An almost completely DIY wedding is impressive enough, but when you have such a theme as steampunk then I think it’s doubly so! Alys and Stu were hitched last October in Manchester. The reception was held at the Museum of Science and Industry.
“We both love the steampunk and neither of us was particularly keen on a traditional white wedding”, said Alys. “We are also not religious we fancied doing something a bit different. We both love the Museum of Science and Industry and have been going since we were kids so it was quite a poignant place to get married. I can’t quite remember which came first, the theme or the venue, but either way they complimented each other really well!”
They shunned tradition in plenty of ways, not just with their inedible outfits! “We did a joint speech as we were not keen on a lot of the gender specific obligations. Likewise, I had both my parents walk me down the aisle. We let the cake bakers have first ‘cut’ of their own cakes rather than just us being up there doing it. My sister also did a speech as well as the best man and I had ‘bridesmates’ instead of bridesmaids (don’t really like the word ‘maid’).”
“We were also keen to make use of things we already had and to use things that could be reused again. We brought our cruiser bike and made a card box out of the shoe box that Stu’s wedding shoes came in. My Mum made a nice collage of all the relatives that are no longer with us to sit at the entrance as guests were coming in. This is a lovely piece and we have on display at home now.”
“Fairy lights were borrowed from friends’ Christmas boxes and the ones we had to buy were used again. My good friend Rachel made 10 centrepieces all out of recycled bike parts. The cakes were all homemade by members of our bridal party and my Mum provided black lace and faux ivy for the table. A tree surgeon friend of ours provided the logs for the cakes to sit on! We had no real flowers. My bouquet was made by a friend from cogs and fake flowers and bits from my grandparents’ old jewellery and pocket watches.”
The couple’s budget was £6000 and their biggest costs were the venue and photographers. “However we really saved on the food. We just went for Stu’s favourite food – pizza and then pies!. Everyone likes pizza and we didn’t have time or inclination to do a fancy three course meal. We are not really ‘fancy’ people in the slightest so it would not have been true to ourselves to do anything that might be considered ‘a bit posh’. We also didn’t bother with things like chair covers and having no flowers meant we saved lots of money. Instead of fancy cars, we just flagged down black cabs on the day (so they cost us just £20!) and I spent less than £200 on my whole outfit.”
“There are a couple of things I wish we’d done differently”, she concluded. “First I wish I hadn’t sweated the small stuff. I would have also hired a videographer. I would not had had so much hairspray in my hair and I would not have attempted a sun bed! I also would have eaten more of the food we paid for!!”
