Fadila & Ben

You can just tell our gorgeous couple Fadila & Ben are über cool. Their venue Clifton Nurseries in Little Venice, London is not only stylish, but a truly gorgeous botanical haven to say I do. Making full use of the conservatory, surrounded by greenery, succulents and most importantly their family and friends. Dressing themselves in sleek suits and an absolutely breathtaking custom made Zoë Boomer silk wedding dress, not to mention those incredible Public Desire ankle wrap shoes. I simply adore the picture above with Fadila and her maids were the matching shoes. Matt Penberthy has captured all the emotion, the gorgeous sunset and the urban chic. So sit back relax and get ready to marvel at this city wedding in all its beauty.

Engagement

Fadila the Bride: Ben and I got engaged on a ski trip in the german mountains and the adventure just keeps going..We made a weekend out of our weekend and wanted it to be somewhere intimate, earthy but at the same time in London. Impossible it seemed until we found the quaint plant nursery & café ‘Clifton Nurseries’ in warwick avenue.

Decor

Ben is from the Cotswold country side and I am Irish with parents from Nigeria so we wanted to celebrate that culture to. We had our bunting, flags and cushion covers all hand made in Nigeria and flown over to add that feel. We were surrounded with plants but I wanted every one to take abit of that home so we bought little ceramic faux succulents and wrote our guests names on each one (a bit of hair spray stuck it on). I also cheekily asked the Warwick Avenue staff if we could have some posters there. Ben and I met doing music and wanted to have a touch of ‘love at first sight’ in a tfl underground station. The staff jumped for joy and went over and beyond, created the signs and made them gorgeous (thanks Stephanie and Mark of TFL!).

Food

To celebrate my traditions we also had a Nigerian/Caribbean buffet which went down a treat with them being able t go up for 2nds 3rds and 4ths I've heard !! (this was also much more cost effective for us). As guests arrived old school RnB played (Luther Vandross, Bob Marley etc.) We got married in August and managed to get the most beautiful day with our drinks reception outdoors in scorching hot londy.

Ceremony

We got legally married in stroud 2 days before with a back garden bbq and ice cream with our close friends and family which meant we could make the London ceremony truly our own with no legal bits and bobs. Good friends of ours sang worship songs during the service and as I walked down the aisle ‘wonder’ by Bethel. The couple that have been hanging out with us and did marriage prep with us actually married us and shared their hearts on what marriage was and how we are a team that compliment each other with our ‘super powers’. My sister and Ben’s brother in law both shared scriptures from the bible (EPh 3:14-20 ,Eph 5:5-28). It was fun having a couple marry us we had lots of fun and laughs.

Brides dress

I had a custom made dress by Zoë Boomer, we did every step together, I wanted  a mix of boho & chic and I believe we found a happy medium. We went lace shopping in Shepard's Bush together to find the perfect beaded lace for my vest. I wanted to let my bridesmaids wear what they wanted so I thought of how we had done this journey thus far together so we all wore the same shoes from Public Desire. My earrings were bought in a little boutique right next to Hapenny Bridge in Dublin whilst visiting home (for 5 euro!!). My hair and make up was done by Santhy Smith.

Photographer

Matt Penberthy was extremely personable and just felt like another guest at our wedding. He caught all the gorgeous moments of our family and friends enjoying the day and went with the flow. His style really fit in with the type of vibe we were going for and we found him to be very willing to change plans to fit around our vision. He didn’t make us akward and made the shots so easy to be authentic in.

Cake & Dessert

We actually randomly loved the way scandanavians do dessert and asked our friends to bring delicious desserts from their country or just what they love (Marks and Spencer cookies, ice cream, 500!!! portuguese tarts (pastel de nata ) lots of Oreos and cheese cakes ) we also had our very talented friend make our cake with edible succulents to fit in with the theme.

Transport

We chose to have a 5pm wedding in London to accomadate for our busy London mates (also everyone ideally likes to have a short commute to a wedding). We got a black cab to the venue to keep with the London chilled vibe.

Accommodation

Ben and I stayed in the gorgeous intimate ‘Lassett’ boutique hotel in Nottinghill that night before flying off for a surprise honey moon to Bali the next morning (I found out where we were going when we got on the plane)

Wedding Planning

All of the wedding planning journals we found didn’t really suit us so we bought a scrap book in paperchase and added some dividers where we would write in together any ideas and possibilities.

Wedding Bands & Engagement Ring

Ben had my engagement ring custom designed by an incredible jeweller In London (Karlin Anderson). She also custom made mine and Bens gold wedding bands.

First Dance

Luther Vandross – Never Too Much