There’s something undeniably magical about autumn weddings, and Lowri and Culkin’s beautiful seasonal celebration at Lyde Court was no exception.
With the historic charm of this Herefordshire venue as their backdrop, the couple curated a day brimming with elegance and personal touches. Lowri looked incredible in a Suzanne Neville gown, teamed with a gorgeous veil by British designer Ashley Wild Bridal and headpiece by Lelet NY – a combination that perfectly captured the essence of classic, modern bridal beauty.
As the evening unfolded, she made a stylish switch into a playful Rime Arodaky mini dress which added a touch of fun to the festivities. From the rich autumnal hues to the intimate candlelit ambiance, every detail of their day reflected the warmth and romance of this beautiful season – my very favourite of them all.
With love and thanks to photographer Hannah Miles for sharing her work.
Suzanne Neville
I had tried on my Suzanne Neville dress with Waxflower Bridal. I was so excited when I stumbled across the boutique as it was a beautiful store that was close to my home and stocked a few of my favourite wedding dress designers.
I tried on my dress with Kathy who was so helpful but ultimately, I purchased my dress second hand. Once I had tried on the dress and decided it was the one, I looked further into the details of the dress; size, damage, price etc and decided it was the most suitable option for me.
Another important consideration for me was that it was very likely that I was going to get my dress very dirty since we were getting married in November. Having got it second hand I wasn’t so concerned about keeping it clean, so I was able to fully enjoy our day.
Bridal Beauty & Accessories
I wore a lace veil from Ashley Wild Bridal. The lace and touch of sparkle added a little something extra to my otherwise simple look. I purchased my shoes from Net-A-Porter, the brand is Porte & Paire, my shoes were my ‘something blue’. My headband was from Selfridges, from the brand Lelet NY.
My scent was Baccarat Rouge 540, by Maison Francis Kurkdjian. My underwear was from Ender Legard and my seamstress, Rhiannon Brown, sewed in tabs to my sleeves for the bra straps to be threaded through, keeping me comfortable all day.
My pearl and stud earrings were from Monica Vinader. My bracelet stack was for my 30th birthday, originally from Mejuri. As a tribute to my late grandmothers I wore one of their engagement rings and had the others broach pinned to my bouquet.
My bridesmaid dresses were from Ghost London. I had gone full circle on the colour scheme of bridesmaid dresses. My initial though was a rust/burnt orange/champagne colour scheme, each of the girls being in a slightly different shade. But we found it difficult to find dresses in similar shades that we liked.
Ultimately, we ended up choosing a classy champagne dress, again going for the timeless, classy theme with long sleeves for the autumn. My flower girl wore a dress from Monsoon.
We provided Jo at Issy and Bella Floral Design with the colour scheme we wanted and she did the rest. Along with the bridal party flowers, Jo provided us a few buckets of flowers for our bud vases and a broken arch which went perfectly with the barn.
We have always wanted an Autumn wedding as we both love the colours that time of year brings. Utilising a large number of candles brought the cosy ambience that we were looking for and also the classic/romantic feel.
We were looking for a venue that was within an hour from our home for convenience of travel for the majority of our guests. We found Lyde Court via instagram – we were looking for a venue that would suit a moody autumnal wedding and Lyde ticked all of our boxes. Upon viewing there were aspects that felt very personal to us as a couple which made it very clear that Lyde was our venue.
We have always wanted an Autumn wedding as we both love the colours that time of year brings. Utilising a large number of candles brought the cosy ambience that we were looking for and also the classic/romantic feel.
We were looking for a venue that was within an hour from our home for convenience of travel for the majority of our guests. We found Lyde Court via instagram – we were looking for a venue that would suit a moody autumnal wedding and Lyde ticked all of our boxes. Upon viewing there were aspects that felt very personal to us as a couple which made it very clear that Lyde was our venue.
The Ceremony
My dad Chris walked me down the aisle, to the sound of Paramore’s ‘Still Into You’. We had asked Lila to perform an acoustic version. She had also recorded and produced the song for us, so that we could have a copy of it forever.
We did not write our own vows but we did write a letter to each other to read on our own before the ceremony. We felt that this was a better way to convey our thoughts, feelings and promises.
We had asked Culkin’s two sisters to do a reading each, they were the lyrics (edited) of the song ‘Happiness’, by Rex Orange County. This was the song that was playing when we both said we loved one another for the first time. We also had ‘He never leaves the seat up‘.
Our wedding rings were from London Diamonds. Culkin ended up choosing my engagement ring from here as he found it difficult to find the right design off the shelf.
He ended up designing the entire ring himself. London Diamonds made this process very easy and they were also very helpful post sale. We had to resize my ring a couple of times and also lost one of the paved side diamonds whilst cleaning – London Diamonds replaced the diamond and resized the ring for us free of charge.
For the reasons above, we decided to also purchase our wedding rings through them. Their customer service was enough to convince us not to look elsewhere.
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Photography
Our photographer, Hannah Miles, was fantastic! We found Hannah’s work on instagram and fell in love with her style of candid photos with moody lighting, complimenting our theme. We particularly loved the natural style of her couple portraits
Hannah was brilliant on the day and I would highly recommend her to other couples. She was very organised and effective at getting all the shots we had requested, she even helped with small details such as adjusting my hair and tying the bow on my dress, little touches which made a big impact on the day.
How They Met
We are a Tinder success story! For our first date Culkin took me for a pizza picnic at sunset in the Brecon Beacons.
We got engaged in front of the beautiful Lucern Lake in Switzerland in September 2022 after four years of dating.
We got married in November 2023, a little over a year after being engaged.
Culkin wore a classic black velvet tuxedo and dress shirt from Reiss London, velvet bow-tie from Hawkes and Curtis and paired it with calf leather shoes from Loake.
The Reception
We had bud vases, candles of varying sizes, small floating frames and sets of large candle pillars purchased from IKEA.
We created all the stationery designs ourselves on Canva and then printed using printed.com. We did this to both save some money and to put our own unique touch to all of our stationery.
We didn’t provide ‘favours’, although our guests used the Polaroids they had taken during the day as favours instead.
We opted for a simple, vintage inspired cake. Ellen of Ellen’s Bakes provided us with a selection of delicious sample flavours to choose from, we decided on a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ganache and vanilla buttercream. It was a 10-inch single layer cake, she also made us matching cupcakes. Most of it was eaten by our guests but we made sure we kept a wedge for ourselves to freeze! We’re planning to have it on our first anniversary.
Evening & Dancing
My party dress was by Rime Arodaky and purchased from Net-A-Porter, I wanted a more fun, relaxed, comfortable dress that I could wear again for the evening, a contrast from my more classic and conservative first dress.
I wanted my main wedding dress to have a classic/elegant feel to it but then had more fun with my second look, I loved that I got to wear two different styles on the day.
Our first dance track was to Tom Walker’s ‘Better Half Of Me’. For our first anniversary we went to see Tom Walker live in Cardiff and this song stuck with us. We consider it as one of our favourite songs and we thought it made a great first dance.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
I’d have not worried about the weather so much – we were prepared for it and now I believe it added to the vibe and the mood of the day.
We found instagram and TikTok very helpful for finding suppliers and providing us with design ideas for the day but found it difficult to not get carried away with the overwhelming amount of advice and suggestions which all came with an additional cost.
I found looking on our venue’s tagged pictures helpful at finding suppliers who frequently worked at our venue, I wouldn’t have discovered them otherwise.
We listened to The Unfiltered Bride podcast during long car rides which was very helpful for picking up tips and suggestions.
We purchased a clothes rail from IKEA along with clothes hangers, set it up in the entrance of the venue which was very useful for guests and removed the need for guests to hang them on the backs of their chairs.
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Additional Credits
The below suppliers and venues are featured in this article, but are not part of the Love My Dress Wedding Directory.
Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
