As we head on into my favourite time of year (Autumn and Halloween), I though it would be perfect to share with you Sophie and Cameron’s Bristol wedding that took place at Arnos Vale Cemetery from Larissa Joice Photography.
We met each other through a well-known dating app – We started talking and bonded over our love of an obscure (and a bit gruesome) horror film that not many people we knew had heard of. We met in a coffee shop in a big shopping centre because I (Sophie) wanted somewhere with designated parking – I wasn’t willing to parallel park in Bristol for someone I didn’t know was the one!
We ended up staying there for several hours, discussing some obscure topics and being more and more amazed by how much we had in common. We were pretty much inseparable from our first date – we had moved in together after 5 months, were engaged a month later, and then married just under a year after that. We got engaged just before my 29th birthday, after an evening watching The Wickerman (we chose the soundtrack to be played over our wedding meal).
We both wear our hearts on our sleeves and it was super important for us to have a wedding which was genuine and represented us as a couple. Our vows had lines from one of the first films we had together, and our table names were named after Lovecraftian locations.
We made some choices which I think people judged at first (especially getting married in a cemetery) but afterwards, we had lots of compliments about how well our wedding day fit in with how people see us as a couple.
One the highlights of our wedding day was definitely dancing with our friends to Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson – we chose an awesome DJ who was willing to work with our eclectic taste so we ended up with a playlist with 80s classics, 90s indie, and a good bit of metal thrown in. My mum was a bit dubious, but we showed her that you definitely can dance to Marilyn Manson at a wedding.
My mum is a crafting genius so we had all sorts of DIY bits. I made several thousand origami paper cranes following a Japanese tradition and my mum turned some of them into a curtain which sat behind the signing table. The cranes were definitely the most fun part, and bought lots of joy into the wedding with people collecting them and taking them home – It’s lovely visiting friends and family and seeing them still dotted around people’s houses. I probably wouldn’t have made as many if Cameron had told me I’d probably get bored before I got to 1000, so my stubborn streak definitely helped in that regard.
We had an octopus tattoo on our inner arms which was done a month before our wedding. We wanted something that represented things we liked in our relationship, so decided something tentacley (in a Lovecraft, not a fetish kind of way!) was perfect. I like the idea of telling our children that when we met we realised we both had the same tattoo and that’s why we decided we belonged together.
My tattoos are very important to me so it was absolutely essential that I didn’t cover them up and I was really lucky that nobody expected me too! It was important to me that our photographer didn’t try and hide them in photos either (she did giggle when I told her I didn’t want to, as this was obviously not something she would have had any interest in doing!). My dress ended up not having sleeves, so I chose a little bolero jacket which covered my arms, but still showed my tattoos through, and I chose my shoes so the tattoos on my feet were not visible. I was really happy with how the whole look came together on the day.
As for our advice when planning your wedding – Stick to your guns and do what you want to do! People probably think you’re a bit “unique” anyway, so why would they expect your wedding to be any different? Choose things you love.
I absolutely adore that Sophie and Cameron did exactly that they wanted to to do for their wedding.. And that Sophie did all the cranes herself (I did exactly the same at our wedding with the DIY crafting with being stubborn!). Thank you to them both and to Larissa Joice Photography for sharing with the blog today – Make you you check out the list of suppliers and full gallery below.
Wedding Ceremony & Reception – Arnos Vale
Photographer – Larissa Joice
Sophie’s Dress – Wed2B
Sophie’s Shoes – Irregular Choice
Cameron’s Suit – Slaters
Flowers – The Flower Shed
Hair – Headrush
Make Up – Elle Hitchens
Wedding Cake – Anna Cake Couture
Catering – Kate’s Kitchen, Bristol
