Travelling from Los Angeles to Yorkshire, Garrett and Felicia brought their friends and family to the stunning Allerton Castle for what they described as a “Regal Riff Raff” themed celebration. The vision for their wedding was “opulent but gritty… like if grunge grew up.”
Despite the grandeur of the setting, this wasn’t a polished, traditional fairytale. “There was no mood board or have a specific direction,” says Felicia. “The goal was just to have it feel like us, in the form of a wedding.”
The bride walked down the aisle to the Jurassic Park theme, played on the harp, a nod to the couple’s first date and Garrett’s rollercoaster proposal on the ride at Universal Studios. “He proposed right before the drop on the Jurassic Park ride at Universal”, she said. “It totally caught me off guard and we got it on camera!” They also had an owl ring bearer, which was a great surprise for their American guests, and their getaway car was the Ghostbusters Ecto-1!
Given that they had to transport many of their wedding elements from the US, Garrett and Felicia didn’t do a lot of DIY but the bride did design the wedding invitations, sealing each one with wax, and she created the overskirt which she added to her Milla Nova gown. She also made her bat hair clips and the Venus Fly Traps and Maneater flowers which were arranged with blooms from Tesco!
This hands-on approach was one of their favourite parts of the process. “As creatives, we’re so used to getting approval from clients, so it was refreshing to make all the decisions ourselves,” the bride continued. “It was like, ‘Floral confetti? Cool. Let’s go for it.’ We were able to really appreciate the attention to detail we put into everything because it was for our day.”
While the day had all the grandeur you’d expect from a castle wedding, Garrett and Felicia were actually very surprised at how affordable the hire was when compared to what they were looking at in the US. “We’d looked at venues in LA and New York, but felt defeated,” said Felicia. “They were either way outside our budget, didn’t allow indoor ceremonies, or had no character. Then my mum sent a link through for a castle in the UK… we sort of scoffed, because it seemed unattainable, but as we started looking into it, the UK seemed more and more promising. We were in utter disbelief that this venue was even an option for us.”
If they could give one piece of advice to other couples, it’s this: “Get everyone to put away their phones,” they said. “We had multiple signs and our celebrant made an announcement, and it was so worth it. No phones ruining the photos and everyone was present. Plus, no poorly taken photos by great-aunts ending up on Facebook!”
