Sophie and Craig met in York’s Yates while Sophie was up from Brighton visiting a friend. Craig danced over to her to Peter Andre’s Mysterious Girl, but his cool moves were hampered by the sticky bar floor! He was dressed in a bright red Rudolf the Reindeer suit jacket and tie at the time... well it was Christmas. After a brief conversation, Craig handed over his number and they parted ways, or so Sophie thought. An hour or so later they bumped into each other again at a different bar and something compelled her to stick around this time, their two groups united. From there, a long-distance relationship blossomed. Craig proposed to Sophie on her birthday in 2021 at the Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye. “It was the fourth day of an epic week-long surprise trip, and I’d already decided if he didn’t propose, I would,” Sophie tells us. But Craig had it under control, he got down on one knee on the edge of a cliff – “I’m not even sure he got the question out before I started flapping around like a goose,” Sophie continues. White Syke Fields was everything the couple were looking for in a venue. “It’s the kind of place where there’s a lot to be uncovered, yet a blank enough canvas to make it our own,” Sophie explains. “We had a big wedding, so the variety of different spaces also appealed. We loved it. And bonus points for the focus on sustainability, with upcycled furniture and a strong, local and small business ethos.” So, that decided, the date was set for 10th June 2023. Read on as Sophie tells us all about it... STARS AND THE MOON The couple’s friend Kelly designed the Art Nouveau-style crescent moon and stars to match the couple’s star signs that they had made into pin badges and attached them to cards, which read: “It was through our conversations about the moon that we fell in love.” The table plan and names too had a celestial theme featuring stars, the moon and sun. For centrepieces the couple used candelabras with multicoloured candles to complement their palette along with medicine jars filled with dried flowers from a friend’s flower farm. “We used dried flowers throughout so they’d last,” Sophie explains. The mother-of-the-bride made the big-day bake. It too was adorned with stars, and was topped with a gold, glittery moon with the couple and their dog. “We hired vintage a doubledecker bus and I arrived in a 1950s cream Hackney carriage.” 26
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