellery, as he went to my favourite designer Zoe & Morgan for the engagement ring. It was a happy coincidence that they happened to be in the first stages of starting their bespoke engagement/wedding ring service when he contacted them. With the help of our friend Libby, he chose a beautiful halo design with a yellow diamond.”

“When it came to choosing our bands I went back to talk to Ruth at Zoe & Morgan about designing something non-traditional to complement the engagement ring; we went for an octagonal style with a tiny diamond on each edge, and a row at the front. Adam went for an off-the-shelf Tiffany & Co. gold band with a bevelled edge.”

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The couple’s wedding video was by Grace Films, whilst photographs were captured expertly by Georgina of Georgina Piper Photography, who thoroughly impressed Lucinda and Adam. I love how she caught the mood in each and every shot.

“When we were searching for a photographer I was looking for something really specific but couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was – as soon as we saw Georgina’s lovely photos, full of natural light, with a really honest feel, I knew that was it. She also happened to be from Adam’s hometown, which was a happy coincidence! She captured the day beautifully and it was a pleasure to have her around. We couldn’t have been happier with how the photos turned out.”

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“We had quite a lot of people to get across town so picked a black and white double decker bus from the 1950’s from Yorkshire Heritage Bus Company. I had 5 bridesmaids and my mum in the car so we needed something big and chose a 7-seater 1961 Austin Prince from The Yorkshire Wedding Car Company. Our driver Chris was so lovely and remained super cool when the car broke down when Adam and I were on our way to the reception!”

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At Skipbridge, Lucinda and Adam wanted to keep the decor simple, knowing it was going to be a tight squeeze with all their guests in the tipis.

“Our own décor was a mish-mash of bits we bought online: fairy lights, spray-painted paper moon lanterns and paper tassels, with jars of wild flowers and candles dotted around. PapaKåta provided some lovely extras, like the lantern-lined walkway and reindeer skins around the fire pits.”

“For the table place names, we chose our favourite songs – Adam and I have very different taste in music at times (we had our friend Steve (groomsman) mediate when we were choosing our DJ’s playlist!), so it was fun sitting together and playing through the songs that we both love/remind us of great times we’ve had together.”

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“My Dad is a chocolatier by trade, so made us bespoke chocolates – they were malt honeycomb balls covered in white sparkly chocolate. We bought the bags from Amazon and designed the stickers.”

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Eat Me Drink Me prepared tasty cuisine for the guests, whilst Alice from White Rose Bakes created the couple’s tempting two-tiered cake, along with brownies, lemon tarts and salted caramel millionaire’s shortbread ‘mini bites’ as extras.

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“We saw Cornelius when we were in York one evening at Sotanos and Adam asked him to play there and then. He couldn’t do the day himself but the band was great. Our friend Kirsty is an amazing friend and singer! We didn’t hesitate to ask her to sing for our first dance.”

“We wanted our first dance to be happy and upbeat, and one that all our friends and family could recognise and join in with at the end, so we picked ‘Could you be loved’ by Bob Marley. We went to see the film Marley on one of our first dates and it’s always reminded us of when we first got together.”

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“It’s so difficult to pick a favourite part! Besides actually getting married, seeing all of our friends and family from across the country, enjoying themselves together is something we’ll never forget. It’s hard to describe the atmosphere but it was so positive and full of love (at least it felt like it for us!). At one point during dinner Adam’s favourite song came on and the majority of the tent broke out into song and serenaded him. There were so many amazing moments that you can’t engineer – they were our favourite parts.”

“If I could do it all again, I’d maybe start the ceremony earlier because midnight came around so fast! There were also a lot of spinning plates and a lot of DIY, so I might have simplified things/ delegated a bit more to all the kind people who offered their help – but then that probably wouldn’t be very me!”

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Words of Wedded Wisdom

“There’s bound to be something that goes wrong; you can’t make everything ‘perfect’ and if you try, you’ll drive yourself mad. On the day of the wedding my engagement ring went missing, the wedding car broke down 3 times on the way to the reception, and the bus was over an hour late to take everyone from the ceremony to the reception (and a million other things the bridesmaids probably covered up for me!) but you can’t have a ‘do over’ so just embrace it – remember you’re with all the people you love the most and get on with enjoying their company!”

There’s also this idea that a wedding has to be a certain way or follow a certain schedule and it really doesn’t. Even your nearest and dearest may unwittingly try and push you in a different direction here and there, but stay strong and do what makes you both happy.

Finally, something we were really thankful for was the chance to see everyone at a gathering in the city the following day. The day really does go by so fast, and it was so lovely to see everyone who’d taken the time to travel and spend time with us, give them a big hug and say a proper thank you.”

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I’ve just adored bringing you lovely Lucinda and Adam’s most awesome day – and now quite fancy a weekend tipi adventure! Thank you to Georgina for sharing these joy-filled images of the newlyweds. And check out more Wilden Bride loveliness here if you’ve fallen for Lucinda’s exquisite dress.

Have a jolly rest of week!

Love Jo -xo-

Credits & Thanks

Jo Singletary

Jo Singletary View all Jo's articles

Jo hails from and lives in sunny Australia, is currently working towards her dream of being a career coach and a few of her favourite things are watching the sunrise over the ocean, morning walks on the beach, butterflies, and supporting the guide dogs charity.

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