Lucy & Mike

Bride Lucy's Catherine Deane Lita wedding dress is A.MAZ.ING. Intricate beading, sumptuous satin layered with soft tulle and fabulously floaty and romantic. It really is a dream gown. Lucy is every bit the elegant bride especially with that gorgeous bridal up do adorned with fresh blooms. It's no wonder her groom, who looks equally dashing in his dress 2 kill suit, is staring at her with those deep and sultry eyes. The images captured by Razia Jukes Photography of them in the alley way are HOT! Of course a seriously stylish couple requires an epic venue, and the industrial vibe at 06 St Chads Place provided such a location. Filled with flower arrangements and table settings made by the grooms sister and stationery with a cool London theme, making the perfect backdrop for this fabulous wedding.

The Dress

Lucy The Bride: Once I came across the designer Catherine Deane I knew that would be where I was buying my dress from, the question was which one? I could have bought three! I chose Lita as it was different to anything I’d seen before, but it had a classic elegance to it that’s timeless. It was paired with champagne coloured Jimmy Choo sandals that were a treat from my mum, and on the day I kept it simple with Monica Vinader drop earrings (another treat from my mum) and a slight posy bracelet from Alex Monroe. I really struggled finding someone to do both hair and make-up. I spent a lot of money on trials which is why I want to call out the angel that is Margret Magnus who did my make-up and up-do. It was one of the hottest days of the year the day we got married and somehow my make-up stayed picture perfect all day. I felt like I was playing dress-up whenever I tried on a veil so had Margret place fresh flowers prepared by the florist in my hair.

The Grooms Fashion

Mike The Groom: I really wanted a sharp tailored suit for the wedding. I went with a dark blue 3 piece from Dress 2 Kill with a turquoise tie. Found a cracking pair of redwood shoes from Barker that I couldn’t resist and accompanied all of this with a pocket watch to have as a keepsake after the wedding.

The Venue

Lucy The Bride: We knew we wanted a London wedding but that didn’t help to narrow it down that much! We painstakingly trawled through many websites. Found, visited, and fell in love with 06 St Chads Place for its central location, seclusion from London’s hustle and bustle, and simple quirkiness. Burgh House – we were head over heels for this place just by looking at its website, but once we visited it and saw the music room and gardens you couldn’t get us to sign the contract quick enough! Both venues were beautiful just as they were so wouldn’t need much fuss from us.

Colour Scheme/Décor

Both venues didn’t need much sprucing from us so we didn’t go too wild on the decorations. The main thing we wanted was the right ambiance so we included lots of light – twinkling candles and fairy lights covered most surfaces. We loosely chose a spring colour palette that was tied together with pale grey and metallic in places. Our main decoration splurge were the giant L & M light up letters that set apart our dance floor.

Flowers

The bouquets and button-holes were all beautifully crafted by Urban Flower Company that looked wild and effortless in pastel shades. We then went to a flower market a day before the wedding to buy and arrange the table flowers in lots of jars family members had collected for us. Capella (Mike’s sister) had even decorated some of the jars with a sticker laser cut image to personalize them for us. Our centerpieces were taller flowers in a Bombay Sapphire gin bottles (the blue is so pretty, plus gin is our fave spirit) that again were collected over the year by us, friends, family, and local pubs.

The Wedding Party Fashion

Bridesmaids and flower girl – My three bridesmaids (sister and two best friends) and one flower girl (sister) were all in a summery cocktail dress. It was a shape that complimented everyone’s figure even if one ripped theirs on the dance floor making shapes, and the other ripped theirs picking me up! They paired it we nude shoes of their choice.

Groomsmen & Best Man

All five were asked to wear a blue suit (some had one already, others took the opportunity to get one made). As presents we gave them a pale grey tie, tie pin, and paisley pocket square to accessorise with.

Page Boy

Our four year old nephew IO was kitted out in GAP. He probably looked the coolest guy there in is chameleon shirt, dickie bow, and hat.

Ceremony

Mike’s mum read a poem at the start of the ceremony which made it very personal, plus it gave us time to catch our breath and take a moment after the rush of walking down the aisle. We both wrote our own vows, as again we wanted the promises we made to each other to be personal, although I (the bride) did forget one so had to adlib with a comment about accepting Mike’s golfing hobby (I’m probably going to regret that one someday!).

Entertainment

We had a pianist playing at Burgh house for the ceremony and a few hours afterwards. 06 St Chads Place recommended a DJ for the evening which had the dance floor full. On the tables over the wedding breakfast there were different, bespoke Mike & Lucy temporary tattoos for people to get up to mischief with…a few couldn’t get theirs off for weeks apparently!

Food

Pimms at Burgh House The Bride’s & Groom’s favorite cocktails (elderflower martini & amaretto sour) on arrival at 06 St Chads Place Starter & main from St Chads Home baked Cake table for dessert (These were all epic!) Devon cheese tower for wedding cake 3 variety of bagels for evening snacks (salmon & cream cheese, hot salt beef, and of course peanut butter & jam as it was the 4th of July after all!)

Photographer

I found Razia via a wedding blog I think, I visited her website and loved her natural but stylistic work. We met and ended up talking for a good few hours and found we had a lot in common and got on effortlessly. On the day she came to my parents’ house in the morning, snapping everyone in their dressing gowns and capturing moments with my parents and bridesmaids that I’ll treasure always. Neither Mike nor I feel that comfortable in front of a camera normally, but Razia had us giggling and experimenting with different poses, yet never keeping us from our guests too long. Looking back at our photos she really didn’t miss a moment and I’ve had so many of our guests since comment on how wonderful she was.

DIY

For some reason presenting the table plan gave us lots of stress, looking back now I have no idea why!? Anyway it ended up a pretty simple DIY project; we found a sheet of wrapping paper that was a map of London and picked out places that meant something to us for the table names. With some pins, twine, and printed guests names my sister and I constructed a neat display. We popped this in a donated frame and there you have it!

Advice

Make it personal but don’t sweat the small stuff! Ask for recommendations and favours from friends/family, everyone is so willing to lend a hand It’s important to pick suppliers that you trust and then let them do their thing Be prepared that on the day something will go wrong, but you’ll be so god damn happy you won’t even care!