There's a real soft spot in my heart for London weddings, particularly after we hosted our own 'official wedding' in the heart of Hackney. Caroline and Matt planned their own stylish big day at The Old Marylebone Town Hall, with their wedding reception at The Londesborough pub in Stoke Newington. I'm completely in love with Caroline's fairy-tale Tara Keely wedding dress, which was the complete opposite to what she had originally planned! Her dress matches the feminine mood of the wedding; reception decorations included shabby-chic bunting, stunning David Austin roses, with gold, pink and dark blue colour accents. There's tonnes more DIY wedding details in Part 2 of this lovely wedding, keep an eye out for the second post later this afternoon. Huge thanks to Erica from Photo Madly for capturing the wedding so perfectly, and to Caroline, for filling the Before the Big Day Brides' Questionnaire. Don't miss her fab hints and tips!
My dress by Tara Keely by Lazaro from Morgan Davies in London. It was not an easy decision! I must have gone to about 20 bridal shops and kept waiting to find 'the one'. When I started shopping I said "I don't want a big dress and I don't want it to be strapless", so obviously that's exactly what I ended up with! I had a couple of dresses that I was choosing between, but I kept comparing everything to that one,so in the end I just accepted that it had to be the one!
My sister and I bought some fabric from a shop in Tooting, and I handmade my sash. I was then thrilled to find my Carvela shoes in the sale, and the colour matched the sash almost perfectly.
My florist was Elinor Walsh from Marlow, Buckinghamshire. She did such a good job, the flowers were exactly what I wanted. My ideal wedding flowers were pink and white peonies, but in September that's not really an option, so we chose pink David Austin roses mixed in with white hydrangea. I chose to have them tied with twine.
My wedding jewellery was bought online from Glitzy Secrets and my veil was from Blissful Gifts. I really wanted a bubble veil, and was so happy when I found Blissful Gifts online as it was so hard to find one anywhere!
I didn't really mind what colour or style my bridesmaids wore as long as they all felt nice in the dress. The dresses they ended up in were actually the second set of dresses we bought, because the first dresses just weren't quite right, and I could tell they weren't happy in them but didn't want to say anything!
It was more important that my best friends and sisters were happy and felt nice on my big day than they were wearing a specific style. In the end we bought their dresses from French Connection and added some gold ribbon from John Lewis to link in with the colour of Matt's tie.
We got married on 21st September in London, our ceremony was in The Old Marylebone Town Hall and we held our reception in The Londesborough pub in Stoke Newington. I got ready at The Black and White House in Belsize Park.
We both knew we wanted a civil ceremony, and living in London means there are lots of Town Halls in the city that were big enough for our 80 guests. We only gave ourselves 7 months to plan the wedding, so it really came down to where was available, but Marylebone was my first choice as I love the drama of the building, so we were really happy to get it.
Matt's suit was tailor-made from King and Allen. He really wanted a nice suit he could wear again. He also wore the pocket watch, which I bought him as a surprise, to open on our wedding morning.
Our photographer was Erika Szostak from Photo Madly. We picked her because we loved her work, and we felt really comfortable with her straight away. Your photographer is such a big part of your day it's so important you choose someone who you like having around! We're thrilled with how our photos turned out.
Matt and I met at work but we didn't get together until one Christmas party when Matt was dressed as a Lego man and I was dressed as Madonna in the Material girl video. We were together for 3 and a half years when Matt surprised me with a weekend away to Norfolk which is where we went for our first weekend away together. He'd booked us into a romantic yurt and took me out for an amazing eight course meal, when we got back we sat next to the camp fire with our glasses of champagne and Matt got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.
I didn't really mind what colour or style my bridesmaids wore as long as they all felt nice in the dress. The dresses they ended up in were actually the second set of dresses we bought, because the first dresses just weren't quite right, and I could tell they weren't happy in them but didn't want to say anything!
It was more important that my best friends and sisters were happy and felt nice on my big day than they were wearing a specific style. In the end we bought their dresses from French Connection and added some gold ribbon from John Lewis to link in with the colour of Matt's tie.
We both knew we wanted a civil ceremony, and living in London means there are lots of Town Halls in the city that were big enough for our 80 guests. We only gave ourselves 7 months to plan the wedding, so it really came down to where was available, but Marylebone was my first choice as I love the drama of the building, so we were really happy to get it.
Matt's suit was tailor-made from King and Allen. He really wanted a nice suit he could wear again. He also wore the pocket watch, which I bought him as a surprise, to open on our wedding morning.
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