Pippa and Dean’s didn’t set out to have any theme for their Sheffield wedding last November, but by just choosing things they liked (gothic elements, skulls, Rocky!) they ended up with a glam goth theme with a few surprises. Their first dance was to the Hokey Cokey and their 6 minute firework display almost ended in injury, but it was the most perfect day… and they pulled it off for under £5000!
“I love all things with skulls so they featured heavily, there was also a lot of lanterns throughout which happened by accident but worked pretty well”m said the bride. “So I guess our theme was gothy glam. My hair and make up was meant to be Hollywood glam, but It ended up looking more Spanish-senorita, but I just went with it! There was an underlying Rocky theme in there too, my entrance and exit music were from Rocky 2 and we had a series of photos taken with the bride and groom having a full on boxing-gloved punch up!”
“I used a lot of different sources as inspiration. I saw what I definitely didn’t want from other weddings and that was a stuffy, formal affair. We wanted people to relax and laugh and they definitely did that! I used random search engine findings, Rock n Roll Bride of course, Pinterest. I saw what previous couples had done in the same venues and just picked at the bits I liked and could pull off on a relatively low budget.”
To save cash they were able to trade a few things, such as the cake, for tattoos as the bride is a tattoo artist! “We saved money on loads of things”, she continued. “My dress cost me just £110 from China and was inspired by a £2000 dress I’d seen, and although there were some obvious differences to the original, I was amazed at the quality and very few alterations were needed. I wore it with jewellery from ASDA and a headpiece which cost £4 from eBay!”
“Our fantastic photographer was just branching out into weddings and had an amazing offer on to get his wedding portfolio built up. He was kind enough to book me in on the offer despite my wedding being two years away, saving me a LOT. I also found my flower lady on Facebook who was also just starting up a business. She did my (artificial) flowers and the men’s buttonholes for around £30 as an introductory offer – total bargain! Our reception venue, The Courtyard Cafe, was an amazing find, they do a wedding package for only £1000 and that’s for 30 day guest, a four course meal with wine, fizz for toasts, an evening buffet for 80 people, DJ, bar, huge light up LOVE letter, white twinkly back drops and top table, table linens, chair covers and sashes of your colour choice! We added 20 people to the day list at £19 a head, I dare you to try and beat that bargain!”
There were lots of funny moments in the day including their their first dance and the fireworks nearly causing a disaster! “People were a bit bemused at our first dance song choice!” she laughed, “but personally I think the funniest moment of the entire night was when one of our DIY fireworks display fireworks shot into the crowd and scared everyone half to death! I saw newspaper headlines flash before my eyes-‘entire wedding party frazzled in fireworks fiasco’ but fortunately no one was hit and we all laugh about it now!”
“My favourite part of the entire day was the ceremony itself, there were the odd hiccup and timing blooper, I nearly fell up the stairs and the sound guy forgot our leaving music so we were stood for a minute not knowing whether to leave or not but that is me and Dean down to a T. Never did either of us think we’d ever feel so relaxed standing in front of everyone on our wedding day but it was all so easy and natural as well as being emotional and in that moment we were both so clearly full of love and pride. We’ve watched it back and wouldn’t change a thing.”
