Cool & Hip Wedding Ideas For Alternative Couples

This week’s styled shoot is full of achingly cool wedding ideas, perfect for hip and alternative couples. Set at Harewood Estate, a super creative team came together to really create something epic! There was a beautiful table set up complete with a pampas grass and palm leaf cloud, black tableware and divine tassel place cards. There was also a super modern stationery suite and fantastic signs all round. They blended perfectly with the wild feel flowers and all of the super stylish attire. Think painted leather jacket, boho gowns and a dapper suit. Not to mention delicate jewellery and accessories as well as flawless hair and make up. So dreamy.

Do look out for the amazing cake table complete with delicious looking doughnuts and the fun confetti moment too! The whole affair was captured wonderfully by Claire McClean Photography, do enjoy all of this brilliant wedding inspiration folks.

Cool Wedding Ideas

This wonderful styled shoot was something I have had in my mind ever since work started on refurbishing The Hovels on Harewood Estate. A venue that has a place close to my heart – not only do I live on the estate myself, but my partner is the executive chef for Harewood Food and Drink who also run the venue itself. The idea was to bring this wonderful venue together with a great team of suppliers to create an alternative wedding shoot set in the heart of the historical (and incredibly beautiful) Harewood Estate.

Catering from Harewood Food and Drink’s chef Josh Whitehead (recently awarded Chef Of The Year by the Oliver Awards) featured ingredients exclusively from the estate itself. The estate is lucky to have some of the best venison, beef, and lamb in Yorkshire. Talk about sustainable and local!

Harewood Food and Drink also makes the award-winning ‘Grey Stone Gin’ also made exclusively from botanicals found on Harewood Estate. The great thing about getting married here is not only the booze and great food, but you can also stay at Harewood Holidays – which are the beautiful (also newly renovated) cottages right near The Hovels itself, so you don’t have to stray too far after all those gins.

The Hovels was originally built as a stable block around the same time as the iconic Harewood House. It was then converted into a hunting lodge, and now it’s final form – an intriguing and characteristic venue space. By joining the two older buildings with large glass windows and glass roof, it now comprises of one large space perfect for ceremony/dining and a bar. The mix of old and new is at the heart of Harewood Food and Drink’s core values, due to them being based on an estate so rich with history but with some real contemporary style and ideas.

I wanted to honour their brand and the venue itself by putting together a shoot with a cool, alternative couple to show the real potential and versatility of this beautiful new venue and what it has to offer! Thankfully, I had Jess and Finn (aka the coolest couple ever) to be my wonderful models for the shoot, as well my other model Barbie who could help show off more of the beautiful dresses from Leeds-based stockist Bridal Emporium.

Elegant silky, lacy and fringed dresses from the ever amazing Bridal Emporium was one of my favourite parts of the shoot. All of the dresses we had, all by either Willowby or Watters, had so many beautiful details. My favourite had to be ‘Crane’ by Watters which had the most amazing lace sleeves, showing Jess’s lovely tattoos underneath.

These elegant dresses mixed with some Dr Martens and equally bad-ass hand-painted leather jacket from Rock Paper Nib created a refined yet edgy style.

The groom wore an amazing suit by Jenson Samuel Shirts, reminiscent of something Tommy Shelby would wear in Peaky Blinders. They are the perfect brand for a groom looking for something a little different and wanting to stand out from the crowd.

Vintage Adornments made the stunning silver brooch hair vine. Wendy takes vintage pieces and makes them into something new to be loved once more – therefore perfect for your something old…and new!

All the other lovely headpieces featured are from The Bobby Pin, who make the most wonderful accessories for your wedding day. You can also ask them to create a bespoke piece to suit you and your special day.

Floral stylist Forge Events created the most marvellous hanging installation and deconstructed arch that adorned the beams and old stone walls. There was also a wonderful bouquet that included blood red, blush pinks and soft orange florals. She also styled an incredible tablescape made from just crates, featuring black plates and cutlery which contrasted perfectly with more blush pink florals and textures. The softest highland cow pelts underneath the table (also sourced from the surrounding Estate) also added texture, context, and story to the shoot.

The dark and moody colour palettes meet natural, softer colours to create the perfect balance for the alternative couple. Gray Starling’s use of subtle yet elegant colours and motifs in the stationery couldn’t have worked better for the theme. Her minimal yet distinct invites, signs, menus, and place settings perfectly sat along with Forge Events styling of the tablescape and florals.

Makeup artist Jessica Parkes from FACES created two looks – a smokey eye and dark lip as well as a softer, chic makeup look. This kept the theme of rock and roll but still kept it elegant at the same time.

Sarah Lawrence Hairdressing also created some awesome looks for my models. I loved how one of my female models had short blonde hair and the other long and bright pink! This meant we were able to show that you can go bold or stay classic and still make a statement.

An awesome dessert table by Cherry Blossom Cakes features a striking dark green and black 3-tier cake complete with a grazing table full of donuts, brownies, ‘bronuts’ and cookies in bold pops of red, rust and yellow to keep with the moody rock n’ roll style. We got to eat a few of the sweet treats from the dessert table at the end and they were delicious!

Since Harewood Food and drink are all about sustainable, local and authentic, I decided to go with this theme by working with All Things Petals for the confetti. They make beautiful confetti from dried petals, and here you can see some wonderful bright yellow ones being thrown all over my couple! All Things Petals uses only natural and decomposable materials. Enjoy!

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Wow! Thanks ever so much to the extremely talented team above for sharing these awesome wedding ideas with us xo Lou