Sharon & Vicky’s Elmore Court Wedding with Graffiti Artist + Smoke Bombs

This is what this unique Cotswold wedding venue does to you when you visit. They describe the place as epic and I have to agree – it really is – and so is this wedding in fact! S + V got married in July this year in a restriction-free, no holds barred, celebration of love.

This wedding is bursting with incredible detail, the whole day was sprinkled with thoughtful touches and bags of personality, but what this union is really about is family, friends and displaying your love for that one person that makes everything magical.

Sharon + Vicky say…

When we first got together and talked about getting married in the future, we knew we wanted to do it over several days and that we also wanted to gather close friends and family together in a big house. Wherever we have lived we have typically been the couple that ‘host’ and we absolutely love bringing people together, cooking great food, while keeping the drinks flowing.

I did some research and we created a shortlist of venues that could offer us this experience but when we arrived at Elmore Court we were totally blown away by how epic the house, the rooms, the grounds, and the Gillyflower was. And then there was Anselm. His positive energy and passion was so infectious and we knew that he and his team would ensure that we all had the most incredible time in his glorious home. We cancelled the other viewings on our shortlist and booked with Team E, and have not been disappointed with the support, detail, service and love we have received from the team throughout the whole process.

Vicky’s outfit was by Parisian bridal designer Rime Arodaky. I am the researcher between us, so in December 2019 not long after our engagement I started my search and I fell in love with Arodaky’s Instagram feed and with her edgy, but sophisticated styles. Vicky loved her designs and knew that this was the right designer for her. After deliberating over whether to go for a dress or a jumpsuit, she ordered the Patsy jumpsuit which had sheer sleeves, embroidery details and a beautiful train.

My outfit was a little more complicated as I decided eventually that I wanted a tailored white tuxedo to complement Vicky’s jumpsuit, so started to look at designers and tried on a few garments off the shelf, but nothing was working or fitting particularly well for me. I reached out to Gormley & Gamble who are the first womenswear tailors in Savile Row’s 200-year history. Phoebe from G&G worked with me on the tuxedo and I even asked for some beautiful, but challenging details to be incorporated into the suit. This included a full arm sleeve with the lyrics from our ceremony song embroidered in, an X and O on the bottom rear leg of the trousers, and our key life dates embroidered on the inside of the jacket.

We both love graffiti, street art and collectibles so naturally that started to work its way into our theme. We had paint splat personalised napkins (thank you to Vicky’s sister Jade who made those for us), black and white 400% Bearbricks with our initials on them, and white Nike sneakers as the table centre pieces, (we met through working at Nike for some context). Together all of these elements were a strong representation of our style, our story and gave the tables and reception room a playful tone.

We worked with Georgia at Studio Sorores on the flowers – she instantly knew what we were trying to achieve and together with her team they made it all happen. We wanted sculptural shapes with palm leaves and tropical flowers mixed with more traditional assortments, so our flowers featured large protea, garden roses, dahlias, ferns, palms and monstera.

We were very focused on the overall design and feel of the day, which is driven by what we do in our day jobs, and then it was all about details for our guests and how we could throw the best party ever for everyone who has been a huge part of our journey together. We saw the wedding as an opportunity to thank all our friends and family for their love and support throughout our 10 years together – their enjoyment and happiness was at the heart of every decision that we made during the planning stages.

Music played a significant part throughout the day and was woven into many of the details. For example the ceremony song selection was XO by Beyonce and was incorporated into my outfit, onto the kid’s sneakers and the neon signage, so there was a clear thread connecting the whole day (I love you like XO). Having consistent music playing throughout the day with the same singer and musicians was perfect, and absolutely the atmosphere that we wanted to create. Everyone was totally blown away by the music, the singer Alex was unbelievable, and the band were all superstars!

We ideally wanted our reception to be outside, and were very lucky that the weather was on our side. We had beautiful sunshine on the day, which meant our guests could gather on the cedar lawn for the drinks reception. This gave us such a beautiful open space to mingle and say hello to everyone, while the photographer captured so many great moments which were filled with laughter and pure joy.

Andy Gaines the photographer and his assistant Nadine were incredible at being there, but not being there. All of the documentary style images have allowed us to relive the day and see moments that we totally missed because we were somewhere else at that moment. We did ask Andy for a few cheeky specific images, from Vanity Fair style portraits in the house, to light graffiti in the evening and he absolutely nailed it across the board (total genius)! 

We ensured our guests had a feast of canapés to enjoy throughout the afternoon and that the drinks were constantly flowing. For the reception we focused on serving beautifully refreshing and strong cocktails to get the party started which included cosmopolitans, mojitos, and a special Team E gin creation, all enjoyed in the glorious sunshine on the cedar lawn. Delightful canapés were then taken around to soak up the afternoon cocktails, which ranged from fried cauliflower to beef empanadas. As we were so busy with saying hello to everyone Leesa arranged for us to have a moment in the Gillyflower and had a taster board of the canapés ready – just perfect.

Best part of the day

Although we were incredibly anxious about it the ceremony was incredible, and our friend Helen did such a beautiful job of telling our story to get the ceremony underway and set the tone for the whole day.

Something that we resisted initially was being announced into the Gillyflower, but we gave in. We did it and the whole room just exploded with singing (Beyonce’s Love on Top), cheering and applause and it was honestly so special, a feeling we will never forget.

From one couple to another…

I wish we’d known just how fast the whole day goes. Everyone says it, but it was honestly like lightening and it is important that you take short moments for just the two of you throughout the day to take it all in.

The smoke bomb portraits were absolute carnage and maybe should have been done a little earlier in the day when everyone had had less to drink and were possibly more capable of following simple instructions. Let’s just say one of the smoke bombs turned itself into a missile and one of the bridal party left a different colour than they turned up (thankfully the purple washed out of her dress after several attempts)!