Wedding at The Cube Birmingham
Roksana & Shane
St Anne’s Digbeth
Birmingham University &
The Cube Reception
“From our first Skype call, to our in-person meeting the week before the wedding, we knew we had made the right choice with Rob and Sarah! The professionalism and commitment demonstrated by the both of them truly made planning the day from afar a lot less stressful. As a result, we were able to enjoy the wedding day itself so much more knowing that they had things under control. The photos truly turned out amazing and capture the entire day perfectly from start to finish, and were also beautifully delivered to us with a personable touch that is rare these days.
It has been a sincere pleasure working with Rob and Sarah and would very highly recommend them to anyone.
We can’t thank you both enough for all your hard work.”
When Roksana and Shane contacted us from their home in Ontario we were somewhat in awe of what they had planned for their wedding. Both are Canadians, but met while studying at Birmingham University a few years prior. When the time came to arrange their wedding, they decided to hold it in the place where they first met. Flying all of their family and friends in from Canada and Poland, this wedding was truly a huge undertaking and promised to be an amazing day.
Getting Ready: Staycity Apartments & Malmaison Hotel
We started our day in central Birmingham. Roksana, her sister, parents and other members of her family prepared for the day at the Staycity Apartments in Chinatown. One of the larger apartments, Shane and a whole host of his friends and family got ready at the Malmaison hotel – part of the Mailbox complex – a short distance away.
Wedding Ceremony: St Anne’s Roman Catholic Church, Digbeth
During her study years in Birmingham, Roksana attended St Anne’s regularly – it therefore seemed the perfect choice for their wedding. Situated in the industrial area of Digbeth on the outer edge of the city centre, St Anne’s is a beautiful old red-brick building, nestled in amongst factories and working units. Roksana and Shane’s priest from home was also invited and helped conduct the wedding ceremony alongside the resident priest. As typical with all of the Roman Catholic churches we’ve worked at in the past, we were given almost free reign to photographing during the entire service, with no silly restrictions.
Photos: Birmingham University
A highlight of the day was a visit to the place where Roksana and Shane first met. The entire wedding party (thanks to two buses) arrived at Birmingham University for group photos in the grounds. Rob then stayed with the couple for photos while Sarah travelled back into the city centre on the bus with the guests. The logistics of our time at the university were tricky – time was limited and it was also one of the graduation days so there were people everywhere – but we’d done a little recce visit with the couple the week prior so knew exactly what spots we wanted to use.
Reception: The Cube, Birmingham
With the group and couple photos wrapped up, we headed back into the city centre for the latter part of the wedding day. The Cube is situated to the the rear of The Mailbox and was built a few years ago as part of the regeneration of this part of the city. It’s quite a unique building and contains business and residential units along with a boutique hotel – The Indigo – where most of the wedding party would be staying that night.
The drinks reception was held up on the upper floor of The Cube, at the Veuve Clicquot Champagne terrace bar – part of the Marco Pierre White Steakhouse restaurant. A stunning location, the terrace bar provides panoramic views of the city. Here also was the traditional Polish wedding blessing with salt, bread and vodka. It’s always lovely to get little insights into wedding traditions from other cultures.
For the wedding breakfast, it was back down ground level to The Cube’s dedicated function suite – Canalside. This lovely space has lots of light and sits right at the water’s edge. Flowers and decor were provided by Amanda and Amy of AVA Event Styling. We’ve worked alongside AVA on several weddings and events and their work is always top-notch and they’re lovely people too. The room looked beautiful, especially during the speeches as the evening light filtered through into the room.
The speeches were a huge part of Roksana and Shane’s day and there many of them – but all witty, heartfelt, beautifully delivered and brimming with emotion which made them fantastic to photograph. The dancing began almost immediately afterwards and the couple had practised a great first dance.
This was our first time working at The Cube and we were really impressed. The event management was spot on and we were kept informed of everything that was happening and looked after really rather well. It’s a wedding venue with huge potential for those looking for a city centre location. We’re now one of The Cube’s preferred suppliers and we look forward to returning in the future.
The scope and choice of venue for Roksana and Shane’s wedding made it incredible to work on – but most of all we loved working with the couple and their guests. It was a terrific experience being in amongst this crowd of 150+ people – the vast majority of which had flowing in from afar – who were all were there just for the couple and all a pleasure to work with. Genuinely one of the best crowds of people we’ve ever encountered at a wedding.
A wonderful couple and a truly stunning wedding day Thank you, Roks and Shane.
Wedding photography at The Cube in Birmingham by husband and wife wedding photographers Rob & Sarah Gillespie.