Whimsical Joyful & Colourful Pavilion Gardens Buxton Wedding

Just you wait, WWW readers Anna and Brandon’s Pavilion Gardens, Buxton wedding in Derbyshire was a dream!

I must confess, as a Potterhead, I absolutely love their adorable nod to the books with their fun Harry Potter inspired table decor. It’s genius. Every little detail was so carefully thought out and executed beautifully.

Then there were the stunning outfits. I love Anna’s princess gown with her hand-embroidered veils, Brandon’s cool floral tie and pocket square as well as the gorgeous bridesmaid dresses. From the cascading bouquet to the striking bandstand ceremony and the magical Octagon Hall reception at the Pavilion Gardens, you’ll adore their story. Such a love-filled and colourful day with the most gorgeous portraits!

I can’t thank Lauren Elliott Photography enough for sharing with us these absolutely wonderful images. Enjoy!

Pavilion Gardens Buxton Wedding

The Proposal

31.12.2021 on a trip to Angelsey we visited Lligwy beach and on a whim decided to climb up a very sheer and rocky hillside to take in the beautiful view. Very impressed with myself for managing the climb in my completely unsuitable platform trainers I decided to send a picture of the drop featuring my shoes to my sister.

When I turned back around to face Brandon he was down on one knee holding a beautiful ring asking me to marry him! I was so shocked I forgot to say yes for a while.

The Vision

Flowers everywhere. Colour everywhere. A touch of Harry Potter but not gimmicky or in your face.

Budget

£15000

The Venue

Buxton Pavilion Gardens

The Ceremony & Music

Our ceremony was beautiful. Held on the bandstand at the pavilion the weather was glorious. I walked down the aisle to Jack Johnson’s – Better Together preceded by my two nephews as ring bearer and petal ‘thrower’, my niece, and my ‘bridesbabes’ who were my sister, her husband and my cousin.

We had a short ceremony where we had two poems read for us and read our own vows to each other. After signing the register we walked back down the aisle together to Barry Louis Polisar’s – All I Want Is You.

In the evening we partied to the most incredible band Agent Smith who played all our favourite indie hits. Our first dance was to The Wombats’ – If You Ever Leave I’m Coming With You.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Our photographer was Lauren Elliot along with a secondary photographer Danni. I knew of Lauren through my sister who does her nails and I feel so lucky to have managed to book her for the wedding. We could not be happier with our photos.

Your Outfits

My wedding dress was an accidental find after intending to have one made/customised in a floral floaty style, I went to a local bridal shop to see what silhouette suited me and my dress was there on the sale rack begging to be tried on. I fell in love with it instantly and decided to go with it.

I ended up adding my style by making and embroidering my own veil and getting a beautiful headpiece and funky heels. For the evening my sister covered a pair of Vans trainers in individual pink crystals.

Brandon knew exactly what he wanted to wear from the beginning – green tweed and we found the perfect 3 piece suits from PeterPosh in Knutsford. He then found some cool floral ties from Etsy and completed his look with brown Doc Marten shoes.

The flower girl dress was made by me in satin using a vintage Vogue pattern from the 1960s bought on Etsy.

The Styling & Decor

I did all of the décor myself. In a previous career, I was a scenic artist so it made sense to me to make everything myself both to save money and because I knew I wouldn’t be happy unless I had created my vision.

The vision was simply to have all of the colours and flowers everywhere. I had family and friends save up jars of all shapes and sizes for months before colouring them with glass paints. On the day before the wedding, we went to a flower wholesalers and bought as many flowers as we could fit in my tiny car and then my sister helped to arrange them in the jars and scatter them around the venue.

The tables were my little touch of Harry Potter (as I have been fanatical since being a child). Each table was a different magical class/area of Hogwarts and the seating chart was a pastiche of the Marauders Map which I hand painted. There were then mini-printed Marauders maps with the layout of the room on them to assist with finding each table.

Each table had different decorations and name cards depending on the table names (which were written on little chalkboard easels). The top table was ‘Potions’ so I made potions bottles with name labels and mini cauldrons filled with jelly beans.

The other tables were:

Care Of Magical Creatures – dragons in cages, dragon eggs in nests and a mini forest.
The Library – old books that we thrifted renamed with each member of the table and heart-shaped book page confetti.
The Owlery – mini owls sat on named envelopes and various patterns of chicken feather confetti.
The Astronomy Tower – miniature planet stress balls and iridescent star and moon confetti.
Secret Passage To Honeydukes – individual sweet boxes and scattered lollipops.
Muggle Studies – random ‘muggle’ objects such as a miniature radio, calculator, teapot and scattered miniature rubber ducks.
Divination – crystal balls containing names and scattered tarot cards.
Defence Against The Dark Arts – skull candles and scattered bones/skulls.
Herbology – plant pots containing succulents and heart-shaped seeded paper confetti.
Ancient Runes – a bag of runes for each person including a ‘name rune’ and a rune guide and scattered multicoloured agate stones.

Many of the items that made up the table décor were handmade by me. I also didn’t like the idea of plain white seating covers so to add another pop of colour I made over 600 pom poms to string on the backs of the chairs.

The Honeymoon

We are still saving up for our honeymoon which we plan to be a few days in Orlando followed by a trip to the Bahamas.

Memorable Moments

Still embroidering the ring hoop half an hour before I had to leave to get married (I think this was actually a big factor in why I was so chilled out on the wedding morning).
Seeing each other’s expressions when we first saw each other and hearing each other’s vows which meant so much.
Ice creams and miniature train rides in the sun after the ceremony.
Dancing the night away with our favourite people and an ace band!

Advice For Other Couples

Do not let the best day of your life become stressful. Remember that marrying the love of your life is the main thing and everything else is a bonus.
Prioritise your budget to cover the things that mean most to you. For us, it was the music and the food so we knew from the beginning that we were willing to spend more on those and sacrifice other areas if necessary.
If you want to DIY your wedding START EARLY. Give yourself all the time you can to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
Most important do not let anybody else dictate your day. You only get one wedding (hopefully!). Do what you both love and makes you happy. Don’t let family or anybody else guilt you into wrong choices.