Allerton Castle wedding

Allerton Castle wedding

Today, I’m talking about F & J’s intimate Allerton Castle wedding.

Destination weddings

It’s not unusual for me to receive wedding cake enquiries from couples travelling considerable distances to marry in Yorkshire.  Indeed, many couples travel from London for their wedding cake consultation.  But 2018 has seen a rise in international enquiries.  For example, this year I’ve met with couples from California, Germany and Hong Kong, opting for a destination wedding in Yorkshire.  Ultimately, these lovely couples have commissioned me to design and create their wedding cake!

The venue

F & J chose to travel from Hong Kong for their Allerton Castle wedding.  Allerton Castle is an elegant and illustrious gothic revival stately home.  It’s a stunning venue for weddings as well as a TV and film location.  Having travelled to many venues in my nine years in business, I think it’s definitely one of the most opulent!

The photographer

F & J told me they’d chosen Joel Skingle Photography to capture their Allerton Castle wedding.

Generally, for my Portfolio, I photograph my cakes at home.  Also, I do try my best to achieve decent venue shots.  Unfortunately, when I set up the cake, the daylight wasn’t great and the room wasn’t yet dressed.  Although I rarely ask photographers for images, I did tentatively approach Joel, asking if he’d be willing to provide any of his images of the cake.  Consequently his Studio Manager, Sophie, sent me a lovely email granting access to the whole image gallery!

Joel has already blogged F & J’s wedding.  So, I just concentrated on the details pertinent to the cake – the flowers and the dress.  Also, I couldn’t help but download a couple of gorgeous venue shots too!

The florist

Most of my wedding cakes feature sugar flowers inspired by my couples’ chosen floral styling.  So, I’ll concentrate on those first.  F & J chose the very talented Joanna of Twisted Willow Floristry.  Here are some of Joel’s images of Joanna and her team’s beautiful work…

an initial peek…

the full bouquet…

closer…

and closer still…

Gorgeous florals on the sweeping staircase…

The wedding dress

A beautiful lace one.  Unfortunately, I’m unaware of the designer so am unable to credit.  Here it is…

The design process

During our Skype consults and and subsequent emails J told me that Twisted Willow planned to use a variety of pink, blue and white flowers to create a trailing teardrop-style bouquet.  Potentials were avalanche roses, sweet avalanche roses, stocks, eucalyptus, lisianthus, delphiniums and larkspur and a variety of foliage.  I spot some veronica, grape hyacinth, wax flowers and sea holly too!

Cake sketch

F & J’s was an intimate wedding, with a small two-tier cake.  So I designed the cake, incorporating their chosen colour palette of blush pink and dusty blue, with an arrangement of sugar flowers inspired by some of the fresh ones.  I also included some lace detail from the gorgeous dress.  Here’s my sketch…

Creating

I didn’t take many progress shots but, as I hadn’t made them before, did capture the delphiniums…

F & J chose two tiers of caramel cake with almond praline buttercream and salted caramel sauce.  To whet your appetite, here’s my homemade almond praline…

and the salted caramel sauce…

I iced the cakes in blush pink and dusty blue sugarpaste….

The cake

Here are Joel Skingle’s photos of F & J’s wedding cake (I’ve been far too self-indulgent, including colour and black and white images!)…

Thank you so much to Joel Skingle Photography for allowing me unbridled access to his gorgeous images.  It’s very kind and a real treat for me!  I do harp on about how choosing a good photographer for your wedding day is the most important element of your wedding planning.  But it’s true!  It’s an investment and F & J will have Joel’s beautiful images for life!

Bespoke wedding cake design

Are you planning your own Yorkshire wedding – destination or otherwise?  If you’d like to commission me to design and create your bespoke wedding cake please feel free to get in touch!

With love, Amanda x