Jenni & Wolf

I don't know if it's the deep pink and blue blooms matching the stain glass windows, the dappled light flooding through, or all the raw emotion on display but this gorgeous city wedding is making my spine tingle. The atmosphere at the Asylum is always electric, but I have to say the way Helen Abrahams Photography has captured our gorgeous couple and their special day seems to have intensified it tenfold. Bride Jenni's Lazaro gown is absolutely stunning too, with a beautiful ruffle train and intricate beaded bodice and by her side her sister and best girls in gold and navy gowns complimenting all the stationery and decor flowing throughout the wedding. The wonderful celebration culminates at Brixton East pub, with even more fabulous details along the way.

Dress

Jenni the Bride: My dress was from Lazaro - purchased from Le Trois Soeurs in Canary Wharf. It was not the style of dress I ever managed myself in and I only tried it on because I knew the form fitting style would be something Wolf would have preferred. The minute I put it on I had that 'this is the one' moment. I have loved all the dresses I put on but there was something really special about this one. It was double my budget at almost £6000. Initially I discarded it as being too much over budget but it kept in my mind so I knew it was the one and had to find a way to make the budget work. I've had my shoes pinned on Pinterest before I even got engaged. They're ivory embellished Badgley Mischka and I had to have them and will wear them whenever the occasion allows. I managed to find them on ebay for £100 and they were in excellent condition. I chose Brides by Alma for my makeup because she uses air brushing technique and has experience with darker skin tones. Alma was a joy to have around on the day and all the girls looked fantastic! My hair was done by one of my best friends who was also a bridesmaid.

Grooms Attire

Wolf wore a suit from Ted Baker which was picked at the 11th hour because typically he changed his mind 100 times. It had to be tailored to fit him. His shirt was Calvin Klein and the shoes were Hugo Boss. He wore a navy tie and his grandfather's cuff links.

The Venues

Our ceremony was at the Asylum in Peckham which is an old church and the reception was at a fantastic old furniture warehouse in Brixton called Brixton East. Both were dry hire venues which meant we had to bring in all our own decor, drinks and food. We loved this as we could really make both venues are own. The venues were also very unique and represented us as a couple.

Colour Scheme/Decor

Navy, Gold and Ivory were our 'colours'. The florist threw in some rich pinks/purples with the flowers to compliment these. I coordinated all the decor myself with amazing assistance from a friend Ellen Bradley who did all the handwritten decor!! We wanted the decor to have an Indian, German and English feel. We had mini Jager bottles for our table plan (Wolf made everyone down this during his speech), everyone had Indian chocolate favours and mini personalised gingerbread hearts made and iced by my sister. We had beautiful gold art deco runners on the tables with golden pineapples and exquisite flower arrangements. The waiters wore navy bow ties and braces with jeans. We had a wonderful Ambassador Classic as our wedding car which is a classic vinatge Indian model. There are about 10 of them in the whole of the UK.

Florist

The wedding stationery was all done by Wolf based on characters we had created of the two of us. We had a globe for our guests to sign and a card/signing table with vintage typewriter and a family trunk to give it a vintage feel. The flowers were very special as our family florist from Blackpool come down to London to supply the flowers. When I was 11 years old I took a flower bouquet design course at our family florists and vouched that I would have 'Flower Design' do my flowers whereever in the world I got married. I followed through on that promise and they brought down bouquets, table flowers, aisle flowers, pin holes and the golden pineapples. The flowers were a mix of German roses, Scottish thistle (as my heritage is Scottish), English roses, South Indian orchids as it is a traditional Tamil wedding flower, cherry blossom to mark the April date and even a mini golden pineapple. The attention they put into the detail of the flowers was incredible.

The Wedding Party Fashion

My sister was MOH. She wore a traditional Indian style dress that was custom made and from Bani's in Southall. The intention was for all the bridesmaids to be dressed the same but one of them was due to be full term pregnant at the wedding and the style wouldn't work with a 9 month bump so I had my bridesmaids in long off the shoulder dresses from Missguided. They were beautiful off the shoulder floor length dresses that I loved because they were classic shapes which were still sexy and modern. The groomsmen wore their own Navy suits, as did the page boys.

Ceremony

My sister did the first reading which was an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling Law of the Jungle, we then had an Indian proverb and that was meant to be it. What we hadn't planned on is the groomsman who was meant to be reading the Indian proverb had assumed when we told him a few months ago we wanted him to do a reading that he got to pick it himself so we had an extra un-planned reading. It was absolutely brilliant and a lovely surprise. We also had a mistake with the rings being given to the wrong page boys which I made a snarky comment to the best man which led to the whole room laughing and this moment was magically captured on camera.

Entertainment

I have always imagined my wedding featuring a string quartet so at the ceremony we booked Titanium Strings. The boys walked down the aisle before I did to Ghostbusters as we wanted to take the formality out of the day. They hive fived the congregation as they walked up. I went in with my dad to Pachelbel canon and between readings I had the quartet specially play Jurassic Park as it is one of my sister's favourite pieces. A lot of tears were shed in this moment. We booked a Jazz Band, The Swing Ninjas, for the drinks reception before dinner as my grandfather is a Jazz musician and couldn't make it down to London. It was important for us to have the jazz influence there. We booked a DJ for post dinner and got the venue license extended to party until 3am. All the girls had learnt a dance routine to Jai Ho at the hen do and somehow we all managed to remember enough to do a rendition at the wedding which went down well with all the guests.

Food

We wanted the day to be a mix of Indian, English and German to represent our backgrounds and that we lived in India for several years together. At the ceremony we served prosecco and corona with German Pretzels and popcorn. We had Indian canapes including amazing street snacks from Jhal Muri Express served during the drinks reception whilst guests sipped Gin & Tonics and Aperol Spritz. The main meal was a British cheese fondu made with English cheese and cider made by Jimmy's popup who run The Lodge in Clapham during the winter. We actually only booked them about two months before the wedding! It was served with bread, potatoes, salad and my sister's special home made pesto. We served Hagan Daaz cookies and cream mini tubs for dessert as this really represented us and then we had Indian sweets with Indian coffee. Our cake was from Dolly Dew Drops and was a true show stopper. It was art deco themed and four tiers mainly because when we had the tasting we couldn't pick as they all tasted so good. We also had a large gingerbread heart made to pay homage to the German traditions. We had a fantastic time planning our cake with Lizzie and visiting her and her amazing mini pom to trial the cake and gingerbread. Everything at the wedding was vegetarian as we are both vegetarian but I don't think anyone noticed this.

Photographer

Finding a photographer was a hard process for us. We couldn't find anyone that we had great rapport with and had fantastic photos and this was important to us. Eventually we were referred to Helen who was incredible in the run up to the day, on the day and you can see the photos are exquisite.

Other Details

We raised money for an animal shelter in Delhi, India instead of the traditional gift registry. We live together and didn't feel it was right to ask for more material objects. We built the site ourselves as we run a digital agency and featured our furry kids (pets) who are all street rescues from India. When we lived in Delhi, India for three years it was an organisation we were involved in a lot and continue to support. We raised over £1,300 for the organisation.

Coordinator

I didn't want a wedding planner as I enjoy organising things but running the event on the day and even the day before during set up we could not have done without Sarah from Sarah Halfpenny Events. She was an incredible person to have around. In control and very calming when I was frantic the day before the wedding.

How you met, and proposal

We met during freshers week in our first week of university at Aston Business School. Wolf was doing a masters and I was starting my first year. We had been together over 11.5 years before Wolf proposed. He proposed to a singer singing our favourite song Delilah by the plain white teas underground at King Cross underground station on the way down to the northern line. The same song was played as our first dance.

Special Moments

The day represented who we are and what we value. It was truly perfect and we wished it could have lasted another 12 hours! Wolf ' The day was special because of all the people from all over the world that came together to be there with us'