Jules & Tom

How cool do Jules & Tom look? Their wedding day looks like such fun and is definitely one of those celebrations we're wishing we had attended! The decor is amazing - dreamcatchers, glitter dipped feathers and a huge floral arch under which the couple married, there's a distinct 70s vibe about the whole thing and I really love it. Then the's the fashion - oh my goodness the FASHION. The bridesmaids look gorgeous in mismatched gowns with various levels of sequin embellishment. Tom is rocking a burgundy suit, one of our favourite colours for the boys. And then there's Jules, who looks like a total babe in Grace Loves Lace combined with an oversized floral crown. It's like Bridal separates were invented for her and it's the perfect look for her and Tom's stylish and informal wedding day. Images come from Kirsty Mackenzie photographer, who has captured some genius couple shots through the glass of the lookout tower, along with a first look that will melt your heart. Enjoy this one everybody, it's a cracker!

Our Wedding

Jules The Bride: Our wedding day came together in exactly the way we wanted, to thanks to a mix of incredible suppliers and many supportive friends and family members getting involved with their own creative flairs. Having a blank canvas venue meant we could inject our personalities with plenty of planning and a bit of hard work. The final effect looked awesome combined with the venue's gorgeous lighting and alongside the cool view - the hard work was totally worth it! Even the weather added to the uniqueness of the day, with everything from snow to bright sunshine, to a huge crack of thunder echoing around us just as we recited our personal vows to each other. A sign of approval, we think. I didn’t expect it to be but the ceremony was my favourite part of the day. It was so much fun, everyone laughed so much! We wrote our own vows which made it really special and encourages you to remember what it’s all really about during the craziness and occasional stress of planning the day.

The Bride

We wanted our day to be more of a big party than a typical wedding, with an informal, relaxed and fun vibe. I always knew the dress I chose wouldn’t be typically ‘Bridey’ – that’s just not me and wouldn’t fit the kind of day we wanted. Grace Loves Lace was by far my favourite designer when I initially started looking online, but it’s they are an Australian designer which isn’t stocked in the UK. I was anxious about ordering online without having tried on first, but then saw on Instagram that they were doing a 5-day trunk show in London and became obsessed with watching for updates! I was lucky enough to get an appointment for the trunk show last August and fell in love with the dress I chose, which was my original favourite anyway. The two-piece style felt really right for me – it was something a little different, informal but with beautiful details – plus I can re-wear it (the top part at least) in the future! I wore vintage earrings borrowed from my sister which I had given to her on her wedding day, and a pearl bracelet given to me by my mother-in-law, made from vintage pearls from the family. I also wore my Granny’s brooch on my garter under my dress as my ‘something old’, in her memory. It felt really special to have precious mementos as my wedding day jewellery, and meant I didn’t have the stress and cost of shopping for new things to wear. I found it quite hard to choose shoes but knew I wanted to wear heels as I’m short and eventually went for a nude pair by Kurt Geiger. I found my veil at a wedding fair, which was by Katya Katya Shehurina. Because my dress was quite informal I felt that having a full-length veil would add some bridal elegance, and I fell in love with the waterfall style of this one. I knew I wanted to wear glitter on my face and flowers in my hair as it’s the most joyful feeling! Plus it fitted with the festival kind of style we wanted. I found this flower crown by Gibson Bespoke which was made from silk in beautiful colours. Debbie was great and happy to customise it for me to suit what I wanted. And my friend Caroline did my make-up and did a brilliant job of toning down the usual mega amount of glitter I wear when I go to festivals.

The Flowers

When the bouquets turned up on the morning of the wedding, me and my bridesmaids were amazed to see how closely they matched my flower crown. I’d mentioned to our friends Rozi and Chloe from Rozi’s Posies about a colour scheme and we’d roughly discussed a few specific flowers, but what they put together was mainly from their own wonderful creative minds and they were the most beautiful arrangements! Wild and textured in gorgeous white, peaches and blues – I was blown away and we had so many comments on the flowers from our guests. Tom and I and our family sourced loads of jars and vintage bottles for the table arrangements, as well as wine crates. Our very talented friend Otis that we’ve worked with on The Big Noise Festival made an arch for us to get married under and Chloe and Rozi did a wonderful job of decorating it.

The Decor

Like the arch, lots of our décor was created by wonderful friends and family getting involved with DIY projects. Our venue was The Chainstore at Trinity Buoy Wharf, a blank canvas warehouse space on the Thames overlooking the Millennium Dome. It’s beautiful on its own, with high ceilings, bare bricks and awesome views. But we wanted to bring personal touches to it for our wedding, which included dreamcatchers made by my bridesmaid Jane, wind chimes made by my sister and maid-of-honour Emily, and drapes to make our ceremony more intimate in such a big space, which were made by our friend El who we also know from the Big Noise Festival. Another friend James is an architect and had loads of awesome ideas for décor, and he and Tom built the freestanding double door which was the first thing guests saw and walked through when they arrived on the premises. James also made the anchor and J & T on the door, which matched our invites (by Paper Heart Company) and a general theme that ran through the day.

The Favours

We didn’t have a seating plan but still wanted my guests to have presents, so instead of table favours we made a Lucky Dip in a vintage case. Prizes included a mix CD of songs special to us, meringue pops by Meringue Girls, and silly ashtrays and pens of Kate and Wills, as it was their fifth wedding anniversary on the day of our wedding! We had a chill-out area in one corner, for which we hired sofas and chairs from Vintage Style Hire.

The Food

We knew as soon as we met with Jimmy and Helen from Jimmy Garcia Catering that they’d be great for what we were after. To keep things informal and in line with the festival style, we wanted to serve a few options of street food that would be fun for our guests to choose and eat. In the end we went for build you own burger and pie and mash, with pies supplied by Lovett Pies. Then for dessert – my favourite part – we had ice cream factory, where guests chose their flavours and then went crazy covering it with their own toppings. So fun! The feedback from guests was really positive and we had lots of people going up for seconds...and thirds!

The Wedding Party

I wanted my bridesmaids to be able to wear whatever they wanted so it suited their own style, so we had a rough brief of nude/peach full-length dresses for them to follow and they just chose their own. The mismatched effect looked awesome and was tied together with ivory flower crowns that they all wore, which were by Lucy Mooney Designs. It also made it easier for my sister to find a dress, who was eight and a half months pregnant on the day! Tom wore a burgundy three-piece suit by Mark Powell and looked mega handsome! It was a smart casual vibe which suited his personality and was something a bit different. He also wore a waistcoat chain in memory of his dad, made from a chain given to him by his dad for his 16th birthday with a charm added by The Great Frog.

The Music

For our music set-up music we hired in backline equipment, PA and DJ from Ace Bros who we’d worked with before on the Big Noise Festival. We created various playlists which we played until our band Super Tenants came on straight after our first dance. These guys are friends of ours and SO awesome – we had loads of comments and compliments about them. And the DJ in the evening was through friends who run a regular club night called Family We Choose – they don’t usually do weddings but it was a favour to us and we’re so happy because they made the final hours of the party go off! It was more like a warehouse rave than a wedding at the end which was exactly what we wanted!

The Photography

Kirsty our photographer (Kirsty Mackenzie Photography) is amazingly talented and SO much fun to hang out with, which is important if they’re going to spend the whole day at your wedding. It was like having an extra two friends (including her second photographer Marni) there all day! We are blown away by how wonderful the photos are – we didn’t want to posey or anything that wasn’t us and that’s exactly what we got - they really captured the joy of the day. Our videographer was someone else we’d worked with on the Big Noise Festival – Will from Melt Video. Again, weddings aren’t usually his thing as he’s a documentary maker, but he agreed to get involved and we’re so pleased he did as the edits we’ve seen so far are looking pretty special.

Advice

Your wedding should encompass everything that you and your partner love and enjoy. Don’t worry too much about guests finding some things a bit odd or not getting it (which we did a little), because you’ll find that they embrace the uniqueness and recognise your personalities shining through. If people offer you help, accept it! They wouldn’t offer if they didn’t want to. And only use suppliers who you feel it would be nice to spend time with, as you’ll be doing a lot of that in the run-up and on the day. We think these are the main elements behind the ridiculous amount of fun that we had marrying each other and celebrating with our loved ones.