Georgia & Max

The gorgeous blousy blooms in this real wedding feature are really getting me excited for Spring time and the start of some of my favourite flowers being in season. I was delighted to read that Georgia did all the flowers for her wedding herself, with the help of family and friends, which makes them even more special. Plus I think she's harbouring a secret talent there! The bouquets and buttonholes are just stunning. The images come from Miss Gen, who was the perfect person to capture this stylish London wedding day, which took place at our favourite ceremony space Asylum Chapel, followed by a reception at One Friendly Place. City wedding lovers rejoice, I have a feeling you're going to love this wedding...

Our Story

Georgia The Bride: We met when we were 19, just leaving school and preparing for gap year's and university. After 6 months of friendship we finally made it official. For our 10 year anniversary we decided to take a trip to Marrakech. On our actual anniversary we went to a berber village just outside the city, it was an outdoor restaurant in the middle of the desert overlooking the Atlas mountains. Max proposed at sunset on top of a hill at the foot of the mountains just before a traditional meal under the stars. It was perfect. We got engaged at the end of August 2015 and got married 9 months later.

Our Wedding

We wanted it to be local, personal, uncomplicated and most of all fun. We are both born and bred Londoners so getting married in London was a natural choice. We moved to South East London the year before we got engaged, it's where we were always planning to stay and raise a family, so getting married in the area became really important to us. After not much googling around, Max stumbled across One Friendly Place which was a perfect mix of a blank canvas whilst having all the charm of an old warehouse. Dressing the space was easy as the venue doubles up as a photography studio so our "styling" budget was dramatically reduced! We booked it immediately. I had been recommended Asylum Chapel by one of my bridesmaids who had been to a wedding there. The moment we saw it we knew it was the one. 5 minutes from where we lived and absolutely beautiful. The venues really set the tone for the day and from there we knew we wanted to keep everything pretty simple. White and green flowers, family style catering with big sharing platters of really good food, a couple of our favourite cocktails behind the bar, photobooth so people can take something from the day, great DJ playing all our favourite songs and enough fairy lights to set up Heathrow's 3rd runway!

The Fashion & Beauty

I thought I had an idea of what I wanted, or at least what I didn't want...no lace, not too fitted and not strapless. Well, that all went out the window. Searching online and saving on Pinterest is not the same as trying things on in the shop itself, nothing fitted the way I thought it would, I had to abandon all my weeks of online planning and just go for it. Trying everything and anything I finally found something that made me feel good and was easy to wear. I made the decision then and there (I sort of had to, I was out of time!) But luckily liked it a lot and it was by far the best thing I had tried on out of the five shops I had already been to. I was done searching for The One, this would do just fine. I bought an epic veil to go with it and suddenly I felt like a proper bride. I went for simple, low heel John Lewis wedding shoes, more comfort over style and on the morning of the wedding Max gave me a beautiful gold Alex Monroe necklace with matching earrings, they were perfect. Max's suit was an easy find, he knew he wanted dark blue, three piece and Paul Smith was the perfect fit for him. His tie and the ushers ties were from Reiss, we also gave all the ushers pocket squares which were monogrammed with their initials. As a wedding gift I gave him a rose gold Dunhill tie clip and a watch from Uniform Wears.

The Ceremony

My brother walked me down the aisle to Sailer's Bonnet by The Gloaming. We had 3 readings, first Bob Marley's He's Not Perfect, then Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres and finally All That I Have by Leo Marks. Bride and Groom walked out to You're So Cool, Hanz Zimmer.

The Flowers

White, green and a teeny tiny bit of pink. We did all the flowers ourselves. Two 5am trips to New Covent Garden market for research, one more trip for the order and a couple of panicked phone calls to florists and we were finally in a good place. It was a little stressful but we were so happy with how they turned out. We could not have done it without my friend Anna who came to the rescue the day before to help with the bouquets and button holes. There was an army of bridesmaids, ushers and family to help with the table arrangements and stringing up fairy lights everywhere at OFP the evening before. It was a massive team effort.

The Food

We wanted a relaxed dining experience, so although it was a sit down meal it was two courses with the main served family style with sharing platters of vibrant salads and sides. The food was a big hit with our guests as we went down a middle Eastern route with the type of food. The bars were stocked with everything you needed for negroni (our favourite cocktail), a good G&T, Dark and Stormy's and everything in between. We toasted the day with an English sparkling wine. I made the 4 tier Chocolate & Guinness wedding cake myself. Spending the two weeks before the day baking and freezing, and repeat. On the day, we had a friend assemble and decorate. DJ Philly was our DJ, she was brilliant!

The Photography

Miss Gen was our photographer, she was fantastic from start to finish. She managed to really capture the day in such a special way. We are so grateful to have the images you can see from that day. After a face to face meet up and briefing we totally trusted her and she lived up to it. We couldn't happier with what we got back. We were doing so much of this wedding ourselves, it was really nice to be able to relax when it came to trying to capture the day.

Reflections

We took advice from anyone that would give it to us! We kept it simple, we took the time to absorb the day, we didn't rush, we didn't panic (or at least tried not to) and we just let the day roll on. It was a truly amazing day, made so much more special by those that helped us get there and those that came supported us. It literally felt like a room full of love, with us slap bang in the middle taking it all in. For me, one of the best moments was when my three siblings gave the "Father of the bride" speech. None of them are big public speakers so I knew it was going to be a nerve-wracking experience for them, but they were unbelievable. It felt like Dad was right there with us. Even months on the memories keep flying in, it seems every time we catch up with friends and family we somehow end up hearing a new story, seeing a new picture or laughing at one of the many moments our guests shared with us on the day. If we were able to do it all over again is there anything we would do differently? There will always be the small details that were missed and things that could have been better, but really, wouldn't change a thing. If everything was too perfect, it just wouldn't be us.