Wednesday 27 September 2017

A Very Leicester Wedding

Our wedding in July was very much centred on the city Thomas and I call home. Because the vast majority of guests were from out of town, it was really important to us that we use the event to highlight the things about which we're most proud when it comes to Leicester, including its history, its diversity, and its incredible vegan food to name just three.

Ironically, considering how central a role the city ended up playing, our original plan was to have the wedding out of Leicester in a rural setting. When we quickly realised that a festival-style wedding was going to require a hell of a lot of work and money to create, we went back to the drawing board and decided on an urban wedding that celebrated our home town, instead.
As soon as we decided to host it here we knew what our first choice of reception venue was: our favourite pub, The Lansdowne. Only problem? They don't usually do private hire and had never hosted a wedding reception before. We decided to ask anyway, as the worst they could say was "No" and, lucky for us, they barely hesitated before agreeing to let us hire the whole place and cater a three course, mostly vegan menu, for 70 guests.

The Lansdowne is our favourite pub for three reasons: great food, fantastic and friendly staff, and incredible mid-century interiors. And those elements made it the perfect place to host a wedding reception. Sadly, we were all too busy having fun and scoffing the food to take pictures of it but rest assured it was amazing. Many guests, even those who aren't vegan or vegetarian, commented on how much they enjoyed the meal. Meanwhile, it meant so much to us that the staff were visibly enjoying themselves and happy for us; because it's our regular haunt, it felt completely different to having the reception at a faceless corporate venue. We know the staff well and it genuinely felt like they were part of our celebration.

Another favourite element of our wedding day was the walk we took through Leicester from our ceremony venue, the Guildhall, up to the Lansdowne. Although about a 20 minute journey on foot, most of the route follows the beautiful Georgian-era tree-lined, traffic-free pedestrian path known as New Walk. I especially am a big fan of urban walking and it was important to me that this was incorporated into the event.

After a week of solid rain, and fretting that we'd have to find alternative transport, our wedding day dawned bright and sunny and the walk was on! From a chant of "F*ck the police" begun by Thomas' friends (see photo above - they said walking in a big group reminded them of being on protest marches), to dancing bridesmaids, to passing well wishers greeting us, it was such a special part of the day and the photographs are some of my favourites.
Aside from the wedding itself, we'd also planned a number of other events so we'd get a proper chance to hang out with guests. On the morning of the ceremony we hosted a brunch for family members, which was a lovely way to ensure we spent some quality time with family - all of whom had travelled from out of town, most from out of England - before the actual wedding later in the afternoon. And on the previous evening we invited friends and family who were staying in local hotels to join us for pizza at our favourite joint, Oscar & Rosie's. This turned out to be a really calming and fun way to spend the night before the wedding, and it helped people to meet each other in a more relaxed environment (my uncle from Canada and Thomas' dad especially seemed to hit it off and chatted a lot the next day).

We also put together a little mini-zine telling people about our favourite places in Leicester to visit - from museums to galleries to the best place to get gelato - and had so much fun chatting to friends who'd followed our suggestions and hearing what they thought. Considering we had guests from some of the most incredible places in the world - New York and Cape Town among them - I think we did a reasonable job of introducing people to our little city. I am so glad we decided to have the wedding here, because now when I walk around town I have some incredible new memories to accompany places I've been familiar with for years. Seeing the people we care about most come to the place we've both grown to love was indescribably special: if you're considering an urban, home town wedding, I'd thoroughly recommend it.

My other wedding posts:

All photographs by James Mottram Photography

16 comments:

  1. Your wedding looks like so much fun. I love the walk through town with the balloons and the kids looking like they are having a blast. What great memories and great photos.

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    1. One of my favourite things on the day was to see what fun my nieces, nephews and friends' children were having, it was such a lovely thing to observe.

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  2. Love it! After our reception, we walked from the St Martin's Hall over to the Maiyango where we spent our wedding night. It was a balmy, Friday nigh and Leicester's revelers were out in force. We were a little tipsy, I was carrying my shoes and my veil but we got cheered and clapped and met with best wishes and it was just ace. The following day, a few of our closest friends and family were still in town and so we spent the day hopping from pub to pub amid the Caribbean carnival. It was ace and could only ever happen at an urban wedding.

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    1. That's so lovely! And very similar to our experiences in Leicester, too. Although we never managed to catch up with people the next day; it's the one thing I wish we'd done differently.

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  3. What a fantastic idea! It sounds like a really amazing day and a brilliant social gathering as well!

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    1. It was so much fun! Wish I could do it all over again to be honest.

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  4. How lovely that the streets you regularly walk, and walked, now have some extra special memories :)

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    1. Exactly this! Now, whenever I'm at the Lansdowne having a drink or something to eat, I remember that evening and smile.

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  5. We recently went to a wedding in Glasgow and walked from the ceremony to the reception venue and it was so lovely! I also love that you made zines for your guests - what a lovely touch!

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    1. I'm so pleased the weather behaved and we were able to do the walk, because it was such a fun part of the day.

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  6. It's so lovely to hear about the meaning of your venue! Likewise, for me, the venues were really important to me!x

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    1. I can't imagine choosing a venue that wasn't so meaningful, it made such a difference to our day.

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  7. Continues to sound like the most utterly perfect wedding day! How awesome you made a corresponding zine as well!

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    1. It really was perfect, I surprised myself by loving every minute of it.

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  8. Love, love, love this! The photos look amazing. I think it's lovely to have your wedding and reception in places that are so familiar to you - you can go back and visit and it also feels much more personal than going away somewhere completely random.

    Liz x
    Distract Me Now Please

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    1. Exactly. I walked up New Walk the other evening, and it was lovely to have all those memories to think about en route.

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